GLEN ORBIK
Several decades ago, with the original intention of drawing super-heroes, Glen Orbik started serious art study with retired illustrator, Fred Fixler.
Fred was a highly skilled illustrator best known for painting movie posters ( Comedy of Terrors, Pit and the Pendulum, Man with the X-ray Eyes, Burn Witch Burn, House of Usher, Hercules- Unchained, Where the Boys Are, etc...). and elegant pretty girls.
Fred had been a student of Frank Reilly and Robert Beverly Hale at the Art Students' League, with fellow classmates James Bama, Robert Maguire and Clark Hulings, among many others.
After a few years, Glen took over many of Fred's classes at the school he started when he retired from teaching and have continued off and on for over 20 years.
While at school Glen met future partner and sometimes collaborator, Laurel Blechman, a fellow Fixler student and teacher.
Glen Orbik has worked on everything from book covers to movie posters, collectable lithographs and plates, to video games and comic books. Glen gotten to do covers for such authors as Stephen King and Ray Bradbury.
Glen Orbik painted retro detectives, femme fatales, fantasy heroes, Sci-Fi rockets & Jedi's, western bandits and Hammer-style vampires. Glen is a major fan of classic magazine illustration, pulp paperback art, and film- noir.
KARL GNASS
Karl Gnass is a master draftsman with an expert understanding of the human and animal forms. His grasp of movement, anatomy, and energy has made him an in demand advisor to an animation industry eager to infuse more authenticity into its character and creature designs.
Gnass (pronounced guh-nahss) has developed facial anatomy and character expressions and consulted on anatomical authenticity for such films as I Am Legend, Watchmen, The Polar Express, Hollow Man, as well as Disney’s Tangled and Moana.
Of particular note, he developed the character expressions and anatomical breakdowns for Stuart and other animals in Stuart Little and Stuart Little 2, and creature breakdowns in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Gnass has been at the forefront of helping animators translate drawing skills to new technology. Legendary Disney animator and Tangled co-director Glen Keane engaged Gnass to develop a Dynamic Figure for Maya class to help computer animators incorporate authentic movement with the then-emerging 3D rendering technology.
In other industry arenas, Gnass has storyboarded for Disney Television Animation, and several of his figure drawings and paintings are in private celebrity collections.
Gnass also served as a judge in choosing the film and TV storyboard artist and director nominees for the Annie Awards (animation’s highest awards).