At long last, ROVER, the 3rd album from Edmonton Block Heater drops on June 1 this year.  Once again I'm honored to have provided the cover art, and even more excited to finally listen to what is sure to be another great album.

Great news!  My Lovecraft illustration has been commissioned for the cover of a very cool upcoming anthology from Tachyon Publishing.  They have collected some fantastic authors to contribute their H.P. Lovecraft inspired stories,  can't wait to read them!  

A big thanks to Jill at Tachyon for this opportunity!

Check it out here!

Tachyon Publishing

 

Cheers,

Barret

6 Christmas Portraits.

Its been a while since my last post...so in the spirit of the holidays and the fact that I'm a sucker for these films round this time of year, I thought I'd shake off some dust with a nice round of portraits.  I had planned 12 in this series but I'm also finaling a game right now...crazy. 
These started out as an exercise in rendering using a great set of graphite brushes my friend Tony turned me onto.  You can find the brushes here.  It's interesting to see the evolution move towards a more Struzan"esque" treatment as I went along...damnit I couldn't help myself!

These were created obviously with heavy use of reference from the following films in order in which i did em,
A Christmas Carol [1984]
A Muppet Christmas Carol [1992]
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation[1989]
A Muppet Family Christmas [1987]
A Christmas Story [1983]
Its a Wonderful Life [1946]

These were great fun and I look forward to doing another round of these at Halloween!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Barret.

The Intrepid Adventures of Manny and Don

This project started as a design exercise to flex the old concept muscles.  The idea was to update some old character designs I had done almost 10 years ago based on a TV show idea I was working on with my friend Justin Bullard. Justin came up with the idea for these two characters named Manny and Don long before we met at school, and after we graduated we collaborated on a series pitch based on them.  We fleshed out several seasons worth of material for these guys...it was a very fun and creative time.  The pitch ultimately did not fly but my affection for these characters stayed.

Manny

Don

Baash

The Sentai

And here is a sample of the original character designs...so very old!!

Avery!

My Mom has been after me for a while to do a picture for her, so I finally got around to painting her favorite subject...."the Granddaughter"

Merry Christmas Mom!

Red Skull

In honor of Captain America: Super Soldier hitting the shelves a couple of weeks ago...here is a piece I did WAY back in the day when we first started.   If you get the chance give the game a shot...I guarantee you'll have fun beatin up Hydra devils.  It's certainly the best Marvel super hero movie tie-in game in a while.

EBH T-Shirt

Here is a T-Shirt design I did for Edmonton Block Heater.  The shirt has yet to be made but I thought I'd post this guy.  The caption will be changed for the final image...I'll let Ross come up with something as he is a much wittier fellow than I.  Enjoy!

H.P Lovecraft

Here is another attempt at incorporating some 3d into my art process.  The background elements were modeled and rendered in Max,  I used a simple lighting model for some quick directional and bounce, and then went right into painting.  I struggled a bit on this until I decided to do the Cthulu framing element...it added a ton of work to the piece but I think it helped.  I'm throwing in some detail shots and a little work in progress image to show the various stages.

The Bride

Here is another unearthed sketch from back in the day.  I'm finding these quick little pieces a great way to get back into the groove after a bit of a break from painting.  I'm doing some marketing images for Cap at work right now which surprisingly enough has inspired me to get back to my own stuff.

Superman

I stumbled upon this old sketch I had done back during my days at P'n'B.  Thought I'd throw some color on it just for fun.

Edmonton Block Heater_Mars, Massachusetts

Well, at long last EBH has released their second album and once again I was lucky enough to help out with their album art.  I did two pieces for the CD...if anyone actually buys CDs anymore.  The first is the back cover, and the second is the illustration printed right on the CD itself.
Still waiting for my copy Ross...cough cough, but I just downloaded it from ITunes.  I suggest everyone who reads this post go do the same and get your daily recommended dosage of straight up amazing song writing and incredible musicianship from one of Vancouver's best.
I dare you to listen to Kiss Me Kate and not have it stuck in your head for the rest of the week.

Lets get going on album #3 Smithy!

Evil Dead The Musical

A while back my friend Scott played Ash in THE Vancouver production of Evil Dead The Musical.  I wish I got to do the poster for that show...but I never got the chance.
So here is my "audition" for next year if they decide to mount the show again.

Thanks to Tony for some much needed color input on this one.

Scoots...hope you dig it.

Cinephile Cover

Here is a piece I did a while back for my friend Brent when he was working on UBC's film program's magazine Cinephile.  The magazine contains essays and articles on film that are tied to a different theme each issue.  This particular issues theme was "The Scene".
At risk of over explaining the piece...I'll shed some insight into what we were going for.
Our initial concept was to try to combine the visual of the final scene and show how that all its components live in the mind of the director.    The use of the Basic Instinct scene was a commentary on how certain scenes can go on to become part of vocabulary of popular culture and transcend the film itself.
I'm not quite sure what the dude who is watching it on youtube is supposed to mean.
Ask Brent.

Handsome Harry

Well I've always been a big fan of Drew Struzan, so here I am blatantly ripping him off.  Lets call it a tribute shall we...yes thats better.  Here is my tribute to Drew.  A man who must have gotten very tired of painting this handsome devil, over and over.
I gonna try do more portraits going forward...we'll see how it goes.
This piece also served as a bit of a reminder to me why I used to love Indiana Jones.  Raiders is still my favorite flick of all time but don't get me started on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

PS...around 4 hours.

Insomnia Werewolf!

The other night I must have have my afternoon coffee a bit late and ended up not being able to sleep.  So here is the sketch that came out.
This was inspired by Nigel's latest post, a great sketch of the grim reaper and a little girl, very creepy, very cool.  And of course the Wolfman movie.

6 hours, Photoshop.