Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thumbs
Did I ever post this? Three of these sketches were in that YouTube video I did a few months back. This is as far as I got with this particular environment.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ambush

I have a friend who teaches grade 5. For her students' writing class, she has them write stories based on some of their favourite paintings of mine (which is a huge honour for me!)
I told her that the class could write a story of their own, and I would take a section and illustrate it for them. This was a point in their story where the protagonists are prematurely celebrating their conquest, unaware of a pending ambush.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Working On A Book!

I've been looking forward to announcing this! I'm in the early stages of putting together a book. The book will be a collection of personal illustrations (like this one, and this one). I want the book to be comprised mostly of new images, so for that reason my updates here might be a little slow, as a lot of my efforts will wind up going into the book. Maybe I'll leak a painting or two every now and then...like the WIP above. I currently have no estimated publication date, but I'll keep everyone posted!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Portrait Commission


A recent commission. Oil on board, 18x24". The lower image is an extreme closeup of the head.
My goal with this one (other than capturing the girl) was to play with various levels of finish. The head being at the highest level of finish, and everything else tapering off according to how far away they are.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Character Art for the Film
This is a colour key/concept rendering for a character in the short film. This started as a 3D model (which I did not do). I did a quick lighting pass in Maya, and then painted right over top of it in Photoshop.And yes, I am aware that Pixar did a monster with blue fur as well. The similarity ends there, I assure you.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Environment Test for the Short

Threw a quick test together on the weekend to see how the hand-painted environments might look with the 3D treatment. The top image is the original colour key, and below it is the 3D set. The painting gets 'projected' right into the 3D scene, and the result is the ability to move the camera around the painting in actual 3D space. The quicktime video is just a simple camera move to demonstrate the effect.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Side Project
A couple work friends and I got together and decided to start a small side project! We're currently in the exciting early stages. The cool thing is that each person is a one-man department. I am the color/background department. Here's some keys that I've done, exploring various lighting and color design.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Gabriel
This is the 2-year-old son of my friend and former co-worker, Colin Jack. In fact, some of you may know him from his awesome blog. Easily one of the coolest and best guys I've worked with. I have about 30 of his post-it note drawings of Batman in rehab cluttering up my desk at work.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Big Bridge...and New Website Launch!
The more I paint, the more I seem to appreciate the appeal of a limited palette.New Website Announcement!
I've been working on a brand new site for the past few months with a really skilled kid named Taher Ali (he's only 17!). His cousin, Danial Jaffry did the coding. Both did excellent work, and the site was launched today. Take a look!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Dragon?
This one was for last week's DrawerGeeks. The topic was 'Dragon', but my illustration ended up being more about the environment than the creature. I don't even know if that's a dragon, really. I guess it could be a baby Dragon?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sarah


Sarah is someone I've fortunately come to know over the past two years, and it was my pleasure to have her pose for this painting. Having done a number of portrait commissions where I'm basically painting the person straight-on, I felt the personal need to do something a little more interesting, but still with a strong focus on capturing Sarah as accurately as possible.This is oil on board, 18x24".
Sunday, March 22, 2009
West Coast Painting & Rest In Peace Aunt Paulette

Just got back from a short trip to beautiful Vancouver Island, Canada (the northern neighbor of Washington, to place it on a map for you). It wasn't a painting trip. My family and I went to visit my Aunt, who was sick with lung cancer. Tragically, my Aunt, still in her 60s, passed away before my family and I arrived at her house. She was an incredible person, and played a profound role in my own life. My Uncle asked me if I'd like to put one of the above paintings in my Aunt's coffin, to be cremated with her. I chose the boat painting, because it's probably the best of the three, and I think best relates to her. The painting now exists amongst the ashes of my Aunt. It's doubtful that I'll ever do another painting that will reach that level of personal significance.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Joker

Somebody asked me to paint the Joker for them. This is oil wash on masonite board.
Also, Whohub e-mailed and asked me to do an interview with them, which you can read here. In fact...after I answered their questions, I realized anybody can go there and be "interviewed". So, you should do it too!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Again with the Nintendo DS
Still haven't put it down! Sketches from this past week.Once again, I uploaded a few of the playbacks.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Nintendo DS: Reloaded
I have a weird relationship with this thing. I will go months without using it, then I find myself not being able to put it down for a few weeks. Right now I am in the latter mode.Update: You can view playbacks of some of these paintings here.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Monday, February 02, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Portraits (plus Announcement)


First one is a commissioned portrait - 10x12"Second one is a self portrait, painted for my Mom - 11x14"
Third one is a quick head study from class - 8x10"
Announcement: I am doing a lecture thing on digital painting (using photoshop) at Sheridan College campus on Wednesday, Februrary 4th, from 12:00 - 1:30pm. I plan to cover technical, photoshop-specific stuff, as well as painting concepts in general. It's free, so if you're in the area and you want to attend, contact me and I'll tell you where we'll be.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Mountainscapes
The thumbnails at the top were done as excersizes for shape, space, and light. For some reason, I felt the urge to take the first one and turn it into a full out matte painting. The thumbnail took about a half hour, and the matte painting took like 4 days. Have to get these out of my system every now and then.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Thumbnail Idea-Generating
Music: Peg by Steely Dan & Reality by Antoine Dufour
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Hello, I'm Marco Bucci and I'm addicted to Batman
I've been very recently inspired by the graphic novel called 'Arkham Asylum', illustrated by Dave McKean. Apart from his art being a breath of fresh air to me, I loved the way he dealt with showing Batman; he exists only in sketches and silhouettes...almost phantom-like. This painting is a small tribute to that concept.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Cold Landscape
This painting was just waiting to be let out. One of those rare times when I actually had a clear idea of what I wanted to see before I open Photoshop and start sketching. This one was hideously blue for the first 3/4 of it, with a cheesy, oversaturated warm light in the cave. It might have made Kinkade smile. And as soon as I had that thought, I spent the rest of my time trying to tone it back and get some more varieties to happen.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Acrylic Pages


Takin' care of business with more acrylic sketches. Strange, strange medium, I find. Sometimes it obeys, other times it gives you the middle finger. I'm having fun trying to better understand how to handle it! And the reason there are so many witches is because that was one of the sketch topics at work this week.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Friday, December 05, 2008
Work Mortal Kombat
The sketch topic today was "Mortal Kombat". I had the ambitious idea of re-doing the character-selection screen, with caricatures of some co-worker friends at the studio. I had to do it in time to get it up on the wall, so it's kept rough. Maybe those of you who work in the Toronto animation scene will recognize some of these guys.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
More Life Work

I feel much more at home with oil than with acrylic. Here's some recent studies from the model (taken with a cell phone camera...). The first one is a 9 hour painting that was broken up into three, 3-hour sittings. I took a photo after each sitting to document the progress. A useful way to pinpoint when you began to overwork the painting.The bottom painting is a 2 hour alla prima sketch.





















