Paramount Steps Up to Contest for Oscars

Taraji P. Henson, left, and Brad Pitt, who plays the title role in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a Paramount film set for December release.

LOS ANGELES — Like its namesake character, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Hollywood’s take on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been aging in reverse.
Related Trailer: 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
François Duhamel/DreamWorks

Jamie Foxx, left, and Robert Downey Jr. in “The Soloist,” from Paramount’s DreamWorks unit.
Fitzgerald’s tale begins in 1860 and stretches through the First World War. The version set for release by Paramount Pictures on Christmas Day kicks Button’s life span all the way forward to Hurricane Katrina and uses computer wizardry that could make the author’s Jazz Age fable feel almost young.
If it is all that Paramount executives hope, the movie, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, will also mark the birth of the next phase at the aging studio. Brad Grey, Paramount’s chairman, has been eager to show that he can sell tickets and win Oscars without the help of his DreamWorks partners — Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Stacey Snider — who are leaving to form a company of their own.
Mr. Grey is not the only studio chieftain chasing Oscar glory. This year a clutch of late-season releases promises to push several big studios heavily into the Oscar fray, as they move to fill space left by the closing or reorientation of specialty divisions like Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage, which had come to dominate the awards race in recent years.

More at The New York Times.

Murakami

Tan Tan Bo Puking - a.k.a. Gero Tan, 2008

September 27,?2008 – January 4,?2009

MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt/Main presents the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the works of Takashi Murakami. In May 2008, Time Magazine cited Murakami as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. As with the case of the major Sturtevant exhibition in 2004, the entire museum will be devoted to showcasing Murakami’s oeuvre. For the duration of the exhibition, only works by this artist will be on view, with the MMK transforming itself, as the title suggests, into a © MURAKAMI Museum.© MURAKAMI was organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), whose chief curator Paul Schimmel curated and supervised the exhibition. After Los Angeles, the exhibition traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York. MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt/Main is the first platform for the © MURAKAMI exhibition in Europe. Here, the show has been organized by Udo Kittelmann and Mario Kramer in close collaboration with the artist. The last stop on the tour will be the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

More at Artnews.org

Andy Warhol: Pop Politics

2008-09-27 until 2009-01-04
Currier Museum of Art
Manchester, NH, USA United States of America

Andy Warhol - one of the most influential American artists of the twentieth century - captured the likeness of some of the most visionary and powerful political leaders of the 20th century. Images of John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mao Zedong, among others will hang side-by-side when the Currier Museum of Art presents Andy Warhol: Pop Politics from September 27, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Pop Politics displays together for the first time more than sixty of Warhol's paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs of political figures. His portraits of American presidents and presidential candidates, queens, Communist dictators, and other political figures reveal intriguing, yet until now unexplored insights into Warhol's own celebrity status and political leanings. Warhol's images of these powerful personalities comment on the interrelationships between politics and celebrity culture in the late twentieth century - connections that remain ever present today. Timed to coincide with the 2008 presidential election, this exhibition offers a probing and entertaining look through the eyes of America's most famous Pop artist at the leaders who shaped the twentieth century.

More at absolutearts.com

Armın Mersmann Exhibiton

German born Armin Mersmann knew from a very young age that he wanted to become an artist, and a lifetime of following that goal has produced the caliber of work that now defines him as one of the foremost graphite realists in the nation. After serving four years as a graphic artist in the Air Force, Mersmann went on to spend the next five years in various art schools both in the US and in Germany. Mersmann was represented by Portraits Chicago for high-end commission pieces but the artist eventually decided to pursue his own art instead of commission works. He now works out of his studio in Michigan and is busy creating and displaying his art both locally and nationally. He has received numerous awards, including being recognized as Artist Magazine's Top 100 Portrait Artists, and receiving the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art, Excellence in Technique Award.

For more information click here.

For Armın Mersmann Deviantart gallery click here.

Tutorial Web

There is a lot of useful tutorial links.i like them.So i want to share it.ChaosShattered form Deviantart do this.And i want to appreciate him.These are very useful.Thanks a lot.
A part from journal entry of ChaosShattered :

--Hopefully these tutorials will help you out and you can find what you need. If there is anything you are looking for in particular, note or comment on this entry and let me know what you need. I'll try my best to go and find something for you!
-- Do not forget that these techniques are all interchangable and can be used in different programs/mediums if you use some imagination.
--I did not make these. I am just linking to them. I did, however, code them so you can see the name and that takes ages surprisingly. Probably due to the amount I put up here.--If you have any links you want up in this page, whether it be your own or someone elses, send them over either in a note or a comment on this entry.
--Please let me know if there are any broken links so I may take them down.
--Feel free to link to this entry. Hope I helped!

PainterInking
[Inking Tutorial]

Skin
[How to Color Realistic Skin]
[Coloring with PhotoshopCS(Part I)]
[Tutorial: Skin]

Eyes
[How to Paint Eyes]
[Tutorial:Eye]

Hair
[Hair Tutorial]
[Quick Hair Tutorial]
[Hair Tutorial]

Full - Covers Multiple Areas
[Painter 7 Coloring Tutorial]
[Painter Portrait Tutorial]
[RainingReflectionsWalkthrough]
[The Making of Sinner]
[Tutorial Painter 9]
[Painter Tutorial]
[Coloring Tutorial]
[Kadaj Portrait Tutorial]

PhotoshopInking
[How to color Lineart]
[Preparing the Line Art]

Skin
[CG Tutorial]
[Skin Painting Tutorial]

Eyes
[Drawing and Coloring Eyes]
[Shiny Eyes in Photoshop]

Lips/Mouth
[Airbrushing Lips Tutorial]

Hair
[Create Digital Hair]
[Hair Drawing]
[Hair Tutorial]

Clothing/Folds
[Advance Tutorial Act 3]
[Fabric Tutorial]

Full
[Basic CG]
[Basic coloring overview]
[Painting - Photoshop]
[Photoshop Tutorial]
[Coloring Process]
[Digital Painting Tutorial]
[Coloring Tutorial]

Effects/Background/Other
[Ghost Tutorial]
[How to Draw Realistic Cat]
[Perspective Clouds Tutorial]
[Toning Tutorial]
[Advanced Toning Part 4]

More and more at ChaosShattered's Journal .