RECREATING BONESTELL

 

In 1991, Frederick I.Ordway asked space artist Ron Miller if he would be interested in recreating three Bonestell paintings. Ordway owned all of the original artwork that Bonestell had done for the classic Collier's magazine space series, except for these three, which had apparently been lost. Ordway was planning to create a major traveling exhibition---Blueprint for Space---which was to be centered around the Collier's series, so it was important that all of Bonestell's images be represented. Since Miller was not only a long-time admirer of Bonestell---and a well-known space artist in his own right---he had long been a student of Bonestell's techniques. The original art was of course still under copyright, but obtaining permission to create the replicas could not have been simpler since most of the people involved in the project were principals in Bonestell Space Art, which controls the rights.

In Miller's own words: "The project was a daunting one. Since the only references available were the reproductions in the original magazines, I had to take into account the quality of mechanical color reproduction in the early 1950s. Combined with my knowledge of Bonestell's painting techniques, this gave me some idea of what the original art must have looked like.

"I enlarged the magazine pages to the size I thought Bonestell would have worked in, and then traced them. These drawings I then transferred to illustration board. Since the brand of board Bonestell used is no longer available, I used the highest quality archival illustration board I could find. In painting the illustrations, I tried to emulate Bonestell's own techniques as closely as possible---using thin, transparent layers to build up colors and shading, and stippling and scraping to create textures on rocks and other landscape features. This naturally introduced some slight randomness, but otherwise every smallest detail of the original paintings was faithfully reproduced (even to the point of making certain that individual stars were placed correctly).

"The experiment was enormously useful in that it led to a much better understanding of Bonestell's techniques and working methods, in much the same way that the recreation of some ancient technology aids an historian's understanding of a bygone culture. I also came to appreciate the enormous skill and artistry that Bonestell brought to his work---his understanding of perspective, light and shadow is unrivaled by any living artist."

All images copyright Bonestell Space Art.

 To make certain that there would never be any confusion caused by the replicas, Chesley Bonestell's original signature was replaced by "Bonestell and Miller" on each painting (as in the above examples). Mr. Ordway has always, of course, been meticulous in making sure that proper attribution accompanies every reproduction of these paintings, such as in his best-selling book, Visions of Space.

Left above: The original magazine publication. Left below: The recreation. Above are the other two replicas created for the project.

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