Task Want

My friend @TysonLundbech has another sibling start up for his RentWant project called; TaskWant
Crowd sourcing tasks.

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Layout & Background

The long awaited and fourth book in the Walt Disney Animation Studios Archive Series; "Layout and Background" is on the bookstore shelves and gives a nice broad retrospective of Background Art from the very first Disney films to present day. There's even backgrounds for Roger Rabbit among many others in here which Ive never seen in any other of my many books. I do notice that a good portion of the reproductions are sadly, not that great- they're good, but Ive seen many of them in other books and there is a definite, noticeable difference in color and value. Also. While at the bookstore I inspected a few of the bindings and many of them were looking a little shaky.
It's too bad. I understand its a challenge to get the many pages to print well, it's a lot of art, but they dont have problems with their other art books- and bindings glue already coming undone on such a brand new copy is one of the worst things to see. A personal pet peeve of mine. The copy I have seems to be ok and holding up, but watch out for those bindings- makes it tough to order from amazon or someone and just hope you get a good one.
With all that said- its still an amazing, fantastic, and easily accessible collection and I would buy it all over again at full price regardless of those two major disappointments.

-@en_b

Disney Animation Studios Archive Series; Layout and Background
Disney Editions
274 pgs (HC)
ISBN-13 978-1423138662

Available Amazon USA or at your better local bookstore

The Art of Brother Bear

I will be honest, I never saw this movie. But I return to this book all the time. The background previz paintings and especially the on site ones make me drool. Im not sure if Disney still sends the Visual Developers to the actual location of the Feature to capture in real life, the look and feel of the environments the film takes place in- but they did on this one and a lot of those on location sketches and paintings are included in this book. That was the dream, at least for me, an aspiring background artist, to travel with a talented art team and draw and paint on location. Some real zingers in here from Paul Felix, Robh Ruppel, the master; Jay Xiangyuan Jie, and the rest of the team. Theres some good character work in here, but mostly you will find Backgrounds and Layouts. I saw a survey on deviant art (?) about what people like to see in an "art of book" and to my dismay, background paintings and sketches were near to the bottom. To me, although I like good character stuff, the backgrounds and layouts are by far my favorite things to look at and draw inspiration from. Everyones different though thats for sure.
Hard to believe but on amazon you apparently can buy this book used for 0.33 cents, or new for less than $6. This book is definitely worth that small cost, so go get it!

The Art of Brother Bear
H. Clark Wakabayashi
124 pages (HC)
Disney Editions
ISBN 078685420-0

The Art of Bolt

I think you can get this book for about $8.00 now on Amazon and its really good. I actually thought this movie was super under-rated. Its been a while since I saw it but I remember really enjoying this animated feature from the original SoCal Disney Studio, Disney Pictures. Flipping through this book reminds me how good it was and of course of the extremely talented team that brought it all to life. Nice character work but the background paintings in here really shine- cheers Mr. Paul Felix!
So go ahead and grab this one for the shelf, well worth the price.

Art of Bolt
Mark Cotta Vaz
160 pages (HC)
Chronicle Books
ISBN 978-0-8118-6531-9

Andrew Loomis and Figure Drawing

Listen, there are a ton of figure drawing books out there. More than a ton. But you just want one really good one right? Well maybe not but all I want is one and that one used to be a raggedy photocopied stack of papers Lee Ballard ran off for me in the fine arts department office. The book copied was: "Figure Drawing For All Its Worth" by Andrew Loomis, and it had been out of print for years. We were art students and there was no way any of us could afford that book, but check it out! They reprinted it! I think I got mine for $16 on amazon, I think its costs about $26 new now but its still a steal for this super informative volume of figure drawing and figure drawing techniques. Everythings in here, proportions, fore shortening, values, poses, lighting, and more- everything you need to know about figure drawing and more. Still dont believe me? Check out the reviews from artists you might believe, such as Alex Ross or Norman Rockwell. Yes, Norman Rockwell- I told you this book was old! So if you need a figure drawing book this one is the one, way better than Bridgeman or anything else I have ever come across.

Figure Drawing For All It's Worth
Andrew Loomis
204pg (HC)
Titan Books
ISBN 9780857680983

Availability: Amazon USA

Gurney Journey

Theres only one thing thats better than James Gurney's amazing art blog; Gurney Journey and that one thing is these crazy color illusions, this one courtesy of Mr James Gurney. Those two colors arent two colors at all, theyre actually the same, one color. Amazing.
Do check out Gurney Journey. So much good information and fantastic art.

Mashinen Krieger vol. 2 Chronicle and Encyclopedia

Here is the second and in my opinion the better of the two Volumes of Ma.K. designs from the very talented and groundbreaking designer Kow Yokoyama. This is one of my top 10 favorite books from my entire collection. Raw, greasy, muddy, and mostly military designs populate this book with some wonderfully lit diorama photographs.
Half a dozen pages in the back contain the pen and ink sketches of his designs. Theres another book that reprints most of these sketches along with a whole bunch more that I will post at a later date. Amazing work, and again, probably my favorite designer of all time. Totally awesome.

Mashinen Krieger vol. 2 Chronicle and Encyclopedia
Kow Yokoyama
Dainipponkaiga
112 pages HC
ISBN4-499-22875-1
Availability; Amazon Japan

RentWant

This is Charlie- Hes gonna be part time spokesman for my good friends start up: RentWant You have something youre not using you wouldnt mind making some money on it while it sits? You should probably check out RentWant.
Im gonna be doing a handful of Charlies with different rentable accessories for him. So while you wait for those, maybe rent some stuff out and make some money!

Roy SE-DUCK Pants

I never thought I would want $340.00 pants but I do. Check out all those details! And all on the inside where no one would ever see. Thats the coolest. Each of these are hand sewn by the same person from start to finish! Dude!
Crazy thing is even if I did have $340 I still wouldnt be able to get any of these- they sell out in hours.
Still reading? Well check out selfedge and take a step into the obscure world of clothing production. Theres some japanese companies that bought the old antique looms from levis or whatever and are making cloth to those old specifications... which as you know, are way more stringent and better quality than todays specs and robotic looms. Anyway, definitely a weird niche of denim and cloth fanatics out there. Mostly as I said located in Japan. They totally have my attention.

The Art of Herge; Inventor of Tintin 1907-1937

Well you guys should get ready for a full onslaught of Tintin as the new film rolls-out, Im gonna get a couple great Tintin books I have on my shelf posted before people either sour or sweeten to the property.
The book store my parents frequented had all the Tintin trade paperbacks and I spent a lot of time flipping through them as a young boy. Every cover was so compelling and the series so long and deep- it definitely captured my curiosity. They were all in French at the time so I never actually was able to read any of them, luckily Georges Prosper Remi, aka Herge, was for good reasons, a real master draftsman and story teller making for an easy pictographic read. This book has some really great early childhood drawings of his and a nice collection of non-Tintin related graphic and product design. I enjoyed seeing how Remi developed as an artist.
I understand this is a reprint form a previously released Belgium version, although the Belgium one is something like 400 pages and this one just a bit over 200 pages. A nice book to have but Im so interested in getting ahold of one of the original editions so that I could see all that missing content from the recently republished one. Anyone have any info on this?
Hope the film is

"The Art of Herge; Inventor of Tintin 1907-1937 Vol. 1"
Philippe Goddin translated by Michael Farr
Last Gasp
205pages HC
ISBN-13:978-0-86719-706-8

IanScottBerry.com Website

Ive made some changes to my online presence!
Its always with great reluctance that anyone says their website is done, mine certainly isnt, but I figured out how to get it all uploaded and how to make buttons and such- AND make it all iPad friendly! Theres some pretty extensive archiving of old projects that used to be on a series of sibling art blogs to this Last Outpost blog. Ive removed the links to those and probably wont post to them anymore, so they have all basically retreated to The Last Outpost and here I will be posting art book reviews, sketchbook pages, movie reviews, Nintendo DS paintings, plein air paintings and all of that stuf, all in this one easy to keep track of spot. Did I mention its iPad friendly? I think I might have three loyal people that regularly check on the Last Outpost, (thank you), but hopefully that will start growing again with more consistent, albeit random postings.
Thanks again for stopping by!

Sketchbook

Pek-a-Book: Ma.K. Chronicles and Encyclopedia Volume 1

Kow Yokoyama has been wowing me since the early 1980s when I discovered his models in my hometown RPG store. I was probably 9 or 10 years old and was totally mesmerized by his kit-bashed post WW2 military Sci-Fi styles showing scenes of all the mundane aspects of that muddy, alternate universe- such as; fixing the mech, prepping the GEV for flight, tending the farm animals. I seriously loved looking at those kits and the diorama photographs that were included on the box. So you can imagine how excited I was to see a revival of Mr. Kow Yokoyama's work in a handful of nicely printed hardcovered books probably 20 years later. Included inside are kits, sketches and photographs as well as a lot of other bits. If you want to see some ground breaking mech design, and just in general, totally awesome sci-fi, you need to check out these books. Theres 2 Volumes of these and all of his work from the 80's have been reprinted in one form or another. I'll be sure to be posting those other volumes in the coming weeks.

Ma.K. Maschinen Krieger Vol. 1 Chronicle and Encyclopedia
Kow Yokoyama
110 pgs HC
ISBN4-499-22825
Availability: Amazon Japan

Maine

Maine

Sketching

I have a few pages of sketches from a trip I took to Maine last weekend- probably will be also updating the sketchbook blog with a few of em.

Photo Safari

If you liked those below animations, they are actually from a great project I worked on with the very talented Carolyn Merriman of ShortstackApps She kindly has let me use a handful of the critters here and on my site- but there lots more to be found so go grab the app here and find them all. I think I was able to find at least 27 in the time attack mode. Good luck!

Maine

Bushwacking up on Mount Desert Island earlier this summer.

Animal Symphony

Never too early for Christmas

These are a few samples from some 2011 holiday merchandise I was working on.

Long time

been a long time of no posting!
holy moly.

Cleopatra

Burnt on Thanksgiving

I was killing some time right before Thanksgiving and seeing how, of course, Thanksgiving was a trending topic and people were commenting on our favorite of holidays. Well, besides food, when I think of Thanksgiving fondness, I think about always surfing with my dad before eating. There were always good waves on Thanksgiving when I was a yout. So here's a little Thanksgiving scenery from my many memories of surfing those days.
Notice my dad burning me on that wave- that dirty dog! Hahaha- no you guys- seriously, surfing a wave with your dad is one of the funnest things.
Extra points for anyone who recognizes that surf spot.

Art of District 9

This weeks Peek-a-Book is a doosey. Art of District 9. Neill Blomkamp had the WETA art dept on fire. Great book.
A full review is upcoming on my Art Book Review blog. Stay tuned.

Sartorialist

Couldnt sleep this morning so got up and sketched from one of the sartorialists photos. Probably my favorite site for looking at people and style.

Gugges'

shower and shoes

boudoir

out the door

Story-boarding

I've been story-boarding and will post some of the unused frames over the next couple weeks.

Peek-a-Book Mondays

Guys- Know what? Ive been doing a "peek-a-book" every Monday and posting it on my twitter and also into the Last Outpost Book Review blog. These are just quick peeks into a selection of books from my collection- theyre not necessarily a review if its any good or not since you can be completely assured that I wont be posting any books that dont deserve the attention. If youre a visual developer, animator, designer, concept artist or even better, a wannabe of any of those, or just a lover art books, check it out!

Influence Map

I joined in on the "Influence Map" chorus thats been going around over the past summer- learnt a lot about myself doing it- you all should give one a shot, a super interesting exercise, even if its just jotting down each influence on a scrap of paper.
And it's especially fun looking at everyone elses influence maps- I think most of which can be easily found on twitter?

Congratulations Felice and Adam

I had the honor to come up with a save the date card for Felice and her fiance Adam who are getting married on lovely Martha's Vineyard next year. Congratulations you guys!

Quick product sketch

Cleaning off the desktop and finding a few things- Quick toddlers stackable product sketch I did for a friend a little while ago.

Sunday In Central Park

Me and my red freespirit 3speed met up with the very talented and all around great guy, Mr. Robert Dress @Bethesda Fountain on an extremely lovely Sunday afternoon for a bit of landscape painting and more than a couple beers at the world famous Boathouse. Super great day- one of my more memorable Sundays in fact, a Sunday that extended deep into Willamsburg well late into the evening. Nothing better than Summer in NYC.

montauk point

Spent a weekend up in Montauk. Fun town. Record temperatures. No waves. Got a couple little paintings in though.

The Thought Percolator

Did you guys know about the percolator?
I have a Tumblr , http://en-b.tumblr.com/ where Im posting links and random things I like to think about. Thats probably what this Last Outpost blog always should have been for.

Pink Elephants

Vehicle warmups

Warm ups- Drawing vehicles this week- rad!

Kettenhund

here kette kette kette...

Lil Tug

aww litl tug!

Secret of Kells screening

Late last week I went to a screening of "The Secret of Kells" (trailer), the latest animated feature from director Tomm Moore. The film has won a handful of awards including the audience choice award at the 2009 Annecy, as well as a nomination for best animated feature for the 82nd Academy Awards. It has also been selling out all of its shows here in New York and apparently has made the highest weekend gross ever at the IFC Theater in the West Village. Not bad for an animated film!!
I must say I really liked this movie! It had a marvelous, unusual visual style, lots of flat graphic shapes, lots of textures.
It takes place near by and within the walls of the medieval abbey of Kells. The Abbot's nephew, Bendan, longs to work in the scriptorium with the rest of the monks illustrating illuminations for the abbey's manuscripts, and when a mysterious and talented monk arrives, Brendan attempts to uncover the ancient pagan secrets of Cromm Crúaich that lie outside the walls of the city and ultimately becoming a gifted illuminator himself. Even if it means breaking the wishes of his Uncle the Abbot, who is continually obsessed with the completion of the city walls and the threat of the approaching Northern invaders.
I thought the animations were very fitting, and that the feel and uniqueness of old Ireland really shown through the entire production, which im sure was one of many a goal of the Irish team that developed it.
I really cant recommend this film enough.
The director and comic book illustrator, Tomm Moore kept a really nice blog/journal throughout the entire process called the blog of Kells
Also, here is a nice interview of Tomm on GhibliWorld
I believe there will be a theater release of this movie in the US early March.
This is clearly the best film Ive seen so far the 2010 NYICFF

Sentry sketch

sneak peak of an item from some panels im dabbling in.

Hottarake no Shima – Haruka to Maho no Kagami

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (trailer)
Last weekend I went and saw the screening the New York International Childrens Film Festival had for Oblivion island, the latest from Japan's legendary Production I.G studio. Although they say its an all 3D movie, its actually a nicely combined 3D props and characters, with a combination of 2D and 3D backgrounds. Its a tricky thing to combine and I think they were really successful in executing it. The main character, Haruka has a nice, luscious Range Murata feel to her, (youve probably seen a lot of his characters on the covers of Udon publishings "Robot" magazine.) She's a feisty, really cute, typical seeming Japanese teen age heroine. She looked a little doll like in the eyes, but for me they really nailed the lips. Its an odd critique for sure, me focusing on the lips, but the attention to detail in the way they looked and were rigged made a huge impression on me- a lot of 3D animated characters lips are neglected, so bravo to you Production I.G for nailing the lips on that character. Her side kick companion Teo was fine, and all the typical villains and thugs, although very formulaic, didnt bother me as much as the mad rush and frantic pace the story took in the last 20 minutes- so much to resolve! So right, could of been edited, but all in all, I really enjoyed this film. I and the mass of very young viewers probably would have enjoyed it even more if it were 20 minutes shorter- an hour and half is a long time for a little kid, and a long time for a not so little kid as well!



Ill be attending quite a few more films at this festival and look forward posting a few of my impressions from each film- next up, the Secret Of Kells.