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Archive for the 'Artists' Category

Apr

monsterpalooza April, 13th-15th, 2012

Categories: Artists, john carpenter and monsterpalooza

WOW!!! What an incredible show this was!!! As much as I love Comicon and Wondercon, Monsterpalooza has become my new Favorite of the collector shows. The Palooza started Friday evening at 6:00 and went through the weekend. There were tons of incredible vendor booths, live make-up, airbrush, and mold making seminars, Movie and horror directors& stars, as well as a host of special make up FX artists.. Monsterpalooza has been an annual event but this year they are adding another show in October and again it will be in Burbank!!!! I’m booking this one as we speak. I took tons of pix from the show and they will speak volumes so enough chatter from me and lets go right into the show…

This is a painting of Grandpa from the "Munsters" painted by the incredible Daniel Horne. Dan had many pieces of his work at the show and I was blown away by his incredible talent, and what a great subject matter to display his mastery of the media

Here is another one of Dan's masterpieces!!! I'm only going to post two of his paintings because I'm going to do a special blog post about him very soon.

There was also a horror museum and this was one of the pieces on display

the wrath of comicon, 2011 part 3

By johneaves 12 Comments

Categories: Artists, comicon, General Sci-Fi, General Trek, Pin-up, soundtracks, star wars and Trek Movies

Wow what a week!!! had our big garage sale, making the final pack for Wyoming, getting ready for the fair, and just started on Star Trek Monday morning, life is good but a bit blurry in the high speed lane, HAAAA anyways I’m takeing a coffee break and trying to get up as many con pics as I can this morning,,, there will be a part 4 if I don’t make it today. OK one n all have a great day and enjoy the pics.

a pin up style movie ticket, cigerrette girl

direct from disneyland, a pair of evil queens

it's mickey's bones

an awesome star wars poster

komodo king

ol scratch

just cool

full view

staem punk thrives at the con

the dream machine from "Inception"

the bat mobile

the original, my favorite martian ship

James Bond props from "the Man with the Golden Gun"

props from, Men in Black

a very cool MIB rifle with a special detail

there's a real octopuss inside!!!!

a wicked bike sculpt, (GROWN)

CAPTAIN A

the leg lamp in miniature

OK have to go so there will be a part 4

Aug

2011 and the wrath of comicon, part 1

By johneaves 20 Comments

Categories: Artists, comicon, General Sci-Fi, Pin-up and soundtracks

AHHHHH!! I am finally home! Directly from the con, we spent a week packing for our first big, long drive to Wyoming to get our first load of stuff from CA to our new home. It took a week to drive there and back and then another week to get the truck ready for trip #2. It’s early in the AM and I have an hour to myself, so here is part one to followup the story from this summer’s COMICON!!!! Way too many pics to load in one post so more tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon my buddy Nelson Broskey flew down from Northern California for what was about our 20th trip to the con. We started the trip off with a stop off at the Chiodo Brothers studios in Burbank and then hit the road for San Diego for the premiere opening on Wednesday night. Traffic was awful like always and took a couple of extra hours to get there; once in town the crowds were everywhere and mood from traveler to line warrior switches into high gear. There is always great anxiety about getting to the right door to get your pass and get in, and if you do it correctly the first time it takes about 45 mins to to go the the process. Once your tag is on, you enter the big doors to the multiple acres of booths and a glittering cornucopia of scifi books, sculptures, posters, soundtracks, games, movies and everything else imaginable. There are movie stars from the past and present, as well as all of your favorite artists doing their thing in the artist alley. The crowd at the door and the main back isle is always thick so a quick jet to the middle isle and over to the far west wall starts the glorious hours of wandering up n down every row searching for all the must have items while making sure you don’t spend all your cash at the first booth you come to, HAAAA! The sad part about opening night is that the floor is only open for a couple of hours, not nearly enough time to do anything but wet your appetite for the next day.

The second best part of the adventure about the con is what restaurant do you want, and do you think you’ll be able to get in… The gas light district is a street of old San Diego architecture and is double sided with bars and food joints to meet every style of meals from around the globe. Nelson and I have discovered the Rockin Baja Cantina which is an awesome place to eat and for some reason we have always gotten right in. MMMMMM a way good place with steak n seafood coming to your table literally in buckets.

Day two is the long day and it does take the whole entire day to walk all the isles. Meanwhile there are panels, screenings, and feature presentations in every side room or hall of the place. That is where the big crowds are, and those lines start anywhere from the day before to somewhere in the middle of the night to see the really big events. I only went to one or two before and it was the closest I have ever been to losing my mind and being put into a strait jacket…WAY to much to handle for my little brain and crowd tolerance so I just stick to the floor, HAAA!

Friday comes as the last day for us and we finish the morning with gliding by our favorite tables one last time just in case we missed anything. The cash is all gone by now and Friday is as close to the weekend as you want to get, for that is when the real crowd comes. It’s getting to be a yearly tradition to end the con adventure with a trip over to the USS Midway and a pin up shoot. This year we worked with a very beautiful young lady named Valerie Neff. We had just met on the model mayhem site a day earlier and set up the shoot the evening before. Nelson and I met Val at the dock and her incredible modeling presence stood out in every casual gesture and stance she took even while simply talking to her. After a quick history we learned that Valerie had come to the states from Peru where she is known as one of the greatest models the country has ever seen; she recently moved to San Diego to try her talents here which only means she will soon conquer our modeling world with her sleek grace and beautifully poetic style. We only shot for a little over an hour, but in that time we shot well over a thousand pictures and went through 4 different costume changes. From my end I have never worked with such a professional, and every picture she posed for turned out incredible. I’m still in awe of her talent and on top of it all she is a very sweet lady with a contagious smile and a love for laughter. I will be writing a much longer post about her soon so today is only a teaser. SO with all that said enjoy the pics and look forward to reading all your comments.

the crowd crossing the street to the convention center

the turbulent sea of geeks n nerds,, Awesome fun,, many of these folks desperatly need deoderant and in a major way, HAAA!

a huge sculpt of Vader with an illuminated light saber!!!

a huge 7 foot tall display of a game board piece

the Quantum Mechanix Viper

the QM 1/350th scale Enterprise with fully lit shuttle bay, does anyone have $3000

another view of this beauty

the world of Star Wars products never ends and only gets better and more extravagant with every Con

more cool SW stuff

Thanks to the digital world, extremely accurate likenesses are finally available

always a fav, Bobba Fett

a miniature solo

a full size Vader bust

from clone wars

bobba

terminator 2

the terminator, from the assault on the police station

an incredible Christopher Reeves sculpt

FULL SIZE!!!!! Does anyone know people that have these things in their homes???

incredible

the ever lovely Valerie

Valerie 2

Valerie 3

May

profiles in history auction #44

By johneaves 21 Comments

Categories: Alien, Artists, auctions and colectables, disney, General Trek and Trek Movies

Good morning and happy Wednesday. GOOD NEWS for you collectors out there, or if you’re like me a window shopper, the new Profiles in History auction catalog #44 is now out, and what an awesome auction they are having. Below is a link to the downloadable version, and I have already spent hours looking at this one and am so glad that my wife can hold me back from these incredible auctions, haaaa….. Tons of great movie items, art, and just a cornucopia of things that we all wish we could have. Here are a few pages from my wish list and by far the best thing in this catalog for me is the Spaceship from Zombies of the Stratosphere…also used as Commando Cody’s ship in Radar Men from the Moon) A real treasure!!! OK then off to the drawing board so enjoy the download and have a great day!!!

http://profilesinhistory.com/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-44/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-44

cover

the coolest model ever

Wow It's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

What a great car

COOOOOOL,,,, stuff from the Rocketeer

the not so Jupiter 2, jupiter 2

very nifty Trek stuff

and holly cow the simple blaster from "Forbidden Planet"

Mar

Ryan dening, an artist extraordinare,

By johneaves 36 Comments

Categories: Artists and General Trek

WOW!!!!! I just had a moment to hang out on the computer and browse a bit and I came across a website and a blog by RYAN DENING!!!! Ryan was my boss on the Star Trek online game when Perpetual was putting the game together. We met in 06 and I started working remotely with a visit up to the bay about once a month to meet and go over all the new lists of things to be rendered. Ryan was hired to be the design boss for the game and what an awesome talent he is. When I first walked in the office, which was very tiny and very dark you could see his art work being modeled or manipulated on every screen as you walked through the halls of computers. Ryan has an incredible sense of design and his passion for Star Trek was without limits. I was a huge fan from the first day and I loved his style of color & tight perspective on how he would choose to set up a rendering. AWESOME talent and one incredibly nice guy!!! I am so glad to have come across his pages today and so glad to be sharing some of his work with you.. I attached both his links in my blog role so be sure to go check out some incredible stuff!!! So for know hold on to your chair and feast your eyes on some of Ryan’s fantastic illustrations.

The Excalibur, STO's flagship

the sacagawea

some cool interior

Wow an Abrams which has been Denisized!!!

Jan

Grant McCune, saying good bye to a dear friend

By johneaves 43 Comments

Categories: Artists, friends, heroes, Movie Model Makers, Star Trek (2009) and star wars

Grant and r2-d2

So Sorry for this very late post, but we lost our internet for the last three weeks and only just got it back up and working. With that said, the last post of the year was to be about Grant McCune and all the modelers at his shop, but sadly, before it was finished news of Grant’s untimely passing changed the story from one of great fun to one of horrible sadness.

2010 has been a hard year full of many sorrows and tragedies. We have lost a lot of Hollywood legends and dear friends, and as the year comes to a close there is one more final goodbye to a dear, dear friend. If you’re a regular reader here, the name Grant McCune is not a new one to you, and with great sadness, Grant passed away on Monday December the 27th of Pancreatic Cancer which he was only diagnosed with 4 weeks prior to his passing. For those of you who don’t know of Grant from a friend’s point of view, he was the chief model maker on a little film that came out in 1977 called “Star Wars” and his masterful craft won him an Oscar. Grant was always a little embarrassed about that because it was really his first film in many ways, and being the humble man that he was, always felt funny about it.

Grant started in the business working with his good friend Bill Shourt on the Mechanical Shark from Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”. Bill and Grant went from working under water to outer space when George Lucas was putting together a team of specialists to create the undiscovered country of major motion control VFX for his space epic “Star Wars”. The Original Industrial Light and Magic VFX studio was a rented warehouse in Van Nuys, California, right next to the Van Nuys Airport. Star Wars was a landmark film and opened the door to a new world of VFX laden films incorporating Motion Control camera systems and technologies designed and created for Star Wars. Lucas was signed on to do a sequel and he wanted to move his operation up to the Bay area which was George’s stomping grounds. A call was made to see who wanted to follow to a new ILM to be situated in Marin County just north of San Francisco, and who was going to stay in Los Angelas. John Dykstra and six others of the main group decided to stay in southern CA while the others moved on. John Dykstra, Bill Shourt, Grant McCune, Richard Alexander, Roger Dorney, Doug Smith and Bob Sheperd got their money together and formed a new company called “Apogee”. Apogee retained the original building plus one directly next door to house all the new cameras, machine shop, creature shop, optical and animation department, model shop, and lots of stage and office space. Their first project was the television pilot and series called “Battlestar Galactica”. Grant would head up the model shop, and crews of modelers would come and go as the projects came in. Following Galactica came Star Trek (The Motion Picture), Caddyshack, Firefox and a host of other films and commercials.

I knew of Grant from the credits in Star Wars and from all the publications about the films VFX sequences. After years of research I found an add for Apogee in a trade magazine for film and gave him a call. We met in early 1984 and for the next year and a half I would frequently make the drive from Arizona to visit. One hot summer Wednesday in July I stopped by again to say hi. I was staying at my uncle’s house in Fullerton and doing some side work for him while I was on vacation from my job at the grocery store in Phoenix. I told Grant in a joking way that I lived here now, and he said; you live in CALIFORNIA!!! Why yes I do,,,,, he then said, how do you like working outside….. in the heat??? I had just come from 120 degree Arizona heat to California which was barely 100 degrees so hot outside was NOT California, HAAA! I said I love to work outside why? What came next was the big phrase that I thought I would never hear….. Good! would you like start working here tomorrow, your job will be brushing latex into a giant Dinosaur mold and he pointed outside to two half molds of a full sized T-Rex ! WOOOOOOOOOOO Oh yes I would love to, and he said; OK then see ya tomorrow at 7:00, and how does $7.00 an hour sound… That sounds Awesome Grant, Thanks and I will see you tomorrow I said and off I went to get ready for the big day!!!! What an unbelievable time! So on Thursday August 1st 1985 Grant McCune brought me into the world of VFX and one young boy’s dreams came true. I called my boss at Bayless markets and gave my two week notice over then phone and the sound of cheers rang out from everyone standing by the phone on the Arizona side of the line.

Grant was a great boss, and you couldn’t really call him that because he was more a friend than a boss. Always quick with a joke and a laugh, he loved his job and he so gracefully shared all of what he knew with you. Everybody loved Grant and also working at Apogee; it was a place that felt more like a house full of your favorite relatives than a job. There was really no division between the high end and the low end of the crew, and everyone there was incredibly talented and a joy to be around. Grant was a music lover and was ever so fond of the Gypsy Kings, Linda Rondstant, Leon Redbone, Patsy Cline, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Every morning when he would get in, we would all be blessed by a shout from the door, DOES EVERYONE LOVE THEIR JOB, followed by one of his tunes. Frech fries and breakfest burritos were next in a day of usual favorites. “Invaders from Mars”, “Top Gun”, and “Spaceballs” were my first movies working with Grant and and through him I met some of my very best friends, Cory and Allen Faucher, Pete Gerrard, Glen Campbell, Bill and John Shourt, Robert Beilmere, James Spencer, Pat Denver, David Dryer, Lisa Wise, Debbie Nicoles, Carolyn Diltz, Mike Yost, Greg Jein, Monty Shook, and way too many others to mention here. As Hollywood goes, there would be times where the modelshop crew would float from Apogee to Boss Films, DreamQuest Images, Fantasy II, LA Effects group, and up north to ILM for other jobs, but we would all gladly come back to Grant and Apogee.

The CGI world started to become the way of the future in the early 90’s and by about 1994 (it was provide it or die), which made up the new Hollywood attitude and about this time all the major model shops where coming to an end. Apogee’s final days were in 1995, and as the major VFX company closed it’s doors (literally over night), Grant retained his side of the company and formed his own VFX house under the new name of Grant McCune designs. Fifteen years later his company still stands and does various jobs for films and also in the capacity for specialty props and collectables. Grant was a master photographer as well and he had a darkroom set up at work which he was turning into his daughter Lilly’s new darkroom over the last month or so. Grant also had a full shop at his house and he would commute back and forth between the two with goods and parts created for whatever the current project was. There was nothing that he couldn’t do with his hands and imagination, and he so loved what he did!!! Grant’s wife Kathy was the subject of many of his photo themes and she was always quick with a tip on nutrition. Their children, son Cole and daughter Lilly were always around, and it was always a pleasure to see the McCune family in the shop. Grant was an extremely generous, kind, and grateful man and was always there to talk to and lend some advice no matter what the subject was. He was like a second father to me; he was my friend, my buddy, and a man I loved dearly. He will be missed deeply and his passing came way to quickly and the reality of this is not setting in easily with all of us who knew him. Life is oh so fragile so be sure to tell those around you that you love them often. Kathy McCune and all the gang at GMD want to carry on with what Grant had started and happily his shop will be staying open. It will always be a landmark of where the true magic of working in the movies began for all of those that worked and visited there.

God bless you dear friend Grant, and love to Kathy, Cole, and Lilly.

Here are some pictures of Grant at work and, as soon as I can find all of mine, I’ll be sure to do an update.

Grant came to Scottsdale Arizona to do a talk on VFX and this was the cover story from our local paper. This still hangs in my office today.

on the set of Firefox, second in from left to right, Clint Eastwood, at the other end of the camera boom is John Dykstra and next to the firefox model is Grant

Grant dropping the blockade runner's escape pod thru the launch tube, from Star Wars

from Star Wars Grant works on the Imperial Star Destroyer

Star Wars, Grant assembling the blockade runner

Grant goofing around with an X-wing

this is from the 10th anniversary of Star Wars and a big reunion of all the VFX folks showed up at Apogee to celebrate, Grant's in the middle bottom row

Dec

Douglas E. Graves, deg3D, artist extraordinair, and welcome to the blogroll

By johneaves 36 Comments

Categories: Artists, Classic Trek, friends, General Trek and Wonderfest 2009

It was brought to my attention that somehow my buddy Deg was not in the blogroll anymore… Something mysterious happened and his listing was gone… (most likely it was old-man memory failure on my part and I didn’t load it correctly in the beginning). So in announcement of Deg entering the blogroll today we celebrate with a little history and some artwork by the master Douglas E. Graves, or better known to us as DEG! Way back in March of ’09 the Eavesdropping blog started up and one of the first friends I met was a guy named Deg. Within a month we had become good friends and were working together on “myouterspace.com” In May we met in person at Wonderfest in Kentucky, which is now our annual get-n together place. If you have never seen Deg’s work, get ready to be blown away!!! He is one awesome talent and his fingers and imagination weave unbelievable tapestries of fantastic scenes and spacecraft galore!

Born and raised with his brother Greg in a small rural town in Illinois, Deg and his bro were poor farm children who had no cash and no toys to play with. With grand imaginations the two invented things to do like using heads of cabbage as a ball to play with, or laying in the fields and rolling out of the way (Indiana Jones style) as the ripper blades of the tractors would get dangerously close. Deg lost an eye in a BB-gun accident and Greg donated one of his so Deg could see again in 3D. They are close brothers and rarely ever part except when Deg goes home to be with his wife and yard-squirrels. Deg lost two fingers in Nam and with bionic replacements he can calculate, model, and tickle the ivorys of his keypad at 60MPH. Love and a secret passion for Country ‘n’ Western music landed him a duo with Patsy Kline at one of her last performances in Nashville. Deg also served as personal liaison and coffee-boy to Chuck Yeager when he was stationed in Dayton, Ohio.

Deg’s father hit oil one sunny afternoon in the early 70′s and with his fortune he bought his boy his first computer. It was a Radioshack TRS 80 with cassette memory, and from that day forward Deg’s future was set. One of his first jobs was to create the animated Col. Sanders for the new KFC commercials, as well as the lead designer of the Snuggle Bear from Snuggles fabric softener. Athletically inclined, Deg did a short stint at playing professional soccer, but a run-in with the world famous Pelé snapped his left leg backwards at the knee that resulted in amputation and leg replacement. Ever full of spirit, this event didn’t get Deg down and in the following winter, brothers Greg and Deg went hiking in the Rocky Mountains. The two left the trail and got lost in a blizzard and were considered dead after two weeks of intensive searching by state and local sheriff’s officers. The two emerged miraculously from the mountains in the spring and in good shape, both physically and mentally. When interviewed, the two told their story and shared that the secret to their survival was with great thanks from watching Nanook of the North as children. They learned to make an igloo from ice and snow, and for food they had to resort to cannibalism so they would both eat off of Greg’s frozen haunch and thigh, but ever so sparingly. From there, with his parent’s fortune and the personal fame from the mountain adventure, the world was wide open, so Deg started working as a stock-boy at a local grocery store, while Greg got plastic surgery for his half-eaten leg.

A few years later Deg met his future wife at a lumberjack festival where his bride-to-be won the blue ribbon in the 50 yard axe toss. They were soon wed and now live quietly in the outskirts of Chicago. Deg’s 3D work really took off, enabling him to work from home while his wife brought in the $$$ working as a nurse and part-time at the lumber mill. Greg went on and created a restaurant chain called Steak ‘n’ Shake that is popular in the mid-states and is now branching out to Las Vegas. Today life is good for both men and the sun does set with whistling cowboy tunes each and everyday. On a personal note; Deg’s a family man, a patriot, a man of faith, and a good friend. It is with great honor to put Deg on the blogroll today, so everyone be sure to go and see his name and website address smack dab in the middle of the roll. Below are some fav pieces from the Degster, so have a look and enjoy!!!

the USS Probert

from TOS, the F-104 in the E shuttlebay

Deg's modified TOS Enterprise

and my all time fav piece in the world, the F-104 and the Enterprise

May

Frank Frazetta passes at 82

By johneaves 23 Comments

Categories: Artists

What terrible news to find out that the legendary Frank Frazetta has passed away and with him ends the era of true fantasy art. His style was unique to say the least as it is copied more than any other. His vision and knack for capturing so much mood and drama with very little effort was his speciality!!! Frank painted so many of my all time favorite pictures, and it is a sad day indeed that his legacy has come to an end!!! We will miss you, good friend. Godspeed to you and his blessings to your family!

The Barbarian!!! defiantly set the stage for your imagination and for who Conan was.

the Death Dealer was by far my all time favorite piece...shrouded in dark and shadows this one was an awesome piece of fantasy!

The Destroyer - heaps of carnage...

the Universal classics combined was another fav!

next to the destroyer this on, Egyptian Queen, was the #2 favorite!!!

Chained!!!

Brilliant!

the Moonmaid was another masterpiece of light and dark!

and who could forget Franks version of Vampirella!

Mar

robert mccall, saying goodbye to a good friend

By johneaves 61 Comments

Categories: Aerospace, Artists, disney, General Trek, heroes, Robert T McCall and Trek Movies

Robert T. McCall

I just got word of Robert McCall’s passing yesterday and am so very sad to hear this news…I had been working on a special about Bob for the blog here and am sad I didn’t get it finished in time for him to see. Mr. McCall was 90 years old and painting away when he passed away last Friday, February 26th, 2010. Many of you know of Robert McCall, or if you don’t, I am sure you have at least seen his work. He was a legendary artist, and his work has covered a multitude of subject matters. At heart he was an astronaut, a pilot, and mostly a dreamer, with pencil and paintbrush as his means to take you to places far beyond the bounds of Earth. He was a visionary genius who’s strokes on the canvas took us to places where no man had gone before!! With his feet firmly planted on the ground, his imagination new nothing of shoes for his visions, always looking towards the heavens.

Bob’s work covered the world of aviation, from the big propeller driven planes to the supersonic hyper jets…from present day to historical space exploration and well into the future. He re-landscaped the state of Arizona in many futuristic styles with incredible imagination…He created some of the most beautiful stained glass windows for many of the churches around Phoenix; he also created massive murals for the Smithsonian, Edwards AFB and beyond. He created some of the most memorable art and designs for many motion pictures including the world of Star Trek. He created many mission patches, as well as stamps for the US post office. Mr. McCall’s work has no bounds, and he has done something for just about everything. He was a true gentleman at heart with an endless imagination. He was a loving husband and father, and he was a friend to everyone. To me, he was my first artistic hero and for the last 13 years or so had become a very good friend.

As a young boy growing up in Arizona in the 60’s, I was captivated by aviation and especially by all the Gemini and Apollo missions taking us to the moon!!! My whole world revolved around these things, and in early 1973 my mom had found a painting of a new NASA project called Skylab. The painting was by an artist named Robert McCall, and I was glued to that picture for weeks!!! I would try and draw it myself using Bob’s painting as a guide. That little painting hung on my wall right next to my Apollo 17 mission patch that was also drawn by McCall. My parents subscribed to “Arizona Highways” magazine, and it showcased everything beautiful about Arizona and it’s people in pictures. I remember getting the mail in August of 1975 and the new AZ Highways was in amongst the other letters; on the cover was this beautiful wrap around painting of a Chromed city situated in the AZ desert. Wow, I thought, “This is really cool.” Looking through the pages, it was filled with fantastic art depicting solar cities and fantastic craft floating around the state. The back of the mag was covered with some incredible space craft paintings and even the Apollo Soyuz stamps that McCall had drawn. I looked at these drawings for months with such fascination. Again, I had my tablet out and tried to draw these incredible things that graced the many pages that lie in front of me. I took the mag to school and showed it to everyone I knew. I showed my science teacher, Mr. Chuck Bell, and he became one of the most influential teachers in pushing me to become an artist. Always with an encouraging word and giving me extra art assignments using McCall as my guide, he would take the finished art and showcase it on the wall behind his desk. Outside of my parents, Mr. Bell was the first adult that took that that little extra time to encourage me on my way. He is a great man and I owe him a great amount of thanks.

About this same time I got my first turntable and my dad bought me the soundtrack of the movie Jaws and the movie 2001. Holy cow, the art on the 2001 album was by McCall, and again I couldn’t put the jacket down. Far more detailed than what I had seen of his work in earlier years, the details were mesmerizing, and the way he used the lighting and the thick heavy shadows was awesome. What I thought was so creative with his 2001 work was that he only showed you part of the ships. Most of the craft would be off the canvas, thus making things seem far too massive to fit all on one page. His work was magical, and he depicted weight and mass combined with light in shadow with such grace and elegance. The “Arizona Highways” mag had got me drawing everything in McCall style.

A few years later, Star Wars & Close Encounters came out and started the big theatrical run of everything Sci Fi. During that fantastic movie run, one of the big anticipated films to come was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. “Starlog” magazine was the big source of sci-fi info back in the 70’s, and when ever possible they would show what ever they could of what was coming next. It would usually be some artwork or a teaser picture, but for Trek they showed some of McCall’s production paintings for the flying through Vger segment. WOW!!! Bob’s work is a part of STAR TREK!!! I wanted to see it even more just because of his involvement. After seeing the film and now 30 years later that sequence is still one of my favorite parts of the film. All of Bob’s creative imagery combined with that incredible Jerry Goldsmith score made for one amazing moment in motion picture history!!! Just a few short weeks after Star Trek was released, Bob’s work would be seen again, but this time as the principle designer for Walt Disney’s The Black Hole. Mr. McCall designed the Cygnus for the film which, in his original designs, was a ship composed of solid panels and high towers. As the film’s designs progressed, Bob’s profile of the ship stayed the same, but the outer look turned into a series of beautiful and intricate framing and piped under-structures. For the look of the filming miniature, the vessel was lit from within and gave it a very haunting look and feel against the deep space backgrounds. The Cygnus was one awesome ship and is one that adds to a very vast body of work for McCall.

Time rolls on and Arizona Highways & Starlog keep Bob’s work and what his projects are up to date. Moving away from the film industry he continued on with his space work for NASA and many museums and AFB’s around the country. In the 90’s a great many art books are published on Bob’s work. Thanks to Mr. McCall’s influence and inspiration, I was at that time celebrating my 10th anniversary of working in the movies as an artist. It’s 1995 and I had had Robert McCall’s phone number for years but was too nervous to call. All of the gang in the Star Trek art department were fellow fans of McCall, the Okudas, Jim Van Over, Anthony Fredrickson, and especially Doug Drexler. It was Christmas break from Star Trek, and I was on my way home to see my parents. One fine December day I worked up the courage to call, and he answered the phone. What an awesome moment!!! After a brief conversation, he invited me over to his place!!! I had just finished the preliminary designs for the Enterprise-E and had made a copy of it, as well as a bunch of other artwork, as a gift of thanks. Bob’s house was nestled in the hills of Scottsdale, and he and his wife, Louise, met me at the door. Louise is an artist as well, and flowers are her forte. She has such a beautiful style to her work, and she makes prints and cards of her creations. Bob’s art room was a big open area with big flat cabinets holding generations of work, as well as many big pieces hanging around the room. The first piece to catch my eye was a painting of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was a huge painting, and Bob went on to say it was one of 8 paintings he did for the movie Tora, Tora, Tora. I had no idea that he had worked on that classic motion picture. We had a great afternoon, and Bob and Louise were extremely gracious; It seemed like we we had been friends for years. Bob signed three of his books for me, as well as a print from Star Trek, and Louise gave me a pack of her flower prints. It’s not every day you get to meet someone you admire, and in the movie industry disappointment is usually what follows, but as for meeting the McCalls, it was the start of a great friendship. We kept in touch throughout the years and would visit often when I was in town. Robert’s daughter runs his website and does one mighty fine job, so be sure to follow the link below and spend some time looking and reading all of the incredible stuff there.

We will miss you dearly Robert…and to Louise and your kids and your grandkids, I send my very best and prayers as well.

http://www.mccallstudios.com/news.html

below are some of Mr. McCall’s beautiful paintings…