Psychedelic Archive - Sci-Fi-O-Rama

← Older Entries

Newer Entries →

Flickr Round Up (3) Nov 10

Neil Krug - Sing

Vangel Naumovski

Matthew Leibowitz - Gerneral Dynamics

Stan Chow - Green Lady

David Meltzer - The Worlds Of Theodore Sturgeon

Adrian Chesterman - Roadside Picnic

A mixture of contemporary and retro imagery here with another round up of my recent Flickr favourites. Here’s the notes on this selection:

Top: “My Chemical Romance – Sing” Cover art by Director/Photographer Neil Krug. I’ve been meaning to post some of Neils work for a while as I follow his superb flickr photostream – a really beautiful and distinctive, warm technicolor style that oozes class. Much of Neils work has a real dreamlike quality and although I can’t say I’m a fan Chemical Romance (tbh I don’t really know anything about them!) I do love this portrait, great costume – then again who’s not going to look good in a primary coloured 70′s Ski Jacket and Soviet Tank Helmet?

2nd top: “Lake Bride” by Vangel Naumovski (1924-2006). This one I book marked via another Flickr Photostream I highly recommend: A Journey Round My Skull curated by Will Schofield who regularly posts some truly jaw drop art and illustration, this image by the late Macedonian Artist Vangel Naumovski being no exception.

See a full set of Vangel’s work at http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/2010/10/black-cradle-of-bright-life.html

3rd top: Matthew Leibowitz – “Apollo – The first moon landing is merely a prelude to future space launchings. Future astronauts will explore constellations.” Photomontage Graphic for American defense contractor General Dynamics, this dates from 1965. See more from this set at the full post over at Aqua-Velvet.com originally spotted via another excellent Flickr Stream that of: junkyard.dogs

4th top: “The Green Lady” a Vladimir Tretchikoff contemporary tribute by Manchester based Illustrator Stan Chow. I’m a big fan of Stans work and in particular his gorgeous Adobe Illustrator portraiture, a really confident style with subtle shapes and colouring – excellent stuff! See more at: http://stanleychow.bigcartel.com/ and here: http://www.stanleychow.co.uk/. Just to jog your memory the original Green Lady looks like this which was once (60s/70′s) one of the worlds most popular reproduced paintings.

5th top: “The Worlds of Theodore Sturgeon” SF Book Cover Art dating from 1972, by David Meltzer. This unusual illustration caught my eye and I was thinking the sinister river of demon eyed wolf heads would make a pretty cool tattoo - spewing down the back from the nape of ones neck? erm, just a thought! I probably won’t be getting it done… Via Flickr user: Jim Linwood

Bottom: “Roadside Picnic” Another strange and slightly deranged airbrushed SF Book Cover from Adrian Chesterman this one dates from 1979. I’m not sure exactly what it is – the “Simon-esque” console perhaps? – but this just screams late 70′s early 80′s… art via Flickr user qualityapeman (quality user name!)

Zines – French SF Illustration

Enki Bilal

Unknown French Sci-Fi Illustration

Philippe Caza

Wojciech Siudmak

A Halloween special here, consisting of zero Halloween related material! Instead what we do have is an excellent selection of obscure(ish) French SF Illustration…

These images come via bxzzines.blogspot.com a blogger site maintained by “Clifford Brown” (an anonymous pseudonym) The focus is mainly on vintage soft erotic magazines and related material; however Clifford also blends the occasional SF & Fantasy Scan into the mix, and that’s where this set has come from…

Here’s a link to the full post with 30 or so large scans: http://bit.ly/aPjHlO there is some mild nudity on the site, hence the warning. Merci beaucoup à Pierre for originally pointing me in the right direction!

Top: I think this is a Moebius Illustration (or is it Enki Bilal?) as I’m unsure of the source I can’t confirm – If you do know the origin please post a comment…

2nd Top: No real info on this piece I’m afraid, I’m guessing it’s from the 60′s? – The creatures great anyway…

3rd Top: This is definitely the work of Philippe Caza, again I’m not sure of the exact source though it’s dated 1973. Caza really does possess a knack when it comes to Illustrating freaky looking monsters – out there! Check more of Philippe Caza here

Bottom: A slice of Psychedelic Sci-Fi and Surrealism dating from 1970, these paintings are part of a set composed by polish born but French based artist: Wojciech Siudmak – more of him here: http://www.siudmak.com/

Once again the link to the source: http://bit.ly/aPjHlO

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“.

Jasper Goodall (1)

Jasper Goodall - Eye of Horus

Jasper Goodall - Perpetual Dawn

Jasper Goodall - Into the Void

Jasper Goodall - Dione

Jasper Goodall - Erebus

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

** Further Reading:

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

Rom Villaseran – Awit Sa Ambon & Biyaheng Talon

Jul 6th, 2010 | Categories: Fantasy | Illustration | Psychedelic

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!!

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.

← Older Entries

Newer Entries →