break down of how I paint... sometimes

I posted this on my facebook page a while ago and it seemed to have gotten a lot of buzz.  Hopefully this is helpful to most of you in case you were wondering how I approached my paintings on The Croods.  Most of the time, it starts with blocking in graphic shapes and colors with the proper layer organized.  I tend to paint tight so even in my block in, I'm very specific with the shapes I'm designing.  The next few stages go by pretty quick because all I'm doing is throwing in photos, adjusting hue and value, and layer masking. 

croods dump round 79457935983785

go fetch a tree!

Character designed by Carter Goodrich.  Painted by yours truly.

round 4 of the croods...

Be sure to check back later for descriptions on each piece!!  Enjoy.

hunting for dinner!

Here is a painting I hacked together with multiple assets from all sorts of different paintings.  There were a few times on The Croods when it was necessary to grab paintings other artists had previously done on the movie because we were so crunched on time.  Someone might have done the layout, someone else painted the environment, someone else painted the characters, and then someone else painted all over and the only thing left was a tree.

Anyways, this was definitely one of those paintings.  Our art director, Paul Duncan, roughly laid in a layout with the painted turkeyfish he took from a Dominique Louis painting.  There was an old Huy Nguyen painting where Huy designed these cool pillar shapes, and I took those pillars and shifted the colors to match the environment.  And then the rest was just rendering, adjusting the lighting, and painting in the family.

TEAM HIGH FIVE!

 

And then there is just me.  I had fun with this one.

 

more croods...

For all the locals... we have a book signing event this weekend (April 6th) at Gallery Nucleus with the art team of The Croods!  There will be a panel where we discuss our process and inspirations, Q & A, and some book signing time!  Here is the link to the event for more info!

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/event/386

The "BearOwl" was one of the first characters I designed the colors and patterns for.  I'm very happy to see the amount of screen time he (or she) ended up getting in the final movie.  Character designed by the amazing Takao Noguchi.

One of many shots that we were certain was going to make the final cut... but ran out of time (or money).  Although I really REALLY love how that environment ended up looking in the movie.

A collaboration painting between myself and Leighton Hickman.  

Another family moment.  Painted this from Ryan O'Loughlin's storyboard.  Such a talented and sweet guy.  He is now co-directing one of our upcoming animated films.  Congratulations, Ryan!  Well deserved!

time for a story

Like most people, I was very surprised when I found out I would be spending the summer as an art intern at DreamWorks Animation working on the next Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco movie, "The Croods".  Little did I know, the team consisted of some of THE most talented artist at DreamWorks... maybe even the industry!  What could they possibly need me for?!  As I sat in my cube, painting a surfacing call-out on a piece of fur cloth, I started to analyze where I may be able to find the opportunity to show what I can offer.  We had HUNDREDS of environment paintings and each day everyone was cranking out more and more.  I began to notice we didn't have any simple moments of just closeups of our characters.  So I decided to do a quick painting on my own time to see how our characters could be lit in a realistic setting.  What started out as just an exercise for myself, caught the eye of our production designer, Christophe Lautrette.  And I was very lucky to have Christophe like it enough to bring it up in our meeting with the directors and producers.  They loved it.  And immediately after that meeting, I was given much larger responsibilities and more important assignments (but still a lot of fur call outs that need to be done).  I am not 100%, but I have a feeling this is one of the few paintings that really helped me become full time at the studio.

Here's another process of how this paintings came to be.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

By the way, there are A LOT of unpublished Croods art going around the web now that the movie is out.  Take a look at Leighton Hickman, Simon Rodgers, Jason Scheier , and Nicolas Weis.  These guys are SO IMPRESSIVE!  Now you know how terrified I was coming onto the movie with these types of talent!

the first of many... (croods art collection)

I hope everyone is ready to fill up the theaters this weekend for the opening of The Croods!  For a fun and entertaining time, watch it in 3D (it's exceptionally good)!

As much as I would love to dump all two years of my Crood's artwork on this blog and get it over with, I still want to keep up with my personal work and share with you all the magic that happens after hours (although I can hardly call it magic).

Anyways, so here is the first official release of one of my pieces from The Croods!  You wouldn't believe how many different iterations of the first jungle sequence we went through.  Over and over... months after months.  It finally took one key idea of having the jungle feel underwater that inspired our final designs.

I think our production designer (Christophe Lautrette) knew that I loved painting in candy-colored mess.  He allowed me to visualize what colors we might expect in this world.  I did a few different paintings, but ended up choosing this one since we felt it successfully represented OUR jungle  This is by far my most favorite piece of artwork I did on The Croods... even if it is two years old now... time sure does fly...

Here's is a simple step by step.  I started immediately with just pops of color and painting very loosely.  Painting in flat shapes helps me structure my value properly.

From here, I start throwing in photo textures and refining shapes, but still keeping within my original composition, value, and color.

Next will just be the final touches.  Strange how long final touches usually take for me (since I'm so bad at making up my mind).  Adjusting the lighting, pushing and pulling light and dark objects, and simplifying areas that I feel are too busy.  This is also where I will spend some time adding in characters for storytelling.  I always feel characters should be included in a painting not just for scale, but for telling a story.  It sometime feels like a waste of time since this is an environment piece, but it's going that 1/8 of an inch or that 110% that I'd like to add.

And a version the directors wanted with our dandelion critters.

Thanks for stopping by!  More to come!  Go check out the movie!!!