Sci-Fi-O-Rama

A further selection from British Artist Chris Foss one of the true masters of Sci-Fi Art.

I’ve collected these sample’s together as they best serve to highlight the elements I find most interesting in Chris’s work. IMO these are: the ship designs themselves (naturally)  the striped and checkered lexicon he adorns these craft with, the simply stunning cloudfields, aurora and rock formations, but of course most importantly of all - it’s all about the lighting.

A little more about the samples:

Top: This design typifies all of Chris’s aforementioned traits, a bulbous, large vented craft wrapped with industrial zig-zagging descending through a heavenly cloudscape…

Second: A breathtaking alien vista, incredible lighting tricks here, love all the soft glows.

Third: Something of a Gerry Anderson “Thunderbirds” feel here, again it’s all about the markings.

Fourth & Fifth: two different craft designs, one cylindrical the other very geometric, posed at a very similar angles - great atmospheric effects (corona / dustcloud).

Artwork collected and featured via: Net-Cafe http://www.net-cafe.hu/fantasy.php?ct=174 Astrona: http://astrona.blogspot.com/search/label/Chris%20Foss - do check Astrona for a much larger gallery and more artist info….

Probably the best way to get a true feel for Chris’s Style is to track down one of his books, try ebay of course for a bargain, or amazon.com has a wide selection here: http://is.gd/117Cb or better yet try Chris’s Home site: http://www.chrisfossart.com where for a there’s the chance to buy signed prints!

Following on from the prior post here’s more from Jodorowsky’s gloriously doomed Dune, this time featuring the efforts of Devon’s finest -  Chris Foss… nice to feature some of Foss’s work pre-airbrush-gloss!

As before all artwork featured via the excellent http://www.duneinfo.com/

I will endavour to find something original soon!

Chris Foss “The Martian Way”

Another example of Chris’s airbrush work,  Scan Taken from Paper Tigers 1977 release“The Flights of Icarus”.

See more of Chris Foss here http://www.chrisfoss.net/or at http://astrona.blogspot.com/search/label/Chris%20Foss

(Above) Another sample of Chris Foss’s uber cool space hardware design style. This Example is especially interesting as it shows Foss’s style at it’s most minimal and therefore abstract, and as with all of his work has tremendous sense of scale.

See more of Chris Foss here http://www.chrisfoss.net/

Looking at this piece made me wonder how much of an influence/inspiration Chris Foss’s Art must of been on David Braben & Ian Bell’s legendary 80’s computer game Elite. Original 80’s Elite Poster featured below, It’s not another Chris Foss By the way, but in fact another Airbrush Legend - Philip Castle, more on him soon… (thanks for the tip Jim!)

“Travelling Cities” by British Illustrator and Sci-Fi Artist Chris Foss, used as a cover for “Diary of a Spaceperson” (Paper Tiger, 1990).

Chris Foss (born 1946) is a well renowed Sci-Fi Illustrator, much imitated in fact sometimes literally, see Tuner Prize winning Painter Glenn Brown. It’s fair to say Foss is a genuine visual innovator like Syd Mead or H.R Giger. In fact Chris Foss was also involved in the production of Ridley Scotts Alien, providing the space hardware Ying to Giger’s Bio-mechanical Yang.