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Why is Matte Painting so much fun?

Bragino — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:00:34 +0000

Well, there's a whole list of reasons why it's fun to make Matte paintings. It's not just that they look cool but, for me, it opens up a whole new world of dialogue as an artist. Matte painting is something that's used for creating environments for TV, Film, and Gaming. It's an exercise in creating stories and that's what appeals to me the most. I just started learning about it and so far I've been having an interesting time getting my feet wet. I'm generally teaching myself the ins and outs of it with the help of some dvd instruction from the amazing artist's over at The gnomon workshop. I am in no way affiliated with them, just a very happy customer of about 5 tutorial dvds. I've learned a lot from them and I'm using that knowledge to move my self along as an artist. Here are a couple of quick black and white environmental design comps that I did. After I had a few compositional sketches completed I opened up a cool image that I had in my image library of Scotland and decided to try my hand at making a matte painting. Check out the results below. I'm personally very happy with where this is taking me…

Here's one of the first environment sketches I did in photoshop. Very loose, just trying to sell some depth in the image and an interesting composition. This took about 10 minutes to do.

Here's the second one I did. Again this was quick, about 15 minutes. Just working on creating an environment with some decent scale to it…

Here's my first matte painting. My intention was to incorporate the Asian buildings into this Scottish landscape. Please understand that I am just beginning with this. I realize this would not be suitable for an actual Matte painting but one day through practice I'll create something that will be.. I find this process interesting because your starting out with some kind of mood or feeling and then your allowed to build whatever world you want right into that landscape. It might be too early to tell but I think I'm hooked..

MATTE PAINTING, I call this "The BonnieLand"

West Gilgo Beach Mural Documentary

Bragino — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:05:33 +0000

This is a 12 foot tall by 240 foot wide collaborative mural accomplished in the summer of 2010 by the following artists:

I designed this mural as a 4 seasons cyclical theme starting in winter on the South wall and ending again in winter on the North wall. It's painted inside a 120' tunnel and both walls were painted to complete the cycle of the seasons. I gathered some of the best artists I knew to come down and join me in the creation of this mural. My brother John shot a documentary while we painted this.

Here are two versions to view. The top one is a wider format so you can see more of the mural at one time. The bottom is for checking out details. Enjoy!!

Valley of the Egrets

Bragino — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:18:02 +0000

This image has been through many stages to get it to this point. Here's a list and a good reason to embrace technology as a tool for art…

This started out as a commission for a client that needed a wedding gift for a mutual friend. I was given some information about the soon to be couple. They both loved outdoors and nature, his favorite animal is an Egret, and she loves sunflowers.

I remembered a conversation that I had with someone from that circle of friends about canoeing down the Nissequogue river on Long Island. The sun was about to rise and as soon as it crested over the horizon it appeared as if the lights turned on over the land and the birds that were resting on the river took to flight. The biggest of those birds was a Great Egret that flew by the two guys in the canoe just above the water. I recall them being pretty inspired by the whole scene.

With all that in my head I set out to create a comp or image on the computer that I could later use to paint a large scale painting from.

After the comp was complete and approved by the client I used it to work on and complete a 7ft x 3ft painting

After the painting was complete I took high resolution images of it and brought it back into the computer where I re painted the background of the image. In the actual painting there was some loss of the time of day that's reflected here.

What your looking at in the image below is a computer painted background behind a hand painted foreground. The trees and birds are a direct scan from the original large scale painting and the background was repainted in Photoshop. Sometimes having more tools available to you is beneficial. My challenge for the next image I paint large scale by hand is to be able to get the background painted the way I want it without having to redo in the computer. On the other hand having gone through this process has led me to many ideas and techniques that I would have never thought of…..

Ballpoint Pen drawings

Bragino — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 21:41:37 +0000

A friend of mine asked me why I draw with a ballpoint pen the other day. When I first began learning to draw the figure I chose to work with pen initially so I couldn't erase. The thought process of having to accept and work with the marks that you put on a page still intrigues me to this day. It generally forces me to be braver when I draw and that always helps create more dynamic drawings, mistakes, and nuances that identify me as an individual. I like to see the struggle of the artist on the page and using a pen or any other permanent tool to make marks with encourages that. Here's some images drawn with a Ballpoint pen.

This is a drawing of Craig who regularly attends the Draw Humans sessions at Theceeflat.

Here's a few drawings of Gestural poses. These were about 2 minute poses

Here's a complete figure drawing from a 20 minute pose of Laura

Bragino Sketch 100607

Bragino — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:13:35 +0000

Using the Sketchpad on my blog I created this.

I was explaining to a friend the use of contrast or lack thereof to depict distance in a landscape image so today I decided to draw this image and play with the concepts myself. There is also the theory of warm colors vs cool colors in being able to show distance…Distance is shown here by creating less detail in the distance or (background) of this image. The colors used in the background are also cooler colors as compared to the middle ground (really warm and colorful stuff). Then the foreground is established by using lots of detail and the darkest color (black). Usually only the foreground will have high contrast or the use of black/ darker colors in relation to really light colors. These are all things that can be observed naturally outdoors. I am using the concepts and creating my own colors/ arrangement of colors to illustrate this. It's a game of sorts. Take a concept and try it out. That's what I've done here….

Freak Show @ The Habitat

Bragino — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:51:50 +0000

Spent the last two weeks building a halloween set for the Habitat Brooklyn's Freak Show happening Sat Oct 31. Signs, posters and of course a giant 3 dimensional clowns face to go above the door for would be freaks to enter through. I'll have some video once the project is completed and installed. Here's some pics of the progress so far…..

The form made of wire mesh and Papier-mâché, the eyeball is a child's bouncing ball that's been airbrushed

Yes the eyes glow created with LED flashlights mounted behind the balls, also here's two circus freaks creating the big top tent…

Almost done, more teeth to be made…

Reve

Bragino — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:57:35 +0000

Reve > is French for "Dream"

I often speak to other artists about naming of their pieces and it's not uncommon for it to be a tough subject for some. For me it seems like a simple process and this illustration was no different.

The look on the woman's face I had drawn seemed to have a longing for something different than her current situation, half removed from the person who's face was looking back at her in the mirror, a longing, dreaming of another life. Through word searching on the internet I came about the word Reve. I liked the look of the word and it seemed to fit the illustration style plus the meaning fit as well. Just like that a name is born. I've always been under the belief that no matter how much intention you have for a piece of art and what you'd like it to be you must always leave room for what it wants to be as well.