Back in November of 1988 I decided to pull out my gouache paints and start painting. One such illustration was of a planet, or a planet's moon. This was before computers -- at least at the consumer level -- made this sort of thing a snap, and at virtually no cost.
I painted the full planet knowing I could mask out part of the image during photography. Hence, the painted "dark side".
Though a compass was one of many tools in my art supplies I used something more low tech: A dessert plate. Diameter: 17 centimeters; about five and three-quarter inches. The planet was painted at a small size since my intention was to show it far off in the distance -- for whatever project I would use it in.
Now there's a project....
6 comments:
In school I projected a picture of sunset clouds on a suspended ping pong ball painted with primer. If I moved the projector slowly it worked kinda nicely...for 1988.
Very good!
Inventive.
Cool, man!
Thank you!
I was inspired by Ralph McQuarrie's stuff for Star Wars. Needless to say, I'm hardly the illustrator that he is.
I have to show you the planet painting I have from Sidney Goldsmith (who designed animations on 2001:A Space Odyssey. Very similar, except he fuzzes the details on the edge of clouds so they are not hard but soft edge. He said to me, at this distance, you don't want to give too much details. You see to have a good collection of art in your portfolio. Cheers.
I would love to see that painting. Thanks!
Goldsmith was correct, of course. As you know, "matte painting" was/is a specialized craft. One of the very best was Albert Whitlock.
Thanks for the notes!
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