Cinema Artist Visits Reston

You know that Sistine Chapel-inspired picture from "E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial," of the bony foreigner's enthusiastic digit making away toward Elliott's? That iconic picture card came civility of John Alvin. Since the recent 1960s, Alvin's mixed-media job, which combines acrylics, hand-drawn instance and photography, has helped cement films much as "Star Wars" and "Blade Runner" in our mass awareness.

"Movie posters used to be the visible show that we took with us when we went into the house," says Alvin, who'll be presenting away his current collecting of quality studies, from Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, at Reston's ArtInsights Animation Gallery this Friday and Saturday.

Alvin got his suspension when an associate was making on Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles." The new illustrator came upward with the figure of Sheriff Bart parenting upward on his trusty horse, and the balance is synthetic story. As the handcrafted compositions produced by Alvin's multiplication gave course to what he refers to as "mountains of slapped-together, Photoshopped heads," he has re-branded himself as a "film artist," creating studio-licensed, actor-approved prints drawn from common films.

"To some Hollywood executives, I'm but this cat who did material folk used to like," Alvin says, laughing. "I'm but stressing to offer mass with a way of capturing that fantastic little experience of being at the movies for a some minutes -- but stressing to find upward that store. "

September 09, 2006