Michael's Art Blog

A fun Mimikyu painting for Halloween :)

Got sidetracked with some other stuff and haven't added any additional Star Trek posters for a while, so after a long hiatus here's the next three.

I actually have a lot of fondness for Star Trek: Insurrection. It's not a good movie, but I am endlessly fascinated by the story of how it came to be, and by itself it's not so bad that it's not a fun thing to have playing in the background occasionally. The screenwriter, Michael Piller, wrote the most insightful book I've ever read on the process of screenwriting, about this film. He acknowledges the film's failure at the outset, promising not to try to excuse the film's failures, but instead to explain how it got there, proceeding to detail the entire process he went through developing it from first story draft to final screenplay, with all the meetings and correspondence that resulted in the final product. You see memos from the film's producers and stars included in the book, all of them offering input that is genuinely worthwhile. There's a common belief that producers are the death of creativity in Hollywood, but in the case of this film the producer's notes offer valuable insight and helpful additions, yet it all still adds up to a flop. It's a fascinating read that shows how talented creators, all working together to create the best film they can, can make all the right decisions and still ultimately fail. It's a lot more interesting than the actual movie, but it also gives me a lot of appreciation for the film.

I haven’t posted anything on Tumblr in a long while, but I’ve been getting so many notifications lately about my Saavik piece I did a few years ago as part of a series of Star Trek posters I was doing that I thought I’d revisit the project and redo/re-work them all.

Here are the first three, and I’m going to try to work my way through all of the Trek films.

Scene from the climax of The Invisible Man, done for Halloween at Studio Acramill

Zatanna sticker for the GR comic convention. I'm happy with how it turned out, even though I really rushed it.

Daily Drawing 28

Just finished replaying Portal 2. Quick sketch of Wheatley

Daily drawing 27

This isn't much better than the last version. I think I'm just having a bad week. Or maybe it's just because the TNG films just weren't that good. Though I really do think Nemesis was better than most people say. Generations and Insurrection were terrible, but I think First Contact was great and Nemesis was at least solidly good with some truly great moments.

daily drawing 26

Finally posting an update on the final(?) entry in my Star Trek series, Star Trek: Nemesis. I just really haven't felt like doing this, and it shows. It's not quite done yet but I need to show something.

Daily Drawing 25

There is not enough fanart of Renegades Baroness.

Now in color

Daily Drawing 24

I've been really loving GI Joe: Renegades now that I've finally given it a second chance. Too bad it got cancelled after the first season, especially since we're probably never going to get a Baroness figure from the series. Renegades Baroness is the best. Between her and Arcee from Transformers Prime, Hasbro has been producing some amazingly cool female characters. I just wish they were getting more attention.

Daily Drawing 22

I've been really busy today and I'm having a hard time getting a good composition together for the next Star Trek illustration.

I've been really into GI Joe for the last few days so here's a quick doodle of Snake Eyes for my daily drawing.

Daily Drawing 21

Too tired to do anything else today, so here's a quick sketch for my daily drawing.

Daily Drawing 20

Updated. I think this looks much better.

Daily Drawing 11

Here's the final version of Saavik that I started yesterday.

Daily Drawing 10

I decided to continue the theme from last piece I did for my daily drawing. This one is Saavik from The Wrath of Khan. It's just a WIP for now because I don't have time to finish it tonight and I have work to do.

Daily Drawing 9

My daily drawing for today is an homage to my favorite Science Fiction film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Yeah, that's right, the boring one.

Daily Drawing 8

Final version of the Queen of Blades card.