Jim Kinsey

Exploration XII

The drawing 'Exploration XII' by Jim Kinsey
Pencil, Ink, Acrylic and Gouache on paper

It was Christmas, so naturally decorative pine cones were everywhere and I had an urge to paint one. One evening I sat down with pencil and sketchpad and started coming up with ideas for more "Exploration" pictures. I came up with four or five good ones in that session, but this is far and away my favourite. I drew it during the opening scenes of Hell in the Pacific. Great movie.

The landscapey bit is inspired by (cribbed from to a great extent) a background to a John Byrne splash-page in an Uncanny X-Men comic. I wanted trees to go with the pine-cone. The "space-ship" in this one is somewhat more of a space-station serving smaller space-ships - I really like it, though the "face" is unintentional. Ditto the face in the pine-cone.

Rough for 'Exploration XII'
Pencil on paper

The rough is pretty close to the final version in this case, other than the background on the left hand side. It was originally going to be in more muted "1970s colours" (depends which bit of the 70s you look at, I guess), and be "highly designed" with a Japanese influence. In the end I just directly translated the solid blocks and did nothing more with them than solidly colour them in cyan, magenta and yellow. I'm glad I did.

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