Quick-And-Dirty Robot Art Contest

In honor of April's Robogames, io9.com is sponsoring a robot art contest. Create a work of art on the theme of "we welcome our new robot overlords" and you could win fabulous prizes! All images are welcome created by using anything from Photoshop or special effects software, to traditional media. The details of the contest are here. Art is due by April 21, 2010!

io9.com, reloadedstudios.com

Orientalists

Featuring over 300 images, pulled from 45 different institutions in seven different countries, many of these pictures have rarely been seen publicly since their creation a century and more ago. Having both traveled and lived in the region, author Kristian Davies approaches this often misunderstood genre of art from a fresh perspective. The book is designed to be a primer, a fresh new approach and redefinition of the genre...[via artect.net]

This web-site contains a collection of more than 2500 paintings of 'Orientalist' painters. Since most of the books concerning the subject are already out of print this is a great resource for research and inspiration: www.orientalist-art.org.uk

more links:
orientaliste.free.fr theorientalistgallery.blogspot.com

NVArt5 Competition

In this, the fifth NVArt competition, artists from all over the world are challenged to create vehicle designs for a future on the move ... transport in the style of Syd Mead. For details visit the CGSociety.com

An art and conceptdesign event in Berlin in cooperation with Marvel Entertainment, the artists from Massive Black and SIXMOREVODKA. Featuring instructors from across the planet, workshops, seminars, digital art demos, fine art presentations, live painting, illustration, comics and conceptdesign.
made-blog.com sixmorevodkastudio.blogspot.com

car design sketching

For those interested in the rendering techniques of the automitive designers, designertechniques.com offers a database of information, tutorials, designer interviews, product reviews, and a visitors gallery. More tutorials can be found at carbodydesign.com and mileswaterhouse.com

Graphic Design Competition

Fom March 1st to June 30th, 2010, IT’S ART is holding a contest called “A Time Traveller’s Guide for Dummies”. Different techniques such as 2D and 3D pictures, comics and videos are allowed to illustrate the brochure. www.itsartmag.com/

Joe Ranft was one of the prime creative people behind PIXAR and a major contributor to Toy Story, a Bug’s Life and Cars. This animatic, created by Disney director John Musker, is a tribute to Joe who would have celebrated his 50th birthday this year.

Watterson interview

'Calvin and Hobbes' Creator Bill Watterson recently gave an interview to reporter John Campanelli. It's believed to be the first interview with the reclusive artist since 1989.

image resource

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. A great source of inspiration and excellent reference material can be foumd in the archive. www.nasa.gov/

Festival

The Pictoplasma Berlin Festival brings together an international scene of artists, directors, designers and agencies, offering a unique forum for all those working with - or simply loving - the visualisation and application of contemporary character design.
At the heart of the festival is an exhibition which explores the huge diversity of the character universe. Additionally, the festival's program incorporates the 3rd Pictoplasma Conference, which, since its first incarnation in 2004, has been setting the benchmark for a playful and equally focussed handling with figurative design. Over the course of 2 days, an international line-up of artists such as Luke Ramsey, Nina Braun or Peter de Sève, will present their work in concentrated lectures.

April 9. - 10.2010, Kino Babylon, Berlin pictoplasma.com

Moebius, Boucq and others showing off their skills at 2010 Comic Convention in Angoulême, France. All images created digitally in less than one our at the WACOM booth.

SPEED PAINTING MASTER angouleme2010
Hochgeladen von pixeltv. - Sie originelle Web Videos.

Rage Publishing

With the success of the first book, "Art Squared – digital painters 2" is the second in the series of books produced by the team at ArtSquared.co.uk. Throughout this edition you can enjoy a selection of more than 70 of the worlds best digital artists, showcasing more than 130 images, spread over 172 diverse pages of artwork. Preorder your copy here

latest web finds

Superfreedraw is a non commercial art project and a platform that facilitates a new form of expression and communication on the web. Draw whatever you want, wherever you want. Waste all the space you need - it`s free! no regulations restict your drawings - create, destroy, modify.

The storyboard paper pdf generator doesn't draw storyboards but helps you to create the perfect layout for 4:3 - TV, 16:9 - widescreen HDTV, 1.85:1 - 35mm cinema widescreen. Many other free graph/grid paper styles are available here.

Retro Image Archive

Plan59 is a great resource of retro commercial illustration. It bills itself as a ‘museum dedicated to the art of mid-century America’. Vehicles, interiors, ad's and industrial propaganda are the main themes of the images.

trailer released

The trailer for Tron 2 - now called Tron Legacy - previously released at Comic Con 2009 has been officially released. The sequel is scheduled for release in the US on December 21 this year. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Hurt and Michael Sheen. Here’s the official website with more info and preview pics.

brushes, tips & tutorials

If you are a web designer or someone who works in the designing arena, smashing magazine is the ultimate stop for all that skills. With about 200,000 subscribers and many more stats, its a website which is full of great information matters to all the designers. Forum with job offers included.

Fudgegraphics can be described as a design inspirational blog. It is a source of freebies such as photoshop brushes, textures and vectors, aiming to improve quality the highest possible and provide free resources for like-minded people.

Vectortuts+ is a blog of tutorials, articles and more on all things vector! Tutorials on techniques and effects help to make vector graphics in programs like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape. The authors work all over the industry. Most of the content is free, but a premium membership will get access to extras and source files for tutorials.

Pixey is a blog for web-designers and graphic artists. On a regular basis you will find news, tutorials and links to helpful resources. Many freebies are available in the download section such as photoshop brushes, scans and vector graphics.

Australian Tour 2010

Syd Mead is one of the most celebrated concept artist in the world today. He was the artist behind some of the most influential science fiction of the 20th century such as BLADE RUNNER, TRON, ALIENS, STAR TREK and more. The tour is being organized in conjunction with the CG Society. On the night of Thursday the 18th of March, the premiere of the award winning film, Visual Futurist: the Art and Life of Syd Mead, will be screened at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Cremorne. The screening will be followed by Syd Mead live on stage, interviewed by Jamie Leonarder. The second event will take place in the RMIT University, Melbourne. Tickets are now available.

UNESCO poster competition

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2010, International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, and calls out a design competition for the official poster. From 50 selected posters, 30 posters will be printed for an exhibition to be held at UNESCO Headquarter in May 2010 in the framework of the International Festival of Cultural Diversity. The official brief and the rules are posted here.

Jean-Francois Lepine

Jean-Francois Lepine works as Lead Character Artist for a game development studio in Foster City, California. Some of his personal work is posted at CGSociety. He discribes the walk cycle (image above) as follows: "Technical Animaton in XSI using mostly curves as trajectory. Skin muscles and face expressions are a combination of shape keys, plotted deformation, SDKs and other blended deformations. Rendered in mental ray..."

just released

The Art of How to Train Your Dragon

This Book is a spectacularly designed, full-color insider’s guide to the creative process that went into turning Cressida Cowell’s popular book into a feature-length, animated film. Featuring more than 350 pieces of development artwork, including early character designs, story sketches, and concept paintings from industry veterans such as Pierre-Olivier Vincent(cover), Nicolas Marlet(below), Zhaoping Wei, Kirsten Kawamura and Simon Otto. The Author, Tracey Miller-Zarneke, is the former Production Department Manager for Walt Disney Feature Animation and author of The Art of Kung Fu Panda. More preview pics and a little movie, flipping through the pages on ParkaBlogs.
available now at amazon.de

Perspective

Perspective Magazin is the bimonthly journal of the Art Directors Guild - the international union representing employees in the entertainment industry. The Magazin takes a look behind the scenes and the creative process of film making with a focus on Production Design. Featured articles introduce the leading artists in this field today and applied techniques such as concept art and storyboards. A free download as PDF-file of the journal is available on the web-site at www.artdirectors.org
design sketch by Stuart Craig, Production Designer for Harry Potter

Sidebar Nation runs a great series of hour long podcastes aiming to present entertaining, informative and art-literate discussion on comic pop culture. The show features articles and interviews with top artists of the entertainment industry, such as Adam Hughes Jean Paul Leon, Neville Page, James Jean and others. Find the complete list of all back episodes here. www.sidebarnation.com

Six of the best visual arts podcasts have joined forces on VAPN to keep you informed, inspired, and entertained with hours of valuable content every week. On top of that, you will find articles, tutorials, and other useful resources on this site that you won’t find anywhere else. visualartistpodcastnetwork.com

Moebius

Jean Giraud came to public attention in the USA in the 1980's after his work was published in the science fiction magazine "Heavy Metal", an American version of the French publication "Metal Hurlant". Since the '60s he published more than 25 graphic novels including strips such as Blueberry, Arzach, or Silver Surfer. In addition, Moebius (Jean Giraud) has contributed to the set designs of numerous film productions, including Alien, The Abyss, Dune and The Fifth Element.

Moebius Redux (video) takes extraordinary visual paths in documentary filmmaking and goes on a mind-bending tour of imagination past, present and future.

15th Conference on Animation, Effects & Games

FMX is an event in cooperation with VES Visual Effects Society, AIAS Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, ACM Siggraph and 5D Conference.

The recruiting section is growing constantly. So far Animal Logic, ARRI, Black Rock Studio, Cinesite, Double Negative, Framestore, Pixomondo, Red Vision, ScanlineVFX and RTT have confirmed their participation.

May 04-07, 2010, Stuttgart, Germany, www.fmx.de

online Master Classes

Due to popular demand, The Gnomon School has extended it's online Master Classes event! Each 2-3 hour lecture focuses on a different element of the VFX & Games industries in a private forum where the instructors have shared a variety of insights and answers to previous attendee’s questions. Lectures will be give by industry veterans such as Feng Zhu, Neville Page, Iain McCaig and others. Renowned digital painter Craig Mullins (image below) shares how he applies the timeless values behind traditional art to digital art.