MOONBASE CENTRAL: SpaceX Art Week: NASA Glider Card Art

Thursday, 14 June 2012

NASA Glider Card back

Tri-ang Spacex

Will Osborne collection

WOODSY6/14/2012 8:04 am
These SpaceX illustrations are really beautiful. To the artists amongst you, do you think they are watercolours or something else?
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WOTAN6/14/2012 8:58 am
Id suggest line and wash, ink for the solid blacks and water based paint - possibly watercolour or gouache for the flat colours. The background for the ships are clearly posterised photographs, so its possible the drawings are overlaid onto a tinted print of the earth or a gas cloud etc.
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Anonymous6/14/2012 11:43 am
Wotan's way would end up as a transparency of the finished illustration, to be stripped in by pre-press. Which would then have to superimpose the black line art again to keep that sharp instead of half-toned over all separations (bit similar to having linework exclusively in the K channel in PhotoShop).

What I think is also likely, is that the black line art went onto the (B/W) mechanical pasteboard along with frames, text etc, delivered with transparencies for the backgrounds only, and pre-press will have applied all colouring and stripped in the background images while simultaneously doing the colour effects on those according to written instructions with the artwork. Takes me back a bit, that... :)

Best
--
Paul
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WOTAN6/14/2012 11:46 am
Well we are talking pre-digital processes! Like you say, the modern computerised process takes all the expertise out of it! and a lot of the fun and sweat1
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Thursday, 14 June 2012