Trailer for ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Check out the trailer I created for the novel ROOM by Emma Donoghue. All of the art is by me and animated it in After Effects and Apple Motion, and edited in Final Cut



All of the text is appropriated from the novel and I strived to portray the innocence of the narrator, Jack, while at the same time hinting at the darker elements of the story. I'm really proud of how it turned out and hope it's an engaging introduction to ROOM. Learning to try to draw like a 5 year old with crayons again was really fun too.

The video has gotten some incredible media attention since it's release on Friday!

Indigo Fiction Editor Blog - http://community.indigo.ca//posts/user-300763/593813.html

GalleyCat - http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/videos/emma_donoghue_the_room_book_trailer_172032.asp?c=rss

New York Magazine's Vulture Blog - http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/08/watch_an_eerie_trailer_for_emm.html

Amy Archer

Amy Archer, originally uploaded by paul.covello.

"I'll stake my Pulitzer on it!"

This drawing of Pulitzer Prize winning star journalist Amy Archer from The Hudsucker Proxy took me FOREVER to finish. Not only do I generally have trouble drawing women, but a character as dynamic as Jennifer Jason Leigh portrays in this film was even more challenging to represent. I love her fast-talking no-nonsense Katherine Hepburn/Rosalind Russell-inspired performance, and she's probably my favourite Coen heroine, so I felt I had to do her justice.

I settled on this pose in an effort to get this finished. I'm not sure it captures how tough and animated the character is, but I tried to make her look like a classic 50's fashion illustration, as well. She wears many different costumes throughout the film and I wanted to pick one that I could recreate faithfully. It's also from my favourite of her scenes:

The Literates #3

The Literates return! This time they inadvertently find themselves stuck in Victorian London where, as you can see based on the cover, they end up fighting a giant steampunk robot.

In this story The Literates team up with characters from Arthur Slade's fantastic young reader series The Hunchback Assignments, with the newest book in the series The Dark Deeps releasing this month.

If your in the Toronto area today for Free Comic Book Day, the books should be available at The Silver Snail. You can read the issue online at TheLiterates.ca and become a fan at facebook.com/TheLiterates

Carl Showalter

Carl Showalter, originally uploaded by paul.covello.

"Blood has been shed, Jerry."

Here's Carl Showalter, the "kinda funny looking" in a "general kinda way" crook from the classic crime film, Fargo.

Steve Buscemi regularly appears in the Coens' films, but I think everyone can agree that this is his greatest performance. I love how he slowly goes crazier after every screw up, and consequently gets repeatedly tortured in a variety of ways throughout the film. I tried to show this frustrated violent side in the image, but at the same time really tried to make him look scrawny and funny too.

H.I. McDunnough

H.I. McDunnough, originally uploaded by paul.covello.

"What, are you kiddin'? We got us a family here!"

I love the Coen Brothers' films, most to the point of obsession, and they are probably my all-time favourite directors. So I've started a project where I'll try to draw every single character from their films. By that I mean not only the main cast members, but every person who appears on screen! (or maybe just those featured prominently or with speaking parts...)

Now I'm not sure how often I'll add to this collection and it's a daunting task I've set for myself, but I really hope to build my caricature, digital colouring and inking skills along the way.

First up is one of my favourite characters: H.I. McDunnough played by Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona. Part of why I love this film is because it's a bit like a live action cartoon. So to match this I tried to give H.I. a wiry, elastic quality when I was drawing him and wanted to keep his design as simple as I could. I also love Nic Cage's expressions of anxiety when he's corralling the babies in the film, so I tried to reproduce that as well.