Geek Fallout 123: Bad Futures

Join Derek Ash, Jason Roberts, and myself as we talk about the worst of things to come!

News: X-Men Apocalypse casting, Batman '66 animated film, new Reaction figures, Transformers movie universe, Games of Thrones/Doctor Who crossover!

Geek Fallout 117: Comfort Movies

Today we talk Toy Fair, say goodbye to Gary Owens and hello to Disney's Spider-Man!

Then curl up on the couch, wrap yourself in a favorite blanket and settle in as Derek Ash leads us in a discussion of our favorite comfort films. Join Miss M, Chris Giada, Jason Roberts, Carly Vore and myself as we jabber about Jaws 3, seek out Big Trouble in Little China and hang out at Empire Records.

Geek Fallout 109: Top 5 Families

Ah, Christmas that time you get together with your family. Recording this episode in the midst of the busy Christmas season; we're tired, we're cranky, and its clear that none of us want to be here tonight. What resulted is our most unintentionally hilarious episode ever!

Join Brian Farrell, Jason Roberts, Derek Ash and myself for our pointed and articulate discussion of DC Comics' TV shows before we completely lose it and incoherently ramble about the best families in pop culture.

Random Nerdness Christmas Special!

Art by Ralph McQuarrie

The Geek Fallout crew returns for our Christmas Special Spectacular!

Join Chris Lockhart, Chris Giada, Brian Farrell, Derek Ash, George Pappy and myself as we brighten up the season by talking about our best Christmas gifts, our favorite TV specials, cookies and debate whether or not to tell the kids about Santa Claus.



Tomorrow: Christmas Cards!

The Many Faces of Lon Chaney

To prepare for Halloween I put out a call my Twitter account asking what I should draw. I got many colorful responses that I'll be posting throughout the month, but the one that got my attention right off the bat was a request by Michael May (of Michael May's Adventureblog!) for silent film icon Lon Chaney.

I gathered up some reference photos of Chaney in little to no makeup to get a grasp of what his face was like. He has a very unique portrait; The high brows, cheekbones and hair combed close to the scalp make him like grim like a skull, and yet he has big ears and a teardrop shaped nose that feel like they belong on one of the Muppets.

To demonstrate his extraordinary makeup, I dropped the opacity on his face and drew some of his monster faces over top. This was part was rather challenging as it was difficult to tell sometimes were the prosthetics started and ended.

The Man in the Beaver Hat
from "London After Midnight"

Erik, from "The Phantom of the Opera"
You can trust a guy with a name like that.

Now I want to hear from you. Doing a "character design" project like this was very out of the ordinary. Is it something that I should continue with something similar?

What would you like to see me draw during the month of Halloween?

Sketch ya' later!

Sketchbook Sharing: Oscar-icatures!

Earlier this week, a friend asked if I would come to a party to do some caricatures. Since I haven't done anything like that in years, I decided to try and practice by sketching some of this year's Oscar contenders. (See the portmanteau there? Oscar-icatures, its Oscar + Caricatures.)

Joaquin Phoenix in Her

Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips

 

Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

This was a considerable challenge for me. After spending years being taught how to draw faces in proper proportion, it was exceptionally difficult to break from those rules. I actually did a lot more of the nominees, but these are the ones that I think turned out the best. 

I don't want to make it sound like I'm giving up after trying something new, but this really felt more like a chore than something fun, so I think I'll stick to my strengths with drawing portraits for the foreseeable future.

Also, I learned that its easier to edit your weekly blog post when you stick to drawing a single theme during that week, so I think I can still mark this experience in the win column. 

Foreign Frozen: Why France got better posters than us

Even a month after its release during of the busiest times of year, especially for movies, Disney's "Frozen" still continues to put its competition on ice.  

This past weekend however, a friend of mine asked why Europe got better posters for this film than we did here in the states. 

Heres what they used to advertise to cinemas in France:

And here are the posters primarily used in America:

These foreign posters reminded me of the teaser posters made by the late great John Alvin, who became synonymous with the Disney Renaissance of the1990s. His work was simply alluring, using silhouettes and negative space to build these stories in your imagination long before you ever saw them come to life on screen.

Heres just a small sample of the kinds of images he produced for Disney. (Click to enlarge)

Even when Alvin wasn't directly involved with creating the poster, the people in charge of making them were likely told to mimic his style.

This trend left an impact on a generation of movie goers, so it was no surprise that it made a comeback when the company was looking to return to the fairy tale features with big musical numbers for the big screen again. Just compare this poster for Mermaid based on a sketch by John Alvin, to the poster used as the primary promotional piece for Princess.

  

However, times have changed, and so has how movies are marketed. Now domestic posters showcase their characters in full view, looking directly at the audience, often with a raised eyebrow to emphasis "Hey you". Playing up the comedy angle to let you know this is going to be a feel good kind of movie. There are no secrets or surprises in this campaign. What you see is what you get.

This formula has been very successful thus far, as you can see in these examples:

 

Marketing has sort of a Pavlovian effect and since lots of people saw these movies and recognized them for their quality, it makes sense that the marketing team made an effort to bring audiences back again with the same kind of format from something that they liked before.

 Both styles of posters have their place, and I'm glad to see that the tradition is alive and well elsewhere.  

Sketchbook Sharing: Warm Hugs with Jennifer Lawrence

I thought I'd take advantage of the new year to start developing some new habits. I thought I'd start out by putting up at least a  post of week, just to share the kinds of things that I'm working on in between the big stuff.  

Something I've been tinkering with since the start of the month has been this piece of fan art inspired by Disney's animated feature "Frozen". 

In that film Olaf the Snowman's catchphrase is "Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" and Elsa the Snow Queen is unable to touch anyone without risk of giving Party B a pretty severe case of frostbite. I thought that there would be some bonding time between these two, since Olaf couldn't be hurt by her powers and she could finally open up to someone. Thats not what happened in the movie, which is fine, but I don't think Olaf actually gets a warm hug from anybody by the end, which left me... a little cold. 

While this got off to a promising start, the challenge arose when it came to drawing Elsa on model with her long limbs and thin torso, especially when she's already in this usual "sit-kneel" position. After that it got kind of frustrating to continue to push this project so that it I could put something finished online and garner a great deal of attention from the film's fandom while it was still at the peak of its popularity, so I think I may give this one a rest for the time being.

Meanwhile, I've also gotten into the habit of daily warm-up sketches to help stay in practice and help generate inspiration. Here are some of the highlights from this past week: 

There was a lot of buzz about about Jennifer Lawrence being the year's most bankable star and I thought it might be interesting to draw an actor when they aren't being "a character". Although I did feel a bit of my soul wither away and die after using TMZ photos as references.

LOEB: Fantastic Finds!

Illustration by C.F. Payne

I actually had some reluctance in joining the League, since unlike most of the other contributors, I am not a collector in the traditional sense. I joked last week about how I was a collector of images, but that really pales in comparison to some of outrageous items many of you have unearthed from the various corners of the goodwill and garage sale globe.

While I may not accumulate as much as my peers, I have been known to frequent rummage sales, garage sales and used book sales and have found some rather interesting items during those trips. This past summer in particular I've often tweeted "garage sale find" with a picture of whatever odd thing I've found. 

J.C. Leyendecker is easily my favorite illustrator. He had unique rectilinear style and sharply defined features in his figures, with well developed compositions and a certain charm to his storytelling skills. However, he was very reclusive, even in his heyday during the Roaring '20s, and has since been overshadowed by Rockwell as the Saturday Evening Post's golden boy, so I was very surprised to find these two framed pictures of his covers. The one with the toymaker is actually one I had never seen reprinted before, so that was quite a find indeed.

I found those pictures at the Lutheran church's annual rummage sale last year were I also acquired this nifty T-Shirt. 

While my hometown may be small, the local library's used book sale always delivers the goods. I've found a wide variety of titles and found many surprising special interest selections. (A pity there isn't this much material on the actual shelves) I think the one book I've bought that left the biggest impact on me was "Dennis the Menace: His First 40 Years". 

Up until finding this tome about a year ago I hadn't know Dennis the Menace as anything other than a Diary Queen mascot and one of many newspaper comic strips that had long since past its prime. Seeing the origins of this comic, I was blown away by its quality. The amount of detail that Hank Ketcham was able to pack into a single panel all with just a few choice strokes of the pen! There was a perfect balance between light and dark that produced an incredible sense of definition to such an abstract cartoon world. The inside cover was even autographed by Hank Ketcham! Who gives that away?! 

I couldn't believe that in all my time reading old comics, I had never seen this one. Oh how I wish I had back when I was doing those panels for Sleep Care, I really could have learned a thing or two on how to reign myself in and push my boundaries at the same time. 

The book sale's movie selections have increased by leaps and bounds in the past few years. With such great bargain prices, I can afford to buy something I've never said before, watch it once, and if I don't need to watch it again, just donate it back for the library to benefit a sale yet again. 

What could have potentially been my greatest film find was a VHS Tape of "Jetman", a Japanese superhero series from the early '90s. It had a sleeve and label written in English, so I assumed it was something a video distributor had hastily dubbed in order to capitalize on the success of "Power Rangers". Sadly, I'll never know what was on the video because nothing happened when I tried to play it. On closer inspection, I noticed a label along the side that said "Not to be used outside of the province of Malaysia". If I wanted to watch it I would need a Region 2 or 3 VCR, but I think I just threw it away out of disappointment.

Fortunately I've had better finds when it comes to collecting film promotional material. I have a number of movie posters in storage awaiting the day when I can find a residence with more wall space for me to hang these up proudly like the works of art that they truly are. 

I found a framed copy of this Bob Peak masterpiece at a Baptist Church rummage sale for three dollars! My dream is that one day I'll have a place with an entertainment lounge with wall space to display a couple of posters like this. I may have to purchase some of Peak's other posters to balance it out the awesome or else tie the whole house together around a common theme. 

This poster for a 1941 spy thriller that I bought at an estate sale in July for four dollars may be the oldest in my collection. I've got a special place in my heart for these old suspense features and the posters during that era have an engaging kind of simplicity with their blocky letters and bold colors. Maybe I just need to gather enough of diverse catalog of posters that I can swap them out every month or so just to keep things fresh. Though it would be difficult to plan the wall color around constantly changing decor. 

Perhaps Bogie himself can close us out with his own thoughts on discovering a rare find:

Other Collectors in the League:

* Toyriffic scores He-Man and Batgirl!

* Brian's Favorite Find

* Kal's Action Figures

LOEB: Something Blue

This past weekend, I stumbled across the sketches of artist Shane Glines, character designer for Batman Beyond and Beware the Batman. His drawings are influenced heavily by the style of illustrators from the '50s and 60s, and his sketchbooks contain plenty of doodles of leading actors from the era.

Sensing a common interest, I started to draw my own renditions of Old Hollywood and classic TV icons in portraits various hues of colored pencil to make my sketchbook look more vibrant. It just so happens that most of them were in blue. The plan was I could work freely in color so that I could trace over them and tighten up the detail with either ink or just a regular pencil later on, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Oddly enough I think knowing the I was free to be loose with my lines ended up making them look more precise. Go figure.

 

Boris Karloff (who I almost wish I had drawn in green) checking out Carolyn Jones

Veronica Lake, Simone Simone and Yvonne Craig as Batgirl. There is always room for Batgirl.

I keep many pictures in my Inspirations file, photos and illustrations, to help aid in the creative process.
Here are some in this week's particular hue.

  

Robert Fawcett

Roy Krenkel - Albert Drake

 Shelli Paroline - James Bingham

Robert McGinnis

Jon Whitcomb

Xavier Ramonede

James Bingham

Carter Goodrich

James Bingham (Again)

Stevan Dohanos

George Hughes

Lynne Naylor

Edmund Dulac

Chris Reccardi

Norman Rockwell

Will Eisner

Concept Art from "Kiki's Delivery Service"

Kelsey Shannon

Power Rangers!

While I work I'll often listen to instrumental music, particularly movie soundtracks. One of my favorite movies of all time in the 1965 drama film "A Patch of Blue" and it has a beautiful score to match its quality. Its a quiet, soothing melody, in contrast to Jerry Goldsmith's later action movie marches.




Also, I acquired the soundtrack to "Fantasia 2000" this weekend. The "Rhapsody in Blue" sequence is easily my favorite part of the film and adding the tune to my collection was long overdue.



Other Blue Leaguers:
* Nerd Rage starts out right with the Blues Brothers
* The Goodwill Geek spells it out nicely
* Cave of Cool gives us a Blue Blizzard