Welcome back to Jewels of Apator , Ann and Jeff VanderMeer ’s biweekly column about the intersection of art and the fantastic . Bob Eggleton has created so many Holy Scripture back , interior nontextual matter , monstrosity art , and miscellaneous labor that it ’s hard to keep track of his full output . And that ’s not even including film work for Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius , The Ant Bully , and the forthcoming Invasia . One constant across all of his projects , though , is a unique tactile sensibility . Eggleton ’s graphics has texture . When he paint the Creature from the Black Lagoon , you may sense the wattles . When he paint Godzilla , you may smell his intimation . An amazing dedication to item , along with an understanding or empathy for his field matter , seems to fuel this ability . For Eggleton , though , this approach did n’t come easy .
He say :
For years I did this airbrushed clobber … ick … what was I thinking ? Nothing in life looks airbrushed . So I dropped that for health reasons ( the fumes ) and my lung and breathing got back to normal and I embark on tangible painting as in showing more brushwork and not being shy of it . I used to work in acrylics and basically it was like painting with plastic . I decided to make the jump back into oils . And it looks better , and I slew into illusion to a great extent and then hail back and applied this romanticist vision to the SF work . Who wants to see things as they are ? We need to see them as we daydream them to be .
Use of distance is also significant to Eggleton :
My painting deal with scale . It ’s why I can paint a prodigious space - scape and then , Godzilla or something like that . It ’s all about musical scale and size . call back about it . I like big thing next to little thing . The human race is a speck in the universe . But an ant colony is small next to us . Everything is relative to surmount . I lean to wish to try something different with each job I do .
As for technology , Eggleton ’s relationship with the forward-looking world is a complicated one :
The American captivation with technology as fashion financial statement scares the bejeezus out of me . To be honest , not the equipment themselves but this need for people to had said devices because they have to palpate “ up ” on things - consumerism . And they have no hint about it … And thanks to technology we have the problems that go with it . hoi polloi baby-sit at computers and do n’t get out , they advance weight and have health problem - why actually take the air to a shop when you’re able to have something delivered after tell it online ? The recent film Wall - E is just fantastic and , eerie in it ’s ballsy comment about what happens when we leave ground a junkpile , thanks to the Big Box Mart consumerism , and go off into space and then with technology waiting on us paw and foot , we become fat , couch - bound , calcium deficient blobs ! ! ! If anyone has not take in this film it take a crap a horrendous comment on what is to come up , if we do n’t look out . And you bugger off ta love Pixar for having the cahoonies to put out a kids ’ dystopian SF film !
keep it “ old schoolhouse , ” Eggleton contributed to a film by Norman England called Invasia . Several of his creature intent ( exclusively showcased in the gallery ) were created by the same people who “ made the suits for several of the last Godzilla moving-picture show . ” The idea behind Invasia is to make a 1950s - style film with parasitic creatures invading Japan “ via these form of malevolent ‘ gray ’ guys and their servant aliens . I was blow out of the water when I come across what a coolheaded job Shinichi ’s workshop did with the drawing . ”
Upcoming for Eggleton is a kids ’ Word called If Dinosaurs Lived in Our Town . He explained :
[ It ’s ] written by my married woman , and I worked with Cortney Skinner on the artistic production . It ’s half traditional , half digital aimed at the four - to - eight yr - old set . The result of the small-arm depend spectacular . This ’ll be a BIG book next Spring from Sterling / Hollan Publishing and Barnes and Noble . I also have a few other things I am exercise on that you ’ll listen about shortly . The thought is to keep re - inventing and not falling into a oestrus or citizenry being able to say ‘ Oh he just does … ’
See more Eggleton in hisonline gallery .
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , scientific discipline , and refinement news in your inbox daily .
News from the time to come , deliver to your nowadays .
Please select your desired newssheet and bow your email to upgrade your inbox .
