I should be updating this blog...right?

So it has been a few months since my last update. It was a busy end of spring. I finished the oil painting class, took a trip back to the durty south, and started a new class. One of the things holding back the posts is to do more scans of old work.

The oil painting class was a success. I was able to expand my palette and learn some new techniques. The summer class is Drawing from Imagination. One of the things made clear when taking the painting course was my need to draw more. There are tight deadlines and more assignments with this new class so I will be completing new drawings roughly once every two weeks.

Easter Island...

'Easter Island' sketch - ink and watercolor on paper, 1996.

Picklock...

I completed a short film about 2 years ago. Originally it was posted to Google video but I uploaded it to vimeo.com over the weekend. Higher quality upload: Picklock. This summer I will be buckling down for some writing to get another short prepped. It would be good to shoot something in the fall.

Reno...

The still life I did for class is now finished and framed. 16" x 20" - oil on canvas, 2009.

Boris...

I finished the drawing for my next class project. It is now ready for some paint.

Progeny - Dream Fetus

Another case of the final effect looking nothing like my drawings.

In this sequence, the woman awakens in the night to symptoms of a miscarriage. As she stumbles to the bathroom, a huge placenta emerges from her belly. This thing then claws its way out of the placenta.

I have always wanted to do a small scale sculpture of this design.

Progeny - Alien Fetus

Here are some of the Alien Fetus designs. In the film, these were to be seen via ultrasound and possibly in macro close-up shots.

Progeny - Tall Grays

In 1997, towards the end of my work at S.O.T.A., I did some concept drawings for the film Progeny. Directed by Brian Yuzna, the film followed a story very similar to Whitley Strieber's Communion meets Rosemary's Baby. Alien abduction with pregnancy gone bad and re-written by Stuart Gordon.

On paper this had potential to be a really unsettling film. As executed, it is a not very engaging, low-budget mess. With thoughtful direction, it could have been an above average B movie.

The drawings were of three areas. The Tall Grays which were the aliens doing the abducting, the alien fetus growing in the female leads womb and finally an exaggerated, monstrous version of the fetus that appears in a dream sequence.

These are some of my concepts for the tall grays. The on film effects ended up looking much different than my ideas. Screaming Mad George created the Tall Grays while S.O.T.A. did the Dream Beast and some practical effects.

Drool...

'Drool' sketch - ink on paper, 1991.

You Give Me Fever...

'You Give Me Fever' sketch - ink on paper, 1996.

Undead...

'Undead' sketch - mixed media on paper, 1996.