El Dorado

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

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?

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

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

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

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