Corona May

Hello you fools.
It is I, the rarely here to post things guy. A mini update that follows on from the last post in March. I have indeed kept up with keeping somewhat busy and filling my time with spaceships! All can be viewed on my Artstation here. There are youtube links as well. Will post a few here just for the sake of posting really...

2020. But are we seeing any clearer...

So, I didn't post all last year.
And why post at all, you may ask. Blogs are dead. There are more immediate ways to put your word out…
Well… you’re probably right, whoever you are, yelling at your screen.
Last year was hugely productive and hopefully, if you happen to be reading this in the future, proved to be a big step up and forward for me. Personally I made some rather big changes to my life but the internet isn’t a place to air one’s laundry so lets skip that as it’s not the point of the blog anyway (I know, what ever was the point of this blog?)

It’s 2020 and as history will report we are in the middle of the viral pandemic that is CoVid-19 or Coronavirus. Working from home or at least feigning to work from home, I’m determined to use the time as productively as I can whether it be keeping up with drawing, practicing painting or generally updating software and running some user/life admin tasks.
As this was intended as (and should remain as) a design and film blog from my perspective, I hope to post any pieces I’ve done during this time. I must admit, when starting something like this, you aren’t exactly concerned with whether you will hold yourself to it down the line whether that be a few months or even years later. Being busy as I have been on Fast9 and currently The Batman, it should be said it is hard to muster up the fuel to write some long essay for my own gratification.
But if you start to do something then you’ve at least begun the journey, right?

So what have I done to begin this “stay-at-home” period. I broke out the traditional materials and practiced with some mini painting in a postcard sized book that I had begun way back in a Sept 2018 post. I had since tried 3 other paintings (below) and the fourth is the one I did last night.

Top 5 of 2019

Well this is depressing. The one and only post of the year is my end of year round up...

To be fair, Ive been busy in the best of ways work wise this year having worked on Fast & Furious 9 followed by Batman so Ive had zero time to make any personal work.
As we end this decade Im definately coming out of it in a far different place than what I came in to it, for good, and sadly, for bad also (but that's not for here).

OK, so whats my Top 5 of the year? (As always based purely on what Ive seen released in 2019 in the UK...

5. Toy Story 4
- could they do it again. One more time. Apparently so. Some fun highlights like Duke Kaboom, the ventriloquist dummys and the high five soldier made this a fun film but it brought the emotion with a real sense of goodbye between Woody and Buzz that anyone who grew up with these characters could feel as well. But I will say Buzz is sorely under-used in this film...

4. Us
- I enjoyed Getout but perhaps not as much as the rest of the world apparently. Us on the other hand was a step up for me and it took Peele's horror sense to larger, national scale. Great stuff indeed!

3. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
- is it long, yeah; self-indulgent, perhaps. Is it his best thing since Basterds, I think so. Also Brad Pitt has created the coolest QT character since Sam Jackson showed up in Pulp Fiction!

2. Le Mans '66
- this film was dramatic, exhilarating and above all else, damn fun. Seeing it on the big screen helps and I just really enjoyed a film that takes you comfotably through the story with solid performances and confident directing from Mangold.

1. Avengers Endgame
- was there going to be anything else? for story telling, juggling the size of it, emotional beats and sheer entertainment which is what these films sometimes forget to be. Also, so so satisfying. Something never to be under-appreciated. Marvel did it. Congrats. I can leave the MCU behnd now and be perfectly happy if I never saw another one. Amazing

Notable shoutout to The Irishman and Chernobyl which I'd love to have included in the list.

Bottom 5 as always based on what Ive seen and not particularly bad films. Just lowest rated by me...
1. Gemini Man
2. In The Tal Grass
3. Men in Black International
4. Godzilla King of Monsters
5. Dumbo

Top 5 of 2018

Time once again for my personal Top 5 of the year based purely on UK releases that I have managed to catch within the year; so before you ask 'why no SpiderMan?' it is because I haven't seen it yet!

5. Mission Impossible Fallout
One of, if not the only film series to be getting better as they go on. It's easy to have gotten caught up in the media surrounding just how practical this film was to be and how much of the work in camera was done by the Cruise himself but it all paid off massively with great story callbacks and continuations from previous entries which made me very happy. Ive been vocal to people about my theory on how you can rate the quality of an MI film based on the length of Tom Cruise's hair in each particular film so I was pretty confident going into this one. Equally, director Chris McQuarrie's Epic Empire Podcast Part 1 and Part 2/3 are just as good as the film!

4. Bohemian Rhapsody
Saw this twice at the cinema. It is horribly inaccurate with its timeline of events but by using the Live Aid performance as a bookend, it is structured in a way to play more to your feelings. An average enjoyer of the Queen catalogue its a great time to enjoy what is effectively a "Greatest Hits" of their work. It's a null point at this time to go on about how good Rami Malek's interpretation of Freddie is. It's all just so enjoyable! Seeing it big and loud was its biggest strength. Being too young to witness an original Queen lineup, I realised half way through the film I had never heard the band in a loud bombastic way like that of a gig. Hearing the tracks on a stereo system definately takes away from their impact. The film in a cinema corrects this...

3. Incredibles 2
The family dynamic is finally back and fittingly carrying on almost seamlessly from the first film. Just as many fun moments as the first and lovely spectacle we've come to expect from Pixar. Minor weakness would be the 'badguy' of the film feels a tad weak in comparrison to Syndrome but Im nitpicking... Jack Jack jokes and parenting is a super power are the greatest take-aways from this film.

2. They Shall Not Grow Old
A film of great importance, it feels somewhat wrong to describe this as "entertainment" in the same way as Saving Private Ryan's opening 20mins. The work gone into making hundred year old war footage come alive is something to truely marvel at. It's approach to pull you in through the black and white world as we enter the war with a gradual zoom and colour increase is magical without ever being a "look at this!" moment. THe voice work is brilliant and at times intense and heartbreaking. Stunning work and quite rightly compulsary viewing in our schools now. Thank you Peter Jackson.

1. Avengers Infinity War
A bit obvious but it couldn't be anything else right? 10 years of building. There have been a few dips and troughs along the way but nothing to cry about. Amazing visuals aside the story was strong and bolstered by an imense cast all doing their part. A fully realised Thanos is the icing on the cake. Possibly like the original Yoda in Empire, if audiences didn't believe in this character than the film may have collapsed on itself. With strong foundations in the Marvel world, they've built a towering series of films for the 21st century... Come on Endgame. You've got us all ready and waiting...

Honourable mentions go to the following for all being great bits of film throughout the year; The Last Movie Star, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and Haunting of Hill House for beign a great little mini series on Netflix.

As for my bottom 5 once again the list is by no means the worst things I ve ever seen as Ive likewly avoided the truely aweful titles. These are just lower rated in my opinion

5. Venom
4. After The Screaming Stops
3. When The Devil and Father Amorth
2. The Cloverfield Paradox
1. The Open House

Testing Workflow

Video coming soon

Some new tech weapons

Something I've been cooking up

REAL painting .001

So I haven't propery touched the paints since the end of school. So that's about 15 years ago.

Along with my towering levels of admiration/love for Ralph McQuarrie and Syd Mead, I had long wanted to return to the traditional medium to attempt something similar. When Wayne Hagg released his Goauche tutorial, it finally gave me the kick in the butt to give it a go. I have 12 pages of A6 to fill and I may make it my mini project to have done by the end of the year.
Here are pics of my first ever attempt...
This is the final image scanned in. Generally happy but its an awkward reminder of the inexperienced me wanting to go too far with saturation. Hope to make the next one a little more 'earthy' and dulled down.

The small scale is typical of my attempts at traditional media and also not wanting to go so far astray on something over-sized that I feel out of my depth.

Often seen in behind the scene pics of McQuarrie and Meads work; a simple line drawing taped on top so I can keep in mind the original forms as I paint over the sketch.

Always prefer a toned base colour. Get rid of that nasty white paper :)

Working back to front so I can worry less about overspill

Nearly there. A contrasting vehicle for a focal point...