Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Lou Romano


I first found Lou Romano while I was browsing through concept art for Disney movies. He worked on set concepts for the movie Up. Up is one of my favorite movies, so I was automatically attracted to his work. I think the style is wonderful, it looks very retro and whimsical, which is perfect for the movie. The layouts, colors, and tones are all perfect for the story. I love how he illustrates the settings for the movie, because they almost look like children's book illustrations. As I was reading about his process on his blog, Lou starts by selecting his color palette for each scene first, and then composing a very playful scene using those colors. I thought this was interesting because color is usually the last think I think of before creating something. I think the colors he chooses work very well with the retro-illustration style, it creates the perfect mood for this movie. And I aslo think this style translates into animation very well.

5 comments:

  1. I am a very big fan of Lou's, his work is beautiful, I love how his pieces always have some story to tell.

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  2. I had to do the thing where you choose your color palette first once, for a class, and it was really hard to stick to it once I started work on the actual piece.. so I can really appreciate his ability use color beforehand to visualize the mood.

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  3. I really like the background of this piece. The colors are very similar but the shapes add an element of interest. I really like this kind of illustration for children's books, especially because the simple shapes allow the artist to use non-traditional materials, like paper, to create the piece.

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  4. I like how the light glows so intensely in comparison to the rest of the image. And the gradient treatment on the tent is really impressive. The surreal element of the waterfall and mountains in the background is cute.

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  5. AS mentioned, great lighting here. Love the style as well, being so simple and cartoony.

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