Rip Moebius And Mcquarrie

[Autumnpuma 0]

This past week we lost two influential artists and, for me, it's always quite sad to lose a bit of humanity's creativity.

Ralph McQuarrie, The artist who defined the look of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica (among others), died on March 3rd. His website is here but you might get a better look at his work by using google. The website only has very small images.

Mr. McQuarrie was one of the two artists who lit the creative fire inside me. In 1977 there was precious little by way of quality special effects and epic storylines...then Star Wars released in May and the whole SciFi movie landscape changed. I was an impressionable kid of 7 when I saw Luke and Lea and Han run from slick stormtroopers and the menacing Darth Vader. The whole movie imprinted it's visuals onto my wee little brain and it's all thanks to Mr. McQuarrie...you see, I missed most of the story, but I sure as hell got the visuals! I can directly trace my artistic 'awakening' to that movie.

****

Travel deeper down my road of artistic influences and you'll hit the massive wall of Moebius. This man with his slick penmanship and masterful use of color simply blew me away. Where Ralph McQuarrie made me want to pick up a pencil and draw something fantastic, Moebius made me want to break that pencil and throw my art supplies in the trash. There was no amount of practice that would boost me to the level of Moebius. He was that good.

His website is here and you'll probably spend too much time there, fair warning.

I don't know how many F1 regulars here know or even care about these two wonderful artists (except for Tanita, I'll wager), but this really is a sad week. Boring, unimaginative artists are a dime-a-dozen and it's a tragedy to lose real talent like Ralph McQuarrie and Jean "Moebius" Giraud. I have doubts that we will see their equal in our lifetimes.

[Quiet One 15]

ever heard of McQuarrie till he died, but I was a huge fan of Moebius (a synonym with Metal Hurlant magazine for me, read them avidly in my 20s) one of the few great illustrators along with Manara (a mandatory reference), my compatriot Breccia (on an entirely different vein) among those which could really cause impact before even reading the stories (and these guys were very talented either with the stories they wrote or the ones they chose to illustrate)

[Autumnpuma 0]

ever heard of McQuarrie till he died, but I was a huge fan of Moebius (a synonym with Metal Hurlant magazine for me, read them avidly in my 20s) one of the few great illustrators along with Manara (a mandatory reference), my compatriot Breccia (on an entirely different vein) among those which could really cause impact before even reading the stories (and these guys were very talented either with the stories they wrote or the ones they chose to illustrate)

Yes.

[Quiet One 15]

Ah, glad you are familiar with his artwork. It's one of the best, IMHO. Now you made me remember my times as a comics fan...funny how many interests a person has during his life, I often wonder how people can really think that even the most contemplative of beings is actually devoid of any interests.

[Autumnpuma 0]

Breccia was magic with ink and brush and an excellent storyteller (which is, of course, the highest compliment you can pay a comics guy). Interesting story about him from a current comic professional: This pro was in a Spanish comic shop and actually ran into Breccia there. After much chatting, Breccia drew a fully rendered piece for the current pro. This is quite a thing; to just *do* a fully rendered piece. The man was a master, hands down.

Tangental, another sorta compatriot to you, Andres, is José Luis García-López. Another master of comics art, though born in Spain, he lived in Argentina for quite some time.

Comic art sometimes doesn't get the respect it deserves and Moebius (among others) really brought the artform to new levels.

McQuarrie (among a few others) also established a whole new category of art (Concept Art) that's just now being recognized (it has it's own category in the Spectrum annual).

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Sad to hear the news about Moebius and Mcquarrie

I'm into digital painters at the mo, learning to paint myself but it's slow...

Here's a few of my favourites...

Izzy Medrano

http://www.mercilessdesign.blogspot.com/

min yum

http://bumskee.cghub.com/

Shelley Wan

http://shellywan.blogspot.com/

then, a classical painter...

Petar Meseldžija

http://petarmeseldzija.blogspot.com/

check out http://theartorder.com/, Mike I'm sure you'll appreciate, some nice resources and inspiration...

check it out guys, check it out...

[Rainmaster 7]

Love the images in this thread; will check out the links. I'd never heard of Moebius or Mcquarrie until this week when I read this piece http://nathanditum.c...cience-fiction/

[Massa 0]

Thanks for sharing, guys. I know next to nothing about art, but I've enjoyed reading this thread and checking out the links.

[Autumnpuma 0]

Sad to hear the news about Moebius and Mcquarrie

I'm into digital painters at the mo, learning to paint myself but it's slow...

Here's a few of my favourites...

Izzy Medrano

http://www.mercilessdesign.blogspot.com/

min yum

http://bumskee.cghub.com/

Shelley Wan

http://shellywan.blogspot.com/

then, a classical painter...

Petar Meseldžija

http://petarmeseldzija.blogspot.com/

check out http://theartorder.com/, Mike I'm sure you'll appreciate, some nice resources and inspiration...

check it out guys, check it out...

Brad, my artist brothuh! It makes me happy that you know of Petar's work. He's one of the best painters around and a nice guy to boot. I've traded a few e-mails with him and he's very humble for an artist as great as he is.

Jon Shindehette from ArtOrder (Wizards of the Coast AD) is another good guy. Kinda brusque at times but always willing to give a solid opinion. Very friendly. I've done a few of his challenges over the years.

I have a bazillion art links you might like, but I'll start another thread for 'em later today.

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

I often wonder how people can really think that even the most contemplative of beings is actually devoid of any interests.

Well Paul is fairly devoid of any interests, apart from chronic masturbation and stealing of hubcaps... Fortunately his corrective institution is dealing with this, although he has had an allergic reaction to the boxing gloves...

An interesting thread - does make me wonder how many other hidden "nuggets" there are in our membership...

I was more of a Roger Dean http://www.rogerdean.com/ fan myself.

[Autumnpuma 0]

Well Paul is fairly devoid of any interests, apart from chronic masturbation and stealing of hubcaps... Fortunately his corrective institution is dealing with this, although he has had an allergic reaction to the boxing gloves...

An interesting thread - does make me wonder how many other hidden "nuggets" there are in our membership...

I was more of a Roger Dean http://www.rogerdean.com/ fan myself.

Beautiful work there. Dean looks like a funky evolution of Maxfield Parish. Very nice.

An American artist with a similar style would be Michael Whelan