How I Spend My Time

Monkey King Park Concepts

2011-07-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

These are some concepts for the Monkey King theme park Thinkwell just announced to be scheduled to open in 2014 just outside Beijing, China. So far this is all I could post. I hope to put more up as we develop the project.

Below are concepts for the master plan of the park, a dark ride experience, a 4D theater show and point of view of one of the lands of the park.

Fernbank Murals

2011-07-12T21:40:00.001-07:00

I'm very excited to post some images of Fernbank Nature Quest. Thinkwell designed and produced this interactive children's exhibit for Atlanta's Fernbank Museum. I did the murals for the exhibit as well as some of the foliage panels for the trees. This was a big project for me lasting about four months.

The murals are digital printed on a kind of wallpaper material. Below, I posted a low-res panorama version of the digital file. The image has the illustrated elevation included to help inform scale and location.

Dont Forget! Click on the images to make them larger.

Fun with Sketchup

2011-04-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for a park in the middle east. The center icon for the park was a Qatari castle. In this style, the large part is accomplished with sketchup and then finished off in photoshop.

Sinbad Mountain

2011-04-24T03:26:00.000-07:00

This is a fun concept for a "Splash Mountain" style dark ride based on the Sinbad storys.
My friend Topper Helmers did the line work.

Sesame Street presents "Our Planet"

2011-04-24T03:23:00.000-07:00

These are concepts for a children's traveling exhibit.

Star Wars Museum Concept

2011-04-24T03:15:00.001-07:00

This was a great idea I had for a walk through exhibit featuring all the props, costumes, and models of the Star Wars films. There would be points of interaction along the way where guests could choose to follow the path of the dark or the light side of the force. The grand finally was a knighting ceremony in the Jedi Council chamber room where you are rewarded for your efforts either by the evil Emperor or Yoda.

How would you like your own backyard theme park?

2011-03-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! This is my first widely published piece of art. I had never heard of the Robb Report before this happened, but its a really cool buyers guide for the mega rich.

Thinkwell asked me to paint a mansion with a smaller theme park in the backyard. I said ok and didn't really ask what it was for. I finished it and the next thing I knew, I had a double page spread. I couldnt be happier!

Japanese theme park

2011-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for the center icon in a theme park slash mall project. The idea was that you could enter into each of the four buildings nestled into the mountain. Each building represents one of the four seasons.

Kennedy Space Center

2011-03-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for the look of one of the museum buildings showcasing a life size rocket.

Dino Land

2011-03-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

These are concepts for a Dinosaur Theme park in China. These guys were a little crazy, wanting a dinosaur shaped space needle. The show that happens in the museum was a really cool idea. The real dig site would come to life using a "peppers ghost" effect. The tour guide gave information about the specific dino bones on the big screen.

Robotanica

2011-03-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for a Robot theme park in Korea. The idea was that the plants and the robots are married into the landscape. Robot arms lift out of the ground using their trees to shade passing pedestrians.

Professor Pennypickle's Imagination Workshop

2011-03-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is a project I art directed for a children's museum in Temecula California called The Imagination Workshop. It's a very small project no larger than the bed room I grew up in. None the less, it had a lot of heart and much like my Star Wars theater project, I learned a lot!

The focal point of the room is a very colorful gear wall. There are three points of interaction were kids can crank wheels or sit and spin and discover how physical science applys to gears. The concept sketch is an isometric of half of the room. This was used in our creative process to help the team understand the design and particularly how the room would look and feel. You can see how the design changed a little bit from the end product.

Below are some pictures of the space. For such a small room, we packed a lot of interactive "do" for the kids.

That's my beautiful wife and me

These are some early blue sky concepts of the project. We were toying around with the idea of making the space feel like a garage.

"Cirque" type show storyboards

2011-03-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

These are storyboards for a show I worked on a few years ago for Thinkwell. Topper Helmers did the line work, I colored them in photoshop.

Thinkwell often produces art work in an assembly line fashion. I find myself designing, drawing line work, and coloring, or just working one step for each piece.

Observatory Attack

2010-01-19T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to do some personal paintings which happens to be much harder than I anticipated. This represents that effort. Hopefully it wont be the only one that I've found time for.

Last year's figure drawing class

2010-01-19T13:31:00.001-08:00

So last year at Thinkwell, I was lucky enough to participate in a weekly figure drawing class. We got to draw some great models with great costumes. I have compiled some of my favorites and put them together for your viewing pleasure.

The Phantom of the Opera Concept

2007-07-12T10:43:00.001-07:00

This is another home theater concept. The theater has sort of a queue line design to it. Guests don't actually arrive in the theater until they pass through storytelling sets.
The theater entrance is set in the foundations of the opera house where the Phantom lives. After guests pass through the magic mirror, they find their way through a costume and prop "back stage" area that doubles as a space for food preparation. As guests enter the theater they pass over the stage and up to the seating.

Star Wars home Theater

2007-04-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

In summer 2006, my friend's father commissioned me to build this outrageous home theater. I lived with them for four months and pretty much did nothing but work on this crazy project. I learned so much that summer about designing and building with real material. What works and what doesn't. Maybe I learned more about what doesn't work than what does, but I got some really great photos!

This is the conceptual Painting that sparked the final product.
I wanted it to resemble the deck of a star destroyer.

Most of what I did was at its core industrial foam. After sculpting and building the foam pieces, it was skinned with a combination of concrete, fiber glass mesh, and plaster.

The audio and visual hardware was state of the art, all of which I had nothing to do with. I worked with the owner who helped out a lot.

I used your pretty standard hot knife to sculpt and cut the industrial foam into geometrical patterns that adorn the walls. For some of the larger pieces I used a hot wire table cutter.

One of the coolest effects I built in the room was the fiber optic star field on either side of the proscenium. There is about three feet of space past the mullions. This depth really brought the effect to life.

This last image is a photo of the mural I painted for the right side of the theater. This is meant to be a view-port looking out into space.

Frankenstien Theater

2007-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

Try to imagine this in your home as a private getaway. You know, when you want to catch a flick...maybe Frankenstein!!!
As you throw the switch to electrify the monster to life, the operating table raises to reveal the movie screen below. Lights flicker then dim just as your movie starts.

I've included a refreshment area complete with shelves, refrigerator, and a microwave to pop popcorn.

Comic Book Illustrations

2007-03-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

These were from my media experimentation class at school. Each one is done with a different technique varying from gauche, oil, and acrylic.

The Rocketeer the Ride

2007-03-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is a project I worked on with my brother Josh Steadman, Katie Taggart, and Brian Crosby for Disney's ImagiNations contest in 2003.

The top image is my brother's (Josh Steadman) cover for the project book.

Next are images of the project box and it's contents. We printed the story on newsprint and had a cover letter with Howard Hugh's logo at the top. Also, there is a dvd we put together with our art and interstitial moments of the movie to convey the story of the ride.

The next three images are concepts of what the ride vehicle could possibly look like. I included rough concepts of the inner workings to communicate intent. The surround screen is a rear projected scrim that follows your vehicle. When the ride comes to a physical set, the screen splits in two for a smooth transition.

These marker renderings are sets designed for the queue line of the ride. We wanted the guests to get a little back story of the main characters of the show while they were waiting in line.

Please check out my brother's blog for more artwork and a more complete explanation.

http://steadmanstyle.com/the-rocketeer-the-ride-2

Some work from my college days

2007-03-17T15:02:00.000-07:00