Looking into the works of Ray Harryhausen, I discovered one of his earlier influences to be the English romantic painter John Martin. His works are amazing with a great fantasy quality capturing environments that are grand, epic and visually striking. The use of humans in several of the pieces help further indicate the sense of scale and space within the piece, where the composition of swirling clouds or rock frame the piece creating a dynamic and epic atmosphere out of this world.
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The last two pieces were found in Ray Harryhausen's book.
I am most fond of Martin's works, bearing a fantastic fantasy and conceptual quality that were conceived in the 19th century! They are simply wonderful in their concepts and composition of grand environments that is greatly inspiring.
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4 comments:
I love John Martin's work - really nostalgic, but at the same time, timeless - if that makes sense! Thanks for the advice on the colour dodge... I still can't find it, so I am assuming that it is my ancient version of Photoshop to blame! I do have a newer version, just haven't got round to installing it yet...
If you like these check out J M W Turner, he worked in the same period as Martin and was often said to paint with light. He is often cited as being a major influence on the impressionists.
Evening Leo - if we're talking painters with knack for evocative landscapes, can I suggest you check out Caspar David Friedrich at http://www.caspardavidfriedrich.org/ His 'Sea of Ice' is just wonderful... meanwhile, see below
Okay - some important tips re. the essay. What I DON'T want is 1,500 words of general observations about the 'look' of a game or film; what I'm looking for is some genuine research into the creative team/rationale behind the creation of a particular world (for instance, for Superman Returns, there was a conscious effort on behalf of the production designers to create an amalgamation of time periods, so that the film had a retro/contemporary quality that referenced the forties as well as the present day); another way to discuss the 'look' of a film/game in a contextualised way is to gather together lots of film/reviews and cross-reference the similarities between observations, as reviewers identify 'trends' and 'meanings' in the production design. I want you to actually 'deconstruct' the look of something in intellectual terms, and not just bang on about the obvious stuff - this should be your mantra - AVOID GENERIC OBSERVATIONS! Find an angle, support it with external evidence and PROVE your analysis... Obviously then, I'd choose something about which you can dig up the relevant information...
Sweet, thanks for the suggested artists to look at it. And cheers for the tips on the essay Phil, I have some ideas floating around which I'll post up soon enough.
Oh and Jackie I'm sure it should be there, remembering using it in version 7 I think. I'll be happy to show you next time when we're on the comps, and yes install the later version so you can to get used to them!
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