11/01/2012

Día de los Muertos!

Happy day of the dead!

In honor of today I'd like to share my tribute to not only one of my video games of all time but one of my favorite stories ever.

If you grew up playing games in the 90s it's likely you played a Lucas Arts adventure game, classics like Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and of course The Monkey Island series. The last adventure game to come out of Lucas Arts was Grim Fandango, an amazing film noir story set in the Mexican afterlife that blends an art deco design with day of the dead folk art and has a sound track that combines Jazz and Mariachi music. Was that a mouthful? I can't help it, there was so much going on but it all comes together so well, so AMAZINGLY well. Anyways if you don't know or haven't played it please look it up.


The man most responsible for this amazing piece of fiction is Tim Schafer, he now runs a company called Double Fine (of Kickstarter fame) based here in San Francisco. A few weeks ago I was honored to give him this piece as thanks for all the great stories and games over the years. I must also mention the amazing Peter Chan who's art is the major contribution to just how amazing this game ended up being. The game came out in 1998, almost nothing from back then holds up as well so many years later.


This painting was one of the more involved pieces I've made in a long time, above I've included  my progress through the piece.

Anyways, again happy Día de los Muertos, thanks to Tim Schafer and Peter Chan for creating such an amazing piece of fiction and happy childhood memories.

-Michael


10/31/2012

Happy Halloween!

A quick one to get into the mood!