An ordinary artist shows you the things everybody can see. The egotistical artist shows you the things only he can see. But the great artist shows you things nobody ever saw before.
- Pablo Picasso
Failing is not a problem.
Not trying is a problem.
- Jay Maisel
 

 

Friday, August 29, 2008

Adam Brockbank

Posted by Charley Parker at 9:51 am

Adam Brockbank
I can tell you little about Adam Brockbank, except that he is a film industry concept and storyboard artist, and quite a good one.

His site doesn’t include any biographical information, but does, fortunately, showcase a number of his terrific concept paintings and drawings for movies like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (image above), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Alexander, Troy, Spiderman 2, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2, Fire from Heaven, X-Men and Sleepy Hollow.

There is also a selection of storyboard work from films and television productions like Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Dinotopia, Alice in Wonderland, Lost in Space and The Borrowers.

You can see a more complete list on the IMDB site.

His storyboards are clear and crisp, with just enough tone work to suggest lighting and atmosphere. His concept art ranges from briefly notated sketches to fully rendered paintings of complex and large scale scenes. He seems particularly adept at portraying the cities and scenes of ancient civilizations as depicted in movies like Alexander, Troy and Fire from Heaven; combining a National Geographic feeling of historical reconstruction with a cinematic flair for drama.

In between his lightly rendered and highly rendered approaches are paintings that frequently look more rendered than they are, in which his artful economy of notation conveys a great deal of atmosphere and mood in the choice of large areas of color balanced with smaller passages of detail.

There is also no indication of medium or technique on the site, but it looks like he paints digitally, though his work can have a feeling of traditional painterly materials.

I can’t give you direct links to sections because the site is in Flash, but be sure to view his wonderfully realized historically themed paintings for Fire from Heaven.

Addendum: Adam was kind enough to write and let us know that he has been working on a new comic called Mezolith, written by Ben Haggarty, that debuts next week in issue 15 of The DFC, a UK kids comics anthology. You can see a preview here.

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News:

Exhibition list updated November 11 (lower in this column)


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Exhibitions
Drawing, Illustration and Comics
Updated 11/11/08
Double Lives: American Painters as Illustrators, 1850-1950
Sept 6 - Nov 23, 2008
Brandywine River Museum, DE
The Totoro Forest Project
Sep 20, 2008 - Feb 8, 2009
Cartoon Art Museum San Francisco, CA
A Light TOuch: Exploring Humor in Drawing
Sep 23 - Dec 7, 2008
The Getty Center, CA
New Acquisitions
Oct 7 - Dec 31, 2008
Society of Illustrators, NY
Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Oct 20, 2008 - Jan 11, 2009
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Giles: One of the Family
Nov 5, 2008 - Feb 15, 2009
The Cartoon Museum, London, UK
Over the Top: American Posters from World War I
Nov 8, 2008 - Jan 25, 2009
Norman Rockwell Museum, MA
Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin
Nov 15, 2008 - Jan 4, 2009
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA
Frank E. Schoonover: An Artist for All Seasons
Nov 22, 2008 - Jan 11, 2009
Delaware Art Museum, DE


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