Motionista

Big Aunt Jo Progress 2-10-2012

2012-02-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

Art Show Email Box

2012-02-03T18:30:00.005-05:00

I think I went a little too far. But I think I can get on "Shark Tank" with this.

"Big Aunt Jo" Progress 2-1-2012

2012-02-01T19:17:00.002-05:00

Trying out the name "Big Aunt Jo" for now. Acrylic on paper, 24" x 18". These are not good photos. To me this painting looks a lot better than these pictures are showing. But, for the amount of energy I'm putting into this painting I could have done 5 to 10 landscape watercolors. And most of my time doing the landscapes are in the glorious outdoors instead of my studio. It remains to be seen how I'll spend my time.

Cartoon Cards from 1986

2012-01-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

Figure Drawing, January 26th 2012

2012-01-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

Painting progress for "12 Hours Before Zero"

2012-01-26T01:34:00.000-05:00

Acrylic on paper, 24" x 18"

Color Study for "12 Hours Before Zero"

2012-01-13T22:47:00.002-05:00

"12 Hours Before Zero", that's the working title anyway. Acrylic on watercolor paper, 10" x 8". I printed out the preliminary drawing from my printer, dusted it with workable fixative then painted over it. I found a sign printer who will print on watercolor paper 24"x18" for $15. So that's my next step.

Imagine... Children's Book Illustration

2012-01-11T21:04:00.001-05:00

This is a preliminary sketch for one page of a children's book I'm co-authoring with Jonathon Stanwood. "Imagine..." is the working title.

3D Logo Animation

2012-01-10T13:26:00.004-05:00

Michael Stancato - Motionista, Creative Director, 3D Animator, 2D special effects and compositing artist
David DeMarco - Owner, Founder at BrainCell Productions
Daegen Smith - Maximum Leverage, CEO

Valley Forge Cabin

2012-01-07T17:23:00.000-05:00

Valley Forge Cabin, Watercolor, 5" x 4"

Mortonville Bridge, Coatesville, PA

2011-12-09T23:50:00.000-05:00

Mortonville Bridge, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Mortonville Bridge Progression

Lafayette Street, West Chester, PA

2011-12-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

Lafayette Street, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Lafayette Street sketch

Chester County Night School

2011-12-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

Chester County Night School Cover, Acrylic on canvas, Ink on vellum, and Digital.

Bridges 3D Logo

2011-11-27T15:02:00.005-05:00

My original storyboard

Still frames from a test render.

In progress. I plan to model and animate stylized figures walking across the bridge.

November Painting and Drawing

2011-11-03T22:24:00.001-04:00

Chester County Night School Cover Progression

Binky Lee Spring House, Watercolor, 10" x 8"

Binky Lee Spring House progression

Valley Forge Hill, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Valley Forge Hill progression

Knox's Barn, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Knox's Barn progression

October Painting and Drawing

2011-10-08T08:20:00.001-04:00

Lone Tree King Ranch, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Stroud's Confluence, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Stroud's Confluence progression

Strasburg Bridge, Watercolor, 7"x5"

Strasburg Bridge progression

Hat Rack House Back Door, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Laurel Bridge, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Laurel Bridge Progression - Recomposing the scene before me. Mixing colors I've never mixed before. Using filbert brushes for the first time in watercolor giving calligraphic strokes I like. Drawn and partially painted on site. Stink bugs were attacking me the whole way through so I finished in studio. Almost lost the drawing in the paint but brought it back by printing the line drawing and keeping it before me while painting.

September Painting and Drawing

2011-09-30T08:31:00.000-04:00

Jamie Wyeth-Dupont Estate, Watercolor, 12"x9"

Old Sharples House aka Carlton's on Franklin Street, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Walker King Spring, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Hagley Mill, Watercolor & gouache, 10"x8"

Longwood Italian Gardens, Watercolor & gouache, 10"x8"

Hat Rack House, Watercolor & gouache, 10"x8"

Hat Rack House Color Studies, Watercolor, 10"x8"

August Painting and Drawing

2011-08-31T21:35:00.000-04:00

The Triune Brain, Oil on Board, 16" x 16". A color study can be found in July Painting and Drawing. The concept behind this piece can be found in my earlier post here.

Big Aunt Jo sitting on her stoop at the collision of the Halloween Parade and the May Procession on the day before I was born.

Goshenville Springhouse, Watercolor, 12"x9"

Poster for Upcoming Show

2011-08-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

July Painting and Drawing

2011-07-31T00:29:00.000-04:00

Hibernia Creek, Watercolor 10"x8"

Hibernia Creek, Sketches

Green Tree Building, Watercolor 7" x 5"

Green Tree Building Sketch

Valley Creek, Watercolor 12"x7"

Valley Creek Sketch

Valley Creek, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Valley Creek Sketch

"The Triune Brain" Color study in progress. The concept behind this piece can be found in my earlier post here.

"Phact vs Friction" 9"x12", Digital in progress

Transhumanism | Next

Convolution /Congruency / Sinbolism, study, digital

Charles Bargue Drawing Course

Dark Flower

June Painting and Drawing

2011-07-01T00:22:00.000-04:00

Everhart Grove, Watercolor, 10" x 8"

Everhart Grove progression

Horace Pippin Bench, Watercolor, 7" x 5"

Strouds South Creek #3, Watercolor, 12" x 8"

Conner House, Watercolor, 10" x 8"

Stroud's South Creek #2, Watercolor, 10" x 8"

Dorlan Mill House

Triune Brain study, Watercolor 5" x 5"

Stroud's South Creek #1, Watercolor, 10" x 8"

May Painting and Drawing

2011-05-31T23:17:00.000-04:00

Cheslen Hillside, Watercolor, 10"x8"

Corcoran's Bridge, Watercolor, 10"x8"

April Painting and Drawing

2011-05-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

Kelsall Barn, Watercolor, 10"x8", Available.

First try, progression.

First try, not thrilled with the color.

Unfinished color studies

Kerr Park View, Watercolor, 7"x5". Available.

Etchings from Tyler School of Art 1981

2011-04-06T23:01:00.001-04:00

I'm enamored by pattern, detail and how they overlap. I look at this 30 years later and realize the pattern theories on my Perplexity blog are still focused on the same thing. Now I'm about to explore this again.

March Painting and Drawing

2011-03-31T23:14:00.000-04:00

Windy High View, Watercolor, 10"x8". Available.

Mixed Media, 10"x8". Available.

Watercolor 16"x12"

Watercolor, 10"x8"

Hibernia Bridge, Watercolor, 10"x8". Available.

Preliminary drawing all done on site "Plein Air" in about an hour, fifteen minutes.

Stroud's High View, Watercolor, 7"x5". Available.

Springton Ruins progression.

Springton Ruins, Watercolor, 12"x9". Available.

Dowlin Forge Springhouse, Watercolor, 12"x9"

Stroud's Creek, Watercolor, 7"x5". Available.

Springton Farm, PA, Watercolor, 12"x9". Available.

February Painting and Drawing

2011-02-28T16:11:00.000-05:00

Watercolors from last year

2011-02-13T00:03:00.000-05:00

January Painting and Drawing

2011-01-31T20:18:00.000-05:00

Progress

2011-01-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

Progress, Ink on Paper, 18"x24"

December Painting and Drawing

2010-12-31T23:35:00.000-05:00

Jack

2010-12-27T01:24:00.000-05:00

A friend requested this portrait at 6:25pm and it was done by 8:45pm. Watercolor seems to come easy for me.

Dooner Island

2010-12-11T16:44:00.000-05:00

Ink on paper, 18"x24"

Cartoons of Christmas Past

2010-12-04T19:24:00.001-05:00

Self promotional Christmas card, 1986

I'm surprised the Honeywell Corporation used this in 1987. Maybe environmental issues were not so charged.

My commentary regarding technology hasn't changed much in all these years. The difference now is I've been introduced to the concepts of Usability Design and Transhumanism.

November Painting and Drawing

2010-11-30T21:45:00.000-05:00

October Painting & Drawing

2010-10-28T10:36:00.000-04:00

Halloween Costume

2010-10-18T00:35:00.001-04:00

Painted on a paper bag, 1988

September Paintings

2010-09-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

Illustrations from the early days

2010-09-20T23:55:00.000-04:00

September Figure Drawing

2010-09-14T23:35:00.000-04:00

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

5 minute pose

2 minute pose

August 2010 Painting and Drawing

2010-08-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

Latest Plein Air Oil Paintings

2010-08-07T20:04:00.001-04:00

E♥MC²

2010-07-29T00:30:00.001-04:00

Formula

Evolution

Transmission

Explanation

E♥MC²
© 2010 Motionista

Here's the first sketches of a symbol and written drafts that are at the core of what I will be working to express. I see many artists doing the same but I think I'm the first to link it so directly to science and mathematics.

Einstein proved energy and matter are one in the same. As energy and matter are transforming back and forth we mere humans if in tune and in harmony experience this flux as love.

My theory is that this transformation occurs in a hierarchical pattern. The energy transferred through evolution which is information building on information.

This information.energy is propagated hierarchically which then overlaps to produce a rhizomatic (aka semi-lattice structure). When we have energy traveling over both hierarchical and semi- lattice structures we have a circuit rich in feedback. When we have this hierarchical, semi-lattice structure with feedback we have consciousness.

First Oil Paintings

2010-07-18T00:06:00.001-04:00

I'm not good at Plein Air painting yet but I'm loving it! A perfect combo of hiking and art. I'm determined to get better. I have two goals for this skill in no particular order. I'd like to master the natural subject matter then take each landscape, break it up into layers; foreground, middle-ground and background. Then I'll intertwine the hierarchical and semi-lattice patterns I write about on my Perplexity blog in these three essays:

Theory of Almost Everything
Understanding in Four Dimensions
Repeating DABDA Visual Model

I probably use a 3D program like Cinema 4D or Blender to work out the arrays and perspective but afterward I may just paint it. I'm determined to express these ideas visually in a number of ways so that people will find it easier to understand and more accessible.

Concept, Illustration and Design for Healthcare

2010-06-23T01:07:00.000-04:00

I concepted, designed and illustrated this trade show panel for DSG which develops software used in medical trials. They use it to track new pharmaceuticals and procedures. The gear images and the glass panels background were used as the main elements throughout their print and web campaign to market the newest version of this major product.

Will Newcomb's unrequited hope.

2010-06-21T23:09:00.000-04:00

My drawing based on Will's painting called "Hope, KS". He is dying of Unnatural Causes. Both a tribute to my grade school classmate and call for social change.

May 2010 Painting

2010-05-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Glacier National Park watercolor, 6.25" x 4.25".

Think Outside

2010-03-23T19:23:00.001-04:00

Inspired by the transformation of ultralight backpacking

Recent Sketches

2010-01-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

Cognitive Science storyboard

2009-12-13T11:52:00.000-05:00

This storyboard reflected distractions and deadlines encountered in a fast production line. Cognitive Science appends a happy ending to this confusion.

Steps for a complex watercolor landscape

2009-12-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

Canyonlands National Park reference photo I took

Trees and rocks need to be recomposed. Sketching is the time to make these changes. The immediacy of watercolor is usually not the time for making big changes in composition.

The foreground rock construction needs to be known in detail from edge to edge before painting. The tree placed in front then needs to be composed to work with the rocks.

A very small color study 4 3/4" x 3 3/8". Not sure the tree in the foreground would work so I left it out but may put it back in the final. I didn't transfer the foreground rocks accurately. So I decided to try a different contour. It's not as successful. I lost the nice stair-stepping I originally drafted so I'll recapture that in the final unless I think of something better.

The final is also small, 6 1/2" x 4 1/2". But it fits a standard size matte. Using Photoshop to sketch the foreground tree. It's important that the tree branches fit well over the foreground rocks. I will paint the tree following the Photoshop sketch. I just started painting watercolors 10 months ago. Maybe I'll do away with some of these steps as I gain experience.

It came out OK. I'm enamored with idea of mastering detail right now. I figure, once I get comfortable with capturing detail I'll move to painting more expressively using gestural action. I think I accomplished this on earlier watercolors posted here, but I was glossing over detail I wanted to paint. Once I can do both, I think I'll have professional level watercolors. Then I'll be able to focus on and refine lighting, mood and metaphor. That will be something!

Thanksgiving Open for Channel 6 WPVI, ABC Television

2009-12-03T19:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a still frame from a vintage 1991 animated open that I worked on. Manny Amit - Art Director, Wendy Elwell - Wavefront 3D Artist, Michael Stancato - Paintbox Artist, Andrew Titcomb - Compositor.

November 2009 Painting

2009-11-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Wasatch Mountains outside of Salt Lake City.

Animated Commercial

2009-11-21T23:35:00.000-05:00

Here's an animated commercial I'm working on for a national product. It's going to be 3D and stop action animation.

Here's another concept.

Title design for Universal Pictures, 2008

2009-10-31T20:39:00.000-04:00

Mummy III, variations on the logo from previous sequels to reflect the terra-cotta warriors in Xian, China which come to life.

The Better Man title was changed to Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins when released.

These are feature film titles I worked on in 2008. I will be cutting them into my demo reel when I come up with a new animation to open the reel featuring my new Motionista identity package. The new animation will likely be based on the transitions that I storyboarded in the earlier blog post showing my new website design.

New Website Design In Progress

2009-10-27T21:43:00.000-04:00

Paintings for September & October 2009

2009-10-23T21:33:00.001-04:00

New Website Design Coming

2009-10-23T21:13:00.000-04:00

This is the start of my new website idea. I want to build it in 3D using Flash so I can rotate around the shapes to reveal information. Somehow the dichotomy of the two structures together work. The green triangular thing can even "bee" more organic. A more curved but still geometric object coming apart. It's like a male female contrasting shapes or more of a human logic structured shape on the left and a more real world based shape on the right to show that the thinking from my company both applies and mirrors reality. Now once I get the motion storyboarded I'll hire a flash person to teach me how to build it myself. That way I'll learn and get it done as efficiently as I can. You know any good Flash people?

The Triune Brain - Logic or Consensus?

2009-10-23T21:05:00.000-04:00

Sketch, Color Study and Final Painting.

Imagine three creatures brought to a table to decide the fate of our planet. One is a vicious impulsive lizard, the other is a slobbering dog and the last is Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Now don't add human qualities to the lizard and the dog. It's a lizard like you'd see frozen on a rock or bolting away. It's just a dog that will lick your face or dig a hole in your sofa. I would choose to entrust the fate of our planet solely to Spock. The overwhelming majority has been to trying to get some sort of consensus from the lizard, the dog and Spock. When we combine primitive instincts we go three steps forward, two steps back, at best.

We understand how the human mind evolved and use it in marketing and politics. Unless we put our weaknesses on the table and design them out of the system we will continue to have zero political will and endless circular debates. Now, the general population's primitive instincts are stronger than their educational awareness so we're stuck in this cycle of drama. Stephen Hawking has written about this recently and advocates we find a way to get off this planet and leave it to those who don't get it to their own devices.

The more recent answer is likely to be a fearful seminal moment. When the Sputnik was launched our country shifted dramatically from a traditional to modern world view because we feared the Russians. Once the reptilian brain gets cranking things really get done. So realistically we should look forward "with glee" to some highly motivational Katrina-like economic disasters followed by gas at $10 a gallon permanently. In the meantime let's engage the Spock in all of us to prepare for that time. Be like Spock, not the slobbering dog or the impulsive lizard.