Check out my review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of Planet of the Apes: The Art of the Films art book by Matt Hurwitz, Sharon Gosling and Adam Newell!

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Iron Man (2008) storyboards by Doug Brode

Check out Iron Man storyboards by Doug Brode!

When they were filming the blockbuster movie Iron Man they focused on the story and planning the action. So, the script wasn't done when they began filming. "They had no script, man... They had an outline." Jeff Bridges, who played Obadiah Stane, told In Contention, "We would show up for big scenes every day and we wouldn't know what we were going to say. We would have to go into our trailer and work on this scene and call up writers on the phone, 'You got any ideas?' Meanwhile the crew is tapping their foot on the stage waiting for us to come on."

Lots of scenes probably ended up on the cutting room floor. One scene that was cut was a longer version of the surgery scene to implant the arc reactor in Tony Stark's (Robert Downey, Jr) chest. In the movie it was a brief over-the-shoulder shot. But, in this storyboard by Doug Brode, it's a lot more intense.

Brode is a professional concept and storyboard artist who's worked on major films like Looper (2012), Planet of the Apes (2001) and Van Helsing (2004).

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Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) concept art by Steve Jung

Check out Transformers: Age of Extinction concept art by Steve Jung!

With the runaway success of Transformers: Age of Extinction it's inevitable that there will be a Transformers 5. It's been rumored that the title will be Transformers: Galvatron Rising (2016), but Michael Bay says, "I wanted you to hear from me directly that we have not yet chosen a title and anything being reported is absolutely not true." So, we'll have to wait and see. We'll also have to wait and see what robots will be in the next film, but here's one that didn't make the cut last time. A female robot named "Widow maker." Artist Steve Jung recently updated his Facebook page with concept art from the film and shared the design. It would have been interesting since we've only seen one other female Transformer in the movie.

Steve Jung is a professional concept artist who's worked on major films like Marvel's the Avengers (2012), Man of Steel (2013) and Thor (2011).

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Check out Dawn of the Planet of the Apes concept art by the Aaron Sims Company!

One of the premiere design firms is the Aaron Sims Company and they worked with Weta Digital to create the CGI apes for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Gino Acevedo, Creative Art Director at New Zealand effects house Weta Digital said he had to give a lot of credit to "a very good friend, a very talented artist Aaron Sims." Aaron's team helped to bring the digital apes to life and he told Under the Radar, "There’s still a lot of heartache because digital is sadly putting a lot of the practical stuff away, but at the same time there’s still a lot of the physical stuff that we still need to do. Aaron and his company actually sculpted some busts of Caesar, so we had those as practical things to look at and scan for reference."

Recently I had the chance to talk with one of the art directors from the Aaron Sims Company and he told me a little about how the team tackles these kind of blockbuster films. Steffen Reichstadt is a professional concept artist and art director for the Aaron Sims Company who's worked on Hollywood blockbusters like Sucker Punch (2011), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). 

He shared illustrations from various artists that worked for the Aaron Sims Company (ASC) on this project.

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Jurassic World (2015) concept art

Check out leaked Jurassic World concept art!

I didn't want to do it. There's been a lot of concept art for the upcoming Jurassic World bouncing around online. I swore I wouldn't post any of it for fear the studios would demand a Jihad on my blog. But, everyone else in the world has posted it, so here goes. Here's every rumored leaked concept art from the upcoming Jurassic Park sequel called Jurassic World. I have a good idea who some of the artists are, but I'm going to protect their names to prevent further reprisals.


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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) concept art by Rodney Fuentebella

The sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger is a blockbuster hit thanks to directors Anthony and Joe Russo. The two are huge comic book fans and Marvel sought them out to work on the film. They told New York Times being life-long comic book fans helped. Anthony said, "We absolutely love comic books, so that helped." Joe added, "I’ve been collecting comics since I was 10 years old. One of the first books I ever got my hands on was a Captain America-Falcon team-up." Marvel loves them so much, they're already signed up for Captain America 2. One of the big scenes in the film was a huge battle on the freeway. It was so huge that Chicago let them shut down the West Shoreway for two straight weeks. Anthony said, "I’m pretty sure people there hate us after that." One of the artists that helped visualize that scene for the directors was Rodney Fuentebella. I've already shared Fuentabella's amazing Captain America 2 concept art before, but here are some more that he updated to his website.

Fuentebella is a Senior Visual Development Illustrator at Marvel Studios who's worked on blockbuster comic book movies like The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013) and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) concept art by Jerad S. Marantz

Check out my interview with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Grimm and Edge of Tomorrow concept artist Jerad S. Marantz!

The fantasy police procedural show Grimm has been renewed for it's fourth season and is still going strong. Mike Hale of The New York Times said, "few [shows] are more purely entertaining--engaging, clever, tense, funny, well paced and featuring a remarkably appealing cast as the friends and colleagues who help Nick." Part of the fun of the show are the bizarre and terrifying creatures showcased every week. One of the artists working on the show is Jerad S. Marantz. I interviewed him about Grimm back in the first season and I'm very glad to have him back again to talk about the show along with some other projects he's worked on.

Marantz is a professional concept illustrator who's also worked on Hollywood films like Thor: The Dark World (2013), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013).

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ALIEN Diaries by H.R. Giger

Check out the book trailer for ALIEN Diaries by H.R. Giger!

Every Friday I feature artwork from a classic of science fiction cinema. This week's "Flashback Friday" post is on Alien (1979)

Back in the 70's, when lead concept designer H.R. Giger was working on the film Alien, he made a collection of diaries. The book I reviewed, Giger's Alien, told a fascinating story about the late artist and the trials he went through. Now, a new 600-page coffee table book is coming out that continues to tell the stories from the diaries. Watch the book trailer and see some samples from the book.

Giger was a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer who's worked on classic films like Batman Forever (1995), the unmade Dune by Jodorowsky and Species (1995).

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Captain America: The First Avenge (2011) concept art by Jim Martin

 Check out Captain America: The First Avenger concept art by Jim Martin!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the highest grossing movie of 2014 and it all started with the first Captain America movie. In the early days, director Joe Johnston said, "We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this?' It's that phase of the production where money doesn't matter: 'Let's put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.'" It took an army of artists to make Captain America: The First Avenger, and one of those artists was Jim Martin.

Jim Martin is a professional concept artist who's worked on blockbuster movie like Spider-Man (2002), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and the unmade Superman: Flyby.

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Check out X-Men Origins: Wolverine concept art by Evan Shipard!

The movie The Wolverine was a blockbuster success, but it's predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine was less successful. But, the artists working on that film had a lot of passion and put their heart and soul into it. Recently one of the artists, Evan Shipard, posted concept art from the film and it is gorgeous.It's flowing lines look like a oil painting.

In an interview for Art of Wa he talked about the use of digital tools saying, "It wouldn’t matter if I was doing what I do now in 1907 or 2007. The core emotion of getting ideas and feelings into some form of physical representation is the same no matter what period of history you look at. As audiences around the world view the final output of my creative endeavors in films, on websites and in publications they don’t see the very initial stages of inputting my ideas into the digital environment." 

Evan Shipard is a professional concept artist and matte painter who's worked on blockbuster movies like 300 (2006), I, Frankenstein (2014) and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

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