200 mark reached!!

A little sketch I did as a prize for my good friend, Gulsen, who was one of the **4** in this post, to take my FaceBook artist Page over the 200 mark... Here she is with her lovely newborn :)

Thanks, G x

-M-

Line-work WIP...

Hi folks!

Here's the line-work WIP of my next Faux Retro Movie-poster in the works...
More info on the next post ;)

-M-

Poster Prints for Sale!!!

***FAUX MOVIE POSTER PRINTS NOW OPEN FOR ORDERS*** 
£10 PROMOTIONAL REDUCTION FOR THIS FIRST WEEK ONLY!!!

(see image for info)

These prints are 270grm Archival Satin Fuji paper.

A1 size: 36" x 24"

A2 size: 24" x 16"

Shipping price provided on request.

For orders/ enquiries, email me at: max@maximajination.com  

 or call/ text: +44 778 626 0953 

Check out the actual prints here! 

I use PayPal for all transactions. An invoice will be sent to you once your order has been confirmed with me.

If you require an alternative payment method, let me know & I'll see if I can help. 

Thanks! 

-M-

Print Orders!!!

HI ALL! So after a whole two months or so of an insane workload, juggling two commercial jobs at once + running the 'Kids Character Re-design' project for just over a month, I'm finally ready to begin taking orders for prints of my faux Vintage Movie-Poster Artwork!

I'll be taking orders as of ***MONDAY*** & will make an official announcement in the form of a promo 'poster' which'll have all the initial details on including prices, my contact details etc.

I'm pretty excited as this is my ***1ST*** OFFICIAL print run of my own *original* artwork... I'd like to thank all those who have supported, encouraged (pestered) & asked me to get up off my butt & do this... I'm sorry it's taken so long, but as it's my first time venturing into printwork, I've had a lot to research, sort out & test regarding getting the prints to the quality I wanted, size I imagined & price I felt would be *affordable* for all; whilst also taking into account the effort & time spent creating the artwork. 

It wasn't easy, but thankfully I believe I've ticked all those boxes now, & know you'll be happy/ surprised with the results! The print quality is FANTASTIC & actually came out far better than I expected; capturing all the detail & colour values I was a initially worried may become lost through the print process (as is often the case). 

I'll leave it there for now, but bellow (or to the side) are the 4 poster artworks for sale. I look forward to taking your orders as of MONDAY!!!

Ps: *whispers* There'll be a ***£10 PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT*** during the entire FIRST WEEK!!! So grab em' while they're HOT!

See you then,

Thanks guys.

-M-

"Legends of the American Old West" Art Book!

Hi folks! Here's another finished painting I started & completed some weeks after my last movie poster; this piece titled 'Belle Starr' (Bandit Queen). I think I made an official blog post about this particular project on my maxidoodle sketch/ WIP blog, but basically this piece is for a western themed Art book I was invited to contribute to by my pal Mike Collins! Some of you may have read me mention his name before on earlier posts, but Mike is a super cool & talented L.A based digital clean-up Artist for Cartoon Network.

The book is basically going to be a compilation of artworks by over 30 different artists from around the globe all working under the same theme of 'Legends of the American Old West'.
Here's the official post I made for more details on the project...






As well as Mike, there are some other amazing people featuring in this book also. Just to name a few, there's talented Jez Tuya, Rhys Byfield, Gillian Reid, Justin Rodrigues + much more! Here's a great post over on Mike's blog showing how the book's looking so far.

Will post up a WIP breakdown over the next few days to share my thought process on working on my piece. I went in several different directions in the beginning & couldn't quite decide where to go, but thanks to the help of my friends online who threw in their thoughts & opinions, I was able to settle with something... One thing I did manage to agree with myself on was to present the piece as a movie poster for a classic Western you might have seen back in the late 40's or so... Stemming from my Vintage Movie Poster project, it was actually more of an experiment to try out a few new painting techniques & compositional style (combining studies of a little Frazetta & McGinnis)... Was definitely pleased with the results, & the response from people on the final piece was amazing (very surprising actually). I also decided to give some shout-outs in the "film credits" to some friends too =)

Hope you guys like it also!

-M-

"The High Priestess" (of Argos)

And here it is finally... Presenting the latest addition to my ongoing Movie poster venture, "The High Priestess" (of Argos)! For those new to my blog/ this project, here's the first & second piece I completed last year... I have to say I'm really pleased with how this one turned out. 

'The High Priestess' (of Argos) vers 02 ©Maxwell. A. Oginni 2011

Taking what I had learned from my last two paintings + studying several other poster artists such as the Legendary Robert McGinnis, Frank McCarthy & even a little Frazetta. I really tried to push things further in this piece. One technique I knew I wanted to adopt early on was to shape the composition with a collage of scenes, figures & events that almost seemed to tell the story, but leaving gaps for your imagination to fill... This is something movie posters did so well back then, but I feel is sadly lost today in the now dominant photography composted poster-art... Don't get me wrong, I love photography, but it will never truly capture what illustration can; much like how computer animation will never give you what traditional 2D animation does... Photography is & can only ever be a capture of what already is, but illustration is, will & can always be so much more... There's just something about how the mind works in it's process of taking in information, interpolating/ extrapolating it to then create a vast & unmeasurable addition of new data that a camera or photo simply can not do...

'The High Priestess' (of Argos) vers 01 ©Maxwell. A. Oginni 2011

It's really no surprise most movie posters of the 40's, 50's, 60's & even 70's, very often would present a more appealing visual narrative than the actual movie would turn out to be...

I'll end this post here but stick around for a process breakdown of this latest piece "The High Priestess" (of Argos); I hope you like it... And as a bonus for stopping by, here's part 01 of a great documentary on my favourite poster artist Reynold Brown... Enjoy!

Ps: Drop by my FaceBook Art Page to stay even more updated with my work.

















-M-

"Really Made My Day"

Hi guys... No direct art to share today, but something a little more meaningful that really made my day (& got me thinking)... A few of you may have seen a couple posts back, I did a little Christmas card piece for a cyber pal of mine & all round great guy Mike Collins (check out his awesome blog here); well, it was actually for his little boy, Sam... Mike & I connected on Twitter a few months ago through a mutual contact, & as well as talking artsy, geeky stuff with him, I've had the pleasure of coming to know him as a genuinely decent human being...

Mike had mentioned his little boy Sam ("Samster") on several occasions as following in his footsteps as a big comic superhero Fanboy, as well as just generally mentioning how proud he was of him & I was always really moved by this. So I thought, as Christmas was just around the corner, it'd be nice to do a little personalised Card for him... I messaged Mike explaining all the above (excluding my welling up over his "tweets" mentioning his boy), & that I'd love to do an illustration for Sam as a Christmas present. Mike was really appreciative, & to my surprise even went on to express he too wanted to send some artwork my way as a gift & gesture of kindness... Right there & then, I thought to myself, "You know...? This really is what Art is all about...". Art in all forms is about giving & sharing something, triggering reaction & emotion...




Yesterday, Mike sent me this awesome photo above of lil' "Samster" with his gift all framed up & rocking matching "Spidey" hoodie like a BAWSSS! heheh, thanks for sending this hough Mike, I'm really glad he liked it =)

In conclusion, whatever your God given Art (gift, talent, ability), make someone smile today*
Here's to Art, Friendship & Sharing...
Love Life, Love Art.

-M-

"Footprints" commission... complete!

Hi folks! So here's the final result of the "Footprints" poem I was commissioned to do by a friend. Finished it two weeks ago now I think, & took me [all in all, counting the hours] roughly 2-3 days to complete. Enjoyed working on this & as always, learnt a lot... Aside from a few niggly things that [I feel] I didn't quite nail, I'd say it's pretty close to what I originally envisioned reading the poem... so I'm happy!

Thanks to those who dropped feedback on the first WIP post I made; Nathan, Ant, Dawn & Shaun. Thanks especially to Shaun for taking the time to put together the image breakdown directly below. Shaun was kind enough to take a few minutes out to do a rough paint-over on my WIP to help break up some of the symmetry with subtle shape/ compositional shifts... Thanks again dude, it definitely helped. Hop over to Shaun's site to check out some of his amazing work & say, "hi".

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And here's my lovely friend [& pleased to say, "happy customer"] Tanya, sat next to the super high resolution artwork I emailed her just before she headed out to get it printed, framed & wrapped as a Christmas gift for her friend ; )

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*** If interested & would like to make an inquiry on personalised/ custom artwork, feel free to drop me a line at max@maximajination.com Should hopefully have an online store up & running soon [just working out the business end] so you'll also be able to purchase my artwork from there*** ;)


Thanks for stoping by folks!

-M-

A Merry Christmas card!

1 down... 1000x more to go...! Here's a fun lil' Christmas card I just did for a friend & fellow artist. Hop over to his blog & check out his stuff ; ) Happy Holiday's Mike!

... and a little time lapse recording of it in progress... Enjoy!


-M-

Footprints [painting commission]

Hi guys! So it looks like 2011's just about done eh? Man, I remember January- February, but what happened after that...? Anyways, bring on 2012 I say! Lots I'm praying- expecting- preparing for, so very much looking forward to the new year; & I hope you guys are too?

OK, so I was recently commissioned by a good friend to do a painting on my own rendition of a well known poem written in 1936 by Mary Stevenson* titled "Footprints". The poem basically is about a person having gone through many tribulations in life; thinking God absent to them; but questioning Him, only to discover He was there all along, & in fact the sole reason they were able to get through it...

I actually remember having this poem framed in the house as a kid, & always loved the imagery... Typically, since the poem paints a picture of a beech & footsteps in the sand, every presentation of it generally has the same scenic photo/ beech composition, with the seashore to the side... I wanted to change this up a bit, making it a little more personal to her [or rather, the the friend she explained she's giving it to as a framed gift]. Did quite a bit of research on the many photo/ illustrated variations there are of this poem just so I had a sort-of cliché guide [so to speak] of what I didn't want it to look like. Here's the one we had in the living room growing up [still love the image].

Below is a WIP of my own version... The two directly below are the line work/ layout guide [left], then a 1st rough colour mood [right]...

... & where I'm at so far.

I hope you guys like how it's coming along, & as always, feel free to drop me a comment & let me know what you think ; )

-M-