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GEARS OF WAR 4 : creature design

Back in 2014 I was brought in by The Coalition to work on some visual development and creature concept for the upcoming GEARS OF WAR 4 Xbox One game. I started with a series of early explorations for the games new creatures, The Swarm.

Early designs played off new body shapes and details to set them off from the games original Locust characters. These head passes above were starting to go in the right direction with the plated armor on the face and body.

The next head pass I did introduced a couple design elements that would carry over to the final design, including the forehead / double nasal cavity and plated segmented jaw.

After more iterations working with the studio art director, this was my final pass for the Locust based Swarm. I also did some exploration for other creatures in the game too, below is an early unused concept for the “Pouncer”.

It was a wonderful project and team to get to be part of (not to mention a great fun game to play!) You can see a couple other of my early concepts along with the final designs for the entire game by The Coalition Studios amazing team in the new Art of Gears 4 book!

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THE MARQUIS and “Gut Wig” the Devil!

A couple worked up designs from my MARQUIS: INFERNO graphic novel for the masque devil, Gut-Wig! These were done as part of a pitch package from 2013 for a Marquis film project that unfortunately didn’t pan out~  (who doesn’t want violent, grotesque, anti-religious 18th century devil hunting adventures in this day and age!!?)

The “masque devil” originally appeared in chapter 2 of The Marquis: Danse Macabre storyline, possessing the guise of the Ministries iron punishment mask to confront the Marquis. He later turned up in the Hell scenes as a trio of torturers who gut their victims to make wonderful wigs for themselves.

For the rework of the design, I kept the base form but added details that wouldn’t be as clear in the comic, the added fun part for me was also designing a bunch of variations of 18th century wigs made out of guts!

I’ll post more Marquis designs from the pitch in future posts!~ the 3rd printing of THE MARQUIS: INFERNO is out of print, but available digitally through Dark Horse Digital and Comixology!

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STEVEN UNIVERSE: Concept Cameo!

In the new “Buddy’s Book” episode of Rebecca Sugar’s wonderful Cartoon Network show, STEVEN UNIVERSE~ I got a surprise to see my early concept designs for the Crystal Gems temple pop up in the background as Steven and Connie visit the library! 

Below are the original concepts I did back in 2012 during early pre-production of the show~ and you can see more of the designs over at the Steven Crewniverse tumblr too!

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The STRAIN: Coffins, Critters and Art Books

In 2012, I worked on series development, doing a variety of conceptual design for Guillermo del Toro’s THE STRAIN tv series on FX Network. One of the first concepts I was given to do was the Master’s huge coffin, including the medieval graphics for all the carved sides. Below is a detail to the coffins front and bottom panels.

The wonderful and horrific Master was designed and sculpted by the wonderful (and not horrific at all in real life) Simon Lee with Guillermo, while I worked on the concept and redesign for the Strigoi’s stinger (the Master version of the stinger below).

And the final stinger prop as it appeared in the show~

You can see more of my Strain work and behind the scenes from the whole Strain team in the upcoming Art of The Strain book from InSight Editions! (available June 28th)

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Into the Breach! Storyboarding PACIFIC RIM

Along with working on concept for Guillermo del Toro’s PACIFIC RIM (you can read about my kaiju designs for Otachi and Slattern here) and some prop work, I also worked on storyboarding the film with Rob McCallum, Francisco Ruiz Velasco and Raúl Monge. Below are a few sample pages to some of the sequences did.

After we were done with most of the concept work, Francisco Ruiz Velasco and myself stayed on to help storyboard artist Rob McCallum with the final sequence to the film and rework changes to earlier sequences after Rob left.

For the breach sequence at the film’s finale, I did tighter color boards to also work out the concept of the “Throat” which led to the Anteverse. More Pacific Rim storyboards in a future post!

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HAPPY MOTHERS DAY~ from CRIMSON PEAK!

In honor of Mother’s Day~ here’s some concepts I did for Edith’s mother from Guillermo del Toro’s film, Crimson Peak! Originally she was only labeled as “Black Ghost” to set her concepts apart from the other red clay designs we were working on. Since the ghost of Edith’s mother was more costume based, early on I worked with the incredible costume designer Kate Hawley on different types of layering and forms to work out an iconic shape. Below are the initial concepts as they progressed.

The shape of headdress above inspired the direction of the final series of concepts I did~

And final concept below~

From there the final look was created from a collaboration between Kate and Guillermo himself. The mother’s horrific face designed and created by the incredible makeup effects house of DDT (David Martí and Montse Ribé) with Guillermo and brought to haunting life by the wonderful actor, Doug Jones!

So Happy Mother’s Day, Doug!~ and bewaaaare Crimson Peak! 

You can see more concepts and illustrations in the CRIMSON PEAK: The Art of Darkness filmbook!

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CRIMSON PEAK Ghost Concept

A few more of the ghost concepts I worked on for Guillermo del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK. The first job I had on the film was creating forms for the different ghosts with Guillermo before some of the designs would go to sculptor David Meng and the incredible makeup effects department of DDT. These were done early in the production before the final script, so all were given more descriptive code names to identify them.

Once the rough sketches were approved I would do a tighter pass on all~ at the start the crimson coloring to the ghosts was a huge secret even within the production, so I also did a grey toned version of each design that could be presented to all the departments during review.

One of the first ideas was for the “Worm Ghost”, whose upper body was encased in the crimson clay and had to push herself along with only her feet and who would later become the clawing Pamela ghost in the film. 

More CRIMSON PEAK ghosts and concepts in an upcoming post~ and you can see more concepts and illustrations in the CRIMSON PEAK: The Art of Darkness filmbook!

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ParaNorman early concepts

One of the first concept jobs I had was for Laika’s wonderful stop-animation film, ParaNorman. Back in 2008 I was contacted by writer/director Chris Butler to work on some early character development for the project. Below are a few of the designs I did based on the original script for some of the various zombie characters~ like the villainous Judge!

Along with some other Puritan zombies like the towns Pastor and wife~ and some sketches of the the undeads living selves (including the Sheriff and the town gossip).

And some early sketches for a very clean cut Norman himself, which might be the scariest of all! More ParaNorman in an upcoming post!

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Return to CRIMSON PEAK!

Beware and return to Crimson Peak! Guillermo del Toro’s wonderfully haunting film, CRIMSON PEAK is released today on HD Digital! I’ll post more in the coming months, but below is some various concept work I did for the film!

Above one of the early ghost concepts I did that later became Margaret in the film~ and below is the bathroom set design for Allerdale Hall

And how it appeared in the final film!

Be sure to also check out Crimson Peak on Blu-Ray and DVD on Feb 9th for hours of extra behind the scenes content too!

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MERRY CRIMSON!!

Happy Holidays and yuletide cheers to haunted Victorian spirits everywhere! Along with working on concept for the ghosts in Crimson Peak and some set and prop design, I also got to work on a few murals seen in the film! Below is the illustration I did for the nursery at Allerdale Hall (separate images like the figures and trees were done in pencil and then combined and painted digitally). Guillermo asked for it do be done in a Arthur Rackham-esque style, with the center insect as a nod to Pan’s Labyrinth. Like other aspects in the film, the word “fear” was also hidden in different parts of the illustration too! 

The final illustration was then used as a guide for the set artists to paint as a full sized mural that was distressed on the walls to the crumbling nursery. Below is a shot of the nursery mural from the final film.

You can see more concepts and illustrations in the Crimson Peak: The Art of Darkness filmbook! 

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PACIFIC RIM Props!

In 2011 I spent almost a year working as part of Guillermo del Toro’s concept team on PACIFIC RIM! Along with designing some of the film’s kaiju (including Otachi and Slattern) and helping out with storyboards, I also got to design some props and set pieces. One of the first props I designed was the “welding backpack” that Raleigh wears while working on the construction of the Anti-Kaiju Wall.

I sketched the initial design as a place holder when I storyboarded that scene, Guillermo liked the shapes in the drawings and asked me to refine it. I did a more detailed version of the front / back which was then sent out to be worked up for construction.

Below is the final hero prop from the film (photo from the Prop Store Pacific Rim auction).

Later on I was asked to design some of the various maintenance vehicles for the Shatterdome scenes. One concept that made it into the film was the “Tool Train”~ which was a series of driverless carts that carried different Jaeger repair tools and were directed by a technician using control wands. 

A few months later I was thrilled to be told it was sitting outside in the studio parking lot (not my photo)! Check back for more Pacific Rim concepts in a future post!

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The Cameo of Cthulhu!

A recent episode of this years Simpsons (“Halloween of Horror” Season 27 Ep 4) had the Cthulhu I designed from Guillermo del Toro’s Treehouse of Horror XXIV intro making a guest appearance wandering around the background!

In 2012 I had a lot of fun working with Guillermo on storyboarding his Simpsons intro along with creating some gags and designing the “Simpson-fied” monsters! One of the gags Guillermo wanted had Bart riding his skateboard through Springfield as it was torn up by a huge Cthulhu.

Before the storyboards I sketched up a few variations, including the possibility of a Futurama guest appearance (Why not Zoidberg!?) and Guillermo chose to go forward with the first concept!

Below is part of the storyboarded Cthulhu scene~

And a screenshot of how he appeared in the final episode! Be sure to check out the full Simpsons Treehouse of Horror opening too!

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Beware the BRAMBLEGOR! The Mill at Calder’s End

A few years ago I met up with the amazing Kevin McTurk, I was already a huge fan of his Spirit Cabinet Victorian ghost stories told with rod puppets and was thrilled when he asked me to work on his newest short~ The Mill At Calder’s End! (Beware! Spoilers below!)

Along with a Hammer Horror inspired title design and a couple posters for the projects Kickstarter (which you can see here), Kevin asked me to do concept on the films monster! His new short had a creature at the climax, but no details were in place aside from Kevin wanting to use a boar skull as its base and the form needing to be modeled after a gorilla for the actor in costume (the incredible John Alexander!)

Hoping to keep it mythical in appearance~ and always getting inspiration during long hikes~ I wanted to use lots of twigs, branches and bramble around the skull to act as a mane and horns so it didn’t have the feel of a stereotypical horned demon. Also dressing up its shape with red bloated and peeling skin, a belt tail of skulls and an oxen hump to get as far from the gorilla feel as possible.

When I started working up the design ( and having said the word “bramble” too much when describing it ), I called it the “Bramblegor” just to label it. Kevin liked the way it sounded and the name stuck!

Be sure to check out Kevin McTurk’s award winning The Mill At Calder’s End on Vimeo!

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PAN’S LABYRINTH DVD extras: The Power of Myth

A look back at some of the spot illos I did for the Pan’s Labyrinth DVD featurette~ “The Power of Myth”. One of the first collaborations I had with Guillermo del Toro was getting to work on the special features for the Pan’s Labyrinth DVD back in 2007. Part of the DVD documentary extras from producer Javier Soto were a couple motion comics I worked on along with spot illustrations that would run in the background during the “Power of Myth” feature. Below are a few I did based on old fairy tales. Pen an ink on bristol board (digital was still around the corner!)

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STEVEN UNIVERSE...and Monsters?!

Some after Halloween left overs! Here’s a peek at more series development that I did for the amazing Rebecca Sugar’s show, STEVEN UNIVERSE! Along with concept for the Crystal Gems Temple and an early (and unsavory) design for Steven’s Lion, I also worked on some early monster designs with Rebecca which you can see below! 

The first pass at the monsters the Crystal Gems would fight were mostly gag and shape based without any story attachment. The gem motif wasn’t part of the design sense yet, just creature mutations with the gems hidden inside.

Next with Rebecca’s direction, the monsters started incorporating the gems into their eyes and bodies!

These early ideas never went pass the initial rough sketches I did, but more incredible monsters would be coming from Rebecca and her team to give Steven and the Crystal Gems many seasons of monster fighting ahead! Check back for more early SU monsters in a future post!

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CRIMSON PEAK: The Art of Darkness

This month saw the release of Guillermo del Toro’s gothic romance movie, CRIMSON PEAK from Legendary Pictures! It’s a beautiful and haunting film, and I had an incredible experience getting to be part of Guillermo’s concept team on various designs for the production (including work on the films ghosts!) 

Coinciding with the films release is the Crimson Peak: The Art of Darkness book from Insight Editions! A great collection chronicling the making of the film with interviews, photos and production art throughout (along with some concept pieces and illustrations I did for the film). Below is a peek at the inside showing some of my included work, but be sure to check out the book for more!

(images from ScreenWeek blog)

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STEVEN UNIVERSE....and Lion?!

In 2012 I was delighted to get to work with the amazing Rebecca Sugar on some concept and visual development for her wonderful new show on Cartoon Network, STEVEN UNIVERSE!

Along with doing concept for the Crystal Gems Temple (you can see more of the Crystal Temple over at the Steven Crewniverse Tumblr too), I also worked on some monster concept and an early design for Steven's Lion~ who started off a bit more "sketchy" looking!

The first idea I kicked around with Rebecca was that Lion would be an unsettling, silent caricature of a lion, like an old medieval heraldry image. His face frozen into an uncertain grin except for his eyes which would follow Steven around while he creeped out the other Crystal Gems. He might not be pretty and actually kinda suspicious, but Steven loved him!

...I blame the forehead wrinkles...

That idea never went past my initial sketches, but in the end Steven got his Lion courtesy of Rebecca and her amazing team! And let's face it~ he turned out damn cute! Be sure to check out new episodes of Steven Universe~ including a new Lion episode on Dec 4!