Enemies from "The Legend of Zelda" franchise re-imagined...

For anyone who does not know this about me (which, I'm almost sure, is most people reading this), I am a HUGE fan of the Legend of Zelda series...and a HUGE fan on concept art.  So when I stumbled upon these rad series of drawings of what the enemies form my most beloved video game franchise may look like in the real world, I figured I had to share...

Big shout-out to Deimos-Remus on deviantArt.com for the awesome work he put up.  Check out some more of his stuff here.  I also saw he's selling some of the original sketches from this series so, if you like it enough and have some spare cash to drop, support a working artist!

Just some old stuff...

Ralph MCquarrie (1929-2012)

I think, since I am a huge fan of concept art, that I am going to devote the next few posts to artists I believe are important and/or rather prolific.  Or just 'cause I like 'em...

It's been a little over a year since the great concept artist Ralph McQuarrie passed away.  Anyone who likes science fiction, even a little bit, should learn who this guy if you already haven't.  He worked on concepts for many TV shows and movies, E.T., Battlestar Galactica, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  He also won an Academy Award for Cocoon.  However he is probably most famous for the concept art he produced for the original Star Wars movies, and played a major role in developing Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, and most notably Darth Vader.

Recently, I came across a post over on whatculture.com about a Star Trek movie that never came to fruition and some of the concept art Mr. McQuarrie produced for the film.  The movie was to be titled "Star Trek; Planet of the Titans," which was developed in 1976.  The movie was eventually shelved in 1977 when interest was expressed for a proposed second TV series Star Trek: Phase II to run in 1978, which in turn was also shelved in favor of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  The first installment in the film franchise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture came to theaters in 1979, 3 years after Planet of the Titans was first conceived.

I was actually completely unaware the movie even existed and the news got me kind of excited (even though its rather old news), and was even more thrilled to find out Mr. McQuarrie had something to do with it.  He was brought on board by Ken Adams, the movies production designer.  The work Mr. McQuarrie turned out is, as is typical from him, quite impressive, especially considering that all of the concepts and models were based solely on the original Enterprise NCC-1701 model and what was in his head, as the script was not yet finished.  Breathtaking work from truly a first-class artist...

See the full post and pictures here: http://whatculture.com/film/ralph-mcquarrie-the-canceled-star-trek-movie.php

The UrbanDesk

So I just saw this bad boy on another website.  It is, unfortunately, a failed KickStarted project originally set up by Graham Phakos.  The whole concept is mixing a Murphy Bed with a work desk, allowing the both to fit into one space.   The bed folds up vertically and the desk is revelad and elevated.  A cool part of that is that you don't have to clean up any mess left on your desk when you decide to go to sleep.  You can just leave everything out and set up and pick up where you left off.  Plus it's still a pretty cool design, especially for those of us living in cramped spaces...

Visit Graham's site here: http://two7labs.com/

Marker vs Marker

Just saw this rad video on YouTube.  Jonny Lawrence, an artist form the UK put up this fight he conceived, "between animator and animation."  It's all stop motion, and has such a cool feeling to it.  Definitely worth the watch, and while you're there check out some of his other videos.  He has 4 other up and they're all pretty legit.

Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/N45VYUcYu90