Tom's Art Adventures

Ambush archer

With the fall season now behind us and winter setting in (in some places harsher than others unfortunately), I had an itch to get this painting done before the end of the year. Before you know it it’ll be time for another Winter Girl piece. This was a 3 to 4 day project off and on. It was based on a blue sketch I did years ago at Colossal Pictures during some down time. I have a couple of progression images to show how I arrived at the final Photoshop CS painting.

Here’s what I ended up with:

Well that’s it for now. I wish you all a peaceful holiday season.

Nothin’ like a good old Art Sale

As many of you know, there have been a number of art exhibit/auctions at Maverix Studios. Not all of the art was sold, although there have been sell outs on occasion at these events. The entries by all the contributors have been great works of art and the buyers were bound to get good deals on the purchases. Well, now it’s time for me to put on a “clearing house” - if you will - of my own. I have sold some art at these exhibits myself, but I have plenty left in my flat file with pieces like this one:

There are 30 some odd pieces, both black & white and color if you’re at all interested. So look through the gallery and see if anything calls out to you, send me an email and we’ll work out the details. Click below or go to my website to see what’s for sale.

Thanks so much for dropping by and thanks in advance for considering a purchase or two.

Simian Scrolls - UK Apes Fanzine Cover

Lately this foray back into the “Planet of the Apes” has taken me on an art adventure I’ll never forget. The most recent adventure was the honor of creating the cover art for the fall issue of Simian Scrolls #15. This being the 40th Anniversary of the original film, I recreated elements from the famous ending and composed a digital painting.

Here’s what it looks like without the text:

I cropped in a bit here. Turns out many of my colleagues like how Dr. Zaius was rendered the most.

Another exciting aspect of connecting with the Simian Scrolls folks is that Dan Morgan and I have been asked if we would contribute to the winter issue in some interior pages and talk about our Cornelius make up.

Other “Scrolls” covers can be seen and you can download past issues of the fanzine here.

Great Turn Out For Totoro!

First estimates are in at $201,236.00! That number is a sure fire sign that the night was a complete success. Fantastic job for the organizers of this event. I had a wonderful time at the auction held at Pixar this weekend. I met so many talented artists. It was a joy to find out that every piece sold too. The live auction was a blast with fast and furious bidding, making it an exciting experience.

Stay tuned for more on the outcome of the auction!

Totoro Forest Project: Tickets on Sale!

Well, if you’ve been to the site and have seen all the remarkable and beautiful art that’s up for the September 6th auction, then nows the time to get your tickets. They went on sale at 10AM today. Here’s the link:

https://totoro.spotlightboxoffice.com/purchase/step4?ticketID=1

Hope to see you all there!

Totoro Forest Project - Fantastic!

I had heard about this project last year some time at dinner with Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa and a few other friends and colleagues. It was surely going to be quite a show as I knew that most artists would jump at the chance to be involved. Well, they jumped and they got involved and then some! It’s a benefit auction to save Sayama Forest, the very forest that was Hayao Miyazaki’s inspiration for the wonderful film “My Neighbor Totoro.
What a diverse and talented assemblage, and needless to say, I am honored to be a part of it! You can find out more about the event here: Totoro Forest Project

Here’s the digital piece that I am donating:

It’s going to be FANTASTIC!

Anatomy of a Comic Book

Not long ago, I was approached to do some comic illustration for a data base software company. This was the second in-house sales material based on Superhero comics that I was involved in. The first was for Sun Microsystems in 2001, only then the final art and book production was done in Korea. This one was created from start to finish in San Francisco.

I thought I’d share some of the steps it took to get the book done - from roughs to finish. Here are some examples:

I put together a GALLERY that shows and explains much more about the project. Remember, it’s an internal sales device for a technology company - the comic story you are about to read isn’t real - but the fun I had doing it was! Hope you enjoy it too!

Teresa

This is Teresa Palmer, Australian actress. I had come across old news somewhere that she was signed on to play Wonder Woman in the up-coming feature film “Justice League is Mortal”. Turns out that Megan Gale, another Aussie actress will play the part. Teresa is slated to portray Talia Al Ghul instead.

Sounds like it might be fun fair, meanwhile a sketch (in sketchbook pro) of the blonde lovely.

WonderCon 2008 - Ape Goes Wild!

Cornelius was a splash! The only bummer is that we got there so late on Saturday and didn’t really get a chance to mingle with the big crowds. But we had fun while it lasted.

Dan Morgan (pictured above) was on his game as the Archaeologist, Dr. Cornelius of the Planet of the Apes. The folks at the con were gracious as they took photo op after photo op with the friendly simian.

Then off to dinner and a little help to read the sushi menu…

And why not take in a bit of partying at Maverix Studios
“WonderCon Party”. It was a blast, I must admit!

These appliances were made from a sculpt that I did over a decade
ago and the costume was the one I mentioned in the previous post,
made by Paula Crist for Bill Blake back in the 1970s.

Dan and I are going to put together a “Behind the Makeup”
video of the application process. Stay tuned!

On the subject: Planet of the Apes

Rather than miss the opportunity to join in the celebration
of the 40th anniversary of the original 1968 film, I thought
I would share a little history about how Dan Morgan and I
came to attempting the Cornelius makeup.

As complete novices, back in the late 70s after
becoming huge fans of the ‘Apes’ films and later
the TV series, Dan and I were obsessed with trying
to figure out how these makeups were created.
Believe it or not, we thought they were using
some sort of putty. It wasn’t long before we found some
fanzines at the local comic store that revealed mask-
making techniques using latex rubber. We thought,
that’s easy - we’ll sculpt an ape face, approximately
the right size to fit Dan’s face, cast it in plaster of paris
and make a latex rubber copy. Well, as turns out, I used
pottery clay and it hardened in the plaster. The mold
was useless.

So, we went to the 5 and dime store and bought
a rubber monkey mask, cut it up and applied the
pieces to Dan’s face with - get this - Silly Putty!
We were proud of our achievement, sort of. But it
really didn’t look like the Apes in the films.

Eventually, we found more literature in the fanzine
section at the comic book store and found out about
Foam Latex. What a breakthrough! By the early 80s
we were experimenting with foam latex appliances.
And behold - we created this! Costume made by my mom!

We promptly attended the CreationCon - Comic Book &
Sci Fi convention in Oakland California back then and
entered the costume contest where 1 of the 3 judges was
Paula Crist (more about her later) and that same day we
met John Stanley, local “Creature Feature” TV Host.

Guess what? We won the first place prize for best makeup!
Soon our Cornelius creation was invited on the Creature
Feature TV show and an appearance at a local Movie theater
with Stanley himself.

And it was this makeup that caught Paula Crist’s attention.
It just so happened that her career as a stunt woman in
hollywood had her connected with our favorite series of films,
you guessed it…Planet of the Apes!

She had worked in stunts on “Battle”, “Conquest” and the 1974
Planet of the Apes TV series. This lead her to connections in
the makeup department and partnering with Bill Blake. They
made scheduled appearances in full makeup for 20th Century
Fox as Zira & Cornelius along side Kim Hunter & Roddy
McDowall. Crist created the costumes for Bill and herself
from the very bolts of material used for McDowall’s & Hunter’s
film costumes.

The partnership between Bill Blake and Paula had since ended,
but then she was approached by the company Martin Marrieta
(now Lockheed Martin) for the Ape couple to appear at a company
retreat and week of parties in St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands.

Well, to Dan’s and my surprise, Paula offered the job to Dan to
resurrect his Cornelius/McDowall impression and join her on
this once in a lifetime experience. With permission from 20th
Century Fox, Paula Crist and Dan Morgan were whisked off to
the Virgin Islands in 1982. Here’s some shots of her and Dan
in the very costumes that she and Bill Blake wore in those
previous promotional appearances.

First a Polariod snapshot:

And here are some 35mm shots:

Now to be fair, this sculpt was done by a friend named “Chip”.
At the time, Chip was working at a makeup shop in SF
(Cal Theatrical) and was helpful in teaching us how to get
those membrane-thin “blender edges”. That was one area that
Dan and I hadn’t mastered until after the Virgin Islands trip.
The convention makeup that won the prize and Paula had judged
just months before was only flawed by that slight margin,
but it gave us, and mostly Dan, memories we wouldn’t soon forget.

Dan Morgan purchased the Bill Blake/Cornelius costume that
Paula made and will be wearing it at the WonderCon this Saturday.
Hope to see you there!