Sorry folks. We don’t get on this blog to update it very often. To get the latest follow us on twitter (LncArtStudios), or join our facebook group.
Anyway, onto the info
I have 3 movie review from movies that I watched last night. Here you go.
Let The Right One In
Brilliant! A fantastic vampire movie. It is what Twilight should have been if Twilight wasn’t such melodramatic dribble written for teenage girls who swoon over sparkles and hollow words that sound sweet. I’ve got the book reserved at my local Borders book store and will pick it up tomorrow. There was only one thing that I didn’t care for, and that was the background and visual of the androgynous vampire’s history and state. From what I hear, it’s in the book as well. Androgynous in a vampire is fine, but they push a particular concept, a concept which I have no issue with, but in the telling of this tale, it creates a focus on a cultural issue that is completely separate, and that I feel takes away from the importance of the main story.
Them
Creepy movie. Great acting and cinematography. I love this movie, though there were several times that I was thinking, why are you doing that? Use common sense! Yes, they were in a terrifying situation, but, at times, they did things that didn’t make sense for their situation. Also, admittedly, I was concerned a couple of times during the film that it was over, leaving too much unexplained, but they finished well with a slightly, or perhaps a little more than slightly, disturbing feeling. Overall, it’s a cool and creepy story and worthy of watching, or maybe even putting in your collection.
Living Death
Pretty good film, though I honestly feel like it could have been condensed, for a more concentrated feel, into a story within a film or cable show, such as Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, and Creepshow.
LnC Art Studios is working, under contract, directly for the producer of the Shotgun Diaries (SGD) production in West Hollywood. We are concept and storyboard artists on the project, and are currently focusing on the “pitch book”. The pitch book is the book sent out to the studios to sell them on the project.
SGD is interested in many forms that the project could take, from a cable series, to a feature picture, to several other things that I won’t mention now due to confidentiality.
What an honor to be working with Neal i.e. the producer. He is extremely supportive and very easy to work with. He and I have a similiar vision for the art, and what we have put together so far has blown him away.
SGD is refreshing, original, dark, violent, mysterious and SO much more.
LnC’s original deadline, on the art for the pitch book, was Friday the 29th, but some of the new art we put through on the 29th excited him so much, he extended the deadline to this Wednesday for us to further develop it!!!
That’s good and bad, with the bad not being “bad” in the sense that we aren’t excited or happy, but “bad” in that we are working with all the available time that we have to get as much art ready as possible by the Wednesday deadline. It will be nice to come up for air. That said, we do plan on and are excited for continued work with SGD. We are also enthusiastic at the opportunity this presents to LnC for additional contracts with other studio projects.
Check out our facebook group and the Shot Gun Diaries facebook group for more information and to keep up with the latest details!
-Ben
Because of the interest in getting the “A Chill in the Air” project out there and available as soon as possible, we are breaking the graphic novel into digital comic editions that will be available for download. Creation of the first comi is in the works.
The logo for the 5th annual Iowa City Zombie March is coming along very well. I anticipate completion of the logo this week. Shawn at King Zombie has expressed his approval of the current logo.
Sorry that I haven’t been posting here lately. Posts have mainly been going to facebook, myspace, deviant art and twitter. A new series is being created on deviant art now with the title, “The Last Days of Ophelia”. Thanks to the model, Crooked-Spinx (Model Mayhem), and to her friend and makeup artist Brittney for a fantastic photo shoot.
We do have a new group on deviant art http://grande-macabre.deviantart.com with a current membership of 52 artists. We have had several features and have several more planned in the near future!
I will be in Los Angeles in April for a Zombie March charity event, to benefit the homeless, with Shawn from King Zombie and our friend and movie producer Neal. Then, I will be in Iowa City in September for the 5th annual Iowa City Zombie March. Finally, I will be back in Savannah Georgia for a whole week in October!!! If you want to catch me there, check the local historic downtown pubs in the evenings, including WG’s, or walk around the historic squares during the day (after 11am!)!!
I believe that brings us up to date.
Prints are now available in two sizes! Each work is unique to it’s own dimensions, so the first number of the size determines the smallest dimension that the piece will be. The second number is a range, with the actual number dependent on the piece. The second number will never be smaller than the first number. Feel free to email us for the actual dimensions of any print. All prints include approximately a 0.5″ white border in addition to the print size.
The two sizes available are 8x(8-11) at $6.50 and 11x(11-17) at $8.50! Shipping in the continental U.S. is only $4! For international and non continental U.S. shipping, please contact us! Compare these prices to other art prints and you’ll find that our prints, on average, cost $4 to $6 less!
LnC Art Studios has a group on facebook now. If you’re on facebook, please join us! http://apps.facebook.com/groupsplus/group.php?id=5677. I’ll still blog here occasionally, and of course, the gallery, shop, and projects will all stay here. Facebook just makes it easier to set calendar events, blog regulalrly, etc.
Also, I (Ben), have designed a new t-shirt that I think is very cool and quite clever. It is not A Chill In The Air related, but under the hood it is zombie related. You can see the shirt design on our facebook group and on deviant art. Once I have everything finalized with the printer, I’ll be posting it here and taking pre-orders!!!! Oh, and I spoke with Neil Gaiman about the shirt and he said, “It’s Awesome!” Not much more can give me a bigger smile than him saying that. So, he’s getting one as soon as they are printed!!!
Take it easy folks!
-Ben
The Iowa City Zombie March was INCREDIBLE. There were around three times the number of people in the march from last year. Also, $1,800 was raised for charity! I am somewhat disappointed that only $86 was raised for the Johnson County Humane Society. We gave them $10 ourselves, and with around 150 people there (that approximate count does include kids), they should at least have gotten two to three times that much.
I have pictures posted on facebook available to facebook friends and non friends, though you do need a facebook account to see them. I’ll likely post some here at some point, but I need to rework the look of the site a bit to allow for more groupings. There are also pictures viewable online at the Daily Iowan, the Press Citizen, and KCRG TV 9, as well as video online at TV 9.
I am already looking forward to 2010. The only problem is that the Grand Masonic Lodge of Iowa always meets the third weekend of September and as a principal officer, I really should be there. I could go for one day, but it is also clear over in Sioux City, IA in 2010, which is a looooong way from Iowa City. For the 2010 Iowa City Zombie March, I’m a sponser and I’m in charge of creating the image for the event swag and such.
“A Chill In The Air” is coming along nicely. It looks like Manthos will be moving from Greece to Germany a week from this Friday, but we have a lot of panels for the first book so far. We might be close to halfway there on panels for the first book. There are touch up’s, color washes, etc, to still do, and I am in the process of translating my screenplay to narration and dialogue. The art is really, really amazing. This is going to be a very unique book, and not your run of the mill zombie story. This is a story about the few living characters and their interactions with each other in a world taken over by the walking dead. That said, the zombies are there. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m considering entering some work into an event that The Chait Galleries Downtown is holding from October 6th through November 6th. I’m checking out their information now. I’ll keep you posted!
The next big event coming up is Halloween, which I will be partying hard during in Savannah Georgia this year.
Take care all!
Check out the flyer and look up the link on it. It’s going to be a blast! Great charities and great fun. http://www.twitpic.com/gl2sn
Other than that, work continues on the graphic novel amongst other projects. I found a great piece of land for the artists retreat, but zoned agricultural it is considered a commercial loan…which means that I need 30% down. Ouch.
Sorry that I’ve been away. Things have been really crazy here. I’ve been very busy with work and art stuff. I am starting to get images ready to post on my gallery tab. I put a new one up last night, and I have several more to add.
I’m looking for a company that does printing of different things…not your normal printer of pens, books, etc. I am looking for a printer that can do puzzles, calendars, art prints, etc. Anybody know of such a place?
Manthos is in the process of moving to Germany. Once he’s set up there, we’ll be adding updates and new promotional stuff to the Chill In The Air page. He is continuing to work on the panels for the book, which is GREAT! The less time we lose the better. I’d love to see the book out early next year, but I think we might be looking at summer or even fall 2010. I’ll keep you updated.
I’m off to go fishing this weekend. In fact, I’m about thirty minutes late for leaving. I just posted new images on querelle-interieure.deviantart.com.
Manthos is continuing on the panels while working on getting moved. His computer is having major problems so everything has turned bad for him unfortunately. I hope that things get better for him soon.
I will be in Iowa City September 19th for the annual Zombie March! I’ll have “A Chill In The Air” T-Shirts with me.
Anyway, I need to go find a couple things and then take off.
Ok, so last night I had a dream with Neil and Amanda in it. I can still see it in my mind.
Neil had a black dress jacket, black slacks and a white, collared, shirt. Amanda was wearing a strapless white wedding dress with bits of white lace in seemingly random placement. The dress was covered in small colored ink drawings of flowers and words. Her hair was up in a twist, with twigs with berries and leaves stuck in to hold her hair up. It very naturistic, with a wood nymph quality to it. The dress had an extremely long brown trail to it, measuring around ten feet, but there was no vale.
My wife, myself, Neil and Amanda all went out for Sushi to a nice restaurant. The restaurant was dark with dim red lights illuminating small areas of the red walls. Tables were low, with seating on pillows on the floor. A candle in the center of the table provided enough light to see each other as we began an existential conversation.
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True story. That was my dream. As a note, there was one bathroom, used by men and women at the same time, as seen in some places in Europe. This was not necessarily a European bathroom though. It’s walls were covered in graffiti and it felt dark and unclean.
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The graphic novel moves along. We have about 25 pages worth of panels created, and I am putting the narration and dialogue into it. Manthos and his family are having some problems and looking to move in the near future, so we are delayed slightly, but I am confident that when he gets settled in the new place, we will continue making excellent progress.