Samuel Michlap

From my flat files: part 1

2011-04-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I would start digging around my flat files for things I usually pull out for class discussions or for fond old memories.
The yellow palace interior is for " The Prince of Egypt". I did it shortly after joining DreamWorks back in '96. It was a quick study for prop and technique design. The assignment: Could we paint directly over a line drawing instead of tracing the layout onto the board? Yes, of course! You can do it with Watercolor painting, but can you do it with an opaque painting? Yes, it just takes patience and the ability to correct the shapes and perspective as you go, if you do lose the drawing. This image was painted over a xerox of the line drawing, which was first glued to a piece of board.

Detail of shapes for our world.

My typical nightly practice sketches from around '94.
I would make up little scenes after a full day of work at Disney. I was in the Layout dept. at the time and designed backgrounds, but we handed them over to the background dept. for final painting. I have many extremely talented friends who were background artists. Many of them have made my layouts look spectacular! But, I was frustrated because I trained as an illustrator, used to painting my own layouts. The problem at that time was that I could not really paint that well... Other than my illustration rendering classes, I never took a formal painting class during my school years so I had to teach myself, with the guidance of a few very special friends, how to paint! Thus I did hundreds of these little scenes as a way to both study film design and how to express those ideas in paint. Incase you were wondering, yes there is a huge difference between painting and illustrating. These sketches were done on Masonite wood board in acrylic. The idea was to paint them very fast with lots of energy, without the tight rendering. Basically indicative painting. If you nail the correct value, color, and temperature of each shape, and of course put that shape in the right place, you can describe everything with the fewest strokes possible. Those of you who know all of this stuff please excuse the basics I am covering here.

Jump ahead several years... almost ten, and here I am sketching from imagination for my gallery oils. These were used as a guide for the larger final paintings. I always used Gouache for these sketches. Titled "upper Level",the final oil sold thru one of my galleries in Houston Texas in '02. I am still sad it sold because I had a great time painting the this and the final. Bye for now and best of luck with your image making!

Sam

Sinbad vis dev

2011-04-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

Some Old school Vis Dev when we used real materials like markers and Oils. We had to draw and paint our images very large so the execs would notice them on the pitch walls. We did not have the luxury of large scale printers! These were 30"x40". Lots of fun!
Sam

sam

MegaMind Vis Dev

2011-03-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

MegaMind.
I wanted to show the benefit of doing studies before the larger piece. In this case the Facade details for the BG city.
I love playing with abstract shapes and buildings always have lots of opportunity for just that. When designing anything, try thinking of the bigger underlying ideas, not just the surface details.
Sam

Sam

Little comps for film

2011-02-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

The comps were done in black ink on illustration board.
The color image is a 5 minute class demo showing the power of the free form pen tool in CS5.
I love drawing with this tool and then using the locked layers to paint within. You can create some very bold stylized BG's and light them in literally minutes. The sketch could be taken to a very finished state but I liked the quick impression.

Sketches from mexico

2011-02-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,
We had our latest family vacation and this time it was on a Disney Cruise to Mexico! I must say Disney does a fantastic Job of spoiling everyone during the cruise and there was tons of great reproductions from old Disney shorts and films hanging throughout the ship!!
Here are a few of my travel sketches from the trip. All done in water color and just to serve as memory postcards from the great places and wonderful moments.

Enjoy,

Sam

Moonshine Show at Gallery Nucleus

2010-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Some of us here at DW had the opportunity to be part of an exciting new book, which features our personal work created outside of the studio. To kick off the book we also hung some of our art, mainly originals, at the Gallery Nucleus! It is a great collection of original art done by some of the most talented people I know, so don't miss it if you are in the area.
The book should be available in Sept.

These two paintings were literally done the same week I had to ship them to the show and both were done in my favorite medium of all time, Gouache. I haven't had the time these days to work with actual good old fashioned paint so these were a wonderful break from using digital means. I hope you enjoy them and please let me know if there is interest in prints as I might be able to hook you up. The first image is entitled "Abandoned" and the other is "Hollow Stand".

Best,

sam
www.gallerynucleus.com/

MVA Vis Dev

2010-05-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been too long since I posted but that seems to be my trend.
Here are a few things from MVA.
These were used to establish the initial look and ideas. More to come,I promise.
Enjoy,

Sam

urban oils

2009-02-06T19:48:00.001-08:00

Well it's been too long since the last post but better late than never I guess.

I finished up on "Astro Boy" with Imagi Studios late last year and now I'm back at DreamWorks designing on one of the upcoming films. I'm not sure how AB is looking but our design team came up with some very cool art last year so now we need to cross our fingers that it makes it to the screen....

Here are a few more of my gallery oils from my 2005 Howard Mandville Gallery show. I also included a pic of how I start these paintings. I usually cover the board in pure cad red light and work like mad to cover the brilliant color before all the cones and rods in my eyes go completely crazy. Not sure if you guys have tried to stare at something that bright, but man is it hard to do. I tend to be bolder with my color when keying off of this bright red.

I am scanning more of my outdoor guoache sketches so I'll try and post those next...

Sinbad Visual Development

2008-09-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share a few of my early Sinbad sketches with everyone. These were done between 99'-01' and were such fun to create. Most are marker dye and a few are even oils! Only at the end of my time on this film did I enter the world of digital art. I really was a hold out and prefered traditional methods. Most were very large as I was working next to one of the true masters of design.... Darek Gogol. Man when that guy draws, he draws BIG!! Most of his pieces were at least 30x40 inches, and to just be noticed next to him I had to draw just as large. He taught me too much to list here.... thanks Darek!!

Around L.A.

2008-07-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

I thought, after looking at my own blog,how neglectful I have been with new posts. All I can say is we have been crazy on our film!!
I thought some of you might like to see some of my around town guoache sketches.
Sorry for the long delay.
Sam

El Dorado

2007-10-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

I Thought it would be helpful to post some of the color keys I painted while working on El D. with Ramone and Scott. Ramone and I did the entire color script, which was then shot down on Christmas Eve of '97... fun times. Among the failures are these little paintings. These show the turn in my painting and design sensibilities thanks to Ramone and Scott.
We did over 100 of these paintings and then started over. Here's a few showing spain contrasting El Dorado.

Sam

Vis Dev

2007-10-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

I made a departure about a year ago with my film work and I had a blast experimenting out side of my normal range. I am, by nature, more tuned toward classic matte painting, which is what I always wanted to be when I was a teenager. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to work with some very talented artists who have greatly infuenced me. Among the designers I greatly admire are Scott Wills (who did Samurai Jack) and Ramone Zibach (who is one of the most talented Production Designers Dream Works has at the moment. I met both these guys on El Dorado while I was Art Directing and their approach to painting was 180 degrees to mine. They both came from TV, and their palletts were bold and graphic. One of their heroes, and mine too, was Maurice Noble, who was one of the greatest desingers ever to work in Animation. Well, after years of working for DW, 10 to be exact (1995-2005) I left and began to put some of these bold stylized design ideas to work and out came hundreds of paintings. These three are among those paintings. I made some custom brushes and really tried to push my shapes to be as simple as possible within the envelope of the show. I then lit the shots to be more naturalistic isntead of flat like the Noble art. I have posted a few of these type of images in the past but I thought it would be helpful to give the history for the shift in styles. To para phrase the famous Ken Anderson; "the artist who desires to work in Vis Dev should be able to change styles, 7-8 styles, depending on the needs of the film". I have tried to live by this idea and not get stuck painting in only one style. Just when I figure out how to paint one way, I try to change for the next round. Plus I have so little patience and get bored very easily, usually with my own work. Sorry for the long winded rant.
Sam

it's been too long.... is anyone out there?

2007-10-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Oh I am not good about posting regularly, we all know this by now. Thanks to anyone who is still coming by waiting for new art, I really do appreciate the support.
I am currently Production Desinging on a new feature animated film and this keeps me very busy these days. We have a crazy schedule and no time to do what we are setting out to do but I am having the best time of my career and the team I am privelaged to work with is exceptional!

I just had to post something, so I looked through the my gallery images and decided to show a few of my past favorites.
The train image is recent and similar in technique to the last post. They are textural and finished in glazes. The other two images are from the early part of my gallery career and are painted in one sitting. They are all about capturing an emotion and energy very quickly. During these days, I could not figure out how to capture the initial energy in several sittings, so I just tried to do the entire painting in only one. I had a great time creating these as they came out of a part of me that was locked away at the time. I hope you enjoy them. I wont make the mistake of promising more posts right away as my schedule is just killing me at the moment. I'll do my best to keep new art on the page.

Sam

gallery oils

2007-05-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

We'll I can't believe the last time I posted was back in Feb. It seemed like a month at the most. I am in the beginning preproduction stage of another feature animated film and my life blurs past.
I thought I would post some of my gallery paintings from a show I had back in 05. I had a great time creating them as the theme was the 40's. I love that era for the fashion, design and strength. My dad was born in 1925 and through him I would hear of life around WWII. I thought I would take one of my favorite subjects, Trains, and create scenes as I would have imagined them. All of these were researched but ultimately I imagined them as opposed to copying any specific location. When I paint I try to capture an emotion or a memory from my past. I hope you enjoy them. More to come very soon.

Sam

EAA composition lecture and demo

2007-02-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

This post is coming very late but for what it's worth I will be lecturing at the EAA in Pasadena on Sunday from 11-2pm.
This talk is centered around composition as it relates to film story telling. Compostion is always neglected too much in school and on the job. I always receive more questions about this subject because it is not covered in enough detail in most institutions ,so I plan on drawing most of the time to visually help the class see my thought process on paper. I will also talk about my favorite films for studing compostion.
It should be fun and as usual, energetic! If you're available on Sunday and are in the area please stop by and say hi.
Sorry as usual about my terrible posting habits.
Call Mike Mattesi at EAA for the details. 626 440 5155
See you there.

Sam

Grandcentral

2007-01-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry about the long gaps between posts but I will once again blame it on the baby!
I found this painting I had done for the galleries a couple of years back and thought I would share it. It was done in oils on masonite. It was painted over a very thick older failed painting. Because the old painting was so think, the board had a wonderful texture so I took advantage of it and tried not to cover too much of it up as I proceeded. I painted 90% of this one with paper towels by rubbing paint on broadly. The last 10% was done with a small brush to tie down the large shapes.
As was usually the case with these paintings, I tried to capture a feeling rather than detail. This one proved that less is more works!
Sam

EAA vis Dev demo sketch

2006-11-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, thanks to all the wonderful people who came out for the talk and demo at Mike's school!!! It was a blast!
It was fantastic meeting all of you and I hope we can do it again next term. Here's the digital sketch for the acrylic demo painting I did, and as soon as I get a pic of the actual painting I will post that as well. I did this sketch very fast so please forgive the crudeness. It was only a road map for the bigger painting.
I couldn't believe there were students from my old alma mater Cal state Northridge. Mac, thanks for all the great questions and for stopping by. I love your work. Forrest, thanks for the book, your characters are fun. See you around and thanks again.
Sam

Vis dev Demo and Talk nov 12th at EAA

2006-11-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

UDATED INFO; THE TALK AND DEMO WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT IN S. CAL.
CALL OR VISIT www.enterartacad.com FOR MORE INFO.
Just a reminder that this coming Sunday John Nevarez and I will be lecturing and drawing/painting at the Entertainment Art Academy in Pasadena cal. Come out and meet with us.
I will talking from 11-2pm and John will be from 3-6pm. I will be showing original vis dev work as well as giving a painting Demo.
It should be fun! Hope to see you on Sunday.
Contact EAA at 1626 440 5155 or www.enterartacad.com

Sam

Orientalism

2006-10-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

I did this piece while working on Sinbad and just found it. I finished it off and here it is. I did many of these graphic paintings to try and figure out a design for the architecture. I love Orientalist art and plan on expanding this theme. As I do them I'll post 'em. I just have to find the others.

Redhead

2006-10-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

I'm really not sure where this painting came from but the longer I searched, the more it found a voice. When I play around like this I am basically trying to invoke an emotion and hopefully some questions..... Who is she and what the heck are those things behind her. I picked a simple story line and worked from there. After that I look for contrasts, simple shapes, edges, line etc. Which hopefully will help accomplish the initial goals.
In the end, as with most of my work I am just trying to have fun and push into areas I might not have played with enough.

Vis Dev talk at Entertainment Art Academy, Nov

2006-10-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

UPDATED INFORMATION
HI Everyone,
Well after three wonderful months of getting to know our new son, I will be posting again and will be giving a talk and demo at the Entertainment Art Academy in Pasadena Ca. On Nov. 12th from 11-2pm. I believe we are trying to go on line as well so more people can view it from different locations. It should be fun and hopefully informative. I will be primarily talking about my approach to feature Animation Vis Dev. As well as how to get a job as a vis dev artist.
I will also be giving a traditional painting Demo which usually helps to illustrate my approach... I always appreciated demos when I was in the audience....Well that and I think talk is sometimes cheap. Though I usually talk my head off and try and keep up with the questions while I paint.
I will be talking about how to apply to F.A. , if your not already in it, and what you might want to focus on when considering a career in Vis Dev. Please come by and say hi and check it out. I usually bring lots of originals besides the slide show.
Here are a few paintings to show a range of styles.
Thanks for being patient and for checking back and bothering to say hi.
Call Mike Mattesi for more information and to register at 1-626-440-5155or at www.enterartacad.com
thanks,

Sam

I'm not dead

2006-08-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I should say Hi and that I will be posting in the next few weeks.... My wife and I have a new baby boy and he is keeping us very busy at the moment. I realized so much time has passed since my last post and promise to start up as soon as I can. Please stay tuned.... I'm not gone for good. In fact I am trying to plan some books for comic con 07 and am constantly drawing and painting for it whenever a free moment comes up. I just haven't posted any of it yet.
Thank you all for the wonderful comments and kind words. I'll be active again soon.
More to come, and thanks for the support and for any of you who have not given up and still check back from time to time.
Sam

Mood, texture and grit

2006-07-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

I have been terribly busy lately but had a minute and thought it fun to post some of my fine art and a small color study.

The thick paintings are what I tend to do for the gallery world. They are done in oil and get very thick. I believe if someone is going to shell out the money for a painting it should have the added bonus of some real texture. The type of texture you can't get any other way but good old fashioned paint. I build these painting up until the desired texture is achieved. Most of my early attempt at gallery work were all done Alla Prima (one sitting, direct paint strokes) no fancy glazing. I developed the technique and just had fun with it. I plan to so some story illustrations for a book I am working on using this technique. Might be fun.

Beside the texture I have always been attracted to gritty parts of town... Are there any better places to get moods.
The small nite scene was done between assignation at work. It was only about trying to capture the feel of that all too familiar sick fluorescent light that you see late at nite near bar and liquor stores. I just love that light.

Hopefully my next post will be of some quick sketches I have been doing lately with my left hand.... Always fun to see what you come up with. John Nevarz posted a few of them a couple weeks back on his site. More to come.

Film design

2006-06-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post a few paintings from the vaults. These were created for Sinbad, Shark Tale and El Dorado. When I begin designing I try to find the correct emotion for the story moment and then concentrate on style.
I tend to work fast as I search for the right image. I have found the more time I take on one image, the more it hurts if it dies on the wall... which tends to happen a lot in this business. The "Execution" was done in Oil and the others in acrylic. So here is a range of "lovin", some get quick lovin' and the oil is really loved..... thank god it didn't die.
Hope you enjoy.
Sam

"I won't take you there..."

2006-06-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've always been attracted by old architecture... Especially to Paris during the 1800's. While working on Hunchback I was able to visit Paris and could not believe how beautiful it was! I stayed with a friend in a small house right in the middle the city and really experienced the city and the people. I began working on a series of images set in 1800's paris. I left them alone for years and eventually started working on them again. This is one of the images from this stories portfolio.

The set up is, "I'm sorry sir, but I can't take you to that part of town... "

My web site is undergoing an overhaul. I started it last year to help promote a fine art gallery opening I had in Kirkland WA. I never finished it. Lots of dead links and just plain not finished. I am reworking it and it should be up soon. I will link my blog page and will include more of this story on the site. Stay tuned.

my Moods

2006-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here are two quick head paintings I did during one of the DW films I've worked on. I remember feeling like crap for some reason.... just not in a good place.... these came out of my funk. The heads were painted using gouache. More than the technique, I tried to capture my moods on those particular days. I always felt like I did.
Sam

pencil comps

2006-05-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

I'm always sketching.... more than I realize. These comps were done with a black prisma color pencil .They were idea sketches for a series of oil paintings I am doing. I love prisma because , like markers, you really have to plan shapes carefully otherwise you will have a mess. The goal with these were to capture an old feeling.... possibly from the 40's. I always do this type of sketch before a larger painting but as is usually the case, once I put this much love into something I have a hard time reproducing it again. It's for that reason that I have hundreds of small sketches and only a few larger finishes. I did so many tight renderings at Disney when I was in Layout that I burned out on them... that was over 10 years ago! I guess I try to take a sketch as far as I can, give it as much detail and hope it can pass as a fisnish. I've been doing this for years and so far so good.
I really am lazy when it comes to rendering. I guess it's more important to get the idea across than play with a tight finish. You will constanly see me do loose color or black and white gestures for that reason.

color sketches

2006-05-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some color ruffs. I love color and I tend to focus a lot of time on color. The paintings here are done in acrylic, gouache and photoshop. They range in size from a mere 2 inches, Honolulu, painted in the car as my wife drove, to much larger pieces. I used to do lots of outdoor studies to learn more about color so I could be better at inventing it on the "job". Lately, since leaving Dream Works, I've had the chance to do more stylized pieces... I'll post some later.
sam

things from the sketchbook

2006-05-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

as I watch TV

2006-05-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

I like drawing while watching the boob tube... these are inspired by but not limited to...

positive negative

2006-05-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

I have to start some where...

2006-05-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

Well I've wanted to do a blog for the longest time and it finally took my freind John neveraz to get me to do it. I have the great fortune of working alongside John who is ,without a doubt, one of the best. He has a great heart and is so damn prolific that it only inspires everyone around him to reach for more. I know I'm a better artist because of john.

I have been working in Animation since Lion King and have been a layout artist, designer, Art Director and production Designer. over the years I have figured one thing out.... no matter how good I think I am I still need to get better!! Well that and to always remember to laugh! Otherwise this Job could eat you alive!! I'll tell my horrible little stories someother time.

I love animation, it's been very good to me. I hope some of the art I post connects with someone and would love to hear any comments you have. Enjoy!

Cheers.

2006-05-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hello world, I'm Here!