Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Artist of the Month: TJ Frame

TJ Frame is an American concept artist who has worked on numerous games and films, including Star Wars. I don't know much about him and for the most part his concept work seems similar to Doug Chang's (who is very good), but one thing sets him apart from most other concept artists in my mind and that is why he makes Artist of the Month on JRC-1138!

Behold:



Don't bother trying to find the rest of the series at the url shown in the image, Frames site has been down for some time now and I have a sneaking suspicon that as an employee of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he may have been invited to remove his competing imagery lest it place Spielberg's film in the bad light it deserves. I say this with some arrogance because as a life long devotee of The War of the Worlds, I consider myself something of an expert on the iconography of Martian Fighting Machines, and TJ Frame has, without a doubt, created the best images of these fantastical machines I have ever yet seen.

7 comments:

brando said...

Wow. That's pretty cool. It looks very insectlike. Or like an animal with its head reared back.

moif said...

Have you ever read the book Brando?

I just got back from cycling out to the beach and back, *huf*puf*

In the original book, the Martians machines are described as 'animal like, and 'sinuous', because they are in effect interchangable mechanical bodies. HG Well's martians are effectively cyborgs who can disengage their bodies and switch them around for different puposes. The effect is that the Martians appear to be three legged armoured giant machines when they first arrive, but with a grace of movement only seen in animals by the Victorians.

TJ Frames images (I wish I could post them all) go a long way to capturing that animal like essence.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I read it. My favorite parts were when the heat-ray warms up the water scalding the people, and when they kill one by shooting cannons at it.

I like the idea that they aren't quite invulnerable. If you shoot at them and reveal your position, you're going to get zapped, but at least you have a chance.(unlike the movie) I like how the people make firmpoints around their cities.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Looks like fabulous stuff !!

Anonymous said...

I don't suppose that there is a book somewhere, you know, paper, with a collection of Frames' sketches.

moif said...

The images were originally presented as being a part of a larger project and that second image appears to be a cover... I have not heard anything of this for a while though.

Anonymous said...

TJ Frame has some awsome work. Unfortunately his homepage is giving a 'forbidden' message.

His Cthulhu mythos sketches are a joy to behold, notably his 'elder thing'.