Matte paintings are paintings that produce the illusion of a background or part of a background in film. They can also form part of a foreground.
Matte paintings are almost as old as movies themselves, and were originally painted on glass, and positioned in front of, and/or behind the actors (or stop motion creatures), creating the illusion in the camera of a complete scene.
Modern matte painting is composited, and usually created, digitally.
Tim Warnock is both a matte painter and a concept artist, and some time ago retired his paintbrushes in favor of a Wacom stylus.
I wrote a brief post about Tim Warnock back in 2005; since then his online portfolio has been redone and, of course, there is much new work.
His portfolio is divided between matte painting (image above, top and detail, bottom left) and concept art (above, middle and detail, bottom, right).
Warnock brings a talent for crisp realism, characteristic of matte painting, to his concept art. In both cases he uses sharp value contrasts and carefully controlled color relationships to give his scenes high definition and visual drama.
that is freaking gorgeous. it’s interesting to find out how they use art in making parts of movies that I assumed were actually sets, and it’s nice to be reminded that art made on a computer is still art!
Wow.
Fascinating how technology has changed art and how some aspects remain the same. We pay the price of a movie ticket to see movie stars prance around in front of the amazing, panoramic and awe-inspiring work of artists like Warnock. In 1859 Frederic Church charged admission to see his similarly inspiring, colossal ‘Heart of the Andes,’ a 66 x 119 inch canvas that toured some American cities and is the second largest painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Unfortunately, today, unless you stay to read through all the credits which include the caterers and the personal assistants, you wouldn’t know who Mr. Warnock is. I can only hope he makes ridiculously great piles of money doing this.