Comic Cover Art Contest

DeviantART announced "The Big Under" Comic Cover Art Contest! The winning entry will fetch a handsome $2,000, plus it might be used as the cover for the digital motion comic "Inception - The Big Under", which may be included as a bonus on an upcoming Warner Bros. Home Entertainment release.



"The Big Under" is a prequel to the film Inception; it reveals how Cobb and company get to Saito to put him under for the dream featured in the beginning of the film. Check here for stills from Inception for inspiration, as well as more information about the film and comic.

conté animated

“Thought of You” unites figurative works, EFX animation, and contemporary dance in one beautiful piece of animation. Ryan Woodward, the artist behind all this, is planning to release a book about his techniques in spring 2011.
conteanimated.com

Sentury II

The long awaited next book from legendary Syd Mead has finally arrived after nine years. Loyal fans and art enthusiasts will rejoice in being able to view what Syd Mead has been imagining for nearly the past decade. Having illustrated the future for us for the past 40 years, Syd Mead continues to amaze and surprise us with his stunning pieces. Vailable now at sydmead.com

Cars II

Disney/Pixar just made public the first film stills from Cars 2, opening in theatres on June 24, 2011. Itsartmag.com has some new character designs in high resolution on their page.

pixar.com, unofficial pixar blog

A blog dedicated to the VFX industry and all the people behind the scenes that create the impressive film images of todays, yesterdays and tomorrows films. The website offers exclusive interviews with the artists and never before seen image material from blockbuster films such as AVATAR, INCEPTION, ROBIN HOOD and PRINCE OF PERSIA.

www.artofvfx.com

Brush Viewer

Downloading and sharing custom-made Photoshop brushes has become a common practise all over the internet forums. Whether for experiment or a certain purpose, there is a broad variety of resources. Rarely one can estimate the actual use of a brush-set before loading it into Photoshop.



ABRView is a little software that enables you to preview single brushes and helps you to pick the one you were looking for. Get this application (64KB) for free at easyelements.com

Megamind

The Art of Megamind shows illustrations and visual development for the animated film of the same name produced by DreamWorks Animation. The book holds 156 pages containing character designs, color sketches, background paintings, storyboards and props designs.


Insight Editions | Hardcover | 11 x 10 inches | 978-1-60887-004-2

Digital Matte Painting

matte art by Jaime Jasso

scribed.com has published an interesting compilation of tutorials and walk-throughs describing the techniques being used in the process of digital matte painting. There is also a section about photoshop brushes explaining the various settings and their effects. Most of the tutorials have been around for a while and some of you may remember them from other websites. Still most of the information is relevant and worth a look at. scribd.com

Steampainting: Spark

In volume 1, Spark looks at the method behind the inspiration of each subject, and specifically, helps users navigate the comprehensive steps used to create a visual representation of a design, idea or mood. This book reflects the passion and enthusiasm for concept art and offer a glimpse into the artists’ mindset and motivation behind each STEAMPAINT image.

Now available at steambotstudios.com

TRON

With Disney's remake of TRON coming forward, it'sartmag has realeased a few more pieces of concept art for the film. More of this will soon be released in 'The Art of Tron: Legacy' shipping from Amazon on November 16, 2010. Check out a high res preview of David Levy's city environment here.

The Colony

Mesmerizing, delicate sepia toned images throughout from renowned, award-winning artist, Viktor Antonov - production designer and co-author of the French animated feature The Prodigies.


The story, taking place in 1875 traces the epic journey of Gabriel Duban in an era before space‑travel when worlds of mystery, danger and enchantment were still found on Earth. Viktor is a winner of the Visual Effects Society and a BAFTA award. In his 11 years in the entertainment industry he has designed and art directed projects such as the blockbuster Half Life 2.
Available now at amazon.com

call for entries!

Illustrative is the leading international forum for contemporary illustration and graphic arts.

The exhibition displays an inspiring collection of fresh illustration and graphic art showcasing over 600 works from more than 60 artists. Over the course of two weeks, the festival celebrates the illustrative arts, presents new talents and trends, exchanges ideas, marvels at progressive technologies, and rediscovers forgotten styles.

The Young Illustrators Award encourages and supports designers in their artistic practice and offers an international and worldwide recognized platform for them. A jury, consisting of international art directors, well-known illustrators and publishers, will nominate artists in three categories during the event.

Applications for Illustrative 2011 can now be submitted here. www.illustrative.de

dDigital Arts Festival

NEoN 10 is a seven-day international digital arts festival featuring moving image, performance, music and technology driven arts.
The over arching curatorial theme this year is Character: evaluating the abstracted or physical agent in a work of art; investigation of the fictional or psychological systems; observation of the unit of information, symbol, sound or written language. Through this focused dimension NEoN intends to explore the notion of collaboration between visual art, information communication, media production and gaming that will expand digital development and knowledge.

NEoN DIGITAL ARTS FESTIVAL
Dundee
Scotland, UK

Nov.11.-14.2010

concept art in animation

Concept Art for Disney's upcoming animated feature 'Tangled' (above) and Pixars near miss 'Newt' which unfortunately is no longer in development. Follow links for more images.

Nuthin But Mech is the a blog of Lorin Wood and fellow designer, Scott Kester. A place to harbour their passion for robots. Lorin proposed a blog; Scott rambled something about having "nuthing but mech." Lorin then corralled some friends and professional acquaintances to populate this nook of cyberspace.

nuthinbutmech.blogspot.com

Red Engine Studios in the Arts District, Downtown Los Angeles are offering a lot of workshops for the upcoming weeks. The next event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 18th with workshop that will discuss techniques of implementing 3D programs to generate 2D concept images of belivable props, robots, and environments. Live demo & lecture will be presented by art director / concept designer Ben Procter.

Register now at redenginestudios.com

free tutorials

Best known for his concept work on films such as Star Wars and Transformers, industry veteran Feng Zhu now teaches his skills at FZD School of Design in Singapore. Many of his demos produced during the classes are available for free. Check out the FZD youtube channel here.

free ZBrush workshop

ZBrushWorkshops provide specific sculpting workshops for artists that target challenging areas of digital sculpting. Besides the DVD's, live chat and community activity they also provide live-streaming ZBrush classes. Access a free tutorial here.

A'Design Award

The A' Computer Graphics and 3D Model Design Award is a freestyle design competition open to both concept stage and realized works designed by professional and young designers, design companies, 3D Design Studios and other business in this industry worldwide. The winning designs appear on the A' Best Designs Book which is available worldwide, this book is furthermore distributed to the high-profile magazine editors, design oriented companies and relevant parties. The winning designs are also exhibited at our museum, and the best designs will be picked for the permanent exhibition.

For registration visit the offical web-site at adesignaward.com

Paul Felix

Best known for his visual development work, Paul Felix has been one of the leading artists on many Disney films in the 90ies. Although many of his paintings are published in the art-of-books, there are only very few floating around in the world wide web. Finally one of his former colleagues has taken the time to upload some of the treasures created at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Some more images are posted on this site and Hans Bacher's blog - always a great sources for everything related to animation.

unofficialpaulfelix.blogspot.com

enrollment starts now

Founded in 2007, Concept Design Academy is a private design school located in Pasadena, California, near the center of the animation, film and game industry. A community where artists with passions for both traditional & entertainment arts meet to share their skills.

The goal is to strive in providing the best art and designs instruction available, offer easy to follow foundational courses for aspiring artists and advance workshops for seasoned professionals. Instructors are well known artists in the film industry such as James Paick, Carlo Arellano, Khang Le and Patrick Faulwetter (see image below), to mention just a few. More info on their website and the blog. www.conceptdesignacad.com

free art book

Scatterhead Volume 01 is an online sketchbook created by the talented duo Adam Wesierski & Alan Blackwell. The compilation shows a number of rough and chaotic pieces as well as further developed and finished work. Both artist used the open source application Alchemy for laying down the initial sketches. Download the book for free here.

Online Artist Competition

The Art Interview - 22nd International Online Artist Competition is a quarterly, international, juried exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures in any medium. It is open to all living artists worldwide aged 16 and up. Participation in the Art Interview Biennale Exhibition and a total of € 17,000 in cash may be awarded each quarter to all winners. First place winners receive up to € 10,000 plus a featured interview in Art Interview Online Magazine. Read more information on the competition and how to enter it here: www.art-interview.com

workshop announced

'Behind the Iron Curtain', a concept art workshop in Eastern Europe that will hit the streets of Bucharest, Romania on the 22nd till the 25th of October 2010.

The web-site already announced an impressive line-up of instructors such as Stephan Martiniere, David Levy, Thierry Doizon, Sebastien Larroude, Kekai Kotaki and Mark Goerner. First 70 tickets come with a € 50 discount and are available here: www.iron-curtain.org

today's inspiration

Today's Inspiration is a place for those with an interest in illustration from the 40's and 50's, to share their knowledge, views and opinions.

You can join the site for free and sign up for a full-size scan being mailed to you on a daily basis. Just click on the profile below right and enter your email address.

todaysinspiration.blogspot.com

DreamWorks’ first personal art publication, Moonshine, was conceived as an opportunity to highlight the breath of artistic talent at the studio. The Visual Development department championed the project and partnered with Production Designer, Christophe Lautrette and Art Director, Pierre-Olivier Vincent to co-edit the book. The studio’s educational partnership with Scott Robertson, chair of Entertainment Design at Art Center and owner of Design Studio Press let to a natural selection of Scott’s company to publish the compilation of works. The team wanted the book to be accessible to students and treated like a annual publication. The plan is to publish additional volumes. For more Information visit the blog.

The book is now available for pre-order at DesinStudioPress.

submissions open now

Ballistic Publishing invites you to submit your work to 'EXOTIQUE 6: THE WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL CG CHARACTERS'. The sixth book in the series will showcase the best of digital character creations produced for film, television, games and personal endeavor. There is no cost or limit to the number of entries. EXOTIQUE 6 will be released worldwide in November 2010. Enter here.

www.ballisticpublishing.com

Iain McCaig workshop

Veteran Concept Artist Iain McCaig invites to an interactive workshop on Saturday, August 14th at the Art Institut of California. He'll be talking about the challenges a visual story artist faces when developing a new title for a major studio. Read more about the event here on Iain's blog. The lecture takes Place in San Bernadino, 674 East Brier Drive, Room 126. Starts at noon and admission is free!

www.artinstitutes.edu

popular scripts

The growing community at CGHub offers a nice selection of scripts and brushes for both Photoshop and Painter. Of course you'll also find support files for the main 3D applications and Illustrator. Go here to find the brushes and here for an overview of all the shareware. Swatches such as color-picker are here and another useful tool, the painters wheel for CS4 was published on CDW earlier this year.

Best of AH!

COVER RUN: THE DC COMICS ART OF ADAM HUGHES
208 pages, FC 6.75” X 10.25”, $39.99 US

Collecting the best of Eisner Award winner Adam Hughes’s spectacular, sexy covers for WONDER WOMAN, CATWOMAN and other DC series. This amazing collection features the best of Hughes’ work for DC Comics, along with commentary from the artist, rarely seen preliminary material and much more!

call for entries!

ImagineFX digital arts magazine, is committed to showcasing the best sci-fi, fantasy and digital art from around the world. To support this, ImagineFX has launched its campaign to discover, promote and celebrate the best young sci-fi and fantasy artists and illustrators, whether digital or traditionally based.

Entrants are invited to submit five pieces of portfolio work and a short biography, sent to: imaginefx@futurenet.com. The deadline for all entries is 5 July, 2010. www.imaginefx.com

CG Unit

Founded in 2005, CG Unit is an Online gallery updated seven days a week and dedicated to bringing its readers the very best art images from around the web. This place is designed to keep you up to date with the art of many contemporary artists.

cgunit.net

San Diego 2010, July 22-25

The big show is almost ready to go! Check out the website of Comic-Con International 2010, including the schedules and locations for programming, anime, the Independent Film Festival, games, and much more. "What's New" -page will be updated frequently with breaking news and last minute announcements. Preview Night: July 21. comic-con.org

Just in time, Marvel releases first concept art for Thor and Captain America:

podcast: Iain McCaig

Iain McCaig is one of the most lauded and respected artists working in film today. He has worked as either a concept or storyboard artist on films like Terminator 2, Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Star Wars and Harry Potter.This weeks podcast on SIDEBAR features tons about his background, filmwork, process and upcoming personal projects.

sidebarnation.com

Kubrick's concept art

The Kubrick Corner deals with exploring the works of Stanley Kubrick, one of the most widely praised yet continuously misunderstood film directors of the 20th century. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange - to mention just a few - have become milestones in film history. See some of the rare concept art pieces here. kubrickfilms.tripod.com

"He created more than movies. He gave us complete environmental experiences that got more, not less, intense the more you watched them."- Steven Spielberg

FMX Channel on AWNtv

Even though it’s been a few weeks since FMX 2010 has closed its doors, they still have a special treat for you. AWNtv has launched a large number of interviews with speakers and presentation recordings in the FMX channel. Some of them include top notch speakers like Ed Hooks, Simon Otto (DreamWorks Animation), Victoria Alonso (Marvel Studios), Evan Hirsch (THQ) and Alex McDowell(PD Fight Club, Minority Report, Watchmen). www.fmx.de

100 pieces Star Wars concept art

io9 finishes off their concept art week with a hundred pieces of concept artwork produced for the Star Wars Episodes and Video Games. A celebration of the Ralph McQuarrie's beautiful artwork that has been inspiring a generation of concept artist. www.io9.com

artist for change

Olivia Bouler believes that one person can make a difference. The 11 year old artist has launched a personal crusade to fight against the looming environmental disaster from the oil spill by seling her bird paintings to raise funds for rescue effort.

By now AOL's partnership with Olivia has yielded Audubon more than $132,000 in donations. More than 1,500 additional donors have joined the effort, giving more than $107,000.

concept art week on io9.com

This week io9 celebrates artists and designers who create the worlds that science fiction inhabits. They will be looking at concept art from CGI movies to old school comic books and beyond.

Oftentimes, concept artists are unsung heroes - most people don't watch a TV series and exclaim over how cool the futuristic cities in the background look. And yet without those backgrounds, those worldbuilding touches, the show would fall apart. Read more and neet the artists behind the scenes on io9.com

Annecy short films

De Sylvain Fabre, Guillaume Fesquet, Adeline Grange, Julien Rossire, Clara Voisin

Once a year the students at Gobelins School of Communication showcase their work at the Annecy Animation Film Festival. The school has set up a website that features all of the entries of this year's festival. For more information visit www.gobelins.fr

Shaun Tan - film debut

The Lost Thing is a 15 minute animated short film based on the highly acclaimed picture book by multi award winning author and illustrator Shaun Tan. A modern fable with a unique aesthetic, the story is at once idiosyncratic and universal in it's appeal to all ages.

produced by Sophie Burne, (Passion Pictures) and
directed by Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan

www.TheLostThing.com

Some of the costume designs for the upcoming Captain America film seem to have found it's way to the internet. Ain't It Cool posted the images recently and their source has confirmed it's authenticity.

Find all images here
0n io9.com
on JoBlo

Industry Giants

The ninth annual event takes place Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13, 2010 at the SMU Hughes-Trigg Student Center, Dallas TX. It’s open to the public, students and industry professionals. Industry Giants 2010: Creative Alchemy, Visual Effects, Animation and Game Forum features industry professionals such as Guy Williams (WETA), Stephan Martiniere (ID Software) and Jeffrey Dates (The Mill).

Prince of Persia concept art

Behind the Scenes of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
immerses readers in the filmmaking process, recounting the saga that began with Jordan Mechner’s video game and culminated in a production of monumental proportions. Every grain of sand in the hourglass is examined—from horsemanship training to set construction to ostrich racing to the art of parkour. Also featured within are several spreads of photography by Jerry Bruckheimer and insider information about crucial props and weapons.

Concept illustrations from Lauret Beauvallet, Julian Caldow, Kim Frederiksen, Peter Popken and Neil Ross.

As usual, you'll find a review and preview pictures of the book on Parkablogs.