Title is a link to the show that myself, Jeff Wand, Yongwoo and Marty enjoyed today.
Notice the size of that easel that Jeff Wand is next to. Only three were made. Enormous thing with sash counter weights so the artist could easily adjust the monster pieces of glass as he painted.
8 comments:
OH HOW COOL! I always thought that it would be tremendously cool to be a matte painter... I never thought I was good enough to pursue it... but I thought, and still think, that it would be so awesome.
So what was there?
It was a very small show really.
Hitchcock was represented well. The matte painting of the bird pov shot coastal town with the burning gas station area in THE BIRDS. And the Frank Lloyd Wright looking building that Cary grant sneaks up on in North by Northwest. Those were very cool to realize you're looking at a physical thing that amounts to movie magic from a classic film.
A Background area in ForBIDDEN Planet showing the ALtair cemetary where all the ID victims were buried. The most sci fi piece there.
For Fantasy they had the Wizard of Oz matte painting of the top of the Wicked Witch castle that you see when you click the link.
A nice shot from a roman costume epic that was probably the most accomplished looking thing. That may have been the Ellenshaw piece.
That big urban scene that Jeff Wand is standing beside and....that was about it.
They had some extra stuff on a computer monitor touch screen that you can see yongwoo and Marty interacting with.
And then they had a hall full of the photos of artists at work. I'll post that as well.
Sounds great! One thing I've noticed about most of the high res images of matte paintings is that they don't look nearly as polished as they look in the movie... they look much more painterly than you would expect. Was that your experience at this show?
Yes, they were painterly. The BIRDS painting was almost 50s looking clip art level of colored ink drawing. You could be a matte painter rick. I think the main talent is putting the right colors down. You have great color sensitivity. I have blindness.
We ought to have a Tag Matte painting project. Pick an old photo and the give it a new background
Oh, I like that idea!
Man, that Forbidden Planet piece is awesome!
If you guys haven't checked it out, pick up the deluxe edition of John Carpenter's "the Thing". In addition to being a great movie, there's a bonus feature on the disc that goes over Albert Whitlock's career (he did the matte shot in "the Thing" for the big hole in the ice where the alien's space ship is uncovered) and features a lot of great work from his Irwin Allen and Hitchcock projects.
Glad you liked that Weezner. Notice the attention to sacrificing realism for readability in grave markers. All markers that are go above the ridge are dark sillos against the light sky. All markers below the ridge are light as though catching sunset light. Pretty artificial but you can't beat the appeal of contrast.
I'm going to post a couple more shots from the show. I'll stop at 4 more.
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