Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cartographer's Cabin


I have a rough sketch for the Tales of Monkey Island pre-order cover in the pipe waiting for final approval. I'll post it at some point soon.
In the meantime, here's a color test done for Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge probably painted in 1990. In this game we had the luxury of being able to draw backgrounds on paper and scan them giving us a greater range. This was my first background test of a cartographer's cabin painted in gouache. Peter Chan was a fiend with color markers and we ended up doing a lot of the backgrounds in marker as it was much quicker than painting.
Gouache 5 X 9

--Starchie

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a question about this process: Did you do any post-process alterations to the digital picture after you scanned it in? I've thought a lot of how to do this because some day I plan to create a game much like the SCUMM games, but I know that the way I've scanned in stuff looks very odd. Not naturally fitting like these scenes.

Unknown said...

Cool to see the originals! I hope LucasArts will use these if they give MI2 a special edition instead of the painting style they did on SMI

Unkiedev said...

Starchie, can you dig up the original painting of the reanimated Rapp Scallion in his steamin' weiner hut? I love the blues of the floor with the yellowish brown of the character!

These posts are incredible! Keep them coming, please!

Lee Swain said...

HI Steve, huge fan. Can't wait for the Tales cover!

Do the paintings still exist for all the original Monkey Island 2 backgrounds?

Could they be scanned in high resolution and used for a MI2 Special Edition?

Because if they do a MI:SE I really want it to be as faithful as possible while also being a significant upgrade.

Thanks

Johnny Walker said...

I loved the artwork for MI2... I only wish this one was scanned at a higher resolution :'(

(Does that make me ungrateful? If so, I do apologise! I just LOVE your artwork!)

Do other MI2 backgrounds still exist? It would be awesome to see them all... they're really beautiful pieces.

There's a gorgeous two-page spread of this one in the Rogue Leaders book, if anyone is interested.

thatguy said...

Great Stuff. Brings my childhood back.

Hey uhm is there any chance that you are going to release more poster versions (mb at telltale) of those Sam and Max paintings from the end of Surfing the Highway? I am totally in love with the one in which Sam and Max are in the office with all that stuff around. So much detail.

Starchie Spudnoggen said...

Ben Douglas--
I believe there was quite a bit of touch up after the scan. Usually the first thing to do is beef up the contrast.

Unkiedev--
I don't have any Rapp Scallion art. Must be in one of those ark of the covenant storage crates somewhere at LEC.

Parabolee--
I have no idea if those MI2 paintings are in an archive. That's a great idea though to rescan them in hi-res.

Johnny Walker--
Sorry I tend to keep the res on the lower side for economy sake but also don't really want the stuff I post to be too reproducible.

Ciro Cangialosi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ciro Cangialosi said...

Wow!!! This is all a dream!!! Finally we return to talk of Monkey Island!! If you want see I have done a little tribute to Monkey Island 5 in my blog :)
Thnx Purcell whitout you we never can't played whit a soo bautifull game!!! MI2 is my favourite will se a remake whit this draws in higth resolution will be fantastic!!!!

(sorry for my bad siclian inglish ihih)

Johnny Walker said...

Steve, I just found Defenders of Dynatron City online and I saw your name in the credits. Have you got any artwork or stories about that? I thought it was actually very enjoyable to watch and I'm surprised it wasn't picked up. The animation was pretty excellent, too!

Johnny Walker said...

For those interested, you can view it here:
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/animation/watch/v15913870n8xzBbrm

Steve, I see you wrote the comic series, too! How many issues were there (if you remember?).

It seems like the Dynatron project was Gary Winnick's baby. I'm really surprised it didn't take off.

Starchie Spudnoggen said...

Johnny Walker--
I do still have the covers that I drew for the Dynatron comic books but that's about it.

My best story about the animated pilot: Originally the voice of Doctor Mayhem was performed by Christopher Walken. It was lively and hilarious. For god-knows-what-reason the producers at the last minute replaced him with a more cartooney voice.

GlenFX said...

Ive thought about markers being used for final art pieces with great detail instead of using gouache or acrilics, never thought some MI2 backgrounds where done that way.

How much time does it usually take you to paint something in gouache?

Starchie Spudnoggen said...

Glen Fernández--
I used to be able to paint a gouache illustration in a couple of days if necessary. I never used it quite right. I use acrylic now because I can maintain better contrast. I think my gouache paintings are a bit chalky looking in retrospect. But I would like to take it up again and see if I could do a better job now.

Unknown said...

I love to see your MI art, of course, but also great to know you like to use gouache from time to time, makes me feel not alone in that matter, heh.
Thanks for the inspiration.:)

Johnny Walker said...

Christopher Walken?! Wow, that would have been awesome!

I can't get over how ambitious Defenders actually was: A game, TV show and comic series...! If it had been successful it would have been massive.

It's weird that you guys release a NES only game to support it, though. I guess when the show wasn't picked up the purse-strings tightened suddenly?

I bet there's a really interesting story to be told!

Johnny Walker said...

PS - I love your gouache paintings!

Johnny Walker said...

Steve, I just heard the most awesome thing in the entire universe, and I was wondering if you could confirm or deny it:

You used to room with Mike Mignola while living near Art Adams. The three of you created/played Fizzball together.

If this it true, my head might explode.

Aractus said...

Starchie, I love your work very much.

Did you sell your original Monkey2 cover painting? And if so is this an image of it?

http://scummgames.net/posters.htm

I just upped that page, and I seem to remember downloading that image when the original painting was sold?

Boy I wish LEC would sell posters of the artwork you created for the two (original) Monkey Island games.

Johnny Walker said...

Steve, would it be possible for you to start selling prints of your MI work? I would LOVE to own some.

Starchie Spudnoggen said...

Johnny Walker--
Mignola, Adams and I lived in separate apartments in the same building and yes, we played Fizzball once. There is a picture of it at Telltale Games revived "Summer of Sam & Max" site:
http://www.telltalegames.com/summerofsamandmax/history/history1b/

Aractus--
Yes, I still have the Monkey 2 painting. It hangs in my office at Pixar in that huge, bombastic frame.

Aractus and Johnny Walker--
I don't own the reproduction rights to the Monkey Island covers. If LucasArts wanted to sell prints of the old covers I would think that's cool. You could ask them.

Johnny Walker said...

You work at Pixar?!? Wow! You have the most awesomest career of anyone I've heard of!

frilansspion said...

hey this was in the lucasarts book as well! (coincidence? or did you dig it up for that purpose?) I would also love to see more... I had hoped that rogue leaders would have more stuff on the old adventure games...but now that I think about it they should really put out a big "art of"-book dedicated solely to the handpainted adventure games! I would buy it quick-smart! who do I nag about that?