Friday Book Review - Chuck Jones, The Dream That Never Was

Chuck Jones – The Dream That Never Was – By Dean Mullaney, Kurtis Findlay & Lorraine Turner

From editors Dean Mullaney and Kurtis Findlay comes a retrospective on the largely unknown character of Crawford. An accident prone young boy, developed by Chuck Jones over a 27 year period to accompany his roster of popular characters such as Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew and Marvin The Martian into the world of  TV animation. Crawford would only ever meet the public in the form of a daily newspaper comic strip in 1978, lasting six months and carefully reproduced in this book from newly discovered original artwork. Also included is the welcome addition of sketches, working drawings and animation storyboards along with a short biography focusing on Chuck’s career after Termite Terrace which make this book an excellent companion piece to Chuck Amuck; Life And Times Of An Animated Cartoonist.

Recommend for all cartoonists, comics and animation fans.

Chuck Jones – The Dream That Never Was – By Dean Mullaney, Kurtis Findlay & Lorraine Turner
IDW
Hardback 280 pages
29 x 22 x 3 cm cm 

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Chuck Jones, The Dream That Never Was

Chuck Jones, The Dream That Never Was

Chuck Jones, The Dream That Never Was

New Poster Illustration - Army of Darkness

Another new movie poster illustration to start the week based on my personal favorite of the EVIL DEAD Trilogy, Army of Darkness. Starring Bruce Campbell on top form in a pitch perfect horror/comedy, my poster illustration adds 1980′s inspired fantasy/adventure styling to the mix. See below for some notes on the making of the poster.

Army of darkness by Christopher King - www.wingsart.net

Some notes on the making of;
As the slideshow shows, there was an original concept for this poster with a more romantic feel that I worked on for quite a while, even taking it to the inking stage a few times over, but ultimately failed to really capture what I wanted. The overall composition was a little dull and didn’t match my feelings about the spirit of the film. So I worked on a new draft taking strong influence from 1980′s fantasy posters from amazing artists such as Drew Struzan and ended up with something that I really liked. My usual process of inking as separate parts was used, but this time I’ve gone for a much more rendered look (mixing inks and pencils which I don’t usually do) as this felt appropriate and something i’ve wanted to try. Tonal values are put down in grayscale first and then worked over in colour (Photoshop) to finish. Hey presto! One Army of Darkness poster and a new self-promotional piece I’m pretty pleased with. Hail to the King baby!

Wing

Friday Book Review

Setting The Scene; The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout – By Fraser MacLean

I’ve literally just turned the very last page of Setting The Scene by Fraser MacLean and although my brain may be suffering information overload, I also feel satisfied that i’ve just read one the definitive books on the subject of animation. A book that concentrates specifically on the discipline of layout design (and its inevitable merge with other studio departments), but also serves as a comprehensive history of the art form, detailing the earliest days of pioneers like Windsor MacCay to the very latest CG, 3D and computer game production.

MacLean garners interviews from some of the industries most influential patrons including Don Bluth, Brad Bird and Roy Naisbitt (The American Tale, The Iron Giant & Roger Rabbit) and presents a valuable bank of knowledge and technique that was developed to bring these classic animated shorts & feature-length movies to the world. From artistic concepts such as light, composition and staging, to modern technical achievements and the possibilities that the future might bring. Everything appears to be covered and thus proves the book’s most salient point; that whilst often overlooked or misunderstood, layout design is in everything.

Highly recommended.

Setting The Scene; The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout – By Fraser MacLean
Chronicle Books
Hardback 272 pages
28.6 x 24.8 x 2.8 cm 

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Setting the Scene - By Fraser Maclean

Setting the Scene - By Fraser Maclean

Setting the Scene - By Fraser Maclean

Alive Character Design: For Games, Animation and Film – By Haitao Su

Something a bit lighter, but still on the subject of animation is Alive Character Design, by Haitao Su. which offers a guide to designing effective characters such as your typical butch hero, bad guy (or girl), alien and robot. Haitao takes the reader through his influences, software choices and goes on to describe the visual characteristics needed to best convey an assortment of character archetypes. There’s plenty of inspirational work on show including contributions from Dean Yeagle (Playboy), but overall it feel’s a little light on process and drawing technique which makes this a book suited for beginner to mid-level students only.

Alive Character Design: For Games, Animation and Film – By Haitao Su
CYPI Press
Paperback 176 pages
21.2 x 27.5 x 1.7 cm 

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Alive Character Design - By Haitao Su

Alive Character Design - By Haitao Su

Alive Character Design - By Haitao Su

Illustration Friday - Prepare

If you’re planning to take on a gang of teenage vampires you’d better prepare, just like the Frog Brothers.
My Illustration Friday post for this week…

The Lost Boys - The Frog Brothers prepare to do battle

Key Largo, colour version by Christopher King - www.wingsart.net

I’m a big fan of John Huston’s noir classic Key Largo so it was an easy choice to start the new year with this poster illustration. This was inked by hand with brush and pen, mostly as separate parts and brought together and coloured in Photoshop. More details about the making of below;

Click to view slideshow.

Some notes on my process;*
My poster designs always start with a series of thumbnail sketches in which i’ll begin to think about the basic layout of the poster. Once happy with the thumbnail i’ll search my books and the internet for suitable reference photography of the actors, in this case Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Edward G. Robinson. From this reference i’ll assemble a quick photo comp that i’ll use to base a draft illustration of the poster, marking in where type and logo elements will sit.

I then draw (in pencil) the 3 portraits separately (i draw them as individual parts because this allows me the flexibility to arrange them Photoshop later) and go over them in black ink using pen and brush. The final part of the inking stage is to create the rough background textures, again drawn in black ink, but this time with an old brush that gives a nice broken line.

With all the inked elements complete, they are scanned into Photoshop and compiled as layers using the ‘multiply’ setting so each appears transparent. On a new layer, underneath these outlines i’ll paint in the tonal values using a preset Photoshop brush (with the image set grayscale at this point), create the text in Illustrator, import and arrange to fit. Once I have a finished grayscale version of the poster i’ll convert this to RGB and overlay colour on a new layer. After a little more painting in colour values I end up with a finished poster.

* This does rather simplify what amounted to a few days work, but hopefully goes some way to describe how I create my illustrations for those of you who are interested.

Thanks for reading,
Wing.

The Wingsart Friday Book Review - Alex Steinweiss

Alex Steinweiss; The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover – By Keven Reagan

It’s 1940 and a 23-year-old Alex Steinweiss, newly placed art director for Columbia Records proposes an idea to his employers; “Why not develop packaging for your record collections that feature bold, colourful illustrations that will entice the customers instead of the basic brown paper bags we’re using?” Steinweiss himself was an enthusiastic music lover and planned to create images that spoke of the enclosed music and offered a design to Columbia that also brought the concept of album cover art to the masses, ‘Smash Song Hits’ (1940 Richard Rogers). Cover art that combined the photography of New York’s Imperial Theater with a simple, but suggestive illustration of a 78rpm record, becoming the worlds first illustrated album cover. A huge success for Columbia, raising their sales figures by 800 percent and an industry changing moment. What followed was a prolific career in which he produced thousands of designs for classical, jazz and pop records, as well as advertising material, product design, type design, logos and film titles. All of which held fast to his own classically elegant, signature style.

Award winning art director Kevin Reagan and art historian Steven Heller present a definite monograph on ‘the godfather of album cover art’ in an impressive presentation that replicates the early Columbia record packaging itself and contains a wealth of work offering a powerful lesson in creative understatement. Perfect reference material for those seeking the minimalist design aesthetic of the 1940/50s and an essential title for students, designers, illustrators and art directors alike. Highly recommended.

Alex Steinweiss; The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover – By Keven Reagan
Taschen
Hardback 420 pages
29.2 x 34.3 x 3.8 cm 

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Alex Steinweiss by Kevin Reagan

Alex Steinweiss by Kevin Reagan

Alex Steinweiss by Kevin Reagan

Star trek IV - The Voyage Home

Given the topic of ‘Grounded’ by Illustration Friday this week, the best my primitive intellect could come up with was Star Trek IV, in which Kirk, Spock and the crew are grounded in 1986, where they are forced to locate the ‘nuclear wessells’ in order to power their voyage home while also saving the whales.

Star trek IV - The Voyage Home / Illustration Friday 'Grounded'

Friday Book Review - Chuck Amuck - By Chuck Jones

Chuck Amuck – The Life And Times Of An Animated Cartoonist – By Chuck Jones

With the imminent release of IDW’s Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was (review coming soon) I thought it was an appropriate time to look at an earlier book titled Chuck Amuck: The Life And Times of Animated Cartoonist. Originally released in 1989 and reprinted several times since, this entertaining memoir predominately covers Chuck Jones’ time at ‘Termite Terrace’ the Warner Bros. animation studio where world-renowned cartoons such as Duck Dogers in the 24 1/2 Century and What’s Opera, Doc? were created. Starting with a charming tale of the childhood cat Johnson, credited for planting the seed for many characters to come including Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and Marvin Martin, what follows is a riotous series of anecdotes that build to tell the story of the Loony Tunes team. A team made up of the unique talents of fellow animators Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, writer Mike Maltese and layout artist Maurice Noble.

Along with a wealth of black and white working pencil drawings, colour stills and plenty of tips and advise, we’re also treated to full scripts from the classic toons with a personal favorite being the Academy Award Winning For Scent-Imental Reasons, a tale of Pepé Le Pew written by Mike Maltese. Steven Spielberg (who later developed The Animaniacs with Warner Bros.) introduces this highly entertaining and insightful book that’s well worth seeking out.

Chuck Amuck – The Life And Times Of An Animated Cartoonist – By Chuck Jones
Farrar Straus & Giroux
Hardback 254 pages
25.7 x 19.8 x 3.3 cm 

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Friday Book Review - Chuck Amuck - By Chuck Jones

Friday Book Review - Chuck Amuck - By Chuck Jones

Friday Book Review - Chuck Amuck - By Chuck Jones

2012 Preview – 11 books you should be reading this year.

Here’s my selection of the coming attractions for 2012. Add them to your wish list now…

Coming Attractions for 2012

1. Successful Drawing – By Andrew Loomis

2. Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour

3. Chuck Jones: The Dream that Never Was

4. Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm

5. Mid-century Ads: Advertising from the Mad Men Era

6. Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation

7. Idle Hands – The Art of Coop!

8. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

9. Garbage Pail Kids

10. Legends: The History Of Painted Comics

11. The Dynamite Art of Alex Ross

2011, the year that was...

Another year comes to a close and new one begins. Looking back at 2011 I think it was pretty awesome. Here are my highlights…

Click on the images to open the full posts.

Why not start the year with two of history’s greatest scientists…

January - Click to read the full post

..and follow it up with a poster design for the roller derby team The Bristol Harbour Harlots.

February - Click to read the full post

Stir Crazy was the subject of one of my first movie related sketches for the Illustration Friday website …

March - Click to read the full post

… and this poster for the blues band The Steady Rollin’ Revue was a treat to work on.

April - Click to read the full post

I entered my The Good, The Bad And The Ugly illustration into the Ritzy 100 years poster competition. I didn’t win, but did come in the top ten and it’s become one the most popular posts on my website along with…

May - Click to read the full post

… my poster design for the classic movie 12 Angry Men. possibly my favourite illustration of the year.

June - Click to read the full post

Doing my part to keep beautiful print alive I make the promotion of art books part of my modus operandi…

July - Click to read the full post

… and I couldn’t help my-self. It had to be done. A poster design for one my all time, favorite movies, Heat.

August - Click to read the full post

I was so happy to see the epic success for one of my oldest clients Kiddimoto Ltd, boosted by an appearance on BBC’s Dragons’ Den…

September - Click to read the full post

… and the 2nd of my Halloween competitions proves again that my readers are the coolest movie nerds in the world!

October - Click to read the full post

A homage to Silent Running in November…

November - Click to read the full post

… followed by an unintentionally festive sketch of a cramped Bruce Willis in December. Hey, who doesn’t like a bit of Die Hard at Christmas.

December - Click to read the full post

Here’s to 2012. Happy New Year everyone!

Wing

Die Hard this Christmas

Not this Christmas Eve Detective John McClane! You’ve got to take down the bad guys in the festive classic, Die Hard!

Merry Christmas!!!
Wing.

Die Hard this Christmas