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These are color keys for the animated film Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. They're meant to establish the color and lighting in the Hall of Justice location.
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White Bird, watercolor on hot press illustration board.
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Compressed charcoal on strathmore charcoal paper.
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This is watercolor with a little gouache thrown in on arches cold press paper. I used masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper in the lights.
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Jenny, charcoal pencil on velour pastel paper.
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Watercolor on Arches paper.
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Back to the good ol' days for this week's post. These are from The Prince of Egypt.

Color key and background painting.

Final scene as it appears in the film. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
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Great Blue Heron. Watercolor on Crescent cold press illustration board.
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Adrienne. Charcoal on Rives paper.
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Still having a good time with ink. This is done with Higgins water-soluble ink on watercolor paper.
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I'm really enjoying the simplicity of sketching with a Pentel water soluble brush pen and a waterbrush. More at Land sketch.
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Something from the archives; this is from a life drawing session back in '98. Acrylic on illustration board.
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Watercolor on hot press illustration board.
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Comicon demo

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Here's my charcoal portrait demo for The LA Academy of Figurative Art done at our Comicon booth. I appreciate all of you who came out and were willing to stand and watch amid the throngs of people and sights. It was a good time and I enjoyed meeting you.



Once the demo was over and I could stand back and take a good look at the drawing, I saw several things I needed to touch up. I took the time to do so and I think the "before and after" might be instructive for any burgeoning artists out there. Here's my thinking: a charcoal drawing is nothing more than black dust on paper so you have to fight hard for clarity of form and depth. To that end I added more translucency in the hair for a stronger feeling of toplight, I grouped and simplified the shapes of light and shadow and I used softened or lost edges for greater depth. Oh yes, and the nose was too long. That last 10% can make a world of difference.
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Brandt. Charcoal and nupastel on strathmore charcoal paper.
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Black and yellow bird. 15"x 20", Watercolor.
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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.

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Sunflower. 15"x 20" on arches cold press watercolor paper.
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Color Workshop this Saturday

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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.

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Oil on Canvas. 18"x 28"
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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.

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Mark, acrylic on illustration board.
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Background painting for Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Photoshop. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
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Brush pen study.
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A scene painted for the animated film Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. Acrylic and photoshop. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.

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Charcoal on bristol paper.
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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.
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Laura. Charcoal on Strathmore paper.
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Here's a scene painted for the animated film Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. Acrylic and photoshop.

Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
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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.

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Costume sketch from life drawing class.
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Charcoal pencil on Strathmore charcoal paper.
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Redwood Shores Goose. Watercolor.
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Compressed charcoal on newsprint.
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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.
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