Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Moana

Moana [PG]
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
November 23, 2016 - Disney
Directed by Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall & Chris Williams

Grade: B+
Up-graded from B

+1: Characters including Moana (voice, Auli’i Cravalho) & Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

par: Songs (by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i & Mark Mancina).

par: Story.

-1: Cute pig quota.

+1: Art direction (Ian Gooding, Production Design).


par: 3D effects.

+1: Post-credits bonus scene.



Sunday, November 13, 2016

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange [PG-13]
(Marvel Cinematic Universe, phase 3, part 2 of 10)
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
November 4, 2016 - Marvel Studios
Directed by Scott Derrickson

Grade B-
Up-graded from C.

+1: Cast including Benedict Cumberbatch (as Dr. Stephen Strange).

par: “Bad guy” Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), motivations.

+1: Visual effects.

par: Story.

par: Installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


+1: 3D effects.
par: Mid-credits & post-credits bonus scenes.

Art by Bryan Mon

Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven (2016, remake) [PG-13]
Action, Adventure, Western
September 23, 2016 - MGM
Directed by Anton Fuqua

Grade B-
Up-graded from C.

+1: Cast including Denzel Washington (as Chisholm), and Chris Pratt (Jon Faraday).

+1: Big gun battles of cowboy armies.

par: Mythic Hollywood storytelling including bullet-proof heroes and all-powerful Gatlin guns.

par: Character development.

par: Story - entertainment vs. commentary.

8/10 against the original source film “Seven Samurai” (1954, Dir. Akira Kurosawa)


Art by Bryan Mon


Thursday, October 27, 2016

Client Feedback!

a.k.a. My Client Is a Graphic Designer
graphéine, graphic design [grapheine.com]
Posted October 10, 2016

Reported on Creative Bloq [creativebloq.com] as
Famous Artworks Ruined with Design by Committee

Satire based on an initial idea of Twitterer @MarieJulien with imagined clients’ feedback on several iconic posters.

See graphéine’s article for HD images.

Swiss painter, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen’s 1896 poster promoting the Parisian cabaret, Le Chat noir (the Black Cat).
A black kitten?

Graphic designer Saul Bass’ minimalistic poster for Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder.”
Blood, please!

Milton Glaser’s poster that was originally included as a bonus in a CD compilation of Bob Dylan’s songs.
Dylan isn’t black!
Graphéine continues the treatment on the Louvre museum’s logo as seen on it’s web site.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

How to Draw with Proper 2-Point Perspective

Here’s a nifty and totally, geometrically valid way of guiding yourself in drawing with 2-point perspective as demonstrated @ThingsWork Twitter feed, a.k.a. “How Things Work”:

https://twitter.com/ThingsWork/status/780853951868571648

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Storks

Storks [PG]
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
September 23, 2016 - Warner Bros.
Directed by Nick Stoller & Doug Sweetland

Grade B+
Up-graded from B

par: Story.

-1: Logic and physics.

+1: Characters including Tulip (voice: Katie Stoller).

+1: Wolf pack as Transformers.

par: Humor of emotionally manipulative kids.



Art by Bryan Mon

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Art of Minnie Mouse

The Art of Minnie Mouse
Disney Editions
available of Amazon September 27, 2016

Minnie Mouse embodies a constant reminder to girls of all ages-including grown-ups!-to live confidently and express themselves. In The Art of Minnie Mouse, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world reimagine their favorite Minnie styles and portray them in a variety of mediums. Minnie's earliest incarnation, her classic red polka-dot look, and trendy modern styles are all newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. The book also features a never-before-published comprehensive filmography of Minnie's animated appearances as well as a visual timeline of her career milestones.

My tall piece pays homage to the Hollywood portraits of George Hurrell (1904-1992) because Minnie (and Mickey) splashed on the silver screen in the early days of the motion pictures.  I am very please to have my contribution make it in the pages of this new art book – Bryan Mon


And here is a sampling of posting on Instagram for contributors and others:
@bebopdesigns

@bigmac8

@cclarkart

@dariavinog

@delacruz_ofthecross

@disneystyle

@drewmetaylor

@erictanart

@jtq3

@mark_jonathan_repaints

@rickyanimation

@robertfarrell

@rocio_cintron

@son_of_crom

@stephchowww

@sthompsonart

@twistedrat