Jerome K. Moore

Jerome K. Moore is an artist best known for his realistic crosshatched montage artwork on the covers of Star Trek and Star Trek: the Next Generation comic books for DC Comics,and also for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for Malibu Comics, and Lost In Space, for Innovation Comics.

But I want to show some of the work he did when working in house at Warner Brothers Studio's for the prelude to Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. From the comments on his site it appears that most of the work went unused because of the constant style changes before the film went into production. Still some really great pieces though.

"WB Marketing execs were indecisive about the obvious direction to go with the Potter license, and so we were instructed to design our own version of the character. This version intentionally ignored all other incarnations, including the marvelous literary designs of Mary Grandpre, and the inferior product art designed by another department.... Anyway, all our efforts spent on an entire art program were wasted once the first film was released, and the execs gained secondhand wisdom. Oh, well... We were still on the payroll. What did we care?"

I don't know what it is about these that I find appealing, it must be the charm of the little details like stars on the inside of the robes. I do wonder how different the films would have turned out if they had gone for a more 'bookish' feel to the film.

Mary Grandpré~

(Deathly Hallows)

American illustrator and writer, Grandpré is best known for her cover and chapter illustrations for the American editions of the Harry Potter books, published by Scholastic.

(Philosophers Stone)

Seeing as how I'm doing a brief on Harry Potter, I thought I should take a look at the artwork that shaped an entire series. (or at least the US version...)

When she received each new book, Grandpré read the story through once, highlighting descriptions that she felt would do well as an illustration. She then created various sketches as ideas for the cover and chapter art, before sending her favorites to the editors to decide which should appear in the final publication.

(Order of the Phoenix. TONKS~)

(Order of the Phoenix) - I don't know what the new (UK) editions of Harry Potter are like on the inside but I hope they have chapter illustrations that speak a 1000 words like this one.

Mister Hipp

"Dan Hipp is a cartoonist whose graphic novels include the epic revenge series GYAKUSHU!, as well as the super-natural, rock, adventure series THE AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS, both of which have been translated and published in other countries. His work can be seen in the BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE "DOOM DIMENSION" graphic novels, which he illustrated. His artwork has appeared in DC Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Tokyopop, and Del Rey Books."

(Also. LONGSHOT!)

I love Dans use of colours (limited or otheriwise) and the simple shapes he uses to bring about his characters.

And this one is great. I just sat and giggled at Nagini (snake).

Hugh Freeman~

Hugh is a Melbourne [Australia] based illustrator/designer whose blog I came across quite randomly and I was pleasantly surprised by his illustrations.

I really like the way he colours his work and it's reminiscent of Javas' style. I don't know if I could ever pull of working like this, but it's highly iconic and recognisable.

Emma Vieceli

Billy Kaplan from Marvel’s Young Avengers.

Emma Vieceli is a professional illustrator, writer and comic artist based in Cambridge in the UK. Past clients include: SelfMadeHero, Marvel, Image, Random House, Toykopop and FuturePublishing.

"Part of what makes me love my job so much is how varied it can be, and I tend to switch between working as an artist-for-hire and writing my own stories depending on the job at hand."

'the Littlest Princess' published in a French magazine, Princess Miya

A selection of background character designs from the upcoming Thrill Electric, produced by Hatrick and channel4, written by Leah Moore and John Reppion.

Bloody Mary, written by Fabrice Sapolsky, published in French magazine, Bella Nolita.

A preview from Vieceli's upcoming Oni Book Avalon Chronicles #1, written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. I was so excited to find out she was working with one of my favourite writing teams who also created one my favourite X-men; Anole.

Robbie Bautista

"I'm Robbie, a 23-year old freelance illustrator and graphic designer armed with self-deprecating humor and optimism against the shiz of living in the third world."

I've been following Robbie's work for a couple of years now, starting out on DevinatArt before following him over at his blog Creative Dork.

"The goal I have set for this blog is to spread awareness about Filipino creativity, not only in the visual and performing arts, but every means of self-expression and supporting the creative industry. Wherein being creative does not only mean having a knack for painting, photography, or film-making but merely the fact of being able to create something significant and new."

What I most enjoy about Robbie's work is the story book and childish feel without it feeling cliche. His use of limited lines in his work but a feel for colour has influenced my own work and my own experimentation.

Case Study: Dale Newton

Took a bit of prodding around to find Dale Newton's blog; visualTinkerings. Dale is a designer and animator who works at framestore down in London and was the character designer behind The Tale Of Three Brothers for Harry Potter 7.1.

"The Three Brothers animation was directed by Ben Hibon and executed with the Framestore London commercials team. I worked with Ben and supervised the project for Framestore. Ben Hibon, concept artist Alexis Liddel, and myself brought designs to the table."

Having to stop myself from posting all of his work because it's all simply wonderful. The personality's of the Peverell brothers stand out so clearly and the exploration of Death going from a rather human (almost voldermort) looking man to a dementor esq creature is remarkable.

(Ignotus Peverel. The third brother. He takes the upper hand on Death by asking for the power to remain hidden from Death as long as chooses.)

Death:

Case Study: Matt Wagner

Wagner has worked on comics featuring The Demon and Batman as well as such titles as Sandman Mystery Theatre and Trinity, a DC Comics limited series featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. He also has a creator-owned series' Mage and Grendel.

Recent projects include Madame Xanadu for Vertigo, with artist Amy Reeder Hadley. He has also produced numerous comics covers, including painted ones for Green Arrow. Currently, Wagner is writing a Green Hornet spin-off (one of several) for Dynamite Entertainment.

What I want to show are his character turn arounds as I think these are more appropriate to my work rather than his other work. (Which is still just as great)

This is something I am going to implement into my character design showing detailed turnarounds. This is useful for both character design and toy design (if I ever wish to go down that route)

Case Study: Barry Reynolds

Barry Reynolds is a Dublin-born character designer, animator and illustrator who studied classical animation and has worked for numerous animation studios across Europe. Most recently he worked as the lead character designer for the Oscar and Annie award nominated animated feature film The Secret of Kells, (see previous post), which was the first feature film to be produced by the Cartoon Saloon animation studio. Subsequently, he was nominated for an NCS Reuben Award for Feature Animation in 2010 for his work as the character designer on 'Kells'.

Reynolds also has two Irish language comics written by Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and published by Cló Mhaigh Eo - An Táin ("the cattle-raid", 2006), adapting the ancient Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge ("the cattle-raid of Cooley"), in which queen Méabh of Connacht invades Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailgne, opposed by the teenage Ulster hero Cú Chulainn; and Deirdre agus Mic Uisnigh ("Deirdre and the sons of Uisnech", 2008), with Audrey O'Brien as colourist and letterist, adapting the legend of the tragic heroine who was chosen as a child to marry the king, but falls in love with a young hero.

Reynolds concept art and character sheets are certainly something I'm taking on board with my design practice. I like the simple and easy colour pallet for Brendons design and It is something I'm going to incorporate into my own work.