An ill-fitting helmet and a rocket in need off some serious panel beating, I’m guessing this is 60’s Sci-Fi though it might be 50’s - generally I’m not a fan of this far back, but this struck a chord..
I know nothing about the image or artist other than than I a came across it on this French site http://www.noosfere.com/ - not sure if this is French, but just like to say no-one does Sci-Fi quite like the French - Anyway it’s ended up here.
Retro Game box art from 1982 this time. According to mobygames.com “Andromeda Conquest” was A Galactic Empire building strategy / conquest game for the Apple II and similar early 80’s computing behemoths, interestingly due to it’s age the game package included a pad of graph paper for keeping track of ship and colony locations - so pretty much not like World of Warcraft.
Amazingly intricate fantasy illustration by Russ Nicholson, somewhat reminiscent of Art Nouveau and specifically Aubrey Beardsley but swap his mythological erotica for Russ’s orks, elfs and what have yer… Anyway I’m not a huge fan of fantasy stuff these days, although I will admit to owning several of the 80’s Fighting Fantasy books (good bog reading material) from which this illustration was taken.
Russ Nicholson Illustrated a number of Fighting Fantasy Books right through the series (82-95?) and he also produced work for other Dungeons and Dragons / RPG work from that era. I’ve always thought his work is excellent and certainly formed part of my early inspiration to learning to draw - not sure what Russ does now, if anyone knows more please let me know!
Roger Dean’s most famous for his otherworldly album sleeves for 70’s Prog Rockers YES, in the 80’s and early 90’s he also produced a number of of pieces of Cover Art for scouse Software House Psygnosis (mentioned elsewhere in this Blog). “Shadow of the Beast” was one of their most popular releases and featured - for the time - pretty slick graphics, including a lavishly animated main character and parallax scrolling. The gameplay wasn’t all that, it did however have a wicked atmospheric score from computer game music innovator David Whittaker.
Some of the Game Boxes came with a free T Shirt, now highly sort after, and boxes featuring the tshirt show up on ebay selling for north of £50 / $100. As a sucker for geek but knowingly cool rubbish I would pay that, but I’m betting its a shit fruit-of-the-loom job.
OMNI was both a science magazine and science fiction magazine. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction, and ran from 1978 till 1995, read more about it at Wikipedia. As you might expect for a Science fiction Magazine it features some pretty unusual covers such as the above issue, not sure about the artist on this one.
Aaaah Airbrush art, isn’t it better than digital 3d model rigging and lighting? well thats up for debate, but I reckon unless it’s Halo it certainly bloody is. Airbrush style is not real, its super real (super-realism), digital creations mostly differ, they look to real but yet unreal - it’s like comparing movies like The Thing (1982) and Aliens (1986) to modern CGI stuff, give me a ketchup pissing animatronic puppet any day of the genre. Back to the image, and what I love about this composition is its all about suggestion, plus whats sexier looking tech-wise than near future fighter jets?
Anyway Chris Moore (Yorkshire Lad) is an absolute master at techno airbrush art, check his website, it’s full of Gung-Ho US Military renderings and other Sci-fi extrodinnaire
Wicked Sci-Fi / Fantasy Art by American Artist Wayne Barlowe. Having an interest in decent Sci-fi Art means I’ve trawled though lots of, erm, not so decent Sci-fi art looking for stuff to post up here, but it’s worth it when something as original and whacked-out as this pops up! Initially I thought the wings were forward swept - which would of been even darker/better! - but actually the prong is the front, hence “Skewer”!
“Skewer” is part of Barlowe’s “Darwin IV Expedition” book which is kinda like a serious version the Ricky Gervais book “Flanimals” but thankfully, not drawn with felt tips. Wayne’s since worked on creature design for big time Hollywood films such as Galaxy Quest & Hellboy.
Read more about The Skewer and visit Wayne’s Site here, or better yet check out more info on the 2005 Pseudo Documentry based on “Expedition” at Imdb.com
Retro Game Box Art from the 80’s by Norweigen/UK Illustrator Steinar Lund.
More Sci-Fi game stuff, both these games employed a similar 3d engine that allowed you to explore an expansive low-poly game world, hinted at here on the covers. Steinar Lund did several other covers in the 80’s and 90’s these I like best though, epic & very distinctive. He has his own website now at http://www.steinarlund.com check the retro games section for more digital/airbrush work…
“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.
Even More Game Box art Box with a Sci-Fi Theme, again from the golden age of 16-bit Computer gaming, a time of more original, intelligent and visionary game concepts etc, etc. Anyway Interphase was a first person and top down Action/Puzzle game that played a bit like a prototype “Descent” if anyones familiar with that… The cyberpunk themed plot is based around jacking into a large corporation (The Dreamtrack Corporation) and doing the rounds and - as you do with games - putting a stop to there evil world domination plans.
Read more about it over at the excellent mobygames.com site click here.
More game box artwork, this time from 1990 ‘Blood Money’ produced for legendary UK software house Psygnosis, art by Peter Andrew Jones. Great moody character, thats more reminiscent of Star Trek then Stars Wars (ie: a lot fucking cooler) anyway love the tiny piggy eyes! The shot is ripped from the excellent Mobygames.com site, which is like imdb.com for computer games, well worth checking out if your a gamer.
A slice of Retro Sci-Fi in the form of Video Game Box Art. Carrier Command was a real-time Arcade/Strategy game from the late Eighties and was pretty advanced in it’s day. Read more about it at Wikipedia.
Nowadays game box art often features renderings and compositions based upon models from the game itself, 20 years ago game graphics were much more primitive so covers were more suggestive of gameplay. This cover (US Version) depicts the game main features and works despite some pretty naff elements Helmet / Ships Lasers. Artist Unknown sorry!
That 2,000-Yard Stare
1944, oil on canvas, 36″ x 28″
U.S. Army Center for Military History, Washington, D.C.
Robert D.Blue (1946 - 1998) was an American painter who grew up in Beverly hills, mostnoted for his images of pin-up girls in the 1980’s (an example of which is above). Collectors of Blue’s art have included Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand and Hugh Hefner, as well as numerous corporate collectors… more at wikipedia
A series of bleak Illustrations from renown British Fantasy Illustrator Ian Miller. This Image is part of “The Triwag Chronicles” taken from the book “The Green Dog Trumpet” published in 1979 by Dragon’s Dream.
I came across the bizarre image and story reading about Cryptids on Wiki. A Cryptid is any animal, creature or in this case plant that has been reported to have existed, but has not been proven ie: Loch Ness Monster or Yeti…
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Latin: Agnus scythicus or Planta Tartarica Barometz) is a semi-legendary plant of central Asia, believed to grow sheep as its fruit. The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbillical and grazed the land around the plant. When all the plants were gone, both the plant and sheep died. Read more…
Image Taken from From: Lee, H. 1887. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: a Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant, to Which Is Added a Sketch of the History of Cotton and the Cotton Trade. S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London.
Naoya Hatakeyama (畠山 直哉, Hatakeyama Naoya, born 1958) is a renowned Japanese photographer. These are taken from his “Blast” series.
Costume Concept Art for the Ridley Scott Movie ‘Alien’ 1979 from French comic Artist Moebius AKA Jean Giraud.
El Lissitzky - Poster for the Russian Exhibition in Zurich, 1929, and the original photomontage prep work.
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (1890 – 1941), better known as El Lissitzky was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus, Constructivist, and De Stijl movements and experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th century graphic design. Read more…
This inspiring image combines several of Lissitzky’s aforementioned skills, but best of all I really like the androgynous male/female illustration looking out of the frame - future gazing - in a way that typifies much of Constructivist Photomontage.
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