Polka Dots "Women of Winter" Drarrings

Since the first parade of the season that I designed rolled through downtown Mobile last night, I can go ahead and post some float drawings, as well as some roughs and insights on the design process!  
The Order of Polka Dots theme this year was "Women of Winter", and I drew 15 floats as reference for Steve Mussell's crew over at MIRTHCO, INC.
 The themes are ideally selected well in advance-- sometimes years-- in order to allow prep time for costuming, ball decorations, accessorizing, and -most importantly to me- Float Building!  
In this post, I will go a little bit into the process, and include both the sketches and the related finished drawings.
 
 First, I'll start off with a trio of 'rough drawings', which are produced after the Float Builder gets the theme and we discuss what he wants on the float. We will typically meet and go over the organization's theme, look at specific requests ( along with reference pics often submitted by the organization), and do some preliminary sketches known as 'thumbnail' roughs.
 Then, I render some somewhat clearer sketches and submit them to the builder for approval. 

Float rough sketches for Mirthco, Inc by BRENT AMACKER

(c) Brent Amacker

 Once approved, the floats are hand-rendered on
9" x12" Bristol Board -- a heavy, textured cardstock art paper-- and then inked using archival, waterproof inks.

Brent Amacker

 The black and white images are clearly drawn in order for the crew to use as reference, and the builder (or an associate) will usually color the drawing to achieve the proper color scheme to his liking.
 The floats are all built on either identical or very similar platforms, so I only render the facades.

 

 

In this case, it was decided that the front figure would be dressed in traditional Swiss attire, as opposed to being bundled snugly in a furry parka...!

ORDER of POLKA DOTS TONIGHT!

TONIGHT marks the first parade this Mardi Gras season designed by Yours Truly (ME!), The Order of Polka Dots! If you're in Mobile, AL or close by, be sure to get down to Parade Route A to see the floats, catch some goodies, and have a blast!
 Here's a peek at one of the designs:

Order of POLKA DOTS "Penguin Extravaganza" float by Brent Amacker for Mirthco, Inc.

 I'll have the rest of the entire parade design drawings up over at BRENTOONS Media tonight after the floats roll!

WHY Didn't Someone Think Of THIS Earlier...?

I looked around. Didn't see it anywhere. So obvious.

Penguins of Madagascar (c)DreamWorks

Another silly mash-up I had to get out of my system....

Another Fun Character Design

I give you...
The McKRAKEN...!!

All I'm Sayin' Is....

Original opening to "Wild, Wild West"

Updated Opening

  I KNOW everyone had their fill of horrible, campy 90's 'big screen' theatrical re-makes of vintage television shows (Beverly Hillbillies, My Favorite Martian, The Brady Bunch, etc.), and some were better than others.
 One of the most appalling was the forgettable Will Smith/Kevin Kline version of "Wild, Wild West". In all seriousness, I think it would be a good idea to try again to get it right, if not only to wash that terrible movie memory far away.



 As I was watching a rerun of the 2009 JJ Abrams  "Star Trek" remake on FX, it occurred to me that two of the stars would be perfect for a well-written, modern attempt to update one of my favorite shows from my childhood.
 The onscreen chemistry of Christopher Pine and Karl Urban (who is fantastic in everything he does) would translate well to these macho, handsome and savvy government secret agents.
 To illustrate my point, I have created a few graphics to show how easy it would be for these guys to capture the feel and intent of the ground-breaking 1960's television show.

Robert Conrad and Ross Martin

Chris Pine and Karl Urban

I'm just saying that I think these two seem to work well together, and that with the strides in special effects and improvements over 90's hack scriptwriting, that a legitimate attempt to bring an exciting, swashbuckling, wild-west espionage shoot-em-up to the big screen is long overdue.

An homage, as it were, to when the days when tv was good. Or didn't have "CSI" or "SVU" or whatever in the title of every show.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!