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
