A collection of fantastic artwork by 6 Auckland illustrators

1 December > 9th December

Opening night Thursday 1st December, 5.30pm
Te Karanga Gallery, Upstairs, 208 K’Road, next to illicit clothing

Please RSVP on Facebook

ENVISION brings together the work of 6 Auckland illustrators in one spectacular space. This eclectic group show spans a variety of illustration genres, from fantasy, science fiction, graphic novel art to concept design. Take a tour through impossible worlds and see the inhabitants that dwell within. Featuring the work of:

Allan Xia

Anthony Pini

Jason Hong

Dennis Juan Ma

Sanjana Baijnath

Shaun Brown

Opening night kicks off on Thursday, December 1st at 5.30pm. Head on up to the Te Karanga Gallery for drinks and the opportunity to be inspired by these creative visionaries. ENVISION runs until Friday, December 9th.

Jim Auckland is an illustrator primarily known as a sport and entertainment artist. His career spans over 30 years as a freelance illustrator and an instructor at the Otis College of Art and Design. Jim has been living in New Zealand for nearly 4 years, and currently co-owns and operates Takapuna Art Supplies with his partner Sandy Collins. The store also runs workshops and classes at an adjacent studio space, where Jim offers foundational and advanced painting courses.

“Early on, like most kids I fell in love with comic books. I also noticed that some were better drawn than others. I used to paint with my mom and my grandmother. They were both very talented and encouraged me. I became a great admirer of the Disney artists and when I was 9 years old, the Mickey Mouse Club became a mainstay of American television. Disney promote themselves very well and I really wanted to become a Disney artist and that was my goal when I went into Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I received my B.F.A. in Illustration.

While attending Art Center, my eyes were opened up to many other areas in the field. Many of my instructors were Disney artists and encouraged me in that direction while on the other hand, other instructors inspired me to consider other avenues of illustration like editorial and advertising.”

Takapuna Art supplies

Jim and Sandy felt that Takapuna Art Supplies would be a good business to purchase in order to meet other artists who share what they love. “It has been a lot more challenging than we initially thought. There are at least seven art supply stores in the Auckland Area and all of them have Brand Agencies, so we have to sell twice the product to compete. We also asked ourselves, ‘What do we have that they don’t have?’ and that’s where our focus has been. Sandy and I have BFA degrees in illustration and I have nearly two decades of teaching experience. I found that I was getting young artists coming into the shop to ask me to look over contracts or, university students and post-graduates coming in and asking me to look over their portfolios.

We immediately created a studio space in the shop where we could both work when there were slow patches. We suddenly started to sell the products we were working with, like lots of Super Sculpey and illustration board. So, we figured selling art supplies to support us while making a change from traditional assignment illustration to something more, would be ideal.

We were also getting a lot of requests for classes. Last year we decided to take on a large studio space next door to our shop and we are now holding workshops and I’m teaching a class 2 days a week. Our Saturday workshops have attracted a lot of attention. They are just casual untutored get-togethers where artists can draw and paint inspired by a costumed model.

We have also opened an online store with a gallery, and we produce a newsletter each month and talk about the business of art as well as techniques. It’s been fun.”

An illustrious career

“My illustration career started when I decided to go to the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I was influenced by some amazing instructors like, Reynold Brown, Don Weller, Joseph Henniger, Lorser Feitelson, Harry Carmean, and Glen Vilppu. They are incredibly talented artists who totally changed my outlook on drawing and painting and I feel so lucky to be influenced by them. Everything I teach today, originates from them. I also sat beside other students like Craig Nelson, William Maughan and Walter Rane who always raised the bar on assignments. The competition at Art Centre was intense and all good illustrators feed off competition. Even today, when I paint, I’m really painting for other artists as well as myself.

After Art Center I freelanced briefly in the Los Angeles area and was shortly discovered and hired by Jack O’Grady Graphics in Chicago where I worked for 2 years. It was like a post-graduate course in illustration. I worked next to some of America’s best illustrators and designers who also influenced my style.
After moving back to Los Angeles I worked as an in-house illustrator for a number of aerospace companies, but always did a bit of freelance on the side. When I finally broke away and became solely freelance, I received a number of interesting assignments in the entertainment industry, like movie posters for Dennis the Menace, A League of Their Own, The Untouchables, and A Secret Garden, but my favorite assignments always came from Rhythm & Hues, a Los Angeles based special effects company. Dan Quarnstrom the head of creative there and a classmate at Art Center, made me their animal anatomy go-to guy.

After I had been working in the industry for almost twenty years, a friend and fellow studio mate, Jim Heimann recommended me to Otis College of Art & Design and that started my 17+ years with Otis as an instructor. I started part time and wound up in the last few years becoming a full time professor in drawing and painting. I’m very proud of my experience at Otis where some have said I created the Illustration Department. All I can say is that I’ve had a hand in the careers of some notable young illustrators like John Mueller, Bob Coronato, Bob Dob, Mia Araujo and Mike Lee. I’m really proud of them and the many others who have made a career of it. I also worked with some really talented faculty members including Nathan Ota, J.T. Steiny, Cecil Kim, Jenn Eggers and Gary Geraths to name a few.”

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Scott Spencer is a concept designer at Weta Workshop, and is the author of several ZBrush books and training materials. Starting out in the field of special effects makeup, he went on to complete his degree at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia, USA. Scott’s graduation coincided with the rising popularity of ZBrush and the release of ZBrush 1.5. Immediately after college, he went to work at Gentle Giant, a traditional and digital sculpting studio that specializes in everything from visual effects to toys and collectables.

Scott helped to put together a concept design and game art department at Gentle Giant, taking on clients from all sorts of different companies, such as Sega.  Gentle Giant worked extensively on Sega’s game Golden Axe, for which the studio conceptualized characters and took them all the way through to final game-ready assets.

During Scott’s time at Gentle Giant, he got to know Richard Taylor from Weta. This saw Scott taking a few trips to New Zealand where he did some workshops for the Weta crew. Eventually, Scott asked Richard Taylor the question – ‘Hey, is there a spot for me at Weta?’.  One did come up a short time after and Scott made the move to New Zealand about 2 years ago. “I’m really happy to be in New Zealand, and I’m loving the country, the people at Weta, and the projects I am working on now.”

From old school FX to digital

“I was working at a company called Lone Wolf Effects in Atlanta, Georgia, which is run by a makeup FX artist named Bill Johnson. He is known as Bill ‘Splat’ Johnson – because he did a couple of splatter movies in the 80s. I had his business card, and on my 20th birthday I cold called him. I said ‘Hey, you don’t know me. Can I come out and clean your workshop?” and he put me off three or four times, then finally said, ‘Ok, I normally never do this but, yeah come on out’.

I worked with him for 10 years, working my way up to being assistant sculptor on 8 Legged Freaks, the last film I did with him. I did everything from movies, to lots of stage, commercial and freelance stuff.

Bill is fantastic – He was a huge inspiration and is one of those people that you have in your life that really changes the course of things for you.”

As a result of Bill’s encouragement, Scott decided in 2002 to return to school at SCAD, in Savannah, where he embraced digital and developed a feel for the tools and processes. “It wasn’t a huge leap. I wasn’t so set in my ways that I couldn’t make the jump – I was excited to pick it up and learn more about it.

It was a 4 year school and I did the animation program, which was quite Maya-centric. It was pretty easy to pick up on things, being around all the other students – doing all the usual tutorials that people do when they are learning Maya. However I could see a disenchantment setting in, because I couldn’t make things in Maya the same way I could in clay.

That’s about the time that ZBrush took off and I was like ‘Yeah this is like sculpting’. Moving from clay to ZBrush is actually a really short step as far I am concerned. And I have done a lot of training for people with no Maya experience, who have just gone directly from being professional sculptors for 20 years, to ZBrush. It’s actually easier for them to make that step than a lot of Maya or Max artists who have been using that type of system for a long time.”

Florence

After studying animation at SCAD, Scott had the opportunity to study classical figure sculpting in Florence, Italy. “I actually went with a professor from SCAD, Paul Hudson, who is a realist illustrator and sculptor and probably one of the most amazing illustrators I have ever seen. He is very much interested in Human Anatomy. The traditional approach to Illustration. Like you get in the Andrew Loomis books for example. Very much in that tradition. He used to be a designer for NASA. And then decided ‘Hey, I want to do figurative art’. So he left, went to SCAD and did the sequential art program there and became a professor.

It was right after college in 2005 when I went out to Italy for the summer with Paul. That was really my first time leaving America. I got the opportunity to be immersed in another culture and language. It was really a wonderful experience being out there.”

Scott recalls spending over 8 hours a day in front of a live model, working on half scale figure sculptures, busts and other studies.

“It was an amazing experience because it was so intense. And so alien to pretty much most approaches that people would be used to. They didn’t encourage you to study anatomy. They felt like if you study anatomy, you are going to sculpt what you think you know and not what you see. So it was very focused on observation and it was treated a lot like a painting. Where you would look at a figure and you would judge the values, the shadow, the same way you would if you were doing a drawing or a painting. They really taught you to see in an entirely different way than I was accustomed to. It was definitely an enlightening experience for that.

There were a lot of very young people there. Especially in the 4 year program, they were seeking it as a fine art career. The school has a philosophy where they really do believe they can rebuild that classical realist tradition. It’s already kind of happening. There are a lot of people moving back towards representational art and the beauty of the figure.

In the shorter program that I was in, there were a lot of people that were established artists who were trying to expand their abilities and their experiences. There weren’t any in my particular group, but they told me that there are a lot of people that come through from the film industry. Those from the film industry usually tend to work under such tight, constrained deadlines that it gave them an opportunity to relax and explore the figure in a way they would not get to normally.”

All throughout his academic endeavours, Scott knew that he would eventually go back to working in the film industry. “The whole idea for going to school and studying was because I felt I didn’t have a really firm grasp on the techniques and methods to create what I wanted to create. And I felt that I could do it faster when I had hands-on instruction, rather than by forcing myself to learn it through trial and error. I wanted to get back into the film industry with a level of experience or an arsenal of skill that I could develop further. ”

Weta Workshop

Scott’s work is typically focused on character design, occasionally interspersed with a few environments, costume and armour elements. “My job is to make the concept and then pass it on down the pipeline where artists bring it to life.

What’s great about using digital sculpting is that there is already a 3D asset that can be passed over to the pre-vis department.

Usually it’s in the interest of the group that’s getting the asset to use it to the best of their abilities. When I was at Gentle Giant, I found that some studios would prefer to re-model your design, but they would always end up just shrink wrapping the mesh back down to the original concept sculpt because it saves you time. Doesn’t make sense to totally re-sculpt it. So it definitely speeds things  up and takes away that step of someone else reinterpreting the work. Plus the director can approve the concept and they know it’s going to be the same as it progresses through the pipeline.

I will also design the skin and the colouring. It’s usually done in the still image and painting to work from one particular angle. This is to sell the idea of what the skin may look like.

This would then go to an artist dedicated to painting the high resolution textures. Just like in prosthetics – the sculptor doesn’t go in and paint the prosthetic. That’s a whole discipline in itself and much better accomplished by a painter.”

Scott goes into a bit more detail about the working process at Weta -

“We will get a project that will come in. It will be, say, a fantasy film. It will have a brief for various characters or environments. So if there is a character brief, it will either be really generic or it might be very specific. We have a talk with the client and get an idea of what they want. Then you go off and use whatever method you have at your disposal to create images to present back to the client that fufill their desires for the character.

For creature stuff I often will use ZBrush to create a sculpt and then use Photoshop to paint on top of it to create a final rendered hero image. Clients really respond to that because they can see it like it would appear in their film. You could do a character a day working in that process. Maybe one and a half in a day if you’re working really quickly. We will generate a lot of images like that. Then whichever one gets picked gets further developed.

If it’s starting at the beginning of the project I will work like that. Then sometimes there’s other projects that come through like the Rugby World Cup sculpture for Wellington. Richard wanted the central figure for the maquette so I ended up sculpting that just in ZBrush by taking one of the figures from my second book, posing it as a rugby player and sculpting it, trying to match to the drawings that he had produced.”

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Run by senior concept designers from Weta Workshop, the intense 2-day workshop gives students an introduction to the fundamental conceptual and technical skills employed in concept design.

Your challenge for this competition is to design either the creature or protagonist for a new TV series set in Auckland 110 years ago.

Design Brief

The year is 1900. Victorian Auckland has been swept up by the industrial revolution, becoming New Zealand’s largest city. New year’s celebrations are just wrapping up and people are cautiously stepping into the next millennium, when an awesome uncertainty presents itself.
Reports are emerging of a being from the Gulf, a creature of the Hauraki – heading straight for Auckland City.

What is this thing, where has it emerged from and what is it’s intention? Is it aggressive, friendly or apathetic?

Your task is to design this creature or being. There are no restrictions to what you may do. It can be an animal or human, mythical or mechanical. It can be any size, mood or style – from the future, steam-punk or just plain weird. You must, however, be able to justify your design decisions and are required to submit a design rationale as part of your submission.

Alternatively, you may also design the Series’ protagonist character, a photographer assistant for The Auckland Tribune Newspaper. She has journalistic ambitions, and in the panic and turmoil manages to ‘acquire’ a camera from the press department, documenting the events as they unfold.

Additional Information

You can be creative as you want in designing your creature, but make sure your design decisions are justifiable and explained in the accompanying rationale.

You should strive for some level of historic accuracy should you choose to design The Auckland Tribune photographer/journalist. A great place to start your research is the Auckland Heritage Database and Digital NZ.

The Prizes

FIRST PRIZE

One Free Admission to the 26-27 March : 2D White Cloud Worlds Workshop in Auckland PLUS a signed copy of White Cloud Worlds. Winning entry to be judged by Paul Tobin and Warren Mahy.

ADDITIONAL PRIZES

All valid entries also go in the draw for:

- One signed copy of The Art of District 9
- One Slip Case edition of D’artiste Matte Painting Master Class book

Submission Criteria

» A single piece of character design as a high quality digital image.
» Include a concise written paragraph explaining your concept.
» You MUST create a WIP thread in the competitions forum.

• You are welcome and encouraged to design both characters, but can only submit 1 as a final entry.
• The design may be 2d or 3d, and can be either traditional or digital mediums.
• The final piece should be created over the competition period, specifically for this competition. Please don’t submit older pieces or commercial work.

Duration

The final submission deadline is: 11:00pm NZT on Wednesday 23 March, 2011

How to enter

You must be registered as a member of CGNZ and start a new WIP topic in the ‘CGNZ Competitions‘ forum. You MUST create a WIP thread in the competitions forum, documenting the steps you have taken to create your design.

» Title your WIP thread as: ” USERNAME : Creature of the Hauraki”

Simply post your final entry, along with your rationale in the final submissions thread, located at the top of the forum. Don’t forget to include your username at the bottom of your final images, on the actual image files.

Good Luck!

The Small print

• All entrants will retain copyright of all their submissions.
• Only people currently living in New Zealand may enter and you must also:
  a) Be a resident of New Zealand OR b) Hold a current work or study permit/visa for New Zealand.
• First prize winner is responsible for organising their own travel & accommodation to the event. If you are unable to attend the workshop, the ticket prize will be given to the second place winner.
• If you are already registered for the upcoming March 26th Workshop and win first prize you will receive a refund.
• Prizes not exchangeable or redeemable for cash.
  

He also teaches illustration at Wellington’s Massey University, and regularly runs the Concept Design Workshop together with Warren Mahy. Recently, Paul has put together a book, in conjunction with an exhibition, entitled White Cloud Worlds showcasing fantasy and sci-fi art by New Zealand artists.

White cloud worlds

“I have been wanting to do my own book for quite a while. I have been in the industry for a while now, so I have built up quite a good network of people. New Zealand is quite a small place – everyone knows everyone. All of the artists were saying the same thing – ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a book we could all get our stuff into’. The problem is everyone wants to do their own book, but they’re working full time and they are struggling to produce enough work to create a book of just their own work. So a good solution is to be able to club together with everyone and go ‘Well, let’s just come up with a book that has lots of artists’ work in it’. So that’s where White Clouds Worlds was born.

It was me first going to 5 other friends saying ‘Do you want to lend me some of your work, I will see if I can create a book around it’. I started working on a book pitch to see if I could get it off the ground. I laid up about 20 pages and I thought that was all looking ok. It was pretty straight forward so I thought I should maybe do more. So I went to more artists that I knew, and before I knew it I had 90 pages of a book. No text, just images with fake text. But it was 90 pages. And we had come up with a working title to it and we decided it was going to be a New Zealand anthology profiling NZ artists or artists residing in NZ.

We pitched it to Harper Collins, they loved the idea (that was about two years ago). The book goes on sale in November. And it is exactly as I said – a NZ anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy art. 27 artists who have written their own text in their own words, and profile some of their artwork. Some of it’s professional artwork, but most of it is work that they have done in their own time.

The theme for the book – if you could say there is a theme – is ‘What do artists do, what worlds do they create in their free time’? It’s a mixture of concept designers, mostly illustrative (some of the illustrators are concept designers as well). I suppose just due to the associations I have, just about half the artists are Weta based artists and about the other half are a mixture of people that we’ve known through friends of friends. We’ve tried to actively look for people that we didn’t know and I’m sure there’s a bunch of people that we have missed which will be regrettable. But hopefully we will get to do another volume and we will get some people coming out of the woodwork who might be interested in doing that.

Obviously it’s a bit of a challenge, trying to put a book together essentially in the evenings when you’re not working, as well as trying to produce work for you own book. I hired the project manager that used to work at Weta, Kate Jorgensen, to get the book off the ground, and help wrangle 27 artists (quite a task as you can imagine!)

We were incredibly fortunate – we had a lot of support, from the industry from Richard (Richard wrote the introduction). We sent off an email to Guillermo asking if he could do an endorsement. A two sentence endorsement because we knew how busy he was. We sent him a sample copy of the book. He (or his assistant) emailed back and said he’d love to. And then 5 minutes later wrote back again saying, actually, do you want me to write a foreword. So we where pretty stoked with that – it was like holy cow that’s quite a coup. And Alan and John where both around as well. I have been such huge fans of both those guys work for so many years that I thought it was just too good an opportunity to pass up, to try and convince them to try and write something for my book. They both wrote the afterword which was pretty awesome. We got Wayne Barlowe and Christian Gossett to write endorsements as well. So there has been an incredible amount of support for the book. Pretty amazing. That’s kind of as far as we have got with it at this stage.

We also have an exhibition to accompany the book. It starts on the 11th of December at TheNewDowse in Lower Hutt. It’s pretty awesome. It came together remarkably easily.”
The exhibition will be on from December until March – quite a substantial amount of time. “TheDowse have been amazing. They have done a couple, like the Kong exhibition. They are a very progressive thinking museum. When you go to them with a popular culture concept like this, they treasured it with exactly the respect and excitement that we where hoping. The perceived notion of science fiction and Fantasy is, it’s low-brow or it is just pop culture. But the way that a lot of us artists perceive it is, it’s fine art – or our version of fine art. It should be seen in a similar light.

Ordinarily, the fact that a lot of the work is digital would have been a problem, but there’s been this growing tide of digital work now being done. They are going to get printed out beautifully. I suppose it’s not a lot different to just buying a really high quality print. Normally that would have been a huge impediment. But certainly not with TheDowse anyway. And because they have done the Kong, and Greg’s ray-gun stuff before, which were very successful exhibitions. Other museums probably would have balked a bit at it. But there is some traditional artwork there as well. We’ve got a number of oils and acrylics. It’s quite an interesting mixture of traditional and digital.

And hopefully it’s going to tour. I think Rotorua and Waikato have currently got the exhibition slotted in. And obviously we are hoping it will go up and down the country if we can. I’d like to get it across to Australia actually. The artwork is not for sale, as it is a public or council funded gallery, and one of their mandates is that they don’t sell. There will be some limited edition prints available in the shop.

We were trying to elevate a lot of this fantasy and science fiction art to a high end, sort of coffee table format of a book. So there is a slipcase version with a limited edition print. Harper Collins have certainly spared no expense in terms of producing a really really high quality book.”

Paul has been sitting on the idea for this book for a number of years, and had been tracking different artists around the country carefully, resulting in the book coming together rather easily.

“That was one of the problems actually – the book quickly filled up the allocated pages that the publisher gave us. I filled up 90 of the 128 pages before it even got started. So unfortunately that made it a bit difficult to slip in newer artists that turned up along the way. But we did manage to get a few new artists in there that I didn’t know personally or that came recommended. It came together very fast in that respect.

But it is a very diverse book. Some people have some very strange worlds. But that’s the strength of the book. And the other big strength is the fact that the artists have written in their own words – something that was suggested to me very early on by one of the original guys that helped me out. He said ‘Look, I think you need to let the artists write it in their own words.’

We were terrified by that prospect, because we thought ‘My god, 27 artists, what are they going to write?’ We were a bit worried about it because that is a huge level of wrangling. It’s much easier to interview someone and just write it basically. But he was dead right – it was such the right thing to do. We just got so much more of an interesting, more informal… because they talk in their own voice, you can identify with it so much more. I want this book to be accessible. I want it to be a really high quality book but I want it to be very accessible too, to students and kids. The same kids that we were when we first picked up our favorite book.

I suppose we are trying to profile the artists a lot more so it’s a little bit more like a magazine in that respect, where you can interview the artists and find out how they work. We are very much more about trying to identify with the artist and what they are doing as well as the artwork. That was a big part of the idea of the book.

We didn’t give the artists any brief about what to write at all. But a lot of the artists will talk about how they got started and maybe what got them inspired. Some of them will talk about how they work. Others will just talk about their particular project they are working on. Some people talk about their industry and how they work in it. It really is quite eclectic. One particular artist gives quite a fictional account. He does not make a point that it’s fictional, he’s just writing it in a way thats post-humous. You kind of have to assume that it’s fictional – because you know he’s still alive. One of the more entertaining reads of the book.

The irony is that there are a lot of gifted people in NZ working at an international level, but who are totally unheard of.

We want to show the world class work that’s being done in New Zealand by artists most people would never have heard of. The irony is that there are a lot of gifted people in NZ working at an international level, but who are totally unheard of. A couple of people are starting to get their name out there – Greg Broadmore is a very good example. But I never knew there was an NZ comic book artist that was now doing Hellboy! You know, he’s doing Hellboy, he’s working out of Auckland illustrating Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. What an incredible achievement. He’s just one of a number of artists doing some pretty amazing things at such a high professional level.

But it is a New Zealand book – it very much caters to a NZ market. Of course we hope it sells well overseas but it’s book that I really want to play to a home crowd initially. Then hopefully people might find it exciting and buy it overseas as well. We are celebrating that NZ creativity – very NZ-centric. Other fantasy art books, like Spectrum, are not country specific at all. They are just picking artwork from across the globe. And there isn’t necessarily a strong theme or concept behind it.

So that’s been a huge part of my life over the last two years, getting that up and running, while working full time, teaching, running concept workshops and all the rest of it. Its been a pretty hectic couple of years. And there are other books I want to do but yeah, just getting this one out of the way. It’s just a case now of the enjoyment of getting it to the public and seeing how it goes. Nerve racking obviously. Most of the book has been self financed by myself so you have invested a huge amount of time and money into it, and hope you see some return on that. Mainly so you can hope to do another one!”

Early Years

“I think most kids draw when they are growing up. I remember consciously doing illustration work from about 3rd form onwards, when I started college. I met a group of friends who were into writing and drawing. There were those Choose Your Own Adventure books, which we really got into. The ones that were done by Ian Livingstone & Steve Jackson. We began writing our own and a couple of us started illustrating the stories.

That’s the earliest illustration work I can remember doing, rather than just drawing for the sake of doodling something. I think what got me really interested in becoming an illustrator was getting given a copy of Alan Lee’s book Merlin Dreams when I was about 16. That was an amazingly beautiful book with Arthurian style short stories”.

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All Images © 2010 Paul Tobin. All rights reserved.

Your challenge for this competition is to design a Character for a cinematic re-invention of Jason and the Argonauts. You have a choice from ONE of the following 3 characters – Prince Jason, Hercules or Talos. You will be judged on how well you answer the brief and communicate your design.

Design Brief

As concept designers your brief is to create a single piece of character design based upon ONE of the following characters: Prince Jason, Hercules or Talos.
These character design piece would be used as part of a pitch package to generate interest in an exciting cinematic reinvention of Jason and the Argonauts. Your reinvention does not need to conform exactly to the original story, but should still reflect or parody the character descriptions and their role in the film. For example Jason is the Hero, Hercules a sidekick and Talos a supernatural adversary.
You are also not tied to the original setting. Your Jason and the Argonauts could be in space; it could be historically accurate, or stylized fantasy like 300. Even the genre of film is open; it could be 2D children’s film or 3D animation, swash-buckling live action, or even a comedy where say Hercules may in fact be a scrawny weakling rather than a buff superman.

Character Descriptions

1 – Jason: Prince of Thessaly

Son of Aristo the murdered king of Thessaly, Jason seeks to reclaim his birthright from the usurper Pelias. In his quest to recover the fabled Golden Fleece Jason proves to be a equally courageous and resourceful hero who in times of need can call upon the Goddess Hera five times for aid. He successfully defeats Talos, captures the Harpies, kills the Hydra and claims the Golden Fleece and the heart of Medea priestess of Hecate.
Like most mortals he is however but a pawn to be manipulated by the whim of the God’s upon Mount Olympus.

2 – Hercules

Son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena, Hercules is one of greatest of the Greek heroes.
Hercules can be identified by his attributes, the lion skin and the club. While he was a champion and a great warrior renown for his great feats of strength, he was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his advantage.
He is self-centered, vain, a lover of ladies, and foolhardy as seen in his blatant disregard of Jason’s orders on the Isle of Bronze which lead to the awakening of Talos and Hylas’ death.

3 – Talos: Guardian of the Isle of Bronze

A gigantic bronze statue that Guards the Isle of Bronze. It sits atop a treasure chamber and is awoken when Hercules steals a javelin sized bronze cloak pin.
When Hera instructs Jason to overcome the Talos with his wits and look to its heel, he notices a bronze plug. When he manages to remove it molten bronze bleeds out ensanguining Talos causing him to become brittle and break apart.

Background Information

The Original Film:

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) is a Columbia Pictures fantasy feature film starring Todd Armstrong as the titular mythical Greek hero in a story about his quest for the Golden Fleece. Directed by Don Chaffey, in collaboration with stop motion animation expert Ray Harryhausen, the film is noted for its stop-motion monsters.
In particular, the sequence in which seven skeletons rise from the earth and attack Jason and his comrades is still widely considered to be among the greatest achievements of motion picture special effects.

The Quest:

Inspired by the Greek myth, the story begins when the fearless explorer Jason returns to the kingdom of Thessaly after 20 years exile to take his rightful claim to the throne and fulfil an ancient prophecy. When he unwittingly saves Pelias, the very man that usurped his throne and murdered his father, from drowning the prophecy is set in motion. Pelias recognizes his nemesis and keeps his identity secret. However, he cannot just kill Jason; the prophecy also says that he himself would die.
When he learns that Jason is considering undertaking a dangerous quest to obtain the fabled Golden Fleece to rally the people of Thessaly, Pelias encourages him, hoping that he will be killed in the attempt. Men from all over Greece compete for the honor of joining Jason. Since their ship is named the Argo after the ship’s builder, they are dubbed the Argonauts. Among those chosen are Hercules. They embark on their eventful journey and along the way they encounter a variety of mythic creatures, including the 100-foot bronze colossus Talos, the bat-like Harpies, the seven-headed reptilian Hydra, and an army of skeletons wielding sword and shield.
For more information on the original film go to: Wikipedia

The Prizes

	First Prize: One Free Admission to the 31 July-1st August : 2D Concept Design Workshop in Wellington plus $150 spending money to help with any travel expenses. Winning entry to be judged by Paul Tobin and Warren Mahy.
	Additional Prizes: All valid entries also go in the draw for: - One signed copy of Weta Workshop’s “Crafting Narnia” - One copy of Scott Spencer’s “ZBrush Digital Sculpting: Human Anatomy.“

Submission Criteria

» A single piece of character design as a high quality digital image.
» Include a concise written paragraph explaining your concept.
» You MUST create a WIP thread in the competitions forum.

• You are welcome and encouraged to design all 3 characters, but can only submit 1 as a final entry.
• The design is to be 2D only and can be either traditional or digital mediums.
• The final piece should be created over the competition period, specifically for this competition. Please don’t submit older pieces.
• No commercial work

Duration

The final submission deadline is: 11:00pm NZT on Wednesday 30 June, 2010

How to enter

You must be registered as a member of CGNZ and start a new WIP topic in the ‘CGNZ Competitions‘ forum. You MUST create a WIP thread in the competitions forum, documenting the steps you have taken to create your design.

» Title your WIP thread as: ” USERNAME : Jason and the Argonauts ”

Simply post your final entry in the final submissions thread, located at the top of the forum. Don’t forget to include your username at the bottom of your final images, on the actual image files.

Good Luck!

The Small print

• All entrants will retain copyright of all their submissions.
• Only people currently living in New Zealand may enter and you must also:
  a) Be a resident of New Zealand OR b) Hold a current work or study permit/visa for New Zealand.
• First prize winner is responsible for organising their own travel & accommodation to the event. If you are unable to attend the workshop, the full first prize will be given to the second place winner.
• If you are already registered for the upcoming July 10th or August 1st Workshop and win first prize you will receive a refund.
• Prizes not exchangeable or redeemable for cash.
  

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