Holiday Coupon for my Online courses!!

Season's Greetings Everyone! All of us at LAAFA wanted to offer a SPECIAL HOLIDAY COUPON for my new online courses! "Dynamic Color Sketching" just wrapped and is now available as a self study, and the second course, "VISUAL STORYTELLING; MOVIE MOMENTS PART1" will start in March 2015. Please check out "LAAFA's website for complete details and get this while it lasts.

I wish you all the very best this holiday season!

-Sam

Here's the link:

http://bit.ly/1G6DrvS

Color quick sketching on the iPad.

Color Quick Sketching on the iPad

Hi Guys,
Here are a few more examples of color scribbles- this time on my iPad.
Each one was done in an attempt to capture the moment and less is always more when painting fast!

I really can't over communicate the importance of setting up compositions with bold value and clean color, and of course the most illusive of them all - Soul!

 

I constantly strive for more than just trying to literally capture the moment- 
"Soul" is the goal and it keeps you loose and free to explore your feelings. As artists we are trying to say something. We sit down to paint something because we were excited about it, but so many times we end up chasing a technique or struggle with our abilities, and forget about the fun we wanted to have in the first place. We also have the tendency to over do our paintings.

I have done that too many times to count!
I try to move as fast as I can, looking for just the right combination of shapes and color to produce the moment in the least amount of time.



In my Online Class we will talk a lot about all 
of this, but in the meantime have a great weekend and keep painting and enjoy yourselves!

-Sam

"Dynamic Color Sketching for Entertainment"- My new online line class with LAAFA.

Introducing my first online class!
I've been fortunate to teach at Art Center for many years, but this is my first online class with the LAAFA! I feel very proud to have been invited to instruct with this amazing school.

I have developed an intensive course, which is centered around the art of Emotional color sketching.  I use this way of working everyday on the job.

The goal is to paint professional, bold images as quickly as possible. Good enough to sell to your client.

I live by the 10 minute rule... "Throw the painting out if my gut tells me it's not working after 10 minutes!"

 I will introduce you to the art of making bold choices and making them very fast in order to create a sketch that will tell the story and look presentable on it's own!!

We will start with 30 second paintings, and work up to 10 minutes. After doing lots of 10 minute paintings, we will then have the luxury of using 2 hours to finish the final image. It sounds crazy and it is!! This will be FUN!!!

"As students of art, we learn early on to sketch quickly from a live model. 30 second to 10 minute poses are common in all art programs, but 30 second to ten minute color speed painting from both film and imagination are not. In this course students will be pushed beyond their limits to think quickly to create bold engaging paintings in full color. All levels are welcome."   -Sam 

Check it out here laafa.org.

Or use artschoolvideos.com for early registration.
Space will be limited so if you're interested get on over and sign up!
I look forward to seeing you online.

Check out these examples of mood painting done to help stage a scene and to help sell the entire film!
We will be focusing on this type of Dynamic sketching.

One of the classes will be dedicated to a live traditional Gouache painting demo! I love real paint, and want to share my process for attacking these sketches without the "UNDO" button!

-Sam

Daily sketch 02

A little tram waiting for another chance..

Introducing SamuelMichlap.com

I wanted to introduce my new web site! For my complete portfolio, (well as much as I could find at the moment) please go to www.samuelmichlap.com.
Enjoy,
-Sam

http://samuelmichlap.com/

Daily Sketch

A daily sketch. Nothing fancy but it was fun to create a quiet mood.
Enjoy.
-Sam

layout, set design and plein air sketches

Here is a random bunch of film layouts/set designs and plein air paintings. Enjoy!
-Sam

CGMA class

 I'm very excited to announce that I will be co instructing with Armand Serrano this term for his online class "Environment Sketching for Production".  I will be giving direct notes over each student's weekly assignment and then following up my notes with a live Q and A session. It's never been easier to get to the next level with your art since it's all done from the comforts of your own home! This is a fantastic course so hurry to reserve your spot since space is limited. See you online! To register, visit http://www.cgma2dacademy.com/
-Sam

Vis Dev set design and layout from Hunchabck of Notre Dame

Lecturing/demo at CTNx

Hi everyone, I'll be giving a live digital demo and speaking about Production Design/Vis Dev at CTNx so come out and say hi if you're in the area. Check out this link for my bio page. I plan on attending both Friday and Saturday. The "Digital Demo" is at 6pm Friday. I'm also participating in the "Breakfast with the Pros Sat. Morning, and doing a "Creators Conversation" on Sat, in the afternoon. Check the web site for times. Best, Sam

story sketching for Vis Dev

The coolest part of my job as a Production Designer is the initial concept of an idea. I am not talking about a finished concept painting but instead the more important scribble that will help visualize the written word. Over the years I have found a short hand for expressing my ideas, and none of it includes finished technique. Done with only a pen, paper and markers, the artist must utilize every device at their disposal to capture the viewers attention and then keep it to tell the story visually. I am starting with location design from "AstroBoy".The drawings were done during our story meetings. I sketched as we talked. I will post more and do some analysis of why and how these sketches communicate effectively. -Sam

From my flat files: part 1

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

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

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

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

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