I did these storyboards in 1992 for a contemplated TV ad spot for the Dinotopia book. The ad was never produced. The idea of a skeleton rising from the earth is based on the classic story from Ezekiel of the dry bones lifting up and coming to life.
The bright sunspot at the center of the picture was so strong that it bleached out the dark tones of the the gunwale of the dinghy at center.
If you will pardon me for tooting my own horn, Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara was chosen in the Best Interior Illustration category. I am very grateful to the members of ASFA for their vote of support.
I did these watercolor sketches while waiting for the buses in the stations.
This one took about an hour. I checked first with the drivers to make sure it was going to stay put for a while.
It was fun to show the sketches to the guys in the station, who knew all the buses individually. There are rumors that the E.U. is going to crack down on the Maltese buses because of their unregulated emissions. In a few years, some people told me, they'll be in a museum.
Route 49 takes a loud and bumpy ride from Qawra to Valetta. I did this sketch of the driver as he steered, shifted, made change, and called out to his friends along the way.
When I first designed Waterfall City (detail, above) I hadn’t dreamed up the idea of Dinotopia yet, with its partnership of humans and saurians. The logical way to travel across the chasm was by a giant pterosaur, but at the time I was thinking of hang gliders.
These design sketches imagine configurations for hang gliders a little different from the ones Otto Lilienthal and the Wright Brothers came up with.
Over the next few days, while I'm assembling some of my trip sketches, I thought I’d show you some of the early concept sketches for Waterfall City (1988). Here’s one from 1987 showing the water emerging from two big arches, like something at the edge of the world. The lighting is from below, which gives it a strange feeling, and the architecture is reminiscent of the early skyscraper architecture of Hugh Ferris.
I followed a narrow trail near the summit and found myself surrounded by a small group. They were busily chattering, nibbling on fruit, and grooming each other. I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing them. They're awfully shy about eye contact, so I used the sidelong glance technique that had worked earlier with gorillas (see previous post).
One of the juveniles perched behind me, watching over my shoulder, commenting on my technique to his compatriots. All of the sudden he leaped onto my shoulder. I held my breath. He watched every move of my hands, and then started grooming my neck and reaching down my shirt with his little cold fingers.
He dug into my pockets and found a couple pieces of a cracker. Then his friends came over. The guy on my shoulder must have wanted to mark me as his own, because he sent a little jet of pee down my neck.
I'm back from Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, and Gibraltar. Here's the reaction of my Yorkshire airline seatmates to my three-week old unwashed clothes, scraggly beard, and monkey urine aroma.
Fountain pen and marker is a good combination for doing concept art sketches. The pen is an inexpensive Waterman pen from an office supply store. You can fill it with any color ink that you want, as long as the ink is watersoluble. Markers can then give the sketch a touch of color without dissolving the pen line. If you want to melt the penline, you can use a water-based pen, like the waterbrush I’ve mentioned on previous posts.
