Illustrating The Time Machine

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Gizmos and Gadgets is the theme for the next Bottleneck Gallery show and after playing with ideas for the Rocketeer (my first concept) I was told a few others were doing this so had to let it go. Still hoping to get to draw the hood ornament one of these days...

Next idea was something from another of my all time favorite films, Back to the Future. after exploring the gadgets for BTTF 2 the Hoverboard, the Air Mags self lacing shoes, self fitting and drying jacket and all the other future visions from that film it soon dawned on me that the greatest gadget in the franchise was actually the Time Machine itself. And like Doc Brown said, if you gonna build a time machine why not do it with style!

It was still a challenge to come up with something that hadn't been done before and I wanted to try something a little different.

Being such well loved films there are a lot of great art pieces already out there, including the iconic one sheet illustrations by Drew Struzan!

I can only hope that this take on BTTF will connect with a few of you out there the way it does with me. The DeLorean has always been one of the coolest cars on the planet (thanks to the films) and I wanted to try and capture the car and the essence of the time travel device and its heart, the Flux Capacitor, without including the main cast in a way that when when you see it you know exactly what it is. It wouldn't be Back to the Future without the DeLorean.

The show opens on the 18 Jan and I have 2 prints in the show. Stay tuned at bottleneckgallery.com and on @paulshipper for more details on the prints next week! Links to each piece in the gallery show below:

The Time Machine - Flux Capacitor Edition $35.00

“The charity that we will be supporting for this show will be the Humane Society. Last year, we raised a little over $4,000 with your support during our first four months for some amazing charities. ”

— The Bottleneck Team

Season's Greetings! A Gift To All...

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It's that time of year again, and have been unfortunately too busy to get Christmas Cards out to everyone, work has been great keeping me off the streets! And on a personal level, I married the love of my life last month! It has been an awesome year! So to celebrate the year gone by and also the recent release of a much anticipated Film shot here in New Zealand, I decided to create an illustration that you can download and hopefully enjoy. The illustration was created using my iPad and SketchBook Pro.

Click Here to get the 1800x2400 version. Print it out, use it as your desktop wallpaper, do what you like, but please do not sell the image on, it's a gift from me to you in thanks of a great 2012... Enjoy.

Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2013 from a studio not too far from the Shire, New Zealand.

PS.

UPDATE: I received a tweet from Germain Lussier at SlashFilm in response to him seeing the Gandalf illustration...

@paulshipper So cool man. Looks like an official poster.
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) December 24, 2012

So I decided to make it look a little more official - Remember though, it is not... ;)

The Gang's All Here - Star Wars heads to NYC

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Bottleneck Gallery's next show, 'The Gang's All Here' Begins November 9th and I chose to illustrate the gang from one of my all time favorite films since I was a kid. Star Wars: A New Hope. The Original, the one that started it all.

Gangs All Here - Star Wars - Preview.JPG

The premise of this piece is like an old, well loved family portrait. The song 'Memories, Friends and 8x10's' was ringing through my head when I was thinking about what I should do for the show.

Check out the Gallery website for more info on the upcoming show... It's also raising money for charity, which sets this gallery apart from many others... next month it's for the Make a Wish Foundation

Head here to get your copy of the Limited Edition Print.

Update! In light of the news of Disney's acquisition of LucasFilm we now have a variant print for the show...

Star Wars: the Gang's All Here - Disney Variant SOLD OUT at the show - 7 Dec 2012 - AP's now available at the SHIP SHOP — Star Wars: the Gang's All Here - Disney Variant **SOLD OUT at the show -** **7 Dec 2012 - AP's now available at the SHIP SHOP**

Tim Burton

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It's Tim Burton Month over at Planet-Pulp.com and here's my submission.

It was a tough call on what to do this month, Tim's body of work is immense and I love so much of it! Couldn't decide what character or film to concentrate on. So I chose to concentrate on the man himself and fill his head, or hair in this case with some of my favourites and his latest...

I hit the Elfman Playlist and went for it!

Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Head over to Planet-Pulp to see the Show!

Click Here to buy a Print from the Ship Shop

Featured on Slashfilm's Super Cool Page 2

Kyro + Bomber

Creating a New Look for Aussie DJ Duo

Brand Design, Character illustrations, A Crest/Shield. Egyptian Influence, Stargate on Steroids...

Kyro + Bomber have just launched their new look with the two characters i illustrated for them. Based on the Egyptian Gods, Horus and Anubis.

Check out their Facebook Page

Have a listen to their music

Win a Signed Print!

All who follow upto the 555 mark will go in a draw to win 1/5 signed prints RT this get more chances to win! Okay? GO! paulshipper.com
— Paul Shipper (@paulshipper) September 30, 2012

Be in to win a signed print!

All you have to do is follow me on Twitter and RT this

This is an ongoing Competition and Winners will be selected at the end of each milestone!

All the best and Good Luck!

PS

DREDD : Happy Birthday to Jock4twenty

Jock's work has just blown me away lately...between his work on Detective Comics' epic Batman story 'Black Mirror' and his recent work on the new Dredd movie… including a gorgeous Print for Mondo! Well if you havent seen his work already, check out http://www.4twenty.co.uk freaking awesome stuff!

So, I've been wanting to draw a picture of the new Dredd ever since I saw the first glimpse of the new film being made... Busy times left me unable to, even though I've got a number of projects on the go right now, I had to find the time to draw Dredd... And then I saw on Twitter it was Jock's Birthday today! Wanted to send him something ;) so the time was NOW! Perfect excuse… It’s the Man’s Birthday! Hope he likes it!

Hope you (and Jock) like the artwork, can't wait for the movie to come over to NZ, Oct 4th I believe!…

Check it out on the portfolio http://portfolio.paulshipper.com/all

Wow! The art has been making its way around the web:

Here's a public thank you from Jock!:

thanks to @paulshipper for that Dreddful b/day present
— jock (@jock4twenty) September 26, 2012

SlashFilm: http://www.slashfilm.com/page-2-525/

GeekTyrant: http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/9/26/cool-dredd-3d-poster-art.html

GeekyNerfHerder: http://geekynerfherder.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/cool-art-dredd-by-paul-shipper....

Dredd Movie Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=198857176913099&set=a.14240056922...

The official DREDD 3D Movie Page posted the artwork and has been well received. Check it out

WHIIITE! Remix Artwork

Recent artwork for Whiiite Remix! Just released.

Features Whiiite, with Cypress Hill, Skrillex, Birdy Nam Nam and Rusko!

Check out Whiiite on Soundcloud and get the Free Download!

News Story on GottaDanceDirty.com

And see the large version of the art over at the Portfolio

Band of Brothers and Flight of the Conchords Prints at Bottleneck Gallery NY

My first Gallery work is being shown at Bottleneck Gallery NYC among a host of awesome talents including Mark Englert, Barry Blakenship, Chris Garofalo and Samuel Ho. They recently had their opening of the gallery with this show and is still running until the 28th Sept 2012, so if you are in NYC I recommend you head on over to check out this new Gallery and all the great work they have on show and for sale. A large portions of the proceeds go to charity and you get to walk away with a pretty unique piece of art! This month is their first show and it’s theme is Inspired by Premium Cable TV. I chose HBO first of all because I Loved Band of Brothers, and had to do a Flight of the Conchords piece (NZ-NYC Connection). The charity is the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research.

The art on show is mostly prints and you can pick up limited edition reproductions of my work there. They are printed to the highest specification Giclée's and I was on hand to proof all the prints sent out to the gallery. Each hand signed and numbered. there is an edition of 20 of a smaller 16x24” of each piece and also a full size 20x30 reproduction of each that is also available to purchase that have been framed and on show at the gallery. The originals were created on 20 x 30” illustration board, and created by my fair hand… The originals are illustrated on Gessoed Crescent Illustration Board using acrylic airbrush inks and Prismacolor pencils.

These Giclée prints seriously came out amazingly well and I am really proud to have them out there.

I want to wish Bottleneck Gallery all the very best with this and all the coming shows, they have done a great job and I look forward to being part of some of your future shows!

There is a great review of the show online, be sure to head over to Posterocalypse they have picked their favorite pieces from the show and critiqued them, well worth a read ;)

Band of Brothers:16x24" Giclée Print Signed Edition of 20 $60

Band of Brothers Signed Framed Edition of 1: Original Art Size 20x30" Giclée Print $450

Flight of the Conchords: 16x24" Giclée Print Signed Edition of 20 $60

Flight of the Conchords Signed Framed Edition of 1: Original Art Size 20x30" Giclée Print

$450

Illustrating Galactica

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I was given the honor of becoming the first illustrator to be commissioned to create a brand new illustration for Intrada’s latest Soundtrack release. Usually using stock imagery and posters, this is a shift from their usual ethic and the Guys at Intrada and Joe Sikoryak at Designwell should get a well deserved pat on the back for giving this a go! I think (and hope) it paid off for you. I have read a few nice things about the cover online ;)

The third Album of music from the Original Series collection of Scores by Stu Phillips, whose music I can say without hesitation that most of my generation grew up with, Knight Rider among one of my favorites. But Battlestar Galactica was a seriously epic sound for a TV show and I am so pleased to have been given the opportunity to be involved in this release.

Some of you who are Soundtrack Fans like me, may recognize Joe’s name… that’s because he’s worked on many soundtrack covers over the years and he was also the designer for FSM (Film Score Monthly) for whom I did a number of illustrations for back in the day. We’ve both been looking for a project to work together on over the years since FSM was a printed publication, and we finally found one!

Head over to the Intrada Website and have a look and listen to some of the tracks and even order yourself a copy.

Check it out on the Portfolio

The Avengers Art That Never Made It To The Drawing Board!

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I was asked by the organizers of ComiConn to create an illustration for the upcoming convention programme cover... Superheroes of my choice? ...hmmm, had to be the Avengers!

The illustration came together really well, sketched out ideas, researched, then designed in photoshop and illustrated using Autodesk sketchbook pro on the iPad. Originally just for mock up / Comp / idea purposes, but the client loved it so much they ran with it! Here it is as a mock up film poster.

I recently tweeted about the fact that my Avengers illustration was actually created on my iPad last week using a great drawing and painting app called SketchBook Pro by AutoDesk

Well, the SketchBook Pro team at AutoDesk saw it and wanted to do a little feature on me and the illustration process.

Head over to The SketchBook News Blog to read more about the creation of the artwork that never made it to the drawing board!

Labyrinth

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I created this illustration for this months Planet-Pulp Show

Every month we have a new theme and this month is The Fabulous Jim Henson Creature Show!

I chose to illustrate Labyrinth mainly because at the weekend, my Daughter asked if we could watch it! It had been a while since we last sat and watched it, but the first thing that popped into my head was, “Planet-Pulp”! Thanks Millie for the inspiration!

Since posting the image on Planet-Pulp.com the art has been picked up by our friends over at SlashFilm alongside some other awesome Labyrinth related artwork from Spoke Art and been tweeted and retweeted all over the place! Gotta love the internet for sharing stuff if a lot of people like it…

Thanks for all the tweets everyone and glad you like this illustration of one of our most loved childhood films.

View Larger Image on the Folio

Dance Magic Dance!

A Keynote For the Kids

I recently did a little Keynote speech at a Primary School in Te Awamutu, (TAPS) for a Symposium they held for a select number of Schools around New Zealand.

It was a great experience talking to the kids about finding and following your passions and I talked mostly about my own experince growing up and being inspired to become an illustrator. I had some of my original work on display for them to get up close to and created this showreel of some of my work created over the past 10 years for them to watch.

A brief synopsis of what I talked about:

Collecting film posters when I was younger from my local video shop, they were all over my bedroom walls. I was always drawing pictures from a very young age mostly inspired by the films and tv shows I loved to watch. One day I noticed something about the posters I had collected, they all bore the same signature.... "drew" who was "drew"? I soon realised that this was a person who's job was drawing pictures for a living - and out of that came the notion of what an illustrator was! I then knew what I wanted to do....

Years go by following my path and I'm at college, my Art Tutor, Jon Warmisham handed me a new magazine... he was very excited about some digital art/software that was coming out and wanted me to have a look at it. Jon was an amazing teacher and he was something of a pioneer when it came to digital art, ever heard of ProArtisan? Jon Wrote that software for Archemedes Computers back in the day...

Well, I had a look at the article and while flicking through, something caught my eye. An article on Drew Struzan, my illustration Hero! I read the article front to back, sideways every way imaginable, the internet was just getting started back then and print was really the only way to really find stuff out... no google back then! I found that at the back of the publication, there was a list of contributers to the magazine and their contact info... and their was drew's info!

I thought about it for a while, then figured, what have I to lose, I sent drew a fax.

That evening I got home and there was a piece of paper on my bed. A faxed reply from Drew!

It was amazing to hear what drew had to say, although a little disappointing to hear him say there is no film poster industry anymore... but one phrase of wisdom has stuck with me from that first correspondance. "keep knocking until the door is opened to you..."

We have kept in touch over the years and I am fortunate to have invited to meet him at his studio in Pasadena for a day (an awesome day never forgotten!)...

The main word that came out of the keynote and the Symposium as a whole remained Drews words "Keep knocking..."

This is just a part of what I talked about, it was unscripted but I'm sure you get the gist.

Me and Gareth Duncan, Principal with all the Kids at the TAPSFM Symposium

It was a real privelidge to share my story with everyone that was at the symposium and hold a couple of logo design workshops with you all - you are quite a talented bunch for sure! Hope you are all still wearing your red TAPSFM T-Shirts!

Thanks to Gareth Duncan and his team of exceptional people at TAPS for holding this great event!

Big thanks to Drew for inspiring me from such an early age and continuing to do so today!

And thanks to all the kids for coming along and listening to my story, I hope you enjoyed it!

Works for a Gallery Show

I have created two new illustrations recently for an upcoming gallery show at the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, USA

The title of the show is “More Than You Imagined: Art Inspired by Premium Cable” and will run from September 7th up until September 28th and its for a good cause too! The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research…

I chose 2 shows from HBO:

Band of Brothers and Flight of the Conchords

Band of Brothers was an absolutely jaw dropping series that I could not miss when it aired

and Flight of the Conchords had to be done as I am living in New Zealand and the show was filmed in NYC so it was a no-brainer!

Hope you enjoy the art. 1/1 Signed Giclée prints (20x30") will be on display/for sale and a small print run of 20 signed prints (16x24") both paintings will be available first come first served...

the prints came out specatacularly, I proofed them myself to ensure the quality.

Visit the gallery website here: Bottleneck Gallery

The drop goes live Mon 10th Sept between 8:50 - 9:10 EST

Shots Fired - Packin' Heat - Illustrating a Rock Album Cover

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I recently completed this illustration for Aussie Rock Band ‘Shots Fired’ The album is called “Packin’ Heat”. The cover art is an homage to the somewhat sexy/saucy/hot album covers of the late 70’s and early 80′s by the likes of WhiteSnake and Scorpions’ …

Here’s what the band had to say:

“We had decided during the recording process of the album that we wanted a cover that would perfectly reflect who Shots Fired were.
Largely influenced by the hard rock bands of the 70’s and 80’s, we wanted the cover of the album to perfectly reflect that so we put the word out to find an illustrator that could help us achieve that vision.
Several artists got in touch but one stood out from the rest of the pack. Looking at Paul’s portfolio I was blown away by his ability and style and quickly contacted the band to look over Paul’s prior work. We all agreed he was the one to help us achieve our vision so we established contact and shot through a brief.
Within days, Paul had sent through a sketch which perfectly captured what we were after. Minor tweaks here and there were suggested and met with aplomb! Paul would update us daily and via his blog, we could see his progress and share that progress through our Facebook fan base.
We loved what Paul did for us and I know full well we will be working together on other projects in the future.”

— John Raptis (Shots Fired)

You can view this finished art over at the folio

Stephen Jared's Elephants of Shanghai - Illustrating the cover

It's been a real pleasure working with author Stephen Jared again on the cover art for his next Jack Hunter novel The Elephants of Shanghai

The illustration has been hand rendered using Prismacolor pencils and acrylic airbrush inks on gessoed Illustration board.

Here are some shots taken during the process of creating the art.

“When Star Wars came out I was nine. In Midwest America, you walk out of movies and see nothing but open land and empty highways. There’s no place to channel the excitements just encountered, so they linger. They inspire you, but there’s nothing you can do with the inspiration, so you dream. Back then we couldn’t pick up DVDs and watch films over and over, and so the films tended to expand in scope, imagination taking them further. After Star Wars, we were hammered with stories of far away places and exciting adventures. By the time Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom came out, I was in big trouble—I could do nothing but think about movies. I can vividly recall staring at the painted posters by Drew Struzan and experiencing the same feelings I had watching the films. They were so full of adventure and romance; I wanted to live inside them. Like magic, they seemed beyond two-dimensional pictures, but instead were living, breathing worlds you wished you could enter.

I’ve written two stories in what I hope will be a series of adventures that pay tribute to the works that inspired me in my youth. The first, Jack and the Jungle Lion, received much critical praise, including an Honorable Mention in the Hollywood Book Festival. The next one, The Elephants of Shanghai, is coming soon. Paul Shipper’s work on the cover illustrations has taken me right back to those same feelings I had as a kid. I stare at them—and I can’t stop staring at them. With Struzan’s retirement, it seemed a visual language, spoken only by one, had been lost. But, thankfully, it has not been lost. Paul has mastered that language of romance and adventure, of storytelling within a picture. It has been a huge honor to partner with him for this ongoing project. I continue to be amazed by him." – Stephen Jared

See the art from the first novel Jack and the Jungle Lion here and you can also check out Stephen's Website here

See the final artwork over at the portfolio site

The Iron Giant

Are you a fan of the Iron Giant like me? I still remember going to the cinema on my own, no one else wanted to see this movie at the time… It was a wintery day and the movie sucked me right into the period, the characters, the story...this movie has Massive soul and it touched my heart BIG time… Years later I introduced it to my Daughter who instantly got it and it was absolutely fantastic to share this film with her. This illustration started out in 2008 as a gift for my little girl after watching the film together and I've been wanting to do something more with it since then. I hope you like the image and if you haven't seen this awesome animated film, I hope that this poster might inspire you to rent it! You won't be disappointed!

Young Indy Celebrates 20 Years with some new art!

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I recently created a Young Indiana Jones poster illustration that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking Young Indiana Jones series.

As you all know I am a huge Indy fan, and I have always been a fan of the show too!

Here's what Thomas Riddle had to say:

"Paul's work surpassed our expectations. The movie style poster captures the excitement and adventure of Indy's exploits throughout the series plus the tagline from the series "Before the world discovered Indiana, Indiana discovered the world"."

Be sure to view the larger version at http://portfolio.paulshipper.com/all

Check out Indy In The Classroom, a website dedicated to teaching history using the World of Indiana Jones that even gets the thumbs up from George Lucas himself… www.indyintheclassroom.com

Check my Instagram account too where I publish 'work in progress' images while I'm in the studio… don't have instagram? don't worry, you can see my pictures here too: http://www.gramfeed.com/paulshipper Here's a sample of some of the shots while working on this illustration.

Elephants of Shanghai - Teaser Trailer

Avengers Assemble Illustration for ComiConn