AuthorTopic: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?  (Read 4106 times)

Offline Carnivac

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Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

on: September 24, 2013, 11:58:39 am
While working on my retro 8-bit Amstrad CPC game I've always felt the tiles looked a bit... uninspired and not as atmospheric as I would ideally like.  They look fine but I feel like I want to try something else.  I've always been a fan of the landscapes and logos of the artist Roger Dean since he did the boxart of various Psygnosis games back in the Amiga era, particularly the Shadow of the Beast series and I've been looking at his work again now trying to get an idea of how I can try get that kind of otherworldy landscape look using a reasonably small amount of tiles and the low colour palette of the CPC (specifically my game's 16 colour palette from the CPC's 27 colour total), hopefully without ripping him off too much like a certain well known movie director.

Anways I know a lot of you are arty types so I thought I'd ask if you guys know of other fantasy/sci-fi landscape artists I should check out the work of for ideas and inspiration in addition to Dean.   I mean landscapes that look like alien worlds rather than Lord of the Rings. 

Thank you.


 :D
« Last Edit: September 24, 2013, 01:36:18 pm by Carnivac »
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Offline Reo

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #1 on: September 24, 2013, 01:14:25 pm
Moebius is perhaps the most obvious example but his art cannot be recomended enough!
Ioannis early art is comparable to Roger Deans. see here: http://www.dangerousage.com/digital-art/nggallery/
Michael Whelan has likewise done many illustrations of fantastical landscapes
You should definitely check out Max Ernst and his contemporaries of the the Dada and surrealist movements ( It's an interesting point in western art history anyway). example:http://uploads3.wikipaintings.org/images/max-ernst/the-eye-of-silence-1943.jpg
Peter Elson does superb Sci-fi illustrations! Investigate! :y:
Zdzisław Beksiński has done some fantastic twisted images and landscapes, superficially similair to HR Giger, but that might be a tad darker than what you are going for?
Dan Seagrave makes wonderful Heavy Metal covers often in twisted, alien forms, look out for some of his personal works.
Hans Arnold is a wonderful artist but not enough of his work is available online.

These are just at the top of my head, but remember that many classic Fantasy artists( like Whelan) also did a lot of sci-fi work so they are worth checking. Don't have links for everyone but they should all be easy to find on google. :)
Also here is a great example from Real life! http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-island.html?z=10
« Last Edit: September 24, 2013, 01:54:35 pm by Reo »

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #2 on: September 24, 2013, 01:37:34 pm
Thanks Reo.  I shall check these out.  :D
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
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Offline yrizoud

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #3 on: September 24, 2013, 03:33:26 pm
I'd add Stewart Coley, I read a few of his art books. focus is on space ships, but there are also some floating cities and extra-terrestrial landscapes. A clear 70s/80s influence.
http://iansales.com/2012/03/18/galactic-encounters-of-the-1970s/

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #4 on: September 24, 2013, 05:21:05 pm
Cheers yrizoud

Looking forward to going through all these and developing some new tile ideas and color schemes once I get some time.   :)
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Offline Jeremy

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #5 on: September 25, 2013, 04:38:01 am
Syd Mead is the guy who did stuff for Blade Runner, Tron, Alien etc.
Eyvind Earle might be a bit less figurative than what you're looking for, but he's rad.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #6 on: September 25, 2013, 08:29:29 am
Syd Mead is the guy who did stuff for Blade Runner, Tron, Alien etc.

Afaik he did nothing for Alien. Tech stuff for Aliens (Nostromo and such). The alien looking stuff in Alien is of course by H.R. Giger and Moebius did some stuff for it too. Also Ridley Scott actually did pretty kickass storyboards and sketches himself.
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Offline Helm

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Re: Fantasy/alien world landscape artists?

Reply #7 on: September 25, 2013, 11:22:46 am
Ron Cobb did the technological design for Alien.