Sunday, September 7, 2014
Taking Woodstock Matte Painting
This is one of the first large-scale matte paintings I ever worked on (late 2008) for a film called Taking Woodstock starring Demetri Martin.
There was lots of mud, garbage, and debris to paint on this one. www.kenmccuen.com for more shots of the created environment.
I'll probably be back in the future with more shots that I worked on.
Labels:
ken mccuen,
matte painting,
mattepainting,
taking woodstock,
vfx
Reference Photography and Moving Forward
Since first taking up a DSLR a few years ago I’ve been taking scattered
phases of mentorships and workshops with pro photographers to learn more
about it.
Initially I was mostly concerned with using it as a means of purely reference. I would draw and paint from the photos (an approach taught to me by a handful of master book cover illustrators — IMC) It made me the odd-ball of the smaller classes. Most of the photographers I met tried to do as little post-production on their work as possible.
A lot of the workshops included photographing a professional glamour/dancer/fashion model of some kind. I would provide some of the photos at the end of the workshop if they requested them.
As some of the models I worked with fleshed out their model agency profiles my photography started showing up in their portfolios.
I only started photography as a means of building my own references and understanding how to manipulate lighting. I think it’s a really great honor that they deem my photos worthy enough for their agency portfolios.
Initially I was mostly concerned with using it as a means of purely reference. I would draw and paint from the photos (an approach taught to me by a handful of master book cover illustrators — IMC) It made me the odd-ball of the smaller classes. Most of the photographers I met tried to do as little post-production on their work as possible.
A lot of the workshops included photographing a professional glamour/dancer/fashion model of some kind. I would provide some of the photos at the end of the workshop if they requested them.
As some of the models I worked with fleshed out their model agency profiles my photography started showing up in their portfolios.
I only started photography as a means of building my own references and understanding how to manipulate lighting. I think it’s a really great honor that they deem my photos worthy enough for their agency portfolios.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
I'm Back!
I just got back from the Illustration
Master Class 2014! – more info on that soon.
I realized that I haven't been updating
my blog all that much, but I have been accumulating lots of content
that I might like to post in the near future.
Here are some new and (updated) images
that will hopefully deserve their own posts soon – with
process/info etc.
Labels:
art,
digital painting,
fantasy,
illustration,
painting
Monday, April 14, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Concept Art Article
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014/02/lets-get-real-concept-art/
This is a really well-written article on some of misconceptions of what “concept art” actually is.
In other news I also added some film concept art images to my portfolio on the main page:
www.kenmccuen.com
In other news I also added some film concept art images to my portfolio on the main page:
www.kenmccuen.com
Labels:
article,
concept art
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Color Flats
Hey Ken,
I noticed that you use color flats in your process. I was wondering what they are and the purpose that they serve?
When I started doing work for clients I found most of their revisions on finals to be color revisions.
It helped if I had every major piece of the illustration as a flat shape of color on its own layer. I could go back and easily select an individual piece if an art director wanted the character to have a different color hat or scarf.
I find it helps a lot in my workflow. I can spend a solid block of time cutting out complex shapes of the drawing rather mindlessly and then decide on the final palette all at once at the end.
I noticed that you use color flats in your process. I was wondering what they are and the purpose that they serve?
When I started doing work for clients I found most of their revisions on finals to be color revisions.
It helped if I had every major piece of the illustration as a flat shape of color on its own layer. I could go back and easily select an individual piece if an art director wanted the character to have a different color hat or scarf.
I find it helps a lot in my workflow. I can spend a solid block of time cutting out complex shapes of the drawing rather mindlessly and then decide on the final palette all at once at the end.
Labels:
reader question
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