THINKING ABOUT LINES N STUFF

I stumbled upon some Star Control 2 production art, specifically the work of George Barr (see above), whose imagery went a long way toward defining the aesthetic of the project, sorta like Ralph McQuarrie. I was a bit surprised to read that his tried and true drawing method was to produce detailed line art with ball-point pens, preferrably on illustration board so you get a pleasant texture, and then go over it with water color. The end result is a curiously satisfying amalgam: you get the airy, semi-ethereal coloring you'd expect from watercolor, but everything is held in check by the strong lines, which sublimate to lovely effect. No watery vomit to be found!

0xDB and I also discussed the work of Denis Loubet, who, like Barr, contributed heavily to the visual styling of the entire Ultima series. Well, more or less. He even did the cover art for Shroud of the Avatar, but in all honestly it looks rather phoned in compared to his prior work. In his defence, I recall reading an interview where Loubet lamented that his transition from traditional physical media to an all digital workflow was both later than many, and not without issues. Specifically, he noted the difficulty in getting the digital tools to successfully emulate his style. I don't see any evidence that he attained 100% success in that regard, so I guess one could call his work of the last few decades his 'new' style. I salute him for carrying on, regardless.

Amusingly, after we dove into the mechanics of putting tools to canvas, and the subtleties therein, I wondered what would happen if someone were to adopt a hybrid approach where they started digitally, then printed to canvas and finished up with physical tooling. Would it be satisfying? Monstrous? I'd have to find an artist crazy enough to try first.