Fantastic pictures. Fantasy paintings by artist Dave Dorman

Tornadoes, snakes, octopuses and skulls of ancient lizards - this is what inspires American artist John Brosio. Agree, an unusual set. Jonah is a great place to think about what to do if we are ever overrun by giant octopuses or crabs.

John Brosio's unusual, sometimes terrifying films perfectly model futuristic reality. Moreover, it’s not even a matter of frequent destructive tornadoes. The most truthful and recognizable element of his paintings is the indifference of others.

People walk calmly along deserted streets a couple of blocks away from disaster. A man holding a diplomat looks blankly at the giant octopus that has taken over his home. No panic, no flight. Not the slightest emotion. Except, perhaps, for the smile of the girl, behind whose back a tornado had already destroyed part of the city.

All this leads to different thoughts. Of course, on the one hand, it's clean fantastic paintings. It’s unlikely that huge chickens will walk along the streets, destroying everything in their path. However, people have really become quite indifferent to anyone's death. And this can have certain consequences, and not only in art paintings.

Travis Vengrov talks with the artist. Translated into Russian by Alexey Ionov

Many artists have worked on the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and none is more experienced than Dave Dorman. However, our conversation with him, which took place at one of art exhibitions, was dedicated to other, lesser-known aspects of his work. We talked about Dave's own universe, illustrations for G.I. Joe and the importance of setting goals for yourself.

Dossier

Dave Dorman - American artist, working in genres science fiction, horror and fantasy. He is best known for his work on Star Wars.

Dorman is self-taught: he gained most of his knowledge in his own workshop, carefully studying the work of more experienced craftsmen. Professional career started in 1979 illustrating covers for Marvel comics, DC and - later - Dark Horse. He gained widespread fame in 1983 after creating the cover for Heavy Metal magazine.

He won an Eisner Award for his book Aliens: Tribes in 1993. Fans recognized him the best artist, who has ever worked based on Star Wars.

When did you realize that you wanted to dedicate your life to being an artist?

I loved to draw with early childhood, as a boy I spent a lot of time drawing superhero comics. But I decided to devote my life to art much later. I was a pretty big guy in high school and played college football, so I planned to get an athletic scholarship to college and then decide what I would do after graduation. But then I got seriously injured and my football career was over. I had to really think about what I wanted to do with my life, and since I still loved drawing, I thought: why not?

If before drawing was a hobby for me, now it has become a job. I spent all my time on drawings, on improving technique, on learning the necessary techniques. I immediately set myself several goals: “I want to draw illustrations, I want to draw comics.”

I never went to college - instead I studied for a year at Joe Kubert's graphics school. True, at this school they taught how to draw comics and hardly talked about working in color, so I began to learn this in free time. I liked working on one painting in color better than drawing comics - panel by panel, page by page. Therefore, after graduating from Kubert School, I decided to teach myself what would really be useful to me. This process took me a couple of years.

I lived at home with my parents, got a job temporary work and spent every free minute on self-education. I sat down at the easel and studied. I studied technology different artists, asked them for advice, looked at their work and learned in practice the capabilities of brushes and paints.

And then after about three years, that is, after about the same time that I would have spent in college, I began to earn money by drawing illustrations. A little here, a little there. And then I drew the cover of a major magazine, and this work brought me fame. After that, I got enough orders to make a living. So I guess I was lucky that I chose a career as an artist early on, set goals for myself, and worked hard to achieve them.

You are renowned for your attention to detail...

This comes from the love of drawing. As a child, I wanted to draw comics, and in them you need to take into account small parts. Over time, this habit extended to my illustrations. My paintings are striking from afar, but as you get closer, you begin to notice details - for example, patterns on a character's sheath, dents on his armor. All this enriches the picture and makes you stop and thoughtfully examine the image. Such details allow you to learn a little more about the hero or what is happening on the canvas. And I always want to tell as much as possible with one single image.

Do you have any favorite sci-fi or fantasy universes?

I've done a lot of Star Wars illustrations throughout my career. For twenty years I have been collaborating with Lucasfilm and making films based on Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I was lucky enough to work with Fox on Alien and Predator. I've been a fan of these films from the very beginning, and it's been very flattering and exciting to be a part of the development of these universes.

I also created the project “Wasted Lands”, for which I came up with all the characters, the plot and the whole world in general. I recently released a graphic novel, Wasted Lands Omnibus, and I'm really looking forward to telling many more stories about this world.

Tell our readers about the world of The Empty Lands.

This universe was born about fifteen years ago as an integral part of more major project called Projected World. It was a video game for personal computers, and since it came out just as consoles were starting to catch on, it flopped and was quickly forgotten.

But for me, the world I helped create has not lost its appeal. The characters I invented couldn’t get out of my head, and from time to time I began to publish individual stories in small publishing houses, step by step expanding my picture of the world. In 2000, I had the opportunity to publish a graphic novel called Rail, which was to be the first of six. However, difficulties arose with the publisher, and I decided to temporarily cancel the project. Fifteen years later, I finally returned to this world - with renewed enthusiasm, because so many people supported me. I reworked the original graphic novel, added new material, and collected it all under one cover - in the same omnibus that was released in July 2014. I think it will be a good introduction to my world for readers.

In addition, we are working on board game with the working title Rail: Iron Wars, which serves as a kind of backstory to my novel. This is a strategy in which you have to fight for resources and railways in a desert region. This is partly card game- armies exist in the form of cards in hand. Other players don't know what powers you have, and when two armies clash on the battlefield, the size and strength of the enemy is always a surprise. Everything is as in real life, and playing this way is much more interesting than simply throwing dice.

We also plan to release several texts that will be released in in electronic format on Amazon and iTunes, we are thinking about a series of toys and other related products. I hope that I can keep readers interested in the world of The Empty Lands long enough to tell all the stories I've written.

I heard you met George Lucas?

Yes, through my work with Lucasfilm I was fortunate enough to meet Lucas several times. It's no secret that he is a big fan of art. He especially likes illustrators of the early 20th century - Norman Rockwell, Newell Wyeth, Joseph Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and others. All these artists shocked my imagination when I was just learning the basics of the craft. Lucas collected art for many years. I first offered some of my works for his collection and was very flattered that Lucas appreciated my services to Lucasfilm and bought several paintings.

Are you expecting anything special from the new films? (We conducted this interview before the premiere of “The Force Awakens” - approx. MIRF)

You know, no. I want to go to them without expectations, with a willingness to learn and see something new. I still love " star Wars", but I'm not a hardcore fan who only loves the original trilogy, or only the prequels, or only the Clone Wars, or only the Expanded Universe. These are just stories, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what JJ Abrams comes up with. I believe in Lucasfilm and Disney, and I go to the movies with the expectation of having fun and watching something spectacular. adventure film, where there will probably be something familiar and something new.

"Waiting for Indy." One of my favorite static paintings. A woman holds a hat and leather jacket and waits for Indiana Jones to return.

How did you get started doing illustrations for G.I.Joe**? (A cult series of toy soldiers from Hasbro in the USA, the film G.I. Joe was filmed on it - “Throw of Cobra” - approx. MIRF)

Oh G.I. Joe. I was living in Florida at the time, and a friend of mine was making miniature sculptures. He traveled with them to various military shows, and people came to look at his exhibitions. Among them were guys from Hasbro's development department. A friend of mine became friends with them, and one day one of them mentioned that Hasbro was looking for an artist to draw G.I. Joe in the form of real, living people. A friend recommended me and I was a perfect fit. I spent the next six years drawing illustrations for Hasbro.

How did it work? The guys from the development department came up with new models of toys, new weapons or armor, drew diagrams and drawings, but had no idea what it would look like in real world. And this is where I came in. They gave me ideas, and I created a realistic picture based on them. After all, a weapon that looks cool on paper is not always applicable in life.

My illustrations were intended for internal use only. The guys from the development department used my paintings for presentations with which they went to the authorities. They showed my pictures and said: “This is what this character looks like,” then they showed the design of the toy, and the bosses then said something like “We’re doing this and that, we’ll finalize these, and forget about the rest.”

After the right characters went into development, and the rest went into scrap, the need for my illustrations disappeared, and they were simply thrown away. When the guys in the art department found out about it, they literally pulled them out of the trash and showed them to collectors. That's how it became known that I was doing illustrations for G.I. Joe. Mostly people thought that I drew illustrations on toy packaging, because the artist's name is usually not indicated on it.

Rolling Thunder, published in 2010, covers your entire career. But they say that your caches will contain material for at least two more similar publications, and material that the public has not even seen.

Yes, my thirty-year career has been eventful. I myself am amazed at how much work I managed to do. When we were putting together material for Rolling Thunder and I was looking through all these sketches, folders, photographs, slides, I was simply shocked by the scale of it all. So yes, the book, which contains over two kilograms of art, contains only a third of the total volume of my work. And the next books, if they come out, will greatly surprise fans.

What advice can you give to aspiring artists?

You know, when I lecture to the younger generation, I always emphasize two things: persistence and patience. You cannot achieve the ideal overnight, you need to set a goal and gradually move towards it. With each new job your skill level increases, even if you are unhappy with the result. So if you love something, keep doing it. And if you fall out of love, try yourself in another area.

But continue to work patiently every day. You can’t draw an hour a week and expect to achieve some success. This needs to be done daily, and in the end your efforts will be rewarded. I consider myself the most happy man on the ground. Every day I wake up, look at a blank piece of canvas and create on it the whole world. Every single day. There is no better job in the world.

Science fiction is classified as a unique art direction that depicts the world based on real ideas about other worlds, creatures and other worlds that are logically incompatible. Fantastic style common in the most various types, directions and movements of the arts. It must be said that the fantastic imagery present in cinema, theater, literature, and art is clearly conventional, which in itself violates all real parameters, as well as the basic laws of the objects that it depicts. Any artistic creativity It must have at least elements of fantasy as part of its components, because it helps to create and develop art. Since images in this area arise through invention and synthetic combination of elements, such images often lack liveliness and artistic truth.

One of the subgroups of the science fiction style - fantasy, is a direction artistic arts, the main actors which are fantastic images, mythological heroes, as well as images created by personal representation. As fantasy art, this direction was finally formed at the end of the twentieth century, while its founders are considered to be I. Bilibin, M. Vrubel, V. Vasnetsov, since it was in their works that new characters of the genre from fairy tales and oral history first appeared folk art.

The fantasy style promotes all the main ideas that occupy the consciousness of representatives of creativity in modern society. In other words, fantasy is the same science fiction, but slightly simplified and absolutely not overloaded technical details. In works of this type there are motifs that are familiar to everyone from early childhood, but at the same time they are completely cleared of outright primitivism, childish naivety and are not at all absurd. Fantasy works seamlessly combine familiar myths about ancient civilizations with otherworldly civilizations and all the incredible achievements they bring. In this mix of legends, folk art, fantastic events and characters, the finally comparative new genre visual arts.

Pictures of fantasy in literature quite successfully coexist with fantasy in painting, and therefore it is brought to the attention of the audience a large number of artistic and literary compositions that find their application in the design of books, movie posters, drawings for books and huge canvases. Most often, authors in this genre are inspired by books written in the fantasy style. But it also happens the other way around. Julia Bell, Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo - these authors are quite close in their style to the direction of heroic fantasy, as evidenced by their paintings. But for real greatest influence The appearance of images of a fantasy nature was caused by the work of D. Tolkien. Events of an unreal nature prompted many artists to depict his fictional heroes. The illustrators of his books were Ted Nasmith, the Hildebrandt brothers, John Howe, and Alan Lee.

Fantasy is a fairly broad concept and presupposes the presence large quantity details. Distinctive feature this style has a unique way of presentation, which is complemented by unrealistic descriptions of nature, scary monsters- representatives of unknown unearthly civilizations. Commonly used clichés include simple weapons, war, magic, dragons, elves, horses, and leprechauns.

Fantasy in some cases can work closely with others artistic directions. For example, fantastic realism is quite close to it, sometimes symbolism, surrealism, or even abstractionism.

On the eve of All Saints' Day, we decided to remember the most outstanding artists, who worked and are still working in the style of fantasy and science fiction. This legendary people, with whose work you are, albeit fleetingly, probably familiar. However, it wouldn’t hurt to learn a little more about them - and maybe find a stunning idea for a Halloween costume.

Frank Frazetta

American science fiction artist Frank Frazetta is one of the most famous representatives of the genre. Frank was born in Brooklyn in 1928. From the age of 16, he began to draw comics - first in the Western style, then about superheroes, the most famous of which are Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Since 1964, Frazetta has created book covers, particularly for the Conan and Tarzan series. He was an animator for Ralph Bakshi's iconic fantasy cartoon Fire and Ice. The works of the classic fantastic illustration are highly prized - in 2009, one of them was sold at auction for $1 million.

Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph McQuarrie went down in history primarily as the artist and designer of the Star Wars film trilogy - it is no exaggeration to say that without him an entire cultural layer would have looked completely different! Ralph was born in Indiana in 1929. After serving in the army during Korean War He studied at the College of Art in Pasadena, in the 60s he worked as an artist in a dental clinic, a concept designer at the Boeing 747 plant, and an illustrator of movie posters. In 1975, George Lucas offered Ralph McQuarrie a job. In addition to Star Wars, Ralph worked on the TV series Battlestar Galactica (1978), the film I.G. P. - Alien" (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982) and "Cocoon" (Cocoon, 1985). Wreck-It Ralph won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Moebius

French artist Jean Giraud or Moebius is also a comic book artist, writer and screenwriter. Jean was born in 1938, at the age of 18 he drew his first comic book – “Frank et Jeremie”. Subsequently, Giraud became a prominent representative of the wave of aesthetic comics of the 1970s and 80s, which moved away from pop art. Turning to science fiction, Giraud took the pseudonym Mobius. At the same time, he began collaborating with the British magazine New Worlds and illustrated books by Moorcock, Samuel Delany, Philip K. Dick, and Roger Zelazny. Since the late 1970s, Giraud has worked in films in the films Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), and Tron (1982). In 1982, the cartoon “Lords of Time” was released, where Giraud acted not only as an artist, but also as a screenwriter. In the 90s he was involved in Besson's The Fifth Element. In 2003, the animated series “Arzak” was released, created by Giraud based on his own comic book.

Craig Mullins

Artist, art designer and illustrator Craig Mullins was born in 1964 in California. He studied at Pitzer College in Claremont, and then at the Art Center College of Design, where he studied design, illustration, and, at the same time, digital art. Mullins began working as a designer at Ford, but soon realized that he was too big of a thinker for the automotive design world. In 1987, with the release of graphic designer PaintBox, Mullins came to digital painting, in which I found world fame. Craig did matte paint and concept art for the films “The Matrix: Revolution”, “Armaggeddon”, “Apollo 13”, “Interview with the Vampire”, “Forrest Gump”, “Jurassic Park”. His achievements also include working with computer games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Age of Empires, Age of Empires III, Need For Speed, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2.

John Howe

John Howe has been a fan of Frank Frazetta and Robert Howard's Conan stories since childhood. In 1976 he moved to France, where he studied at the American College of Strasbourg and the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. Worked for a studio for some time animated films in Switzerland, and then, in the 90s, his career as a fantasy illustrator started. Howe did illustrations for books by Tolkien, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb, Patricia McKillip, Charles de Lint, and David Gemmell. In 1998, director Peter Jackson invited the artist to work on his film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Thus, along with Alan Lee, John Howe became the creator of the visual solutions for the film trilogy. John Howe also collaborated with the publishing house Meisha Merlin, illustrating a limited edition of A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin.

Hans Giger (H.R. Giger)

Hans Rudolf Giger was born in 1940 in the city of Chur. In Zurich he studied architecture and Industrial Design. Their surreal paintings Giger initially painted in large format, re-drawing them with an airbrush. The artist himself called his style, where machines and living organisms intricately merge, “biomechanics”, and many others - necrogothics or erotomechanics. Giger's third collection of works, Necronomicon, attracted the attention of director Riddley Scott, which led the artist to an Oscar for the visual effects of the film Alien in 1980 and worldwide fame. Giger is also known for creating album covers for many musical groups. The artist's name, along with John Tolkien, is included in the list of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle.

Drew Struzan

Famous illustrator Drew Struzan was born in 1947. A passion for drawing captured him from childhood - when Drew was five, people from Stamford University came to see the child’s drawings. Struzan was trained as an illustrator, preferring it to art for reasons of future income. After graduating from college, Struzan drew covers for music albums(most famous work– Alice Cooper's “Welcome to My Nightmare” album cover) and movie posters. The artist gained popularity, but real glory his work for Star Wars brought him. After that Drew Struzan did great amount posters for legendary films(Blade Runner, Police Academy, Back to the Future, Risky Business, An American Tail, The Goonies, Hook, Hellboy and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

Syd Mead

Syd Mead was born in 1933 in Minnesota and studied design at art school in Los Angeles, he designed catalogs, including for Ford, and later founded his own design bureau. After moving to California, Mead began collaborating with Hollywood, working on films including " Star Trek", "Blade Runner", "Tron", "2010", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Short Circuit". The work of Syd Mead can be attributed to futurism, but rather to retrofuturism. Obviously, thanks to his long work with the Ford concern, Mead shows a great penchant for cars in his works.

Andrew Jones

American digital artist Andrew Jones is known to his fans as Android Jones. He works in the area conceptual art for films, video games, illustration and digital presentation. He can be called one of the first representatives of digital painting - Andrew began his career at a time when this art form was just gaining momentum. He worked with George Lucas at Industrial Light and Magic, with Nintendo, was creative director at the entertainment company Massive Black Inc. In 2002, Andrew Jones, Jason Manley and Coro Kaufman created the non-profit art community ConceptArt.org.

Travis Vengrov talks with the artist. Translated into Russian by Alexey Ionov

Many artists have worked on the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and none is more experienced than Dave Dorman. However, our conversation with him, which took place at one of the art exhibitions, was devoted to other, lesser-known aspects of his work. We talked about Dave's own universe, illustrations for G.I. Joe and the importance of setting goals for yourself.

Dossier

Dave Dorman is an American artist working in the genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy. He is best known for his work on Star Wars.

Dorman is self-taught: he gained most of his knowledge in his own workshop, carefully studying the work of more experienced craftsmen. He began his professional career in 1979, illustrating covers for Marvel, DC and - later - Dark Horse comics. He gained widespread fame in 1983 after creating the cover for Heavy Metal magazine.

He won an Eisner Award for his book Aliens: Tribes in 1993. Fans have voted him the best Star Wars artist ever.

When did you realize that you wanted to dedicate your life to being an artist?

I have loved drawing since early childhood, and as a boy I spent a lot of time drawing comics about superheroes. But I decided to devote my life to art much later. I was a pretty big guy in high school and played college football, so I planned to get an athletic scholarship to college and then decide what I would do after graduation. But then I got seriously injured and my football career was over. I had to really think about what I wanted to do with my life, and since I still loved drawing, I thought: why not?

I never went to college - instead I studied for a year at Joe Kubert's graphics school. True, at this school they taught how to draw comics and hardly talked about working in color, so I began to learn this in my free time. I liked working on one painting in color better than drawing comics - panel by panel, page by page. Therefore, after graduating from Kubert School, I decided to teach myself what would really be useful to me. This process took me a couple of years.

I lived at home with my parents, got a temporary job, and spent every free minute educating myself. I sat down at the easel and studied. I studied the techniques of different artists, asked them for advice, looked at their work and learned in practice the possibilities of brushes and paints.

You are renowned for your attention to detail...

This comes from the love of drawing. As a child, I wanted to draw comics, and in comics you need to pay attention to small details. Over time, this habit extended to my illustrations. My paintings are striking from afar, but as you get closer, you begin to notice details - for example, patterns on a character's sheath, dents on his armor. All this enriches the picture and makes you stop and thoughtfully examine the image. Such details allow you to learn a little more about the hero or what is happening on the canvas. And I always want to tell as much as possible with one single image.

Do you have any favorite sci-fi or fantasy universes?

Tell our readers about the world of The Empty Lands.

This universe was born about fifteen years ago as part of a larger project called Projected World. It was a video game for personal computers, and because it came out just as consoles were starting to gain popularity, it flopped and was quickly forgotten.

We're also working on a board game tentatively titled Rail: Iron Wars, which serves as a sort of backstory to my novel. This is a strategy game in which you have to fight for resources and railways in a desert region. It's partly a card game - armies exist as cards in your hand. Other players don't know what powers you have, and when two armies clash on the battlefield, the size and strength of the enemy is always a surprise. Everything is like in real life, and playing this way is much more interesting than simply throwing dice.

We also plan to release several texts that will be published electronically on Amazon and iTunes, and we are thinking about a series of toys and other related products. I hope that I can keep readers interested in the world of The Empty Lands long enough to tell all the stories I've written.

I heard you met George Lucas?

Are you expecting anything special from the new films? (We conducted this interview before the premiere of “The Force Awakens” - approx. MIRF)

You know, no. I want to go to them without expectations, with a willingness to learn and see something new. I still love Star Wars, but I'm not a hardcore fan who only loves the original trilogy, or only the prequels, or only the Clone Wars, or only the Expanded Universe. These are just stories, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what JJ Abrams comes up with. I believe in both Lucasfilm and Disney, and I will go to the cinema with the expectation of having fun and watching a spectacular adventure film, where there will probably be something familiar and something new.

"Waiting for Indy." One of my favorite static paintings. A woman holds a hat and leather jacket and waits for Indiana Jones to return.

How did you get started doing illustrations for G.I.Joe**? (A cult series of toy soldiers from Hasbro in the USA, the film G.I. Joe was filmed on it - “Throw of Cobra” - approx. MIRF)

How did it work? The guys from the development department came up with new toy models, new weapons or armor, drew diagrams and drawings, but had no idea what it would look like in the real world. And this is where I came in. They gave me ideas, and I created a realistic picture based on them. After all, a weapon that looks cool on paper is not always applicable in life.

After the necessary characters went into development and the rest were scrapped, the need for my illustrations disappeared and they were simply thrown away. When the guys in the art department found out about it, they literally pulled them out of the trash and showed them to collectors. That's how it became known that I was doing illustrations for G.I. Joe. Mostly people thought that I drew illustrations on toy packaging, because the artist's name is usually not indicated on it.

What advice can you give to aspiring artists?

You know, when I lecture to the younger generation, I always emphasize two things: persistence and patience. You cannot achieve the ideal overnight, you need to set a goal and gradually move towards it. With each new job, your skill level increases, even if you are unhappy with the result. So if you love something, keep doing it. And if you fall out of love, try yourself in another area.

But continue to work patiently every day. You can’t draw an hour a week and expect to achieve some success. This needs to be done daily, and in the end your efforts will be rewarded. I consider myself the happiest person on earth. Every day I wake up, look at a blank piece of canvas and create a whole world on it. Every single day. There is no better job in the world.