.
.
Brandt. Charcoal and nupastel on strathmore charcoal paper.
.
.

.
.
Black and yellow bird. 15"x 20", Watercolor.
.

.
.




This drawing is done in vine charcoal, a medium I rarely use because it so easily falls off the page before it's sprayed with a fixative. I tend to prefer compressed charcoal for it's ability to grip the paper and make dark darks, but I find myself coming back to vine charcoal from time to time for it's delicate quality.

.
.
Sunflower. 15"x 20" on arches cold press watercolor paper.
.

Color Workshop this Saturday

.

This Saturday, June 20th, I'll be giving an all day workshop on color theory for subjects of all kinds including landscape, figurative and entertainment arts. Here's what we'll cover:

• The fundamentals of color theory for painters (traditional and digital).
  
• The emotional impact of various color combinations to create mood and environment.
• Principles for organizing the complexities of color into pleasing harmonies.
• Color exploration exercises.
• Painting from a costumed model in a colored light environment.

To enroll contact the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art at 877-695-2232. Their site is www.laafa.org.

.
.
Oil on Canvas. 18"x 28"
.
.

.
.
Final frame from the animated film The Road to El Dorado (2000).




Color key for the background painting. It was originally meant to be a backlit scene but as you can see in the final version we brought the light around to the front.



Painted foreground element.





Final background painting. All images Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

And for those of you who have been asking for a gouache landscape sketch demo, I have one up over on Landsketch.

.
.
Mark, acrylic on illustration board.
.

.
.






Background painting for Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Photoshop. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
.

.
.
Brush pen study.
.

.
.
A scene painted for the animated film Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. Acrylic and photoshop. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

.
.
Charcoal on bristol paper.
.

.
.


Hillside road in central California. Oil on canvas.

My hope with this one was to have a large brushstroke feel like the small, quick studies over on Landsketch. It's much larger though, 36" × 48"; I used 3 inch brushes and a large palette knife.
.
.

.
.


Laura. Charcoal on Strathmore paper.
.

.
.
.

Here's a scene painted for the animated film Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. Acrylic and photoshop.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
.

.
.


Color key for Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Acrylic and photoshop.
This was the last painting I did at DreamWorks that had any traditional painting in it.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

.
.


Costume sketch from life drawing class.
.
.

.
.

Charcoal pencil on Strathmore charcoal paper.
.
.

.
.
Redwood Shores Goose. Watercolor.
.
.

.
.


Compressed charcoal on newsprint.
.
.

.
..
.

.
.

.
.


Office window view from morning until night. Photoshop, 1999.

I've done many of these over the years from different offices at different times. You can see more here and here or by scrolling back to October 2006.
.

.
.
.

Oil demonstration on masonite.

.
.Final painting



Rough and final rough.

This is a scene from The Road to El Dorado. It was an important and complicated scene and I wanted to get it right so I did a rough for the rough. It's painted in acrylic with some photoshop work in the final.
.

.
.
From a life drawing session back in 97.
.
.

.
.
Backyard flower. Watercolor on arches paper.
.

.
.
Currently at DreamWorks we have a specialized department that handles the matte paintings for all our shows, they do outstanding work. In the past though, we in the art department of each show would do them ourselves. Though I prefer color roughs and looser concept pieces, I miss the occasional matte painting. They were a nice change of pace and style. Here's one I did for Shark Tale.

.
.

Toucan. Done in watercolor from photos taken on a trip to Costa Rica.
.
.

.
.

.

. .

Happy New Year!

It's ironic to me that 13 years after we started the Prince of Egypt, the art department of my current show consists entirely of Prince of Egypt veterans: Paul Lasaine (production designer), Christian Schellewald (art director), Marcos Mateu-Mestre (Location design and layout) and Patrick Mate (character design).


Above is a scene from the film for which I painted the color key and background.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

BLUE CHRISTMAS

.
Happy Holidays!

This is the ogre Santa arriving in the Shrek household on Christmas Eve; an early concept piece painted for Shrek the Halls in photoshop.
.
Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

Painting process for The Prince of Egypt

.
.
Color exploration.
.
.

Color key.
.
.

Completed background painting. Layout by Armen Melkonian.
.
.

Final scene as it appears in the movie.

This week is the 10 year anniversary of the release of The Prince of Egypt, DreamWorks first animated film. All our work for the film was done in acrylic on illustration board or on acetate overlays.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

.
.
Flowers from last Summer. Charcoal.
.
.

.
.
Painted for Road to El Dorado (2000) in acrylic.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
.

...




.



Sci Fi_ish sketches in acrylic.

And since we're on the subject, how about another round of Science fiction recommendations from you. You gave excellent recommendations last time which introduced me to writers like John Scalzi and Peter Hamilton. And my favorite of recent reads: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. I'd love it if you'd post more of your favorite science fiction novels in the comments.

.
.
Mike. Watercolor and gouache in a 12"x 16" heavyweight craft paper sketchbook.
.