bryan konietzko

#avatarstudios #nickelodeon #avatarthelastairbender #atla #thelegendofkorra #lok #bryke #michaeldimartino #bryankonietzko

Here’s the new cover Joaquim Dos Santos @2-cents drew and I colored for the upcoming 2nd edition of The Legend of Korra: Art of the Animated Series: Book One from @darkhorsecomics . It was SO MUCH FUN to collaborate with my old buddy Joaquim again. 🔥💙🔥

I recently did this new cover for the second edition of Dark Horse’s Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series hardcover book, which will be released on November 24, 2020. This is a redo of a DVD cover I did ages ago. I always liked the drawing but was never happy with how cramped the composition was and how poorly I colored it. It was fun to take a crack at it again. The second edition will have a few new things in it. Hope you enjoy!

Mike and I had lunch yesterday with Michaela Murphy @michaelamostly aka Jessie Flower aka MELON LORD ⚡️🍈⚡️ the legendary voice of Toph, Meng, and Young Suyin. We’ve known Michaela since she was a wee kid, and now she’s a full-grown adult person. It was really wonderful catching up. She had some great insights on being a child actor that will surely benefit our future cast. Keep an eye out for her as she TAKES OVER THE WORLD.

Mike and Brandon walking between meetings from a short while back... We’re moving into a new office space, transitioning into the next phase of production. Our core team is growing. We’re writing, planning, and testing. Though there’s plenty that’s new for us in this live action process, we’ve been on this long rollercoaster ride twice before and a lot of the climbs and twists and turns feel familiar. Right now, everything seems slow, and we’re itching to speed up; before we know it, everything will be moving too fast and happening all at once. For those who are eager to see this new series and are asking if we have a trailer yet: thank you for your enthusiasm, sincerely, but you wouldn’t want to see a version of this series that was made within 9 months. Too much Hollywood fare is fast-tracked and the results speak for themselves. Thankfully for us and this series, Netflix is committed to doing it right. We’re trying to make something special that will stand the test of time. A live action Avatar series is a daunting, incredibly complex thing to pull off — a fantasy travel show with tons of VFX, CG creatures, martial arts, etc. — and to do it right takes a ton of planning. On both the original series and Korra, when we were at this stage in the production the projects hadn’t even been announced yet. The difference with this Netflix series is that you all heard about it just a little bit after we started. So it will seem like a longer wait, but we can assure you that everyone is making good use of that time so we can craft something beautiful and emotionally powerful. Also so we can make sure Appa is cute. We’ll be starting the casting process before too long, so if you’re aspiring to be a part of this thing, keep taking acting lessons and some martial arts/movement classes. We’ll announce how, when, and where to audition soon-ish. Thanks! Love, Bryan ✨💙✨

TO EVERYONE INTERESTED IN AUDITIONING FOR THE LIVE-ACTION AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER SERIES ON NETFLIX: . We greatly appreciate your interest and enthusiasm, but we are not yet at that stage in the production. . There will be an OPEN CASTING CALL, likely sometime later this year. When that happens, we will publicly share the information for how to *officially* apply. . Until then, please refrain from tagging, commenting, DMing, etc. your auditions — I don’t check that stuff and no one else at Netflix does either. We’re not casting via social media and I don’t want anyone wasting their time and energy. Put it towards working on your audition instead. Good luck! . Thanks, Bryan

I am very sad to hear about the passing of Steve Hillenburg after a battle with ALS. SpongeBob was obviously a huge presence during my many years at Nickelodeon (all the way back to the Zim days), and throughout the American TV animation industry. I only had a few brief interactions with Steve over the years, but he was always humble, and very kind to Mike and me. The last time I saw him was a couple years ago at a nice group lunch with some mutual friends from the SpongeBob crew. I was a definite outsider in the bunch, but Steve graciously picked up the whole bill. When I was recruited by Eric Coleman to pitch a series in 2002, he told me he wasn’t looking for the “million dollar idea,” rather, he was looking for people like Steve Hillenburg — in their creative capacity, and also in how they could run a production and work in a positive, collaborative manner. I have great respect for Eric and he always spoke of Steve in the highest regard. My condolences to Steve’s family, friends, coworkers, and many fans. 💛

Lisa and I had to say farewell to Gunther last night. He outran his cancer longer than any vet or oncologist ever thought was possible, over 15 wonderful months. He went peacefully with the two of us by his side. I’ll have more words another day. For now, I just have a heavy heart struggling to let go of his amazing soul. 🖤

Go to www.deru.la to see the full video in 4K/2K and hear the rest of his powerful track. In it you’ll also see some great compositing from my other old friend, Andy Dill (who worked on the Avatar main title sequence), and vfx by Nico Sugleris. Ben shot some incredible drone footage and edited all three videos — the next 2 will be available on Vimeo & YouTube soon. Deru’s new album is a monumental achievement and I’m honored to have been a part in visualizing some of it. 🖤🖤🖤

I wrote it yesterday and I’ll write it again (and again): it’s been an absolute pleasure working in the room with Mike again. @michaeldantedimartino We’re only in the *very early* stages of development on this live-action adaptation, and right now it’s just a crew of us two, with some great execs and staff at Netflix helping us formulate the production plan. This is a recent photo from my private studio I’ve rented since the end of Korra, but I’ve already started packing it up, moving my music gear home, and getting ready to move a bunch of my furniture and books into our new offices at Netflix very soon.

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Cropped Appa WIPs. I’m pretty much over the idea of ever trying to paint things in a “finished” manner. I just want to learn how to make my unfinished stuff look... well, finished. 🤔❓✔️ “You get the idea” shall be my mantra.

Recent things on paper. 🗒🖊🖤

LA summer smog light/color study from a crappy iPhone pic and 20 years of accumulated memory.