Posters in Print

So, it's official! The "May Dad The Giant" posters have officially hit print, and WOW. I'm absolutely thrilled how well they've turned out and printed, and at the size Pat was able to get out of the file I sent him. It really turned out wonderfully - I'm so happy to have been able to take part in it's creation. Also, it's fun to see my buddy "live" for the first time since he moved to Texas, here. Stay awesome, Mister Stannard! 

For more on the "My Dad The Giant" short film, check out its production blog.

I should have more artwork to post soon in general, by the by. I'm working on about a half a dozen things at once at the moment. Stay tuned! :)

-Mel

My Dad The Giant

 So, this was tremendously entertaining. I finally had the opportunity to complete coloring on the promotional poster for my good buddy Patrick's short film in production, "My Dad The Giant." This was quite the awesome exercise in general, as I've had so little time in Photoshop over the past many months, as a recent feature gig has kept me headlong in to Nuke-based compositing instead. It was actually quite fun to jump from that to a more painterly look coloring this poster - I learned a great deal very quickly. 

Anyhow, do be sure to check out Patrick's production blog for the film, if you get the chance, it's a fantastic piece. Thanks for viewing! And thanks again, Patrick, for such a fun and challenging commission project.

I'm hoping to have some personal project-related art to show you all soon. Keep an eye out. :)

Cheers,

Mel

MDTG Poster Previews

Here's a couple of previews of the My Dad The Giant promo poster I finally have the opportunity to color. Should have this one completed soon. Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Loosen Up!

Greetings new watchers! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog.

So, for the first time in a very long time, I'm taking a couple weeks off from my usual maddening 60-80 hour a week work schedule. Of this, artwork for fun, a trip up north, updated demo reels, and very likely, a commission or three will come to fruition. One of the things I started with almost immediately this week is getting back to quick, rough sketching. SO much (really, the majority) of the scant drawing I've had time to do in recent months has been clean-up line art for other folks for their personal projects - awesome fun, but sticking to clean-up only tends to bring a level of rigidity to my own drawing that just won't do (particularly with animation.)

So I'm back to sketching roughly whenever I get the chance, with the goal of getting back into the flow of doing so with some level of speed and visual cohesion. Above are some examples - the lower two image sets were first attempts two days ago - the topmost image is from today, managing to hold a bit more form then previous attempts, which was nice to see. All of these images are from a re-sparked drive for my TKP project. I'm particularly keep on taking the top image of Remi, and the running sketch of Deloco to closer states of completion. They're surprisingly spot-on to how I currently see the characters in my head.

More art soon,

Mel

Snarls and Slytherins

I really love the bold, graphical look and feel to the cell-shade style of coloring I recently used on the ARMSmasters Pitch Party add, and decided to fiddle around with it some more, briefly, for the fun of it. Moxie here was the Guinea Pig. I'll definitely have to keep up with this style of coloring when I get the opportunity - it's quite fun.

Also, some line art-in-progress.

I’m still futzing about with what exactly I’d like to do for the background - or really, how extensive I want to get with it. Minimally, I know Hogwarts will be ablaze. We’ll see where else it takes me from there. For now, though, enjoy some Slytherins :)

Based in an interview quote by JK Rowling:

“A part of the final battle that made me smile was Slughorn galloping back with Slytherins. But they’d gone off to get reinforcements first, you know what I’m saying? But yes, they came back, they came back to fight (…) I’m sure that many people would say “Well, that’s common sense, isn’t it? Isn’t that smart, to get out, get more people and come back with them?”

Unfortunate for Slytherin fans, this was never made a clear point in the book, and who knows if Filmmakers will bother to depict it in the final film, either. Chances are genuinely slim that they will. So, here you have it. My depiction-in-progress of the Slytherins returning with Professor Slughorn to the Final Battle at Hogwarts. Characters clockwise from back left: Malcolm Baddock, Graham Pritchard, Theodore Nott, Horace Slughorn, Tracy Davis, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass. I’ll post more progress as I make it :)

And yes, as a matter of fact. In my mind, Horace Slughorn totally has a monocle.

Cheers,

Mel

Inspirations on Tumblr

So it just dawned on me - I haven't shared my Tumblr account with you all yet. My apologies! With as busy as I've been as of late, it completely passed me by.

Anyhow! Please feel free to join me at The Shimmy Spot - my little online hub for anything and everything that moves me, from artwork (Including my own process work and thoughts) to images, music, quotes, videos, philosophies, silliness, fan-geekery and more. I'd love to see you there :)

Next post will be artwork, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me!

-Mel

To everyone curious about when I’ll be taking commissions next :)

I’ve had so many people asking in the past two weeks alone - you guys make me giddy, seriously. Thank you for your interest, it’s always a thrill to know folks enjoy my art that much. ♥ As for when? I’m shooting for being able to take on more within the next 3 to 4 weeks. Having spent the past 6 months straight working 60-80 hours a week, I’m definitely in need of a little R&R, so that I can be rested and able to produce quickly for you guys once I start drawing for you again (As always - I want to do my best for my customers!) So, yes - soon! I’ll absolutely announce everywhere (Tumblr, Twitter, DA, FA, etc) as soon as I open up for available slots.

Thanks again, all! You help make this art-for-a-living gig as awesome as it is with your wonderful support ♥
-Mel

PLEASE VOTE! ARMSmasters for Animation Pitch Party 2011

Everyone, PLEASE VOTE! The ARMSmasters Project is now able to be voted upon for the online readers vote for Animation Magazine Pitch Party 2011! Please visit http://www.animationmagazine.net/pitch-party-2011-vote/ to support the ARMSmasters Project and the Michigan based artists working on the project & spread the word. Thanks! 

For more on The ARMSmasters Project, visit http://www.thearmsmasters.blogspot.com/

♥Mel

ARMSmasters Project - 2011 Teaser

Cross-posted from The ARMSmasters Production Blog:
 (As written by Mike Winn)

This video has been a long time coming! For awhile now we've had videos that showed what our intention was for a finished complete look for ARMSmasters and it was my desire to string these together to create another teaser trailer that featured these most complete and finished looking shots. Well time and circumstance stepped in and I wasn't able to get -every- shot that I wanted done in this fashion done and so as a result I pushed back the creation of this new teaser, and pushed and pushed. Well recent events have lit a fire under me and I decided to just use what I had to create the current edit. While working on it I was again struck by how much artistic talent is available here in southeastern Michigan and the colors and effect treatments were done by people on their own time and with no budget!

This will likely be the last edit that uses the original short footage, excepting a smoothing out of things here or there or an addition if another shot is finished, but we intend to look forward towards a Pilot Episode teaser, Kickstarter and hopefully results and direction following our participation in the Pitch Party for Animation Magazine. Thanks for continuing to send your support!

For more on The ARMSmasters Project, visit www.armsmastersproject.com

-Mel

ARMSmasters Pitchparty 2011 Poster

Hi Everyone! I have some awesome news.

Through an amazing opportunity, the ARMSmasters crew will be participating in the 2011 Pitch Party competition in Animation Magazine's August issue (to debut at San Diego Comic Con)

This competition is a great opportunity for aspiring animation producers and designers like ourselves, who are not necessarily industry veterans but are working professionals with an idea to share, to get it out there infront of the industry vet's. There will be a Judges pick, readers choice via online voting and an editorial pick. No matter what, the idea gets an ad in that August issue and gets published the world over. This is something we couldn't pass up and so ARMSmaster's creator, Mike Winn, decided to work out a promo piece shot since we were overdue for one anyway. Ultimately we'll be having a print version of this and other pieces as well.

The poster was a bit of a marathon run to complete, admittedly. I received the rough drawing this past week, and weaving in and out of a 60 hour work week, cleaned it up and laid down the color. It was an exciting process - wonderful to be able to create an illustration after months doing stereo compositing, though - and we're pleased with the results overall.

If you're interested at all in ARMSmasters and would like to help us then please stay tuned to this space for notification as to when the online voting for the Readers Choice begins and for more information as we have plans to get onto Kickstarter and pursue several fund raising efforts this summer.

Thanks for hanging in there!

-Mel

MDTG Film Poster Flats

Hey all! Thanks for sticking with me despite my prolonged business as of late. I'm currently pulling 60 hours a week on this feature at the post house - it's been a phenomenally fun time, but as you could imagine it has also, more often then not, kept me away from my sketchbooks and Photoshop with impressive consistency.

Of the few things I'm able to squeeze onto my non-3D-stereoscopic-film-conversion To-Do List, I've taken up colors on the promotional poster for my good friend and roommate Patrick's in-progress short film ,"My Dad The Giant." I managed to squeeze enough time out of my one day off this week to get a start on it, laying down some simple flat colors, which helped us further explore the tones, at least, I may be using for the final piece. The ultimate goal is to use more Renaissance-inspired tones, textures and lighting for the image, which should prove a fun challenge.

More art will be coming as soon as I can. Cheers!
-Mel

Odds and Ends

 She lives! Life's been super hectic lately, hence my scarcity. Thanks for sticking with this blog though - I quite appreciate it. As of late I've been pulling what's amounted to about a 70 hour work week, occasionally more, hopping between various gigs. It's been fun, I've learned a tremendous amount, particularly where 3d Stereoscopic film conversion and Nuke compositing is concerned... but damn, if it hasn't kept my time at bay.

  

Above is the first page in a new sketchbook I've been dicking around with for going on three weeks now in my "Spare Time." And by that I mean a literal line here... a line there... a scritch and scribble on occasion, if I'm lucky. An agonizingly slow process when "free time" amounts to "two minutes until you're up for dailies" - but still an entertaining and much needed little project, especially given my recent musings over the idea of turning Nexus into a graphic novel one of these days (Though, hell if I know where I'd get the time. lol!)

Anyhow! Here's Nexus in its current incarnation, including some new-comers. Clockwise from top left: Blitzkrieg, Geist, Kayo, Noir, Creeper, Oracle, Shay, Dante, Inferno, Annex, and Velocity. All are pretty spot-on in their designs as I see them at current, save for V - She'll be up to bat for a re-design soon, as this look just isn't suiting her character well at all. Over all though, this page has been a fun little diversion, the minute or two per scribbles I got in on it. Plus it was really fun to draw this gang again - it's been a while!

Unfortunately, for the moment, I haven't much more I can show you in way of drawings - 

... Though that's certainly not to say I haven't been drawing in abundance over recent weeks. The above dandy stack is the collection of drawings I've done for one of my freelance gigs as of late (Not including rough sketches - all those have been binned. Had I kept those too, this stack would easily be thicker by a third) Alas, it'll likely be a long while before I can share any of these with you all. One day!

I am amidst Riot's character sheet for ARMSmasters, and Davina's bust commission is underway. I'll also likely be moving on to another "sanity-keeper" sketch page soon, so more art will be on its way... albeit slowly. ;)

Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Ancient Ruins in 3D

Welcome, new watchers! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog. I just wanted to drop by and give you guys a glimpse of what I'm doing for my current freelance gig - 2D to 3D stereoscopic conversion. The above was an exercise I did during some down time, converting Marie's commission into Anaglyph 3D -  requiring red-blue 3D glasses. If you happen to have a pair at your disposal, check it out! The above image, all said and done, required the creation of 62 rotos and a rather fun learning experience ;)

I keep joking with my other half, Niles (Who, consequently, is working the same job with me at the moment) that our lives have become a Don Hertzfeldt short... making a great gig with awesome people even more fun. Had to share:

-Mel

Commission Status Change

Hi all! Just so everyone's aware, I may be a bit slow to post over the next many weeks (though certainly still active.) This past week I was fortunate enough to be hired on as a feature film compositor, (Learning Nuke - it's a phenomenal program, I absolutely love it) to be added to my re-existing freelance gig as a concept artist (as well as, of course, our much-loved ARMSmasters Project) All combined, my work weeks come out to something like 80 hours - it's fun, but completely insane. I will have work to post inevitably - Davina's commissioned head-shot and a new ARMSmasters character sheet for Riot, as soon as they're completed, for example, but beyond that, I'm swamped.

That said, apart from the one commission I have left to create for *Psamophis I'm going to have to put my availability for taking on new commissions on hold for the next couple of months - likely through June. As soon as I am able to take on more work again, I will be certain to announce so here. Those on my current waiting list (as well as folks who have emailed me their interest in obtaining commission slots recently) will be contacted immediately on a first-serve basis at that time. Thanks for your patience and understanding, all!

That aside, on a very different note, I'm sure many of you, like myself, are completely shocked by the recent devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. For anyone wanting to help, Text "redcross" to 90999 to make a $10 donation or go to redcross.org for more options. Lord knows these folks are going to need every bit of aid they can get. My prayers (and donations) are with them.

Cheers everyone,

Mel

Aeslyn Model Sheet

Cross-posted from http://armsmastersproject.com/

 

Capturing Aeslyn was not an easy task - something Mike and I found out readily in creating her reference sheet. There's bound to be a challenge with a character carrying her level of complexity: She's bold, confident, yet reserved and sophisticated. She's sexy and highly feminine, while absolutely commanding respect from herself and those around her. (Defying many action-fantasy female tropes.) Even her color modeling came down to a tremendous amount of thought - what tones could Aeslyn embody that no other female member of the ARMSmasters line-up pull off? Through all of our effort, and the total blast we had exploring the character, I'm really pleased with the results.

 

Posing this gal was one of the greater tricks to creating her reference sheet. Screaming "Sophisticated Sexy Confident Intelligent Noble-woman!" all in one go is a mouth-full for any one pose to maintain, to be certain. Above are among the many quick sketches of Mike and I's that lead up to the final full-body pose.

 

Last but not lease - Color exploration with Aeslyn. In the end, purple, feminine colors seemed to call out to the character the strongest. She, without a doubt, is the only female in the cast thus far who could, or would even want to based on personality alone, pull off such graceful "pretty" tones - they're inherently Aeslyn, and manage, I feel, to accentuate her beauty and roots as nobility all the more.

Cheers,
Mel