The Sands of Time

Concept art for Prince of Persia
I had done several illustrations for the King's funeral but this is my favorite in terms of scale and atmosphere. It was done in a very early stage of production and I wish I would have had more reference then for the final costume designs.

The 'City of Alamut' was my first task when I arrived in Marrakech. The design was based on original Indian architecture and then extended into a fantastic superstructure. We designed the city on different levels, from poor to more wealthy areas up to the palaces on top, cascading into a massive tower reaching into the clouds. Finding a good measure between fantasy and history was the main concern of the production designer. Which wasn't that easy because the story was set in a period that can only be researched by paintings, scrolls and hieroglyphics...



...until I got my hands on a book called 'Orientalists', containing more than 300 of the finest paintings of the genre. Most of them created by artists of the nineteenth-century - some of them I hadn't even heard of until that day - it soon became my bible and main source of inspiration. The book ran out of print years ago but a few copies are still around for horrendous prices starting from $1,699 at Amazon.

Temple of Water
The cave was entirely built on stage and designed around the stunt-fighting taking place in there. Hundreds of miles away from Morocco the set was build in London but had to tangentially match the exterior shots in Oukaimden. This and more illustrations of my fellow artists can be found in the book 'Behind the Scenes of Prince of Persia' from Disney Publishing.

N⊕TTINGHAM

In Winter 2007 I worked in Shepperton on a film called 'Nottingham'. Only seven weeks later the project was stopped because the script was undergoing major changes and with it most of the locations and sets too. Eventually, filming was continued in 2009 and released under the title 'Robin Hood'.

Below, I posted some of the concepts I had done for medieval London, Nottingham and a castle siege in France.

alchemy |’alkemē

Figurative: a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation

Alchemy isn’t software for creating finished artwork, but rather a sketching environment that focuses on the absolute initial stage of the creation process. Intentionally reduced to a level of functionality there are no undo, no selecting, and no editing features. Interaction focuses instead on the output of a great number of good, bad, strange and beautiful shapes.


Alchemy is an open drawing project aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways. Try and download a free version at al.chemy.org

Andrej Delany

My pal Thomy is just about to finish his second graphic novel of "la chronique des immortals". He asked me and a few other guys to contribute some sketches to a gallery section that will be added to the book. So here is my take on Andrej Delany, bloody hell…

another one

Ninja Assassin

Elsewhere...

Heavy Metal

Universal has just debuted the first international trailer for Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (pictures and behind-the-scenes footage can be found on this blog)

The script went through a lot of changes as the title did too. Previously titled as 'Nottingham', Russel Crowe was meant to play the part of the sheriff. This is only the start of a series of period-films due to be released next year. After all the remakes and comic adaptions Hollywood seems to have re-discoverd the medieval times.

official trailer online

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was shot on location in Morocco and Pinewood Studios London. The film is based on the well known videogame created by Jordan Mechner who previously considered producing an animated film based on the games, but could not resist Disney and Bruckheimer's offer.

Finally, after a couple of reshoots in London the official trailer is online at youtube and the Disney website. Some of the footage still seems to be in the process and not yet finished. The film is scheduled to be released on March 28th 2010 and still considered to be in postproduction.

***edit: latest international trailer here***

website reloaded

long time no post, I know, but actually there are some new pictures on my website. I finally got around to update it and post some recent illustrations on the index page and some more in the portfolio section.



And this is another contribution to the conceptrobot page, the little brother of conceptships I linked a few posts ago (be patient, the site takes a while to load). I like this collections because it shows such a variety of ideas and styles. It is really worth it to browse both sites through until the end. hope you enjoy

trailer released

When I got the offer to work on that film I thought it was rather bold to produce a movie called "Ninja Assassin". After I had seen the stunt rehersals and the moves these parcour guys were capable of it became pretty clear what direction James McTeigue was following.

We had done "V for Vendetta" before and I knew it wouldn't become just another trashy martial arts movie. But take a look for yourself and tell me what you think. The trailer is now online and can be found here. The quick sketch on the left was based on a storyboard frame from Todd, illustrating one of the designs for a torture pole.

ninja-assassin-movie.warnerbros.com