EXTRACTS: illustrators issue 2 © 2012 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition))

90 The Studio F ROM TIME TO TIME I am hired to do post production concept art for Hollywood film studios. Postproduction concept art is used to resolve the final look of the film poster for promotion. This process involves the artist in a mass of concept sketches illustrating various compositional options. The skills required for this work is being quick on the draw and being able to nail the concept first time around with each drawing undertaken. The imperative being to visualize anything up to twenty sketches within an eight-hour day. The sketches I produce are mostly in black and white, with the studios preferring a loose and lively approach which accords perfectly with my own instincts and training as an artist. Although I did go to art school, I am largely self-taught. I studied anatomy from the age of 11 and by the age of 16 I could do reasonable renditions of the humanfigurewithout reference. I have also taughtmyself classical painting.When I embarked on acquiring these skills, I had little ideawhere theywould leadme but as a result of becoming conversant with these disciplines, I have had the pleasure of working for a wide variety of clients, as well as living in both theUK and theUS. The work that I have engaged in includes storyboards, book illustration, comic strips, developmental art for movies and, pertinent to this article, post production concept art for film promotion. I was recently hired to work on Season 3 of the popular US TV series The Walking Dead . The concept colour key illustration that you see before you is one example of the many sketches I was commissioned to create. The studio’s modus operandi is to send me a large number of thumbnail sketches for me to compose and flesh out and, as previously indicated, these need to be turned around very swiftly. In this case, this required a rare departure from rendering the image in black and white, as the studio needed a colour image for mood purposes. Looking at the images in sequence: Shows my compositional instincts with an emphasis on the 1. rhythmical dynamics of the image. I love asymmetry in composition and mostly put an angle on the horizon line. The frame around the sketch is the most important consideration—it is the window to compositional realisation. Composition is supreme over technique. It is what captures the viewer’s attention. Is general structuring of the main elements, expression, gesture, 2. form etc. The elements of the first image are guiding the drama and emotion at this stage. Here we are at the stage where light, tone and shadow add drama 3. and atmosphere to the scene. Having got all the other elements resolved I am ready to start 4. adding paint. The colour scheme I opted for was an overall muted palette to match the oppressive and gloomy subject matter. Greys offset with burning eyes of the zombie indicating a feverish sense of horror. I chose a warm grey to paint the shade and a cool grey for the lights. The warm grey was composed of Ivory Black mixed with White to which was added a touch of Ultramarine Blue. The cool grey lights were Ultramarine mixed with White. The initial John Watkiss Gets Under The Skin Of The Walking Dead ABOVE: John Watkiss’s energetic and powerful imagery are based on a solid and largely self taught grounding on the principles of dynamic drawing.