I’m a pepper… but not for long. The Dr. Pepper lunchboxes I bought in bulk are metamorphosing into something much more sinister. (These boxes are being used as props in many of Rochester Movie Makers’ short films this summer.)
First, all the shiny metal parts are masked off with blue tape.
Then I break out the primer.
It takes a few days to apply coats of primer and spraypaint. I often get bubbles and drips of paint. If they’re really bad, I sand them down, but since these lunchboxes are meant to look old, I’m not troubled too much by a rough surface.
Next, my friend Frank prints my artwork on sticky vinyl and I apply it to the boxes.
A little acrylic paint is dry-brushed on for an antique effect, especially on the metal to make it look rusty.
Mad Monster is not the only design. Here’s a look at some artwork I did for the short “Boxed In,” which has a sci-fi/magical plot. The first piece is a space image crossed with some atomic imagery, combining the macro and micro worlds.
The next two are Nalli and Hitchcock, two “Boxed In” characters in cartoon form.
The film “Lunchbreak” requires a Bride of Mad Monster box. After sketching a feminine version of the loveable green guy, I inked and scanned her to Photoshop. I’m now halfway through coloring — no texture or shading yet.
Here’s the artwork (so far) for the lunchbox props we’ll be using in the Rochester Movie Makers summer shorts. I’ve got a few things I still want to touch up, but I think it’s pretty close.
But that’s only the beginning! At least two shorts are going to require additional lunchbox characters. I’ll have to jump into those next.
If you have any interest in seeing the long hours of Photoshop painting that went into creating Mad Monster, check the links below.
Part 1:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6388643
We all like going behind the scenes, right?
When Mike Schneider, director of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, asked me to contribute a featurette to the upcoming DVD release, I was afraid I wouldn’t have the time to do so. Well, last week I gathered strength and put together a 6 minute tutorial on interpretive rotoscoping.
Rotoscoping is an animation process that involves a lot of tracing. For NOTLD:R, I changed my style up depending on the shot — and sometimes that meant tracing 15 pictures a second with my Wacom stylus.
In this video, you can see some of that process, albeit sped up to make it more interesting.
Interpretive Rotoscoping for NOTLD:R from Mike Boas on Vimeo.
Since becoming a “captain of the internet,” I’ve become acquainted with other filmmakers and artists around the world, mostly through sites like MySpace and Indieclub.com.
One such person is Thomas Brannan, who is co-editing the two volume fiction anthology of Lovecraft inspired work, Cthulhu Unbound. He asked if I’d be interested in doing some promo art (and a Youtube “book trailer” down the road). I love the idea of mashing up genres, so I said yes.
Here are the first two of four proposed illustrations. One mixes the world of Lovecraft with detective noir, the next with the gunfighter western.
Look for the paperbacks in the spring of 2009 from permutedpress.com or friend up Thom on MySpace.
I now have an online gallery at the Animation World Network Showcase website. People who have never heard of me can now stumble onto my member pages over at AWN.
As I get into promotion mode, I’ll be putting plenty of new text and images there. For now, there’s a selection of artwork from Jason, The Other Gods, and my Animatus projects.
The big question seems to be… do I write my bio in first person or third person? How pretentious am I, really? I like to think Mike Boas is without ego.
View my own and other galleries at http://showcase.awn.com