2016 Best Visual Effects Oscar Race artwork and works in progress

Last year I thought it would be fun to sketch a little battle scene between all the visual effects nominees for the Academy Awards. This year the contestants came from Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Martian. This is a challenging one to predict, but I think it will go to Star Wars, despite that franchise normally being passed over in this category. There was some strong early buzz for Mad Max and a late surge from The Revenant, which is the only film in the category I have not seen at the time of this writing.

This year I wanted to step it up a bit, and used this piece as an introduction to Corel Painter 2016. As a longtime Photoshop user, it was a bit wobbly getting started (I still don't have a good solution for an eraser tool hotkey), but I've liked the program more each time I used it, and find the brush selection easy to use and helpful to reconnect with when I used to paint with oils or work with conte crayons. Color mixing is also seems much easier.

Ex Machina's Ava,  Mad Max: Fury Road's Imperator Furiosa, The Revenant's Hugh Glass, Star Wars's Rey, and The Martian's Mark Watney having it out for Oscar gold.

Here's how the process went:

Three thumbnails were sketched in my phone's Painter app to test compositions. The iconic Mad Max War Boys were originally featured more prominently, and in the second one Rey gives Hugh a good smack. The third composition had Rey and Finn trapped on the floor of a canyon. The initial idea on the left ended up being chosen.

A closer look at the "approved" thumbnail. Mark was originally in his Mars Rover back in the midground, and Hugh rode the Revenant bear while firing at us with his rifle (but that was a bit much). A Star Wars fleet helped fill the sky, but this was later dropped to help balance out the players.

After I brought the sketch into Painter, I made my first line pass, focusing mainly on the foreground fighters. Hugh replaces Finn next to Rey, and Mark replaces the War Boy. To help guide the focal point of the Oscar, I added a rifle on Hugh's back to help flow up to it from the bottom of the composition. It was around this time I was reading Hereward Cooke's Painting Techniques of the Masters and Ray Bethers' Composition in Pictures, which helped with the composition.

Something wasn't right with Rey. I had decided to pick Star Wars as the winner around this time, and she needed to have a larger role in the composition. I still wanted her staff to provide the same tangent pointing to the Oscar though, so I sketched up some poses and settled on the "Force grab" one.

Final "ink" pass, with some background detail sketched in. This was all done using the Scratchboard tool up to this point.

The "underpaint" pass, below the inks layer. Getting used to the different brushes now, including the conte crayon. For this piece, I remembered to pick a particular color to fill the background with and paint over, which I normally forget to do. As you'd expect, it helped immensely in tying the color palette together.

At this point, I thought a more dramatic sky with a Mad Max-style lightning storm could work better, but it would have undermined all the lighting I had painted on the characters up to that point. I decided against it based on time constraints.

The subtler sky, styled to look like it could belong in the worlds of either Mad Max or The Martian. I made small adjustments to the background landscape to help draw attention to the area where the Oscar statue is. After this I went back to Photoshop for the text pass and called it a day.

Or, when put all together:

Sketching and doodling

I haven't drawn in what felt like eons, so it was time to go Cintiqing and scrape off the rust.

Photo reference warm up.

A battle royale between all of the 'Best Visual Effects' Oscar nominees.

Bottle sketch

Value exercise with Photoshop on my new Cintiq (those who've worked with me probably recognize my trusty water bottle). I'm loving it so far, even though there seems to be too few ExpressKeys for using with Maya. As much as I've been addicted to using too many layers for digi-paintings in the past, I tried to restrain myself this time and kept the majority of it to just one.

"Little Miss Star Wars" makes BuzzFeed's List of "30 Very Best Pieces of Fan Art of 2013"

@THEJoshLange Just saw your Star Wars/Little Miss Sunshine mash up piece in a Buzzfeed article. Absolutely loved it. Best piece featured.
— Nick Keutzer (@Nick09) December 11, 2013

Thanks for the heads-up Nick! The fan art on the BuzzFeed list is amazing, and I am grateful to be a part of such a great list. Thank you to everyone that liked and reblogged the piece over the course of the year. If you have not seen the Star Wars piece yet, here is the link to my original post.

300 Sketchbook: Top Chef finalists

Brooke Williamson, Sheldon Simeon, and Kristen Kish.

I'm posting this a lot later than I was hoping, but here are the latest trio of portraits from my "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme was "the last three finalists of Bravo's Top Chef." From left to right are: Brooke Williamson, Sheldon Simeon, and Kristen Kish (who won).

The portraits were drawn first on paper (reproducing photographs from Chelsea Sektnan, Star Chefs, and Bravo), then scanned and corrected, then digitally painted over in Photoshop. The background colors were chosen based off the colors of competition ribbons.

WIP shots:

Raw drawing.

Adjusted lines in Photoshop with rotate/transform tools.

Overlay comparison between raw lines (blue) and final lines (black).

Final lines, post-adjustment.

Color flats.

As with all reproductions I do of photographs, I hold no copyright on that material. This is a non-commercial fan art piece.

Star Wars: Episode VII/Star Trek mashup movie posters

I’ve made two new Star Wars Episode 7 mashup movie posters, done in the same spirit as my last Star Wars/Little Miss Sunshine mashup poster. This time they’re a riff off this Star Trek: Into Darkness poster, since that director J.J. Abrams has been announced to also direct Episode 7:

One of the fun things about making Episode 7 fan art is sitting back and coming up with scenarios that might theoretically occur in the new sequels. There are many unanswered questions for them to address, such as which principle characters will drive the plot, which locations will be used, and which “wow” moments will be created. I tried illustrating two very different directions for these mashups, both involving the silhouette of the Rebel Alliance logo replacing the Star Fleet insignia from Star Trek.

For this first poster, I went to the Star Wars canon from the novels, where Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master, returns to planet Yavin IV with R2D2 to set up the new Jedi order at the Massassi temple. I’m fairly certain the Jedi order will begin to be remade in Episode 7, and will continue to grow throughout the new trilogy.

The second mashup features an unknown Jedi padawan, surveying a battle-ravaged Coruscant, where massive fleets of Mon Calamari and Imperial Star Destroyers wage war above the planet’s smoking skyline. I have faith that Coruscant will play a big role in the new films, since it was the home base for the Empire before expanding to the Outer Rim in the original trilogy, and the Rebel Alliance cannot rule with confidence unless they control the city planet. Time will tell if any of these ideas are proven correct.

See also: Boba Fett Episode VII Facebook cover image

Star Wars Episode VII Mashup Poster

Here's a mashup poster I made of Star Wars Episode 7 and Little Miss Sunshine, two movies written by screenwriter Michael Arndt. When he was announced as the Episode 7 screenwriter, the poster idea popped into my head and it wouldn't go away.

The moment I tried to capture was the main characters getting ready to hop into the Millenium Falcon and head out into the next movie (of course, the story for Ep VII will most likely not have them all in it, but I picked them in the absence of any real story details). I wanted to stay as true to the iconic LMS poster as I could, and adjusted the Millienium Falcon's dimensions to better match the VW van. Picking which character would replace which was fun, and certain subtleties were serendipitous, like the similarity of vests between the characters of Alan Arkin and Harrison Ford. Although I included official logos and crew names at the bottom for a more realistic touch, this is of course just fan art and was not made for commercial purposes.

Shout-out to the guys at 8-Bit Cubist for their helpful feedback as I worked on it.

For those who dig it, here are some desktop background versions:

1680 x 1050 (widescreen)

1600 x 1200

For those who liked it, be sure to also check out my Boba Fett Episode VII Facebook cover photo.

Episode VII banner

With the news this week of George Lucas selling his Lucasfilm company and properties to Disney, I thought it would be fun to mash-up a little banner for the new Star Wars trilogy arriving in 2015.

"Shigeru Miyamoto: 8 Bit Legend" print and WIP shots

I drew several caricatures of Shigeru Miyamoto when I started out his piece, and decided on the one on the left. His world had to be Mario-related, and since Mario Galaxy was skyrocketing in popularity at the time, I decided to depict the Nintendo designer in space. The font for his name was in my head very early on, but at the end it was clear that it needed to be fleshed out in 3D.

The final print (I have one left for sale at my online store):

"Nolan Bushnell: 8 Bit Legend" print and WIP shots

The portrait of Pong designer Nolan Bushnell was always going to be done in a different direction. My initial ideas had him literally part of the game as the floating brick, possibly in 3D. In the end though, it was cooler to go with a "man in the machine" looking back at you. As the other prints became busier and more detailed, I added the Pong arcade cabinet around the border. The point being played for would end up making the score 2/5 (Bushnell's birthdate).

The final print (I have one left for sale at my online store):

WIP shots of the "8 Bit Legends" prints (Alexey Pajitnov)

Now that they're done, I thought it would be fun to show the work in progress files I made for each of my 8 Bit Legends prints. The objective I worked out with Ben at 8BitCubist.com was to show each of them immersed in the worlds of the games they created. To help things stay receptive to changes early on, I made greyscale sketches of each design, and polished from there.

Alexey Pajitnov's concept was clear from the start. I placed the Tetris skyscraper in Moscow, along with some of the other notable buildings in the city. This was definitely a fun way to refine my perspective skills.

The final print (I have one left for sale at my online store):

PAX East Video Game Prints Update: Getting Closer...

As mentioned in earlier posts, I've been developing digital paintings themed after designers of the 8-bit video game era in my spare time. The paintings have been a collaboration with my friend and former Rockstar coworker Ben Johnson at The 8-Bit Cubist for the upcoming PAX East video game convention. Tonight I picked up my mini-proofs from Static Medium. They look great, and I'm very excited to get the final/larger 18" x 24" prints this weekend. 

Mini-proofs of my renditions of game designers Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario Bros./Legend of Zelda, Nolan Bushnell (Pong) and Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris). Taken with an iPhone.

If you like what you're seeing, I'd like to mention that these prints are a VERY limited run. If you would like one or more of them to decorate your walls, email me at joshlange at gmail dot com. Each comes with a certificate of authenticity with background on the print and subject, signed by Ben and myself.

Comics I Like: Brian Posehn, Seth Rogen, and Aziz Ansari

More caricature sketches with digital coloring in Photoshop. Brian Posehn is one of the "Comedians of Comedy" and went on to appear in movies and recently had a role on the Sarah Silverman Program. He's also a big metal head. The first time I remember seeing him was on the hilarious "Titannica" sketch on "Mr. Show":

I've since seen him live in San Diego, and he had a great set.

Posehn Ref.

10/25/10 Update: Here's me with Posehn and his fellow Mr. Show alum Scott Aukerman after they presented The Blob at the Silent Movie Theater:

Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari are probably the funniest guys of their generation. Rogen popped onto my radar back when "Freaks and Geeks" first aired, and Aziz's $#!++iest Boombox Blast first let me know he was someone to keep an eye on.

This scene from the movie Observe and Report (language NSFW) has them facing off by exchanging the same insult back and forth. Their body language and energy levels contrast nicely, and I wanted to make it seem like Rogen is saying the first part of the insult on his side of the image in an angry way while Aziz is finishing it on the right side of the image almost silently (watch the video link to see what I mean).

         
Ok, that's enough links and swearing for now. It's hard to turn off the caricaturing part of my brain now that I've tapped into it, so I'll be posting more in the future.

Comics I Like: Patton Oswalt

I like a good number of comics, but if you were to ask me my overall favorite, I'd have to go with Patton Oswalt. I remember when his 222 album had just come out and it seemed like no one knew who he was. No matter who I shared his album with; however, they were instant fans of his crazy characters and uniquely-worded rants. Now he's a famous actor whose voice starred in the Pixar classic Ratatouille and the disturbing but fascinating Big Fan, which I watched for the first time last night.

In Big Fan, Oswalt plays a New York Giants fan from Staten Island who accidentally disqualifies his favorite player from playing. Torn between standing up for himself or his team, his character's life is turned upside-down. You never know just how far he's been pushed by the humiliating circumstances in his life, and Oswalt plays the character with a mix of enthusiastic, pathetic, and even a bit deranged. I loved the movie, and it reminded me why I'm such a "big fan" of Oswalt himself.

As for the piece, I decided to keep with the caricature style that I've been developing this week. I've been tending to over-render the original sketch, which ends up hampering the digital coloring process a bit. Here's a photo of the original drawing (the scanner on my printer is acting up yet again, so I had to use my camera to get it into the computer):

I decided the sketch was too stretched, so I squashed him down a bit to the final proportion and painted the rest in Photoshop. Caricatures are never flattering, and I wanted to push this rendition of him in a disturbing direction, to mimic the character Oswalt plays in the movie:

Reference for Patton in Big Fan.

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 3

For this round I chose the two most trusted and competent commanders in the Continental Army under George Washington: Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. Both men were instrumental in leading their divisions and preparing the untested American forces for the battles against the British and Hessian troops. They were mentioned prominently in the 1776 book I finished this week, so they seemed like natural choices for the caricature kick I've been on.

Knox Ref. Greene Ref.

Publish Post

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 2

Started off the day right--with some drawing. Specifically, more caricature practice, with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I got looser with the Jefferson one, and I ended up liking it more.

The original sketches, without the dab of Photoshop color:

Adams Ref. Jefferson Ref.

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 1

This week I've been enjoying the audiobook to David McCullough's 1776 and I've been in the caricaturing mood. Here's a pair, one of the famous 1st president and the other of author Thomas Paine (the second being less of a caricature and more of a mashup, admittedly). I gave both a touch of color in Photoshop as well.

Washington Ref.

Paine Ref. Pain Ref.

I'm not at all experienced with caricaturing, but it's something I want to focus on practicing this year.

Comics I Like: Todd Barry

Todd Barry is my wife's favorite comic, and is one of my favorite comics as well. In addition to seeing him open for Louis CK at the Spreckles Theater a few years ago, my wife and I both saw him at the Casbah (underneath the San Diego airport's flight path) a few years ago, and he did a great set that kept us in stitches. Being die-hard fans, my wife and I called out "joke requests" once he was done with his regular set, and he was kind enough to honor them all. I felt a little self-conscious doing this, but we met up with him after the set, and he sounded more glad that he had such big fans rather than annoyed at us, and he posed for a picture. When I went to New York for a motion capture shoot for Rockstar in 2007, I popped into Raffifi's (before it went out of business) in Manhattan, and Todd was one of the comics I recognized there. I introduced myself and shook his hand--he was very nice. He can be a very subtle comic whose facial expression often hovers around what I interpret as "are you really that stupid?" Hopefully this reproduction captured this thought. Judge for yourself:

The work in progress, pre-computer. I only used an 8B pencil on this one, as I did the Louis CK and Myq Kaplan pieces. The soft lead makes it easy to move around the page and not have to stress as much about making an effort for the lines to show up.

Comics I Like: Louis CK and Myq Kaplan

Did a couple sketches and brought them into Photoshop to paint. For some reason I like the look of keeping the sketch in there on Multiply with a slightly lighter opacity. The downside is the somewhat muddy/gritty look that appears where there is a lot of shading.

Louis CK. His new show "Louie" premiered this week on FX and it reminded me of how much his sense of comedy rules. I saw him absolutely destroy at San Diego's Spreckles Theater a few years ago. Even though someone backed into my car in the parking lot right before the show, his act made me forget about it. A lot of his act revolves around his physical appearance sliding out of control, so I chose the scene in his doctor's office to reproduce:

Myq Kaplan. He's my choice to win this year's "Last Comic Standing." I'd never heard of him before a couple weeks ago, but his material really hits home for me. Maybe because I also don't eat meat? I dunno. Hopefully I'll be able to see him live soon. (Update: this piece now seen on Myq's site!)

 

I love doing portraits, I love comedians, and I need more drawing and digital painting practice, so expect a bunch more comedian pieces in the near future.