the blog starts up again in two weeks

Howdy all, Just finished on the very busy “Iron Man 3”, and I’m now packing up the truck for the big move to Wyoming followed by  a week of travel!! I should be settled into my new life and ready to go right away.. All the Trek art work that has been in storage for over a year will be accessible again so I can scan and post like before!!! Also once the posts start rolling again, this is the 30th anniversary of the summer movies of 1982,, THE GREATEST SUMMER OF MOVIES ever!!! Stay tuned for tons of fun posts followed by some feed back by the men n women behind the 1982 blockbusters. OK thanks for hanging in there and can’t wait to get back on here more regularly..

Have a good one.

J

nx-01 space dock, version 1

Howdy all,, Finally got some new art scanned so there will be lots more Trek art posted in the days to come,, the big move n packing have put a big hold on scanning things for posts so I apologize for the hold ups…. Looking forward to getting back to posting more stuff and more often.. OK then thanks for your patience!!!! Way back in 01, in the early days of ST Enterprise we were designing a new segment in time just a few decades prior to the original series. The idea was to retro back everything from the 60’s iconic series to a more NASA and nuts and bolts kind of look. With that in mind we ventured into a new yet older style of spacedock/drydock design with a skylab feel to the aesthetics. the result of this path is what you see before you know, a large circular space station with massive solar arrays and domed details to bring us all back into a more present time of space architecture with a slightly futuristic feel. This was one of about 4 passes before settling on a more chunky version of the traditional dry dock as established in the Motion picture. The piece is a big 24X36 cut n paste, marker-pencil combo with some white out highlights,,, YES THE OLD FASHIONED WAY!!!

concept 1

happy 2nd anniversary to the blog!!!

Miss Kay Jay

Hey everybody,  yesterday was the second anniversary of Eavesdropping and I forgot to do a post and thank everyone who stops by here and has made this such a fun place to meet up and share stories and pictures of our favorite things. So many great friends I have met here and I can’t thank you all enough for sharing in the topics of the day and especially for all the support that has been given to my family through all the rough times!!! This year is leveling out so hopefully the blog can get back on track and more regularly too. In honor of the anniversary today’s topic will be phaser’s and red dresses! 10 years ago last month the early days of “Enterprise” were in the works and the show was just starting to be designed. Sets props, ships costumes, everything and the art department was assembled with the same group of notorious faces from DS9 and some new ones as well. Jim Martin had rejoined the show as the key prop designer and that man put out one intensive pile of drawings and designs!!! Always a pleasure to work with Jim and I’ve always been a fan. Next month there will be a special on the art of Martin and can’t wait to get it all put together. As the went our boss Herman Zimmerman would throw so many things out at once that in many occasions we would all cross the line from one aspect of the show to the other. one day we would be doing sets then we would both be doing props and on and on. The producers of the show loved variety an so Herman always tried to show as much art as possible during the meetings. Jim had drawn up some really wicked looking weapons and Before the meeting Herman had me draw up a few as well. What you see today are three of those rough ideas which were used as fodder to push forward Jim’s very polished illustrations that Herman and the prop department really liked. Lots of fun and always interesting to see how Herman would try to work and bend the crowd towards what he was thinking. The feel for the weapons is a bit heavier and gritter that what has been seen before and loving the assault Phaser from Trek V and VI, I kind of followed that idea in more of a militaristic fashion.

So enough about Phasers, Here is a newest member of the Red Dress series, Miss Kay Jay from Phoenix Arizona. I was back in my home state  through most of the month of February and while I was there I got to do a couple of shoots with some old friends, but I was ever so privileged to work with Kay Jay for the very first time.We did a long shoot at a couple of locations and we covered vintage military pin up with both an Air Force, and an Army theme (for her Fiance who is in the Army) out at Falcon Field in Mesa AZ, and wrapped out the day with a more elegant pin up theme and ended with the Red Dress series. Kay has a magic to be sure and she so artistically paints a beautiful canvas using herself as the medium!! She has a great talent and I love what she brought to the Star Trek theme. A mixture of action, grace, and sultry fashion, really elevated what we have seen here so far!!! So with all that said enjoy the art, pics and also visit Kay’s modeling page from the link below. So stay tuned for more entries this week and More of Miss Kay Jay in the near future!!

http://www.modelmayhem.com/1889569

phase 1

phase 2, the two part unit as originally invisioned in the TOS

phase 3 the blaster version

Kay

Kay 2

The fundraiser and the bay stadium

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First I wanted to say thanks for all of you who are participating in the fundraiser auction for Alicia!!!  We had sold a lot of art and have made $1000.00 so far. Rob Holts asked me to make a combo pic of all of the images from Archers ready room and here are both versions of this combo. I also just added them to the list of auction items at

Lots of great support and I can’t thank you all enough.

For todays post here are some designs from The episode called “Home” from ST Enterprise. For the welcoming of the crew of the NX-01 back to Earth after winning the battle against the Xindi, Archer and his crew land one of the shuttle pods in a massive stadium for an enthusiastic hero’s welcome. The shot was to take place in San Francisco and the city has been so well established in all the films and shows that to suddenly drom a huge stadium into the skyline just wouldn’t work in keeping with what has already been seen. So for the solution we came up with the idea of a stadium built in the bay and located somewhat around the old WWII ship yards so as to just keep it out of view from the bay views that are usually seen from the Sausalito side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an great place for the stadium and one fun piece of architecture to work on. The base is a ship and train port followed by a hotel-resort section in the middle with the stadium itself on top. in addition a handful of  little Zeppelin type ships got to be added to the final concept. I just started watched Enterprise for the first time since the original broadcasts and I forgot what a fun show this one was.  After seeing “Home” I went and dug these pics out of the files for todays story. OK  gang have a great weekend and catch up with everyone next week.

vertical format

the bay viewthe sky view

the sky view

the art of Helix, or an exercise in futility!

Way back almost 10 years ago a new show called “Enterprise” was in the works  and the creative team from DS9 headed by Trek Legends (Production Designer) Herman Zimmerman and (Graphics Designer)Mike Okuda were getting the group together to flesh out Paramount’s new venture into Star Trek and TV. The majority of the DS9 crew came back with some new additions, Louise Dorton from “Voyager” came on as art Director, Anna Packard from “ST the experience” joined on as set designer, and she was very expectant with her first baby making the distance between her tummy and the drawing table quite a reach. all together the art department was this. in graphics and playback there was Mike and Denise Okuda, Anthony Fredrickson, The world famous Jim Van Over, and the iconic Doug Drexler. in the art department there was illustrator extraordinaire, Jim Martin, myself, Fritz Zimmerman, Anthony (Tony) Bro, Anna Packard, and Berndt Heidelman, with Herman and Louise as the designers. Craig Binkly joined us as well as the prop designer. we all started the show running and the first thing to hit the desk was the new Enterprise which proved to be a hellish project that went solely to Doug Drexler about a month and a half into the project. Herman pulled me away from the E to start on ship interiors and mainly the new race of bad guys the “Sulibon” they were to be a gumby-ish, stretch Armstrong, rubbery typed aliens with cup cake sprinkle patterned skin. Anyways this group had a bizarre mathematical style to their existence and architecture so we tried to immolate that in there ship designs. the script read that there main ship  was a massive helix with all their little Cell ships making up a good portion of the ships exterior. so with that came this first massive drawing, that when seen by the producers came back with a note stating; When we say Helix we don’t mean Helix!!! this started a very long drawing process of creating a helix that wasn’t a helix but actually was kind of a helix yet had to be a helix but not exactly a helix but sorta like a helix without being an exact helix that in the end was a great big HELIX!, HAAAA! this brought back a wash of sad and silly memories, HAAA! The drawing itself was a big 24X36 marker, ink, and massive cut n paste, in the old traditional style and is still in pretty good shape today!

the helix

cu 1

cu2

cu3

far beyond the stars, part 1

WOW!!  I just found some old drawings from the DS9 days, and here are some from one of my favorite episodes, “Far Beyond the Stars.”

The premise of the episode is that Sisco is taken back in time where he is a black writer in a 1950’s publishing house, all the characters from the show, whether they are aliens are something else, are seen here in total human form, HAAA!  As the story goes, all the writers are awaiting there assignments, and the way it works is the editor walks in with a pack of drawings and he proceeds to dump them out across the table…the illustrations are of science fiction wonders, spacecraft, UFO’s, Alien abductions etc.  From here, each writer grabs a drawing and then writes a story based on that single image.  Sisco gets a drawing of a very stylized space station which is a 50’s version of the DS9 station.  What you’re about to see today are some of the drawings that were in that pouch.  Mike Okuda made my fav into a magazine cover and the rest are just plane fun.  HEY!! this must be where my fondness for pin ups started!!!

HAAAA!

Enjoy

here is version #! the producers thought it was a little rough so the aliens were dropped for space men,, the title of this one was jacks make for great rocket parts

and here is the revamp

ahhh a take on the deadly mantis!!! note the front surface of the mantis's claws are the top view of the Enterprise E Nacelles

mars is on fire!!!

aaaaah Earth women are fascinating!!!

and Mikes mag cover

many years later I tried to do what my friend Mike here does and make my own cover all in the computer!!!! thanks for all the training and tips MIKE!!!

cement mixers, ball radios, and vegetable steamers, the odd inspirations for the ships of Enterprise episode 23, “fallen heroes”

Episode #23 was a big ship show in the fact that it was a hard one to nail the look that the producers were wanting to see.  We were introducing the Mazarites for the first time and the grand amount of sketches for this one was pretty immense and diverse.  Requested was a solo ship and fairly good size defense/attack ship.  Many of the concepts that were passed on were amongst my favorites, and one of the fun aspects of drawing for Enterprise was that your imagination was always at work trying to come up with new spaceship shapes, even when there were no more original shapes to come up with.  Inspiration on one particular page of ideas came from a vegetable steamer with folding sides, a portable cement mixer,especially the drum, and a round radio I saw at the music store.  All of these ships were goofy in design, to say the least, but fun to turn ordinary devices into galaxy romping spacecraft, HAAAA!  Here are a variety of shapes and concepts for you to see, and they do go off in a bunch of crazy directions…enjoy

the ball radio from the UK

solo ships #1

solo ships #2 the mixer, the ball, and the steamer

awww the good ol portable cement machine, would look mighty fine cutting thru space

the steamer,, very reminiscent of Anderson's UFO from the 60's

solo ships #3

and the approved solo ship

defense/attack ships #1

defense/attack ships #2

the lone vulcan design!

defense/attack ship #3

defense/attack ships #4

heavily armed solo ship

pin up update with Anela Amaretto, the federation Maco weapons from Enterprise and the USS kelvin by Tobias Richter

Good Morning and Happy Monday!!! Thanks for all the feedback and supportive comments on keeping everything under one blog!!! great notes and a lot of reinforcement about the subject!!    Today is a three subject post and we will start with a pin up update from Miss Anela Amaretto, This is a picture from our October of 09 shoot up at the old WWII bunkers just North of San Francisco. Anela is awesome and can capture the 40’s style without effort.. She is one lovely and classy lady and it was a treat to work with her!!! The shoot was plagued with camera focusing issues and bad camera flash communications and a good one third of my shots were lost because of the soft and fuzzy images!!! the ones that did work are really NICE and I can’t wait to shoot with Miss Amaretto again…. My Buddy Nelson joined in on this shoot as Mr. Comic Relief & bounce card man, and fellow Photographer John of California Redwoods photography was there as well and we had less than an hour of sunlight to shoot and we we all got was pretty amazing!!! Next comes some concepts for the elite Federation forces Known as the Maco’s for Star Trek Enterprise. The scripts asked for some new weaponry for these soldier units and the sketches were put together to help define there cache of firearms. due to budget I don’t recall if any of these were made and I believe redress’s of existing pieces where what were used,,, That was a Long time ago!! HAAA! and to finish off today is of A beautiful CG rendering of the USS Kelvin by Tobias Richter of the “Light Works” this is one schnazzy piece and had to share it.. OK have a great Week and especially a good MONDAY!!!

be good

Miss Anela

maco the USS Kelvin

the USS Kelvin

Anela silloetta

the suliban stealth ship from Shockwave

Here was a fun ship from the Suliban race, and it was seen in Enterprise episode #26 entitled “Shock Wave”.  The Suliban were a strange race and they were to be so prominent in the new series, but by season 2 they had pretty much faded away.  Amongst all the ships that had to be drawn for the series, the Suliban were the hardest to get concepts signed off…it still brings back a lot of dizziness just thinking about all the billions of drawings it took to get just a handful of ships through those narrow approval doors.  This one was one of the last ships to be drawn and the heat and tension had let up, so it went through on a single pass!!!!  WOOO HOOO!  And it was one of my favs as far as their ships went.

In addition, there had to be a hidden base and, looking at Monument Valley in Northern Arizona for inspiration, the base became a high offensive location atop a spire of rock overlooking the vast landscape.  Eden VFX work shined brightly on this episode, and as always the work Rob and the gang put out was beyond awesome.  So with that, have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for all the comments and for putting up with the loads of pin up pictures!!!

Suliban Stealth ship

stealth ship docked at the secret base

vulcan architecture volume 3

Well, setting the flood of pin up shoots aside for today, here is the follow up to Vulcan architecture from Star Trek Enterprise, Episode # 74 entitled “HOME”.  This is three variations of the same location.  The hillside dwelling on the right is the exterior design for T’POL’s mother’s (played wonderfully by Joanna Cassidy) home on Vulcan, Joanna’s character was of a high ranking woman but somewhat of a rebel, so her immaculate home is rural as opposed to in the high society of downtown amongst the powerful.  In these three drawings, the tone and mainly the city scape will change drastically as the approval process for this concept goes through all the changes.

Concept #1 has an easy atmosphere and a smaller spread out cityscape.  Joanna’s house made the cut, but the sky and background didn’t.  Sketch #2 puts the atmosphere in heavy sunset mode, and the city grows in terms of  ground level structures.  The producers asked for more skyscrapers so Drawing #3 came to be, and, in the long run, the city became a combo of #2 and #3 as seen in the next two previously posted images.  This was just about the end of designing new architecture for the hot planet, but it was quite a treat to get to dive into such an awesome world of drawings and concepts.

#1

text 2

#3

#4