Two samples of wonderfully coloured, surrealist fantasy painting from Filipino Artist Rom Villaseran.  I first encountered this distinctive work whilst browsing through FFFFound and decided to get in touch…

A native of Manila, Rom began his career as a visual artist creating album covers for local rock bands, he adds “It was a lot of fun, but I was looking for something more fulfilling – I wanted to build a series of paintings that would better describe the world that I have in my head“. In 2000 Rom put on a 30-piece show called Matadora and has since held 4 more solo shows: Pre-Lunar, Lunar, Piloto ng Hatinggabi (The Pilot of Midnight) and Foreplay.

I asked Rom about the motives behind his artand he describes it as “Most, if not all, of my work are self-portraits. I know it sounds egotistical, but if I wanted to be honest in my work, I’d have to talk about things that I know and understand. The inspiration for the pieces may not be fantastical ideas, they are actually very simple realities that have happened to me over the years. But once these experiences are filtered through my mind, they become scenes and characters from my fantasy world. It really is like living life in your own head. “

The two samples I’ve included are from the Piloto ng Hatinggabi series, the Top is entitled “Awit Sa Ambon” (Song for Rain) and the second “Biyaheng Talon” (Journey by the Waterfall).

Of Awit Sa Ambon Rom adds “is about me coexisting with my paintings, my work. The bird is singing for rain to nourish the tree, which in return, provides a home for the bird”. And of Biyaheng Talon “it’s about a kid going through a journey. he rides a carriage that is being lifted by birds. Instead of money as payment for passage, he gives them fish. I have always been far more fascinated with the journey one takes rather than the destination.”

Rom sites his influences as “Like everyone else, I grew up enjoying the works of H.R. Giger and Dave McKean. But when I came across the works of Ian Miller (Luck in the Head), and Kent Williams (Meltdown-Wolverine), back in 1995, that’s when I knew I wanted to paint my world for the rest of my life. These guys are amazing!”

Cheers Rom!!

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See the full portfolio (hosted on the excellent Cargo Platform) over at http://cargocollective.com/romvillaseran

Originally spotted via Folkert Gorter’s AKA Superfamous FFFFOUND posts.

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

A selection of five enchanting watercolor/inks Illustrations taken from the 1983 Childrens Story “The Saga of Erik the Viking” penned by Terry Jones (of Monty Python) and lovingly illustrated by British artist Michael Foreman.

This is a book I remember well from childhood, and recently picked up a copy via Amazon, the story centre’s on around Erik’s and his loyal companions following their epic voyage in search of ‘the land where the sun goes down at night’. It’s a great read for kids & adults alike featuring some truly mesmorising Illustrations that fit the text perfectly, you really feel the cold and desolation of the icey waves & windswept slate black rocks but there’s something in the way Michael’s draws his characters the lends a real charming, human quality… The Saga of Erik the Viking is available for next to nothing via Amazon http://is.gd/9HO7v makes for great bedtime reading!

Also of note, Terry Jones went on to direct a big screen adaptation in 1989 starring Tim Robins, Mickey Rooney, John Cleese and several other familiar faces http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097289/

Read more on Author/Illustrator Michael Foreman here at Wiki: http://is.gd/9HPx8

A selection of Coin-Op/Arcade Machine “Marquees” beaming gloriously in brash 80’s technicolor… Marquees (in case you didn’t know) are used to illuminate the name of an arcade game at the top of its cabinet.

Stopping with a friend recently I was reminded with just how amazing this art is as he has a small selection of these marquees as fridge magnets! and I haven’t featured any Coin Op / Pinball design for a while, so figured it was about time to run an update…

So what makes this Art so cool? for me it’s the punchy low palettes & comic-type colouring, mix this up with super striking Logotypes and the fact of course that the whole thing is designed to be backlit! It’s actually worth pointing out that I worked in a seaside arcade as a 16 year old, in retrospect it’s obviously mcuh more than just the game themselves that made a major impact me… My Favourite ever Coin-Op’s ? Turbo Out Run, Aliens, Rolling Thunder and Special Criminal Investigation aaah, things were simpler back then!

So a bit more more about the samples collected here:

Top: “Alien Syndrome” – A top down Commando/Gauntlet-esque shooter dating from 1986, designed and manufactured by Sega, it’s one I missed in the Arcade, though played it on the 8-bit home systems of the day, decent game! Here’s a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZ0g6HE684

2nd Top: “Sinistar” – By Williams in 1982, this an evolution of Asteroids, and is similar to Bosconion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyBtVwAsfg embarrassingly I’d never even heard of Sinistar before researching this post! I’m still not sure how I’ve missed it! Check the freaky Sinistar Sample too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XEINagmaU

3rd Top: “Commando” – From Nihon Bussan/AV Japan released 1985. Another genre-defining rock solid classic, I’m more familiar with the Speccy version where you had to rotate the joystick 360 degrees to lob a grenade (very difficult).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qctKI_t5eY

4th Top: “Asteroids” – By Atari 1979. One of the most popular arcade games of all time, this marquee featuring an obvious Battlestar Galactica reference. You must of seen Asteroids, so here’s a clip of Atari’s lesser known 1987 sequal “Blasteroids” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFmhK3VM3Ng

5th Top: “Tempest” – By Atari, released 1987. The wireframe vector graphic legend that’s been recyclced many times, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxIquJIRZHU&feature=related

6th Top: “Crystal Castles” – Another Atari title, this time from 1983 – this is an Isometric platform/maze/puzzler which utilises a bizarre collection of sprites, a game I loved as a kid, and like most games I’m still completely useless at it… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f01M2l9oGJI

7th Top:”Zaxxon” – More isometric viewpoint action, this one from Sega and dating from 1982. Supremely ambitious for it’s time, in many ways this still looks great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHORFz6ZCC0&feature=related

8th / 9th Top: “Galaga” and “Galaxian” – These classic precursor’s to the Vertical Shoot-em-up both hail released from the Namco stable, appearing 1979 and 1981 respectively. Just in case you forgot how Galaxian plays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzitZv8Enmc

10th Top: “Bosconian” – The original 8 way shooter from Midway, released 1981. Again this is one I remember from the 8-bit systems rather than in the arcade itself, here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC5_RYXmfsc

Bottom: “Rastan” – A left scrolling fantasy platform fighter from Taito released in 1987. If the throttled Lizard-Man hasn’t jogged your memory, here’s a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvn2pPsaE4I

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All games referenced via KLOV “The Killer List of Video Games” AKA http://www.arcade-museum.com
a superb reference site…

Images collected from various sources via The Google.

Beautiful B/W graphite art from the extremely quirky world of David Jien

David recently graduated from the art center college of design and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Most of his drawings are about certain cultures and rituals that take place in a parallel world, David describes this as “my metaverse”.

Notes on the Images:

Top: Wildstyling at Bat Mountain (great title!)
2nd Top: Top Wizard 1
3rd Top:  Galmara
Bottom: Visitor

David’s notes on Galmara:
“Galmara” is the name of a house, over time, the natural landscape around the house is slowly reclaiming it. Instead of fighting it, the lady who lives in the house has embraced this and allows the animals and trees to live with her. Galmara’s windows and doors are always open. She does however, maintain some order. She cleans and sweeps the house and even removes rodents from the pantry, taking them and dropping them off carefully outside.”

See more of Galmara here: http://www.davidjien.com/work/index.php?/projects/galmara/ and David’s full portfolio site here: http://www.davidjien.com/

Thanks to Katy Wu for originally posting me the link

A selection of Retro Sci-fi magazine covers from “Visco – The Visual Index of Science Fiction Cover art” over at http://www.sfcovers.net/a fab archive, set up and maintained by Terry Gibbons.

Visco is much like http://www.coverbrowser.com/ in that it’s basically a database of scans & photographs, cataloging Science Fiction magazine publications from the 40’s right up through to the 90’s (why is it the 90’s designs are the worst? ). It’s an excellent little resource with art from many of the artists featured here, and whilst some of the scans aren’t of superb quality the diverse wealth of material more than makes up for it – a great read!

Notes on the above images:

(Top) 1981 cover art from Avatar creature designer Wayne Barlowe

(2nd Top) An action packed 1974 Cover from Tim White

(3rd Top) An astronaut in a familiar pose for this 1976 cover, art by David Bergen … If anyone knows any more about David please post a comment, there seems to be little info on him….

(Bottom) The instantly recognisble work of Leo & Diane Dillon art this time from 1972

Special thanks to Haniff for pointing me in the direction of Visco!

Roger Dean (born 31 August 1944), is an English artist, designer, architect and publisher, best known for his work on album covers for musicians (particularly Progressive Rock acts). His unique, instantly recognisable style
often features exotic, fantastic landscapes typically populated with dramatic, impossible natural rock formations, lush alien wildlife/fauna, and strange organic structures…

With the release of James Cameron’s technically groundbreaking blockbuster “Avatar” Roger’s currently enjoying a surge of interest in his work, as it’s obivious Avatars design team have borrowed many viusal cues… to be fair though, It’s pretty much inconceivable to think of fantasy and sci-fi art without thinking of Roger Dean.

So to celebrate his work once more I’ve asked a selection of contemporary designers & artists to select their favourite Roger Dean piece and add a few notes as too why…

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Billy Cox “Nitro Function” (LP Sleeve 1972)
Chosen by: Eric Carl

“One of my favorite Roger Dean pieces would have to be the 1972 album art for “Nitro Function” by Billy Cox. It wasn’t a piece I was familiar with until browsing through his first art book, “Views”. While most of Roger Dean’s work focuses on landscapes, it’s his more character-driven pieces like these that I’m most drawn to. There’s a few different aspects of the image that I find interesting:

First would have to be the unusually sparse composition, as the primary characters actually make up rather little of the image. Most of the real estate is occupied by negative space.

Second would be the depiction of the characters themselves—while the horses and hybrid spaceship/alien creatures (what are they exactly?) all appear to be living, breathing entities, they take on more of an architectural and structural sensibility within the landscape (particularly the most prominent horse and rider located in the foreground). Roger Dean has admitted himself that he’s not so great with figure drawing—maybe his rigid characters here are just a result of that, but I think the ambiguity between inanimate object and lifeform makes for an intriguing image.

The last thing I love about this piece is exactly how he’s chosen to occupy all of his negative space—with one epic, swirling cloud of who-knows-what. Is it an atomic explosion pouring a poisonous toxin across the wasteland? Or just the common night sky on an alien world? Regardless of its literal intent, the technique used here (known as “marbling”, a combination of oil-based paints and water) does a great job of setting an ominous, other-worldly tone to the scene.”

Eric’s portfolio site is here: http://sans-concept.com

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Red Dragon (Acrylic on Canvas, 1987)
Chosen by: Dan McPharlin

“My first encounter with Roger Dean’s paintings was in the late 1980s with the lavish packaging he produced for Liverpool software house Psygnosis. This work, Red Dragon, was used on the packaging for Barbarian in 1987.

I think what I love about this in particular is the graphic punch of the vividly coloured subject (apparently a later addition) against what is essentially a monochromatic backdrop; a strange, almost oriental landscape full of distressed bone-like forms in geological upheaval, now draped with silvery waterfalls, clumps of vegetation and thick fog. We are left to ponder the red dragon’s place in this world; no doubt near the top of the food chain, prowling a rocky outcrop in search of his next meal.”

Dan’s Portfolio Site: http://www.danmcpharlin.com/

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Virgin Records Logo
Chosen by: Dick Hogg

“I am going to choose the original Virgin Record label. It is as old as I am. It combines two of my favorite things fantasy art and graphic design. Two things that don’t normally mix very well but but in this case I think it is perfect. It is also the piece of his work that I see the most. I don’t own any Yes albums and all my old Amiga games are in the loft but I do have a 7″ of In Dulci Jubilo that I play occasionally and the label always makes me smile.”

Dick’s portfolio site: http://www.h099.com/

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Floating Islands
Chosen by: James White

“Selecting a favorite Roger Dean painting was a bit cumbersome because his portfolio is as vast as the landscapes he depicts. But to me, Roger Dean’s “Floating Islands” best represents his body of work. Those islands look perfectly at home suspended in mid-air, and I love the palette and composition of this painting. It’s very calm, serene and natural, almost like he sat on one of those islands to paint his surroundings.

This might have been one of the first pieces I saw by Dean, so to me it remains very symbolic of what he does.”

James White’s ever popular blog: http://blog.signalnoise.com/

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Paladin “Charge” (LP Sleeve 1972)
Chosen by Jeff Love

“Roger Dean can lay claim to defining two areas of artistic expression; the vinyl record sleeve and Science Fiction art. This image – like much of Dean’s work – falls into both categories, and was possibly commissioned as an LP sleeve for progressive rock band Paladin’s 1972 album “Charge”. I was lucky enough to find a huge poster of this painting in a dirty record shop in an alley in Glasgow’s West End, I now have it framed and hanging on my wall.

There appears to be no great meaning to be found in the painting, however like most SF art it works best when used in conjunction with the imagination of the viewer. Personally, I’m always drawn the the mechanical horse’s head, where the Paladin appears to be manipulating and controlling the beast via some method of hand-held control.”

Jeff runs the excellent http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com/

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Terrorpods (Box Art 1987)
Chosen by: Lopetz (Büro Destruct)

“For me the name “Roger Dean” is instantly connected to “Commodore Amiga” plus the purple owl game-publisher “Psygnosis”. I’m beamed right back to 1987 into my room when I was a teenager playing those fantastic games like “Barbarian”, “Shadow of the Beast”, “Obliterator” and last but not least “Terrorpods”. I selected “Terrorpods” as my favorite Roger Dean artwork for the frightening sci-fi atmosphere in the illustrations on the cover and the poster which accompanied the two floppy disks. I was so curious to meet those Tripod creatures in motion. As the game graphics were poor compared with today, the storyline/gameplay was clever and Psygnosis understood to attract players by impressive packaging artworks from illustrators like Roger Dean. Just guessing James Cameron played that game too Just have to search for those dusty floppy disks in my parents house roof room now.”

Büro Destruct: http://www.burodestruct.net

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Psygnosis Logo
Chosen by: Kieran Kelly (Sci-Fi-O-Rama Admin!)

“I’m notoriously useless at making executive decisions, particularly when they involve favouriting, so then I’ve decided to go with the piece that best encapsulates all my first Roger Dean A/W memories; I’ve chosen the memorable Psygnosis “Silver Owl” Logo that anyone who owned an Amiga or ST will be familiar with.

Psygnosis for those that don’t know is a Liverpool based game developer originally founded in 1984 and now known as “SCE Studio Liverpool”. Back to the late 80’s Psygnosis produced a rash of games primarily for the 16-bit Commodore Amiga and Atari St platforms, as Lopetz alluded to in his notes graphics back then were far simpler than today so exciting, enticing box art was critical….. and no one did it better that Pysgnosis!”

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Notes

Read more about Roger Dean here at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Dean and visit his home site here: http://www.rogerdean.com

io9.com have a large selection of Roger’s landscapes and plenty of discussion at their post “Did Prog Rock’s Greatest Artist Inspire Avatar? All Signs Point To Yes”

Links to more info on the mentioned Pygnosis Games “Barbarian” and Terrorpods are here: http://www.mobygames.com/game/barbarian & http://www.mobygames.com/game/terrorpods

A link for more info on Psygnosis at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psygnosis and if you remember them and are a fan, definitely check this superb French tribute site: http://psygnosisamiga.free.fr/

I’ll also be adding an addendum to this post with a contribution from John Coulthart (feuilleton) whose prepping a lengthy in depth feature on Roger for his own site http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/

A strangely skewed 18th century rendering of the “The Tower of Babel” the famous mega-structure from antiquity designed to be as tall as to touch heaven itself. Note the top of image and the falling bricks and hod carrier, according to the accompanying article a day of mourning was declared whenever a brick fell from the top of the tower, this of course due to the immense effort and time span in ferrying it up there… alas no mention of remorse for the hapless builder!

Not sure of the Artist, exact date or origin of the painting, please let me know if you do…

Image is scanned from the 70’s publication Man, Myth & Magic more about that here at Wikipedia.