Art of Rogue Signing at Gallery Nucleus!

Jondee here at Alhambra,

This was a big event for Gallery Nucleus, tickets for the panel and signing went on sale from the website on December 27th. I picked up the VIP ticket for January 7th. I usually go to the gallery and there are stacks of the art books, nope!, they sold out! I could have bought copies in advance, but no luck. I showed my ticket and found my seat. The gallery had along its walls artwork from Takarabune: Junko Mizuno Solo Exhibition which finished on January 8th. The panelists included Josh Kushins, the author of The Art of Rogue One and panel moderator, and concept artists; Khang Le, David Hobbins, and Kinman Chan. Khang showed slides of his concept work with two works that were in the Rogue One book; an alien mother and her child and a droid with a C-3PO body. He then showed the different layers used to develop the droid; from sketch to finished work, this was impressive. Hobbins went over the different folders on the slide show; the different concepts for the U-Wing, a two-pronged ship, then flipped vertically with the bottom half for deploying troops and the top half for pilots and the defenses for Scarif. He noted that Khang and he both started on the live action Star Wars show which would have been Star Wars: Underworld. Chan noted that he wasn’t certain what project his artwork would be used on, Rogue One, Episode Eight, or the theme park. The panel had finished, but I was able to get copies of The Art of Rogue One at Vroman’s bookstore so it all worked out.

The gallery upstairs featured the Disney Pixar art collection with artwork chosen by John Lasseter for each of the seventeen Pixar films. There was Buzz greeting the gallery, a sketch by Bob Pauley. Buzz Lightyear of course was featured in the first Pixar film, Toy Story (1995). I really liked Teddy Newton’s The Incredible Family with its cubist forms. Remy and Emile, Paris Morning features characters from 2007’s Ratatouille and was a nice vista by Dominique R. Louis. Another epic vista was by Lou Romano, Tepui, in Up (2009). “Squirrel!” There was a long painting, Ice Cave, by Steve Pilcher which has Merida from Brave (2012) with sword in the cave. Ralph Eggleston has Joy from Inside Out (2015). These were some of the paintings featured in the gallery. There was also 2015’s The Good Dinosaur with The Good Dinosaur Colorscript by Shaorn Calahan. This gallery gave a brilliant picture of the different Pixar movies from characters to backgrounds that instantly jogged memories of the films. The gallery finished on January 8th, but there are always great artwork at Gallery Nucleus.