November 2005 – Page 4 – Lines and Colors

Ghostbot

Posted onNovember 4, 20053 Comments

CategoriesAnimation, Motion Graphics & Flash, Storyboards

Ghostbot is an animation studio formed by San Francisco animators Roque Ballesteros, Alan Lau and Brad Rau. You’ve probably seen their snappy ESURANCE animated TV ads. They are one of the studios creating video animation in Macromedia Flash, normally seen as a tool aimed at web animation.

The Projects gallery contains animations, storyboards and design sheets. (Check out the “Lost Reel” ESURANCE animation.) There are bios and individual portfolios for the three artists.

Lau, Rau and Ballesteros also collaborate on the Ghostbot blog, one of the best animation blogs around.

Link: www.ghostbot.com/

Mário Belém

Posted onNovember 3, 20052 Comments

CategoriesIllustration

Portugese illustrator Mário Belém works in a variety of styles, ranging from minimalist to intricately detailed. His current portfolio is focused on his illustration. There is also illustration as well as design work in the old site and the studio.

Link: www.mariobelem.com/

P. Craig Russell

Posted onNovember 2, 20051 Comment

CategoriesComics, Drawing, Illustration

Probably best known for his work on the comic book adaptations of Michael Moorcock’s Elric stories, P. Craig Russell has worked on many titles over the years, including Sandman and Dr. Strange.

He works in a fine lined style that is both fluid and precise. Parts of images like clouds and trees often are so stylized that they become decorative elements as in 19th century book plates. While his stuff looks great in color, I think it works really well as pen and ink illustration.

Link: http://pcr.lurid.com

State Of The Art (Jeff Hayes)

Posted onNovember 1, 20051 Comment

CategoriesPainting, Tools and Techniques

I enjoy blogs in which artists frequently post their work and chronicle their experiences and progress as an artist. A case in point is Jeff Hayes’ State Of The Art, in which the Boston artist posts his small oil paintings, discusses the painting process, offers painting demos and comments on art related topics. Here is a post about his approach to photographing small paintings.

Hayes offers up many of his small oils for bid on eBay as he posts them on the blog. His regular web site includes galleries of his work, primarily contemporary realist landscapes and still life.

This painting demonstration is on the web site but also linked from the blog. He has also created short videos of the creation of some of his paintings (here’s another), and now offers several of them as podcasts.

Link: http://jeffhayesfinearts.blogspot.com/