Sci-Fi-O-Rama

Ok something of a bit of an exclusive here, from a contemporary Artist & Illustrator I’ve long admired – Brighton based Jasper Goodall (UK).

I first came across Jasper’s work as a design student around the turn of the century, his work prominently featured in Angus Hyland’s seminal “Pen and Mouse: Commercial Art and Digital Illustration” the book that triumphed traditional Illustrations transition into digital and thus the 21st century. It may seem strange now but once upon a time traditional illustration was in it’s death throws, out in the cold, superseded by saccharine layers of cheap and nasty Photoshop/Stock imagery that thanks to lazy graphic design had (horrifically) risen too prominence in the late 90’s. Something needed to give, and did, a new wave of Illustrators adapted, opting to use the Mac as a primary tool rather than just a finishing repro one, the computer became an integral part of the image making process, giving rise to a new fresh approach that continues to evolve – Jasper Goodall remains at the vanguard of this creative zeitgeist…

As something of a fan I decided to approach Jasper directly to ask him to supply Sci-Fi-O-Rama with a selection of recent work which he’s kindly done. Before I add the notes I’d like to point out that prints of all of the above images are available at http://www.jaspergoodall.com/shop.php

Top: This wonderfully lit latex beauty is entitled “Eye of Horus”, part of Jasper’s brand new “Sunrise Series”.

2nd Top: “Perpetual Dawn” – another superb rendering, with a slight echo of Hajime Sorayama to whom Jasper admits to being a fan…

3rd Top “Into the Void” – a flawless example of a superior digital airbrush technique.

4th Top & Bottom: “Dione’s Rapture” and “The Birth of Erebus”, these two final pieces came out of Jasper’s work for British Alternative Rock Band Muse, though they were not used as covers they were inspired by the project – see the full selection of Muse A/W here: http://www.jaspergoodall.com/projects.php?show=4#1

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I hope to feature more on Jasper at some point in the not too distant future, in the meantime however do check his portfolio website for projects past and present: www.jaspergoodall.com

Ian Albinson over at the excellent artofthetitle.com got in touch with me the other day asking me to help identify the original artists and books that were used in the title sequence of the 2009 Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) Comedy “Gentlemen Broncos“. You can view a movie of the the whole sequence here: http://is.gd/dbKfK

In total of 24 books were used by production designer Richard A Wright in creating the title sequence, and I’ve included a small selection here. A few of the designs look familiar, but I must confess I don’t actually know for sure and wondered whether any readers can help out?

Some notes on the featured images:

Top: This looks either like a Frank Frazetta or possibly Peter Andrew Jones – not sure though!

2nd Top: I was thinking this has an echo of Peter Elson ? looks like a 70’s cover

3rd Top: A really well rendered painting, an older cover I think – early 60s’?

4th Top: This reminds me somewhat of StarWars concept artist Ralph Mcquarrie – late 70’s?

5th Top: No idea here! cool though…

6th Top: Again this looks slightly older – a 60’s cover?

7th Top: I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this one browsing through the extensive Flickr Sci-Fi-Books Pool but alas I didn’t favourite it.

Please do post a comment if you are familiar with any of the covers featured above or from the movie.  Also, do make a point to check out Ian’s site – a superb read & inspiration resource: http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Finally here’s a link to the trailer for Gentlemen Broncos staring the excellent Sam Rockwell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdpFpfIBkXc

A selection of four Images taken from British Artist Ian Miller’s Illustrated compendium “Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories” (published by Dragons Dream 1978) a book I’m lucky enough to own.

Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories contains 5 abstract visual tales, each with a loose narrative but no written dialogue – this works splendidly, forcing you to attempt intense studies of  meticulously detailed, chaotic compositions. I tend to find that with each new browsing I notice something new, and it’s hardly surprising – even though some of the illustrations are small there amazingly intricate, worlds you can totally loose yourself in.

As I’ve mentioned in the past Ian is one of my favourite artist’s I feature on the blog, mainly because as a style of illustration it’s just so out there. In fact,  fairly recently on a trip to the cinema I caught Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland re-imaging which (superflous 3d aside) looked, as you might expect visually stunning – once again reminding me of certain close similarities between Miller and Burton’s work. I wonder if there paths have crossed at all ? or if Burton and his team have referenced Miller in the same way Roger Dean was obviously referenced by James Cameron and his Designers for last years SF blockbuster Avatar… Just a thought!

A selection of imagery scanned from “The World of the Dark Crystal” a 2003 compendium of conceptual art, design and illustration produced for Jim Henson’s 1982 fantasy movie masterpiece “The Dark Crystal”.

For those of you not familiar with the story of the Dark Crystal – it’s a powerful and dramatic tale of a lost world and Jen, a young ‘Gefling’ who set out on perilous quest against sinisterm dark forces. 28 years after it’s original release the award winning Dark Crystal is firmly embedded as a true cult classic and even to this day a is a tour de force in special effects featuring breathtaking animatronics and puppetry… The whole film just oozes quality – there’s never been anything quite like it since – a remarkable odyssey suitable for adults and children alike, although I have to be honest, parts of it still freak me out!

I’d really like to write more here but I’m once again I’m a little time restricted, I think I’ll post here and then revisit again soon – anyway I’m guessing that most of you a familiar with the film. If not – wow! – your in for a treat! I recommend the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD with excellent special features http://is.gd/cTgLX or the BluRay version http://is.gd/cTgXX

The award winning design as shown here is the work of Devon based English Fantasy Artist Brian Froud, who in addition to producing of 20 illustrative book has also lent his considerable fantasy artist talent to several other famous film projects including as Labyrinth (1985) and Peter Pan (2003).

Ok so some notes on the Images I’ve featured from top to bottom (some spoliers here!):

Top: A conceptual sketch of an ‘Ur-Ru’. The Ur-Ru are the ying to the Skeksis yang, Ur-Ru represent light and good, the Skeksis dark and evil. Each Ur-Ru is inextricably linked to it’s Skeksis counterpart, both share a divided soul and are part of the higher being known as the ‘urSkeks’. This omnipotent super-race was violently spilt apart in an attempt to harvested the full power of the planets three suns known as “The Grand Conjuction”

2nd Top: A conceptual sketch of a ‘Skeksis’. For me creature and costume design doesn’t get much better than Skeksis – it’s not that the regal/Afghan hound looking Ur-Ru aren’t beautifully designed too (they are!) – there’s something memorably horrific about the Skekis, their shrill voices and bloated, twisted bodies wrapped inside fantastically elaborate but rotting clothing!

3rd Top: A perfect example of the fallen decadence – “skekEkt the Ornamentalist who made clothes above all for himself, rich fabrics that dripped jewels, the death of a 100 birds for 1 cloak. He first discovered the art of anointing the skin with a paste of clotted blood and diamond powder, to restore the sparkle of youth.”

4th Top: Another superior sketch, check the ruff, ruched sleeves and carefully balanced Tri-Spectacle action! “skekOk the Scroll-Keeper kept the record of the Skeksis; he was the smallest finest-featured, least honest of them all. He wrote and and rewrote his accounts, and kept changing them one or another of his shifting allies, The truth was soon lost.”

5th Top: A close up detail sketch of Skeksis head. A fair visual description would be to say the Skeksis are a kind of avian reptile, perhaps like an Archaeopteryx but also taking the most heavy visual cue from the Vulture .

6th Top: The contorted chaos of “The Castle of the Skeksis”.

7th Top: A design for the floor plan of the Crystal Chamber, the symbols of the original 18 urSkeks can be seen around the edge whilst the crystal hangs above the inner ring…

8th top & Bottom: Concept drawings for Jen the Gelfling, his costume and accessories – love the man bag!

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For more on Brian Froud visit his official website: http://www.worldoffroud.com/ or read more about him over at Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Froud

And finally, for nostalgia purposes here’s a youtube video of the original 1982 trailer…

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Earlier this month the we sadly lost one of the foremost and talented Fantasy & Sci-Fi Illustrator/Artists of all time, America’s Frank Frazetta who passed away on the 10th of May aged 82. Franks career spanned an almost unbelievable 60+ year’s when he started working in the comic book industry aged just 15, initially providing pencil clean-ups he soon progressed to drawing comics an by the 50’s was producing work spanning a raft of genres including Western, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical Drama. Later a spoof Illustration of Ringo Starr for MAD Magazine would bring Frazetta to Hollywood’s attention and he was soon producing Poster artwork, the first of which for the 1964 feature “What’s New Pussycat?” earning him $4,000 – then a years salary for an afternoons worth of work!

Frank’s commercial work was primarily rendered in oils, but he also worked in watercolours, Ink’s and Pencils – examples of which I’ve included above – a style which incorporates brooding compositions of ultra-defined muscular heroes and heroines, always poised for or in mid-action. Other telling trait’s include tattered flailing clothing, powerful ornate armour and weaponry, all beautifully lit beneath apocalyptic skies…

Read more about Frank: his obituary at The Gaurdian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/13/frank-frazetta-obituary
or at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Frazetta

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Here’s the notes on Sci-Fi-O-Rama’s visual tribute to Frank and his supreme talent, vision and influence…

Top: “The Silver Warrior” – One of Frazetta’s most famous works. Image via Flickr user mtkup

2nd top: “Death Dealer” (1973) Probably Frank’s most Iconic and recognisable image, originally painted in 1973 the used by for rock group Molly Hathcet for the self titled 1978 album.

3rd top: (1966) Not sure of the title here (please post if you know) image is via net-cafe.hu

4th top: (1977) Movie poster for the Clint Eastwood 70’s action flick “The Gauntlet” (not part of Dirty Harry series). Staring Clint Eastwood and then partner Sondra Locke, this is one of my favourite movie posters of all time! (movie’s not bad)

5th & 6th top : Samples of Frazetta’s Comic book / Black and White work…

Bottom: A portrait of Frank taken in 1984 at the Frank Frazetta Museum, prior to opening. image via Flickr user: StevieB44

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Recommended further reading & viewing:

Frank teamed up with Director Ralph Bakshi to create the 1983 animated feature film “Fire and Ice” check the trailer at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75CZPk8uPs