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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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For a Few Dollars Moore Science fiction illustrator Chris Moore,
the master of hi-tech, hi-sheen SF illustration talks about the joy of the airbrush,
as well as using a computer to paint starships like a madman.
PS:
You've established yourself as a master of a particular type of hi-tech, hi-sheen
sf illustration. If left to your own devices, are there other types of illustration
you'd be doing?
CM: Well, the quick answer to this one is that there are other types of illustration I am doing, I have always spread my net wide as far as work goes and have taken commissions from all areas of the illustration field, from sf to Still Life, advertising to aircraft paintings, wildlife to wallpaper designs.
I will take on literally almost anything, even at the risk of prostituting myself, provided that it's interesting and gives me a challenge. The reputation I have enjoyed in publishing I think resides more with "problem solving" aspects rather than specifically sf. I know that my sf work has achieved more prominence because that is the nature of that particular genre, people who are interested in sf are generally interested in the art as well as the literature.
I don't get letters from
people who buy thrillers or mass-market paperbacks that I do the covers for because
their involvement with the cover ends as soon as they have bought the book: when
they buy it, the cover has done its job -- end of story. However, I
also still get a thrill out of doing this kind of work -- I have a job on my board
at the moment which calls for a dramatic seascape done in oils with a breaching
whale's fluke in the foreground and an 18th-century whaling ship in the background
. . . nice job! PS: Who do you recognize as
the major influences on your work? CM: Because I take on many kinds of work, I guess I sort of follow my nose a bit, and the same applies to influences. I think I'm quite eclectic by nature so, if I followed any one artist in particular, I'd probably end up working just like them. So I
reckon I just pick bits up from here and there as I think most artists do. It's
a subconscious thing with me. I look for substance and integrity in work, not
just a high degree of finish.
However, of my contemporaries, I like almost everyone
in some way or another because I know how difficult it is to work successfully
in this profession, and to come up with the goods time after time, to keep it
fresh and within the brief and on time! (Sometimes.) PS:
When you're commissioned to create a new cover image, how do you go about it?
Do you prefer to read the whole book, skim through parts of it or work from an
art director's brief? CM: Well, it depends on the job, on
the time available, on previous covers, the type of package the publisher wants,
etc. I obviously prefer to read the whole book, but there is not often time to
do that. Sometimes I get a synopsis or just a passage from the book that the editor
or art director wants me to illustrate. The process varies quite a bit as well. I have been known to produce highly finished colour paintings at the rough stage or just simple pencil sketches. However, since I acquired a computer and access to e-mail, I now produce images on the computer as colour compositions in Photoshop or as pencil sketches, literally drawing in a soft black line on the computer screen.
Then I press a couple of buttons and the thing
appears on the screen of the art director in a couple of minutes . . . amazing! I am so far resistant to producing finished images this way as for me there
is something in the computer that gets in the way of the finished image. It's
hard to explain, but I really like painting and I like to produce paintings that
are tangible things that you can hold up and look at. By all means use any technology
that comes to hand to produce your images, but I don't want to lose the feel of
paint. I know some illustrators think the computer is a tool of the
devil and others have embraced it wholeheartedly. I have always steered a middle
course in my life and I think the same attitude applies here . . . just use it
as another tool of your trade like a pencil or a camera: don't allow the medium
to dictate the message (for all you Marshall Macluhan fans -- remember him?). PS:
You use quite a lot of technology to produce your images. Could you tell us
how the magic is done? CM: There is no technology to speak of. I use photographs as reference sometimes, and I use an airbrush (a Conopois F type, no longer manufactured). The computer is used instead of moving
bits of drawings on tracing paper around to make a composition: now I can scan
the scribbles in, scale them, and cobble them together into a composition that
works and is seamless. But you still need to draw. There is no substitute for
drawing! 3D software is very sophisticated and is becoming increasingly so, but for me it goes too far -- it does it all for you and something is lost in the process. Maybe it's because there is no evidence of a struggle going on between man and paint!
PS: How do you get
the amazing impression of sheer size you achieve in some of your pictures? CM:
Same answer really -- just drawing. I like to imagine myself into those situations
that I create, and the other thing is I sort of naturally draw in "wide angle",
if you know what I mean. PS: When you're not
reading science fiction, what sorts of books do you find yourself generally picking
up? CM: I don't have a lot of time to read books in general
but I do like humour and thrillers (as long as they are not all doom and gloom:
there is enough in this world to be depressed about without indulging in it).
Almost anything really -- except computer manuals. I have two small
children and a band that I play in once a week (it's called The Cheating Hearts,
and we play around North Lancashire, to give them an unabashed plug), so what
with work -- which is wall-to-wall at the moment -- I don't have that much time
to read for pleasure. PS: Would it be a dream
come true if NASA suddenly phoned you up and offered you the chance to go into
space yourself? CM: If they could guarantee my safety I'd jump at the chance, but I'm not a great flyer. I usually get a bit pissed before I fly anywhere and then end up boring the pants off some guy who's unlucky to be sat in the seat next to me. So I'd experience the thing through a haze
of alcohol anyway. Maybe I would be better sticking to the drawing board, which
reminds me . . . I've got work to do. A title called Revelation Space by Alistair
Reynolds . . . my agent would kill me if he knew I was doing this interview instead
of working on the painting! PS: Chris Moore, thank you very much. Paul Barnett A version of this article originally
appeared in The Snarl, Paper Tiger's reader zine. Many thanks to
Snarl's Editor extraordinaire, Paul Barnett (www.papertiger.co.uk),
for letting us recycle their prose
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OTHER CONTENT - February 2003
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Well,
at least we avoided the "Almanac" jokes that Chris Moore
must be monumentally tired of by now . . . One of the most exciting
hard-sf artists in the business - and certainly the one with the
driest wit - kindly (and without the slightest mention of dollars)
shared his thoughts with the 'Nest for this issue. 
I
even did one for The Empire Strikes Back, and it always miffed me that I got paid
£1500 for the design and it sold 5 million rolls at around £6 per
roll in the first week of sales . . .
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