Published January 30, 2025
BY ALEXANDER FREDERICK
In addition to winning a multitude of awards for his artwork, Carmel fine artist John Burton hosts workshops within the film industry and has given speeches about unleashing one’s creative potential at major studios like Pixar and at prestigious film expos like LightBox. However, he is most known for his work as a world builder for studios that have produced films like “Top Gun” or “Mission Impossible.”
Well-known local artist John Burton discovered his love for oil painting at art school and now owns a studio in Carmel. (courtesy of JOHN BURTON)
Burton’s work on movies has sent him across the world from Africa to the Middle East searching for t
he perfect locations to bring his artistic vision to life. When he works as a production designer, he manages teams that aim to create and make distinct the visual feeling of the film. One of the main ways the artist sees different franchises distinguish themselves from others is by making recognizable silhouettes. The memorable silhouette of the R2-D2 droid or the bizarre shape of the Millennium Falcon are instantly recognizable to fans of the series. These unique shapes and character designs are debuted at meetings called pitches where concept artists show off their vision for the world they are creating.
“Pitch meetings are fascinating,” says Burton. “Before these meetings what would be iconic characters are just words on a script. Chewbacca or other characters in a film need to be designed, and these ideas come to fruition in the pitch meeting. It is all about bringing the director’s vision to life.”
Work as a concept artist requires knowledge of popular culture and architectural styles from all points in history. (courtesy of JOHN BURTON)
Work as a concept artist or world builder requires, among other things, a vast well of knowledge of popular culture to ancient history to famous literature. Typical pitches could include references to Mexican Pueblo-style buildings or Roman armor or Chinese naval fleet construction. As a result, one of the most important things for those pitching ideas is to have research prepared and have general knowledge across all facets of culture.
“The job is so fast-paced and the people are so knowledgeable,” says Burton. “The research is so extensive. I love it.”
Burton moved to Arizona when he was younger, but eventually was drawn back to California because of its scenic landscape, and he still exhibits in select galleries. During Burton’s career as a landscape artist, the painter put on a museum show that ended up having around 250,000 visit the exposition over the year it was open to the public. In the aftermath of the show he began to establish connections with people in the film industry where studios like Pixar would recruit him to organize workshops. In the meantime, he also accumulated a multitude of awards for his work as a painter, and his art appeared in museums all across the country, from New York to Maui to Colorado.
Working as a world builder requires extensive research and an in-depth understanding of light and scale. (courtesy of JOHN BURTON)
“People in the film industry had seen my work in shows and became interested in my work,” says Burton. “I got to the point where I was giving lectures to 500 people who worked in film before I was even in the industry.”
What set the painter apart from other artists in the feature film at the time was his experience working with light and form he brought from spending extensive amounts of time outdoors landscape painting. His career as an oil painter gave him tools for what points draw the reader’s eye and how to use perspective to make things look gigantic or microscopic which became crucial for concept art.
“I got together with the ‘Avatar’ team, and I taught them what I knew about what I had learned as an artist and they shared their vast knowledge on world building,” says Burton. “This was one of the first steps that eventually led to job offers as a concept artist and production designer at different studios.”
In his years as an oil painter Burton spent a lot of time working with scale, a skill he brought with him to the film industry. (courtesy of JOHN BURTON)
The artist majored in business during his undergraduate years at Arizona State University and spent his earliest working years in San Francisco designing for companies like Apple. Eventually he was accepted into art school at the Academy of Art University, and shortly after graduating his paintings debuted in galleries across the country.
“Once I got to art school, I took a mandatory oil painting class and realized I love all types of art, but I was born to do this,” says Burton.
Beyond his own work as a painter and an artist in the film industry, Burton has distinguished himself as a keynote speaker at the 4th Annual Plein Air Expo and Convention in Monterey, and even gave a TED Talk at Santa Catalina about the importance of blazing one’s own trail and being unique.
“Do not be the second-best someone else,” says Burton. “We need to be the best version of ourselves.”
