Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Lodge














This is my first new matte painting for my '09 demo reel.

In 2006 I took some photos in Washington DC of some of the various famous sites around the national mall. One of my favorite buildings was The Smithsonian Arts and Industries building.

I always had something "Harry Potteresque" in mind for the building but after sketching out quite a few ideas, I decided to just let some of my personal interests and style come out.

I've always been interested in Secret Societies, ornate and gigantic structures in remote locations, and the very end of magic hour right before it gets dark. I decided to create and environment that would be a meeting place for the barons and baronesses of industry, power, and money.

I sketched out a few things such as the lights, the bridge, the steps leading up to the building, and then when I felt I had a good enough idea of what I wanted I started painting and laying in photos. Honestly I can say that this has been one of the hardest paintings I have worked on but it's been very rewarding. I recieved alot of great feedback/critques from DJ Smack Mackey and Hugh Macdonald and I really feel that without them this matte painting wouldn't be as good as it is.

Here are the photos I used to put this together, all (except the dated one...that was from a friend that went with us to Hawaii) are my own taken in San Antonio, Arizona, Washington DC, and Hawaii.

8 comments:

Mark Molnar said...

nice one! the only thing what I miss is the bouncing lights of the windows on the surroundings...
great to see you improved a lot recently! keep on posting!

anima-base said...

Wow, It's great.
I love your matte painting.
Very owesome

Marcos Mateu said...

Love the execution, love the design!

Unknown said...

Wow, that is awesome, love to see a camera push through. After months of saving I have finally bought 3ds max 8.

Have not got a clue where to start but hey thats the fun.

Well done mate,

Rich

Kaiya said...

Love it honey. You are so good at what you do. I can only strive to be like you in the way that you are able to carefully study what you want to do & then have it come out looking like you originally intended it to. I am so proud of you & how far you have come in such a short amount of time & I can't wait for you to be able to do this for a living & LOVE what you are doing! I love you! Congrats! It's coming right along.

Anonymous said...

LOVE it! I want to walk up to the windows and peer in -- you've made it look like there's a grand party going on inside :)
Laura

Jared Shear said...

Nice piece Matthew....well done.

arnaud pheu said...

awesome it rocks;)