2010 September Archive - Sci-Fi-O-Rama

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World (2)

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Once again, sorry for the brief pause in posting, I don’t know whether anyone’s noticed (I hadn’t till recently!) but Sci-Fi-O-Rama is about to reach 300th posts – thanks for all the support so far! Too mark this cyber milestone I have something pretty special planned – more on this very soon…

In the meantime lets shift the focus of this 299th post back to the comically surreal world of US Black Ops patch art, all images are scanned from Trevor Paglen’s excellent book “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” which turned up in the post the other day.

Here then are my notes:

Top: First up is the wonderfully sinister “Global Engagement – Military Spaceplane Technology Program”.

The source of this patch is the Philips Laboratory Military Spaceplane Technology Program (MiST) at Kirtland airbase New Mexico. Interesting too note here that the swooping X-Wing derived craft was in fact deemed too derivative and in stepped George Lucas’s army of lawyers with a cease and desist order! The patch you see here is an updated version featuring a modified craft, these modifications presumably include shoving the the cockpit down the nose cone and fitting a cosmic cow catcher to the front.

2nd Top: “Pete’s Dragon II”

This evil looking little creature sits on a commemorative patch apparently worn by Stealth Fighter Test Pilot Pete Barnes during secret flight tests in the mid eighties. The design is based on the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon which follows the story of a green dragon named Elliot who was invisible to every one except a boy named Pete…

3rd Top: “Procul Este Profani – Special Projects”

More dragon action here with this snarling variant gleefully ripping through a thundercloud. This macho patch is from the 416th Flight Test Specials Projects flight working on advanced technologies for the F16 combined Test Force situated at Edwards Air Force Base. Members of the unit translate the latin phrase as “Keep your distance, you who are uninitiated”

Bottom: “National Reconnaissance Office – Snakes”

3 Cobras writhe and encircle our planet, more super menacing stuff from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Trevor Paglen notes that this patch’s origin is entirely obscure, perhaps the Latin phrase might give a clue which translates as “Never Before, Never Again” – maybe something to do with an missile early warning system? Incidentally is there sexual dimorphism in Cobras? I couldn’t work out why only the centre snake has the famous flared hood.

As with the last post for further reading and imagery check this New York Times article and interview with Trevor Paglin http://is.gd/eMcOz or visit Trevor’s home site: http://www.paglen.com/

Also as I now have a copy of “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” I highly recommend purchasing a copy yourself via Amazon, here’s a link: http://is.gd/eMdbl

And here’s a link to the prior post…

Barnaby Ward (4)

Barnaby Ward - Illustration

Barnaby Ward Illustration

Barnaby Ward - Leavetakings

A very welcome to return to Sci-Fi-O-Rama for contemporary Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fashion Illustrator Barnaby Ward definitely one of my favourite featured artists. As is clearly demonstrated here, Barnaby’s capable of drawing extremely beautiful female characters whom he vivaciously mixes with the surreal and bizarre, such a cool inspiring style that always makes me want to grab a pen and start scribbling… In fact I’d go as far to say that’s there’s really only one other contemporary Illustrator capable of drawing quite such gorgeous, stylised characters and that’s Britain’s Jason Brooks.

Ok so to the notes on the Images, the top four here I’ve cropped into from a series of large Illustration intended as desktop backgrounds, there’s a full set of 9 available via Banarby’s expertly presented portfolio site: somefield.com, the final Illustration is a teaser illustration for his next major Illustrative project “Leavetaking” – all very much under wraps at the moment!.

Finally If you’ve not had a look before I also highly recommended checking Barnaby’s past Graphic Novel Work and the superb “Sixteen Miles to Merricks“.

Jim Burns (2)

Jim Burns Sci-Fi Illustration

A return to rip-roaring, full on Sci-Fi Illustration here with 3 samples from the vast portfolio of Welsh Artist Jim Burns (born in Cardiff, April 1948). Jim’s enjoyed a long highly successful career since graduating from London’s St Martins School of Art in 1972, and has an instantly recognisable style, he was also one of the major contributors – along with other British artists such as Angus Mckie, Chris Moore and Peter Elson – to the highly popular Terran Trade Authority series of books, published back in the late 70′s. Other career high points include working with Ridley Scott (also a St Martins Graduate) on his 1982 Sci-Fi Film Noir BladeRunner, and winning the Hugo award for best professional artist three times, most recently in 2005.

Some notes then on the featured images:

Top: “Scoutship Pilot” – This Illustration comes from the book “Planet Story” written by Harry Harrison in 1979, it’s available on Amazon here: http://is.gd/eY5M3. This image (which I’ve cropped) was originally scanned and posted by occasional Sci-Fi-O-Rama collaborator Jeff Love over at the excellent http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com, Jeff’s been very busy posting new content to Ski-ffy recently, so if you’ve not checked it out for a while I highly recommend a visit! With regards to the piece itself, this is an excellent example of what defines much Jim’s work, a beautiful girl in a figure hugging outfit posed at the helm of advanced craft, obviously that’s typical subject matter for much Sci-Fi Art, but Jim handles it with real verve – love her hair!

Middle: “Exordium 4 – The Rifters Covenant” (thanks Ed!) Image is sourced via the Hungarian Fantasy/Erotic art horde http://www.net-cafe.hu/fantasy.php. I picked this sample to really highlight Jims strength when working with colour, a great mix of super saturated orange, vivid ultra-marine really make the girls drab olive uniform leap out, there’s also a nice military feel to the general styling, Jim’s work definitely has a slightly darker edge than most of his peers – oh yeah, love the furry gremlin things!

Bottom: This piece is a great demonstration of lighting, rendering and texture and again, slightly embarrassingly I don’t know the title or source!

For more info and Artwork check Jim’s official website with a chance to buy prints, books, and originals. His Wikipedia profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Burns