Sunday, August 31, 2008

Multi Plane Camera

I couldn't resist posting this piece of Unka Walt explaining the Multi Plane Camera. It's just great stuff.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Seated Nude 3D


Yet another free-view stereoscopic life drawing.

Click image to enlarge.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Drawing the Line


Here's another stereoscopic free-view style life drawing for all you cross-eyed kiddies out there.

Click on image to enlarge

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Light Against Dark, or Hello Kitty

Light against dark. This is a mantra I end up chanting every time I paint. My Mother first tried to convey this concept to me as a boy watching her paint. Our styles differ quite a bit with her loose strokes and confident brush work. Mine is more guarded, trying to hide my brush strokes and push toward a photo real quality.




This post shows the various progressions of my oil painting:"Pink Pussycat". I wanted to do something a little disturbing so I chose my favorite theme of anthropomorphic characters. This time with a twist on childhood memories done in a mature realistic manner that I hope is slightly sinister.

I did a photo collage grafting Smokey the kittens head onto a dolls body as my guide. I sketched the image onto a canvas using burnt umber and let that dry. You can see the under sketch through my first ‘blocking in’ of color. I toned the whole surface going from lightest to dark.

Next came more defining of shadows and highlights. I tried to knock down any brush strokes with a round brush to keep them soft and defuse.

Lastly I added the details defining ribbons and flowers. The whiskers and signature finished it off.

Incidentally, my wife hates this picture. She says it's wrong and it really bothers her that a grown adult male should paint a kitty in a pink dress. I’m a little thrilled that one of my paintings can cause such a strong response. Maybe I shouldn’t be. (click on images to enlarge)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Night on a Bare Mountain



Alex Alexeieff and Claire Parker made this 1933 version of "Night on a Bare Mountain" before Disney's 1940 version in "Fantasia".

This is a little hard to watch because of the image degradation and size but you can still make out the wonderful dimensionality of some of the figures as they morph and rotate. This is quite an accomplishment considering their method of generating these images was using frames with hundreds of pins pushed through a screen. The depth of the pins determined how much light or shadow was created in the overall image. It appears to me that some of these images were superimposed or matted into a model village. I also think the scarecrow flapping in the breeze was life action but the metamorphose is animation.

Another rare treat I've read about and wanted to see for years. Isn't YouTube great?

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Advance Promo: Coraline



http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coraline/news/1748615

/exclusive_sneak_peek_at_coraline_video_5

The link above,(or clicking on the title), will take you to Five videos about LAIKA studios stereoscopic stop-motion feature "Coraline" that will be released in 2009. Looking good!

Self Indulgence

I did a little study into my family background and found the Brinkerhoff’s have quite an illustrious presence. Constance, Fidelity, and Integrity proclaim our Family Crest, (in Latin even!). We Brinkerhoff’s hopped off the boat from Holland around 1641, but the family crest reads 1307. I had known about the Brinkerhoff Piano and the Brinkerhoff barbed-wire, (to keep renegade pianos from roaming), for some time. Now I find not only do we have streets named after us, we are also practiced in other arts such as syndicated comics, inventing, novel writing, Post Master General, oil drilling, (are these arts?), music, painting, and medicine. Of course it would be a Brinkerhoff that came up with a rectal spectrum.

UPDATE:  Oh, we also have a Ridge worth fighting over....


Brinkerhoff Family Crest (spelled Brinckerhoffe)

Brinkerhoff Street in Plattsburgh, New York.

Brinkerhoff Piano

Brinkerhoff Barbed wire

The history of Brinkerhoff Drilling is long and illustrious. Zach Brinkerhoff Jr. along with his father Zach Senior, started Brinkerhoff Drilling in 1940 in the Illinois Basin with 3 rigs.

Brinkerhoff Author

Brinkerhoff Metal Band


Post Master General

Little Mary Mixup by R.M. Brinkerhoff

Brinkerhoff Invention

Brinkerhoff Health Restoritive

Brinkerhoff Amputation Saw

Brinkerhoff Rectal Spectrum