ChrisOatley.com

Disney Character Designer answers your questions about Concept Art, Character Design for Animation, Digital Painting & Illustration.

Concept Art: How To Break In and Stay In

Concept Art for Chris Oatley's personal project based on 'The Wizard Of Oz' Legendary Disney artist Armand Serrano told me: "They hire you for your art, but they keep you because of your ideas."

There are a million concept art portfolios out there...

...and very few compelling concepts.

A professional concept artist designs the future. They don't simply copy current trends.

They envision environments, props, characters, costumes, color palettes and compositions that audiences have never seen before.

A professional concept artist is collaborative and infinitely curious.

A professional concept artist has an inexhaustible visual library.

A professional concept artist is a master of the fundamentals and knows numerous efficient, focused techniques.

Here's a collection of my best interviews and articles to help you stay focused on what really matters to concept artists who are serious about breaking-in, staying-in or getting a better gig...

Character Design | Visual Development | Storytelling | Comics | Digital Painting | Children’s Books | Animation | Illustration

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Concept Art (part 1)

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Last year, I began work on a series of designs based on the story of Oz, with plans to collect them into a concept art book similar to The Skillful Huntsman.

I may still publish that book some day, but my plans were confounded when, right after my decision to do an Oz book, Marvel Comics released an AMAZING adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz that was drawn by the remarkable Skottie Young.

Needless to say, I’ve put the plans for my own Oz book on hold for now.  I think it commercially unwise step with intent into the long shadows cast by Skottie and the good people that catalyzed the Marvel version.

However, I just can’t keep these designs secret any longer.  So I’m going to post them on my blog, one at a time, with some accompanying commentary…

WHY DID YOU WANT TO MAKE AN ‘OZ’ BOOK, CHRIS?

Oz is one of my favorite places.

I can’t say that the original book by L. Frank Baum is one of my favorite works of literature.  Although I do like the book quite a bit.

And I like the classic Judy Garland movie just as much as the next guy, but it is not my favorite film of all time, as it is for many people.

What really intrigues me is the world of Oz.  I love “rules” (or the lack thereof) that exist in theOz that Baum created.

I am a SUCKER for the kind of hodgepodge character logic that also exists in every Muppet-related project (Jim Henson’s Labyrinth parallels Oz in many ways) as well as movies like Star Wars and Speilberg’s A.i.

I love a good ‘accidental family’ story, especially when the accidental family is one comprised of characters that vary dynamically in shape, size, species, color, texture and temperament.

I have a great deal to say about this topic, so over the coming months, I will be posting designs from my own Oz collection (never before seen!) and talking about the ‘accidental family’ stories that I love and what makes them so great.

Until next week, Go well.

Interview With Disney Pre-Visualization Supervisor: John Bermudes :: ArtCast #30

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In This ArtCast: John Bermudes was a successful effects animator for hand-drawn feature films including The Iron Giant before pursuing his current creative calling as a Pre-Visualization Supervisor at Disney.

John and I discuss all aspects of his career, the blending of the artistic and the technical during the making of an animated film and he shares some great advice for people who are interested in pursuing a career in animation.

AWESOME LINKS:

John Bermudes’ IMDB Page

Chris Oatley On Twitter

Ryan Carlson

If you have iTunes installed on your computer, you can follow THIS LINK to the iTunes store and leave positive feedback in the “Customer Review” section.

The music heard on Chris Oatley’s ArtCast is provided by Storybook Steve and Kangaralien.

[ download the mp3 ]

‘Forest Demon’ Painting & Process Images

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Last Monday, I had a couple of hours of down-time at Disney.

This happens every now and then, when there is a slight lag in the production pipeline.

Sometimes when this happens, I’ll go ask questions of the art-jedi-masters that I work with, organize my office, play a song on someone’s guitar, pet someone’s dog or play a game of ping pong.  Last Monday, I decided to make another painting.

I have been talking on the podcast and here on the blog about how I’m trying to loosen up in my painting style.  I attempted this a few times with little success, always falling back into my more meditative, detailed methods.

There were a few flirtations with spontaneity, however.  Evidence of said flirtations can be found in the Alien Janitor painting and the development work that I’ve been doing for a client’s graphic novel project.

However, it was not until this most recent concept piece that I feel like I really found a successful balance between spontaneity and confidence.

How did this happen?  I’m not entirely sure.  I just didn’t think about it.

I began with a technique that I learned in a book called The Skillful Huntsman.  [Read more…] about ‘Forest Demon’ Painting & Process Images

Even MORE ‘Legends Of Zork’ Development Art

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I recently did some visual development for an online game.  The game is another installment in the classic ‘Zork’ franchise called Legends Of Zork.

Last year, I painted twenty-two environments for the game and you can see some of those previous images here and here.

I recently took on another twenty-one environments when Activision & Spark decided to expand the game.

This time, I supplied color comps for each environment and art-directed the completion of the final images while relying on the assistance of my friends and fellow illustrators Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble.  (You can learn more about this on Episode 16 of my podcast.)

Its amazing to think that I have now designed forty-three lighting scenarios, color palettes and moods for this game.  It is an incredible challenge that really stretches your creativity to produce that much art for any project.

It became more and more challenging to be original and creative as the environments increased in number, but in spite of that, I think the ones that were produced last were some of the best.

More images below.

I’ll be talking more about this phenomenon in an upcoming episode of my podcast so stay tuned!

The line art is by Greg Brown and the whole project was directed by the remarkable Jim Zubkavich at UDON Entertainment.  Jim also designed all of the characters in the game.

There are new blogs or podcasts at ChrisOatley.com EVERY WEDNESDAY!!

Until next week, go well.

‘Legends Of Zork’ Art

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Hello my friends! I hope you are feeling inspired this Monday morning.

I have two new podcasts in the works (another Hulk Vs. Wolverine video episode and an audio interview with the very awesome Grant Gould) but I still have some work to do on both of those, so today I decided to share with you some art.

I recently did some visual development for an online video game. The game is another installment in the classic ‘Zork’ franchise called Legends Of Zork. The style is similar to that of the old point-and-click Monkey Island games from LucasArts.

I have permission to post a couple of ‘teaser’ images. The line art is by Greg Brown and the whole project was directed by the remarkable Jim Zubkavich at UDON Entertainment. Jim also designed all of the characters in the game. You can learn more about the game here.

See more images below: