Here’s the full trailer to Arrival. I did a fair bit of concept art during the early stages of preproduction, and I’m pleased to see a lot of my work in this trailer. It was by far the best screenplay I’ve worked with. The work itself challenged me immensely – in a good way. Denis Villeneuve and his production Designer Patrice Vermette were a joy to work with – brilliant minds both. Intelligent, thoughtful Sci-Fi.
This is one from my sketchbook. Quick spontaneous scribble that I turned into a pencil study. Turned out ok.
Back in 2011, I posted some images I created, trying to reproduce the effect of light through eyelids that are almost closed. Recently, I created a video based on these images for an exciting exhibit at Dawson College called Vision(s), on till May 11th at the Warren G. Flowers Gallery at Dawson College in Montreal. The video was created using photography through polarized mylar, Photoshop layering and effects, video segments using lenses and found objects in front of the lens and After Effects compositing – my first full video using that program. I created the music using a tiny segment of the end of a song, time stretching it, reversing it and layering it on top of itself to create an ambient wash.
Here’s the stuff I used to make the video.
Every once in awhile, I like to grab a pencil and draw without any preconceived idea or rough sketch. Sometimes it’s just random scribbles, sometimes it’s something like this that happens. It’s got some old-fashioned Sci-Fi clichés. Guy standing, looking at alien stuff. Took me about about 4.5 hours total. Sometimes I want to smack myself and say “imagine how many drawings you could crank out if you did this every day.” Yeah, I know. We who carry our supply of pencils, pens and paints will always beat ourselves up for all the times we “could have been making art.” I think when all the client-based work slows down, and we have time to do other things, we do other things. Then, when the time is quiet, we draw, to remind ourselves that we can still do it.
I took the plunge, got my hands dirty and made a few oils paintings. I think if I really take the time to practice, I’ll get the hang of it. These were done over 4 days, (there’s another one, but didn’t post it because it needs touch ups) and though I think they turned out ok, I feel like I have a lot to learn. I want to paint much larger canvases next.
Update to the previous post: So excited, and yet I’m not completely surprised. The book is perfect for a film adaptation. It’s a real page-turner, a fun thrill-ride of a novel. I can’t wait to see what they do with the ship designs.
Here’s a link to the Hollywood Reporter article:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/brad-pitt-warner-bros-team-842425
About a year ago, I was contacted to design spaceships for a YA sci-fi novel. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity and it was a thrill to come up with these ships. I’m pleased to say the book has been released this week and it was a blast to read! It’s the first in a trilogy, and I highly recommend it if you like a fast-paced and unique space adventure. It’s also an amazingly well-designed book, told through transcripts, archived files, text messages, blueprints… and at 600 pages, it’s a surprisingly fast read. This book is going to be a big hit. Thanks to Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the brilliant authors, and Heather Kelly, designer at Penguin Random House for this cool opportunity.
Here are my designs for the main ships that appear in the story, and in the book.
This ship is huge – 3.25km long, and 1.3km high.
A LOT of decks on this ship.
A more sleek, less military design.
It’s been a long and busy time. I’ve been teaching full-time, and also freelancing on various projects. This means that anything I do cannot be seen until the projects are complete, on DVD/broadcast and/or published. In the past year I’ve worked on a book, three feature films and two short films. Some of this stuff I can’t wait to show, as it’s been both challenging and exciting.
I’ve been looking at a lot of artist’s blogs and it occurs to me that if I want to keep this site up to date, I need to be doing personal work on top of everything else, as that can be published immediately. The good news is that I’m going to have the summer off to do just that, so stay tuned for more posts.
I look forward to more exploration and drawing.
A quick little sketch done during a break in class.
Here’s something I worked on, on and off, over the past month when I had free time. I intend to do a little video shoot with it at some point. I’ve had the Russian MIG helmet for 6 years, and always intended to build a retro-looking suit to match it. The collar needs to be adjusted, because it rides too high over the shoulder straps, but otherwise, it’s quite comfortable, even with the heavy backpack.
Old vacuum cleaner, cocktail shakers, water bottles and a military backpack harness.
Workman gloves and plumbing parts, with a BBQ thermometer and video remote buttons.
The collar is made from a plastic bucket, and the rim for the helmet is from a drum practice pad, exactly the right size for the helmet.
Here I am at the office with the full suit on. As you can see, the helmet is riding a bit too high, but that’s an easy fix. Can’t wear the helmet sealed for too long before it fogs up, so I’m going to put a little fan in it.
Here’s a quick render I did recently. Just playing with shapes and colours mostly. Some false colours here and cheated perspective. That desert theme seems to pop up a lot when I’m painting.
Meinert Hansen 