Cinema.

Well I finally went and saw Burtons Alice, a good film, lovely visuals and very good acting. How ever I think the plot got a little too lord of the rings towards the end, with the mad hatter becoming a swordsman and alice slaying the jabber wocky..


Good film though, another Burton success. It had a unique charm too it aswell. The caterpiller and the cheshire cat are lovely characters, great voice acting aswell.


Was scribbling the other day so I thought it'd be good to get something on the blog this month. It's meant to be a curious swords man inspecting a blade. Bit of Kieth Thompson influence there.








I've also been looking at the skillful Huntsman which has been giving me quite a bit of inspiaration, i love the little black and white thumb nail sketches, they've got so much character about them.

http://www.designstudiopress.com/books/skillfulhuntsman/

Marco.

Asian peoples and Nomadic peoples.

Well its been a while since my last post, I think its due to being so busy in the studio. Im in their almost everyday when I have spare time. Lately I've been doing quite a bit of painting trying to explore colours that I dont often use.

Going on with the title of the post, I saw a link to a photo journal video on msn of some european guy who had been touring asia studying the effects of the alps because its the largest source of fresh water for all of asia.

Some of the images were really interesting from a conceptual point of view, and when I'm done with the projects I'm working on at the moment, I might take a shot at doing some concepts influenced by the images.

Id also like to ask, if anyone has details (name,author,ISBN) of any books that focus on nomadic cultures I'd greatly appreciate the information.

Thanks.

Marco.

Erm.. copyright thingy, these images are not mine and the credit goes to Nat Geo blah blah..

Today is the Day!

I didnt get in....

Joking, I got in. It was quite a good interview, talked for quite a while about the dynamics of it all and the correspondance between real world development and how it effects modern games.

Anyway he liked the portfolio and all went very well, so for the moment I can sit back and relax.

Thanks for all the supporting emails and text messages guys, your support has been very much appreciated. Its celebrations of some sort at the week end.

Tomorrow is the Day!

At this time tomorrow I shall be posting on this blog either in triumphant glory or cursing the educational system for labelling me as not good enough.

I've got an interview with staffordshire university tomorrow at 2pm, Im hoping to enrol on the VFX visual effects and concept design course.

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/study_here/courses/vfx-visual-effects-and-concept-design-tcm428258.jsp

The other year I was studying at stockport college for Illustration, all the way through I struggled to grasp with many of the course's philosophies (excellent course just not for me). At the beginning of the second year this september I decided to drop out and take a GAP year, in the hopes that I will be able to get onto the course mentioned above.

Back in college I convinced my self that after many years of wanting to be a conceptual artist it just was'nt a realistic career option and so decided I would try my hand at illustration, there was certain things about it I liked but the cons for me out weighed the pro's in a way that just wouldnt work. It's deffinitely a mind frame thing, you either are an illustrator or your not, you can't fake it in my opinion. So learning that I realised that if I wanted to make a career out of my art then I needed to pursue the thing that truly appeals to me, which is the conceptualisation (?) of fictional worlds.

Theres soemthing that draws me in with such a strong passion when it comes to concept design, the ability to draw the best of the worlds natural history, human cultures and events and throw them into the blender that is the design process is facinating. You can take something that appears to be so rooted in tradition and fling it into the wastes of an entirely differnt world and see what happens, sometimes it doesnt work, but sometimes you get soemthing that seems right for soem reason.

Games and films reflect not only the conflict of the past but more and more so the conflicts of the present, and in some ways they even become political tools, promoting certain beliefs or viewing situations in entirely differnt angles that really do allow for some incredible gaming oppotunities.

I just hope I get the opportunity to contribute to all of this.

(wish me luck or I'll find out where you live and leave a flaming bag of dog sh-

HELP ME!

I cant get the pressure sensitivty back on my graphics tablet when I'm using Scrotoshop (still works in the tutorial and the little writing aplication thing), its really annoying because I've now got a taste for using the tablet again... Can anyone help me?

In Manchester Picadilly yesterday I saw a bus advert for Burtons new take on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have to say after seeing the TV ad for it I'm not too impressed. Just seems like a CGI fest (the poor kind) with jhonny depp stuck some where in the middle (this is just speculation, I dont know for sure but I'll bet he's playing the Mad Hatter').

Then again, with Burtons unique style there might be some light at the end of the tunnel, so contrary to my first impressions I might like it. But for now I'm skeptical.

It reminded me of a breif I did last year at Stockport. There was a few differnt choices for the breif but I chose Alice, it was pretty much an almost direct rip off of Arthur Rackhams illustration of alice. I'd just discovered the pen called LYRA Aqua Brush and also the work of illustrator Marlene Dumas. (I actually applied water to my drawings before I saw Dumas's work, it was my tutor who referenced the similarities)

and this is what I came up with.



This image by Arthur Rackham is what I used as the primary influence, a brilliant artist.



And tonight I just tought why not tackle it again so I'm posting this.

political and humanitarian(?spelling) issues

Touchy subject I know but this video hit me, wether or not the images are actually from the war(s) in the middle east is irrelevant, the main point is that all of these atrocities were comitted by man kind.

Perhaps the thing that is hurting me most is the images that are shown at 6:29.

please do not watch this video if you are sensitive to scenes of graphic violence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1MazfmZYxw

ti tnseod ekam yna esnes!!!!!

I used to hate computers quite alot, and now I remember why. The problem with technology is that it can be great when its functioning properly, but it can be very frustrating when your a backwards person with little knowledge of how to correct problems on the computer.

I recently went on scrotoshop in an attempt to see if my graphics pen was working (for some reason half the time the pressure sensitivity doesnt work on the pen) and fortunately I found a brush set that allowed me to paint with brush pressure sensitivty (the thing that controls the thickness of the line). So taking advantage of the situation I decided to colour my latest concept.

Ive also been carrying on with the drawing from real life thing, this time I've been focusing on my speciality, amphibians. The first one is a tiger leg, very colourful aboreal frogs from south america I think but im not too clued up on them.

The second is perhaps one of my most favorite of all terrestrial frogs, its Megophrys Montana, a cryptic patterned asian frog that occurs in java, the genus Megophryids how ever is spread over most of the indonesian islands, with the largest sub species being Megophrys Nasuta, resembling Montana in all but size and a slightly more gray colour pallete. A characterful frog with an unforgettable crest of horns that adorn its eyebrows and snout, they always appear to be rather pissed off. There main form of defense is camoflauge, if it isnt pointed out clearly they just look like any other dead leaf on the forest floor.

We decided that doing fish at work just wasnt worth the bother any more as the reptile section is so much more succesful (and easier), so at the week end we took all the remaining fish to a local aquarium where we are freinds with the owner. whilst there I picked up a book called 'Armoured Knights of the Sea' by Helmut Debelius. It's only a small paper back but its filled to the brim with fantastic photos aswell as valuable information on captive husbandary and detailed field encounters of many different isopods around the world.

In it I discovered a genus of shrimps called Lymasta. All of them are predominantly red and white in colouration and also very pretty. Unfortunately whilst trying to capture the spirit of these crazy little creatures my cat decided to suddenly walk over my sketches after going for a jog in the rain outside.