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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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Windy Miller
Frankly, what science fiction and fantasy illustrator Ron Miller
doesn't know about fine painting could be etched onto a pinhead using
nanotechnology. And he's not really windy … we made that bit up because
it sounded good as a title. Paul Barnett of Paper Tiger interviews
Ron for the Nest.
So we're particularly glad to be able to bring you this: PS: Firebrands represented something of a departure for you from the style with which you're most commonly associated. Why did you take that step? RM: For the very reason that caused you to ask that question: My stereotyping as a "space painter". My original background in illustration came from commercial art -- I worked as an advertising illustrator from several years after getting out of college.
When my trilogy of novels was published by Ace a few years ago I had to convince the editors that I could do my own covers! "But these are fantasy novels," they protested, "and you're a space artist!" To answer your question on perhaps a more technical, and maybe even semantical, level: the style of my painting is the same whether I'm working on figures or on a landscape -- only the subject is different.
PS: What was it like working on a book with Pamela Sargent? RM: Wonderful! She is an expert in the subject of how women have been depicted in sf and fantasy and I couldn't have been happier when she agreed to work on the book with me. Her input enabled me to bring more to the artwork than I would have been able to without her. PS: What materials do you prefer using? Are you making the leap to computer? RM: I'm afraid it's more a crawl. The most I've ever done is to scan one of my paintings and do a little retouching via Photoshop. I certainly have nothing against computer-aided art -- indeed, I hope to get my learning curve out of the horizontal concerning it -- it's just that I enjoy the physical process of painting. I work in acrylics, by the way.
PS: I understand you're doing a fair amount of work in television and the cinema at the moment. Are you allowed to tell us what all's cooking? RM: So far as TV is concerned, my expertise on a number of topics gets me interviewed several times a year . . . even by the BBC! The subjects range from space art and science fiction to Jules Verne and the history of space flight. I have also worked on several motion picture projects -- from Dune and Total Recall to a couple of new things recently for James Cameron. Last year I art-directed, storyboarded and helped write a computer-generated show-ride film called Impact!.
PS: Do you have any new book or other major writing projects in the pipeline? RM: Always! There's a definitive book on the life and work of the legendary space artist Chesley Bonestell, a science fiction atlas (a sort of Baedeker's guide to the worlds of sf and fantasy), a compilation of erotic SF and fantasy art . . . and I have two other novels making the rounds. PS: You've written very extensively in magazines and the like about Bonestell. I can understand what drew you to this artist -- I guess we've all felt the same pull -- but what drove you on to become such a scholar about him?
I took a chance and wrote a letter -- and discovered, to my infinite surprise, that he was still alive. This led to a friendship with Bonestell's "manager", Bill Estler, who eventually introduced me to Chesley . . . and to Fred Durant at the National Air & Space Museum, where I eventually wound up working. This brought me even closer to Bonestell and, since I have a natural inclination to dig into the history of anything I'm interested in, I began looking into Bonestell's life and work. On my own and with Fred, I wrote a few short articles about Bonestell, and Fred and I finally ended up doing a whole book together: Worlds Beyond . . . which has not only become a collector's item, I saw a copy recently sell for more than $700. I was astonished. After Bill Estler's death, Fred took over representing the sale of Bonestell originals and reproduction rights. Then, with Fred's own retirement recently, this was all passed on to me. I cataloged and arranged literally thousands of slides, transparencies and photos which fill nearly two dozen 3in looseleaf binders, shelves of books and scores of magazines. To say nothing of two full file drawers of records, letters and other Bonestelliana. It's a unique collection. PS: What are your plans to celebrate the year 2000? RM: I have no idea, other than the fact that, knowing 2001 is the real first year of the 21st century, I plan to party twice -- once with the people who know don't how to count and once with the people who do. PS: Ron Miller, thank you. Surfers please note: Ron Miller's website is at Black Cat Studios The Bonestell Space Art website is at www.bonestell.org. 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 play with his prose
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OTHER CONTENT - March 2003
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A
talented man is Ron Miller -- a prolific and prestigious
illustrator of sf subjects, of course, but also a novelist,
a nonfiction writer, a screen writer, an art director . . .
all of which, as you can imagine, doesn't leave him much time for
things like being interviewed! 
I
only got into astronomical and space subjects later. I've always
enjoyed drawing and painting figures, but as I more and more made
astronomical illustration a specialty the more I became associated
with it. 
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