One Week and One Day and Counting!!!!

Tim Burton Exhibition Opening in Melbourne June 24th

Conceptual drawing 'the joker' for Batman by Tim Burton

As an illustrator (and a reformed goth kid) I have long been a HUGE fan of Tim Burton. Of course I admire him as a movie maker, but to me, first and foremost he is an artist. You may or may not know that he started his career with Disney as an illustrator before becoming a director. He is still largely responsible for all the art direction in his films and works the old fashioned way by HAND drawing many concepts from costumes & character development to set design. To me this is marvelous, while I dearly love both my Apple MACs (and Photoshop) there is nothing better than creating something the old fashioned way with pencil and paper.

Original Art by Tim Burton

Tim Burton was a major inspiration to me in many ways from the way that I dressed to the work that I produced as a design student. As a fashion design student at RMIT back in the mid 90's many of my design projects had an obvious Burton influence. Over the years and during my many moves and travels I ended up throwing most of this work out...but a few pieces still remain. (As do a few choice gothic outfits).

 Promotional Image from Sleepy Hollow

Considering the admiration I have for him, you can imagine my joy in learning that as part of the exhibition that is about to open in Melbourne next week, Tim himself is going to be here AND he will be appearing to talk about his work in a seminar AND I HAVE A TICKET TO GO SEE HIM!!!!!!
I am so excited!!!!
I am also excited that as part of the show that The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, or ACMI, are hosting an online gallery for fans to upload their own Burton inspired work. Of course I have to take part. Unfortunately, there is a 2 piece maximum. Obviously, I have a stack of work which could be appropriate....now just to find it and scan it etc. Most of the work I completed during my Uni days was pre-Apple Mac so it is stored in old-school folios, packed under beds and in other hard to reach places.
Another problem is that for some reason back in the early 1990's many Art teachers seemed to insist on all work being large scale..at least A1 size..(I never understood this, it sure did make train travel difficult going to and from University) anyway, this also makes scanning the work near impossible so will narrow my choice. So far I have entered one piece (because it was conveniently located on my hard drive) but my second and final choice will take more careful consideration.
Anyway, in honor of the exhibition, I have decided to have my own "Tim Burton" retrospective and pull out many of my projects  and possibly some photos, ranging from 1995-1998..my Art School years.

'Lady Killigrew' by Me!

(This piece was actually completed in 2000, when I was going through a collage phase. This work is created with photography and torn paper. I think it still works in the Tim Burton theme though)

More work coming soon.....