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EXCLUSIVE: The "Art Of Captain America" With Ryan Meinerding
Marvel will be releasing "Captain America: The Art of Captain America - The First Avenger" two days before the film's release, a hardcover book chock-full of original designs and concept art for the movie.
CBR News did our own gearing up for "Captain America" by reaching out to the man behind both the movie and the "Art of Captain America" hardcover: Marvel Studios Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding.
CBR News: Ryan, you've done concept art for "Thor" and many other Marvel films, as well as the comic book redesign of Iron Man's armor. Now, you're a Co-Visual Development Supervisor for "Captain America." For those readers who may only know you from your "Iron Man" redesign, what does your job on "Captain America" entail?
Ryan Meinerding: Charlie Wen, my Co-Visual Development Supervisor, and I manage a small team of great artists that work on character design and key frame art for the Marvel movies. Generally speaking, we are some of the first people brought on board to start creating visuals for the movie. In most cases that means meeting with the director and producers and listening to the direction they want the characters to take, then reading the script to understand the main story needs. From there, we usually delve into the comics to find specific reference. After digesting as much from the comics as possible, we try to figure out distinct variations that combine all of the initiatives and create multiple designs to submit for approval. It really is about finding the tone of the movie and then using a few key images and costumes to communicate that tone.
EXCLUSIVE: Meinerding's painting depicting a pre-costumed Cap
On "Captain America," I was able to do a very early pass at Cap's costumes and a few key frame moments that loosely helped communicate the look and feel for the movie. A lot of times these early passes are really there to start discussion and inspire people.
From the inspiration phase onward, however, our roles become about nailing down specifics and designing what the final characters are going to be. [Director] Joe [Johnston] had very specific ideas about all of the characters and moments, and I was truly honored to work for the guy that had such a profound effect on popular culture through the years. I ended up designing Cap's three costumes and his round shield, contributing on the design of the Red Skull head, designing the Howling Commandos and Bucky, working with Charlie on the design of Hydra and designing the Hydra weapons.
After the process of getting a design image approved, the design starts to become real when the costume department gets their hands on it. I was very lucky to be in the costume department on Captain America, and got to make comments and work with Anna Sheppard and Paddy and Kier [Malem] to help the suit come to fruition. It was a very exciting and rewarding process, and everyone involved did an amazing job.
Now, we know a little bit about your love of comic books and film background from when we last spoke with you about "Iron Man," but what is your art background? Did you set off to school vowing one day you'd be painting Thor and Iron Man and Captain America for Marvel?
I've always loved drawing and painting, and I've always loved comics. I have some old sketches of Cap from junior high and some old airbrushed paintings of the Thing, Mr. Fantastic and Cannonball. I definitely loved drawing those characters when I was young, but I don't think I ever thought I'd be able to paint them for a living. I set off to school to be a commercial artist of some kind, although I didn't know where I'd end up. I went to the University of Notre Dame for industrial design and graduated from there. Product design seemed like the most practical way of doing art for a living. Somehow, I was able to turn my senior thesis into a character design project, however. And come to think of it, that project was based on an original superhero design. So I've definitely had an interest in being involved in comics and superheroes since college and even back to junior high school, I just didn't know how to get involved with that kind of work. I'm so happy that my career has led me that way.
Turning to the artwork in the "Art of Captain America" hardcover book, the concept art we've seen is really beautiful and incredibly detailed. When doing concept art, what medium do you prefer to work in (oils, acrylic, etc.), and does that choice of medium ultimately affect the look of the movie?
Well, I'm almost 100% Photoshop these days. I used to do a lot of pencil sketching for work, and some airbrushing, but I never really came to a process with oils or acrylic that was fast enough for production deadlines. I really lament that fact. It'd be so great to be able to have a huge number of original paintings once a movie is finished, but alas I don't think I will ever be able to accomplish that. Those mediums have their own unique struggles that I never completely figured into any working process I have.
In the end, the ultimate look of the movie is the result of a collaboration of the production designer, the cinematographer, the costume designer and the visual effects supervisor, with specific direction from the director and producers. As a Visual Development Supervisor, I'm in a position to take initial stabs at what a character or a few moments from the movie will look like before any part of the movie is constructed. I'd like to think those first images inspire ideas in the director, the producers and the department heads and that some of that inspiration carries through to what finally appears on screen. The process is so collaborative, however, that it's next to impossible to say that a painting style has 1X1 relationship to what appears in the film.
The more direct connections between the style of art and the final product usually come from designing a specific part of the movie, like a character or a sequence. The way that Adi Granov and Phil Saunders painted the Iron Man armor really defined a tone of high precision surfaces for that suit, and the way I try to paint Cap is definitely a bit rougher. I'd like to think it looks like acrylic or gouache paintings, and I hope that provides an aesthetic that's appropriate for a WWII Captain America. A lot of the advertising and propaganda art from that period was done in those mediums, and I did purposely try to achieve that look. I tried to take advantage of being able to show a few brush strokes here and there, and to try and use as much dirt and grime on his costume and face as seemed reasonable. I hope some of those painterly effects lent to a feeling of roughness and ruggedness about his costume and character that translated to the screen.
Marvel will be releasing "Captain America: The Art of Captain America - The First Avenger" two days before the film's release, a hardcover book chock-full of original designs and concept art for the movie.
CBR News did our own gearing up for "Captain America" by reaching out to the man behind both the movie and the "Art of Captain America" hardcover: Marvel Studios Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding.
CBR News: Ryan, you've done concept art for "Thor" and many other Marvel films, as well as the comic book redesign of Iron Man's armor. Now, you're a Co-Visual Development Supervisor for "Captain America." For those readers who may only know you from your "Iron Man" redesign, what does your job on "Captain America" entail?
Ryan Meinerding: Charlie Wen, my Co-Visual Development Supervisor, and I manage a small team of great artists that work on character design and key frame art for the Marvel movies. Generally speaking, we are some of the first people brought on board to start creating visuals for the movie. In most cases that means meeting with the director and producers and listening to the direction they want the characters to take, then reading the script to understand the main story needs. From there, we usually delve into the comics to find specific reference. After digesting as much from the comics as possible, we try to figure out distinct variations that combine all of the initiatives and create multiple designs to submit for approval. It really is about finding the tone of the movie and then using a few key images and costumes to communicate that tone.
EXCLUSIVE: Meinerding's painting depicting a pre-costumed Cap
On "Captain America," I was able to do a very early pass at Cap's costumes and a few key frame moments that loosely helped communicate the look and feel for the movie. A lot of times these early passes are really there to start discussion and inspire people.
From the inspiration phase onward, however, our roles become about nailing down specifics and designing what the final characters are going to be. [Director] Joe [Johnston] had very specific ideas about all of the characters and moments, and I was truly honored to work for the guy that had such a profound effect on popular culture through the years. I ended up designing Cap's three costumes and his round shield, contributing on the design of the Red Skull head, designing the Howling Commandos and Bucky, working with Charlie on the design of Hydra and designing the Hydra weapons.
After the process of getting a design image approved, the design starts to become real when the costume department gets their hands on it. I was very lucky to be in the costume department on Captain America, and got to make comments and work with Anna Sheppard and Paddy and Kier [Malem] to help the suit come to fruition. It was a very exciting and rewarding process, and everyone involved did an amazing job.
Now, we know a little bit about your love of comic books and film background from when we last spoke with you about "Iron Man," but what is your art background? Did you set off to school vowing one day you'd be painting Thor and Iron Man and Captain America for Marvel?
I've always loved drawing and painting, and I've always loved comics. I have some old sketches of Cap from junior high and some old airbrushed paintings of the Thing, Mr. Fantastic and Cannonball. I definitely loved drawing those characters when I was young, but I don't think I ever thought I'd be able to paint them for a living. I set off to school to be a commercial artist of some kind, although I didn't know where I'd end up. I went to the University of Notre Dame for industrial design and graduated from there. Product design seemed like the most practical way of doing art for a living. Somehow, I was able to turn my senior thesis into a character design project, however. And come to think of it, that project was based on an original superhero design. So I've definitely had an interest in being involved in comics and superheroes since college and even back to junior high school, I just didn't know how to get involved with that kind of work. I'm so happy that my career has led me that way.
Turning to the artwork in the "Art of Captain America" hardcover book, the concept art we've seen is really beautiful and incredibly detailed. When doing concept art, what medium do you prefer to work in (oils, acrylic, etc.), and does that choice of medium ultimately affect the look of the movie?
Well, I'm almost 100% Photoshop these days. I used to do a lot of pencil sketching for work, and some airbrushing, but I never really came to a process with oils or acrylic that was fast enough for production deadlines. I really lament that fact. It'd be so great to be able to have a huge number of original paintings once a movie is finished, but alas I don't think I will ever be able to accomplish that. Those mediums have their own unique struggles that I never completely figured into any working process I have.
In the end, the ultimate look of the movie is the result of a collaboration of the production designer, the cinematographer, the costume designer and the visual effects supervisor, with specific direction from the director and producers. As a Visual Development Supervisor, I'm in a position to take initial stabs at what a character or a few moments from the movie will look like before any part of the movie is constructed. I'd like to think those first images inspire ideas in the director, the producers and the department heads and that some of that inspiration carries through to what finally appears on screen. The process is so collaborative, however, that it's next to impossible to say that a painting style has 1X1 relationship to what appears in the film.
The more direct connections between the style of art and the final product usually come from designing a specific part of the movie, like a character or a sequence. The way that Adi Granov and Phil Saunders painted the Iron Man armor really defined a tone of high precision surfaces for that suit, and the way I try to paint Cap is definitely a bit rougher. I'd like to think it looks like acrylic or gouache paintings, and I hope that provides an aesthetic that's appropriate for a WWII Captain America. A lot of the advertising and propaganda art from that period was done in those mediums, and I did purposely try to achieve that look. I tried to take advantage of being able to show a few brush strokes here and there, and to try and use as much dirt and grime on his costume and face as seemed reasonable. I hope some of those painterly effects lent to a feeling of roughness and ruggedness about his costume and character that translated to the screen.