Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Iain McCaig’s 1990 Visit


On February 23, 1990, a young fantasy artist named Iain McCaig visited my studio, along with my friends Barry Klugerman (center) and James Warhola (seated).

Iain was on his way to California to find work in the movie business. As one of the most able character and creature designers on the planet, he was quickly snapped up by Lucasfilm, where he designed Darth Maul and Padme. Meanwhile, I was just beginning my illustrated book project called Dinotopia. Note the maquette of Treetown on the far left.


Iain pulled out his sketchpad and drew Warhola, Klugerman, and me.


I got out my sketchbook and drew Iain and Klugerman. We became immediate friends, and I’ve been an admirer of him ever since.


So it was a real pleasure to see Iain again at Illustration Master Class.

Links:
Iain McCaig’s book, Shadowline
My book, Imaginative Realism
James Warhola’s book: Uncle Andy’s
Iain's blog, with great face drawing tips
YouTube interview with McCaig
Previous G.J. posts:
Back in NY at a restaurant with Klugerman
Klugerman on illustrated books
Tone paper portrait of Warhola
at

12 comments:

  1. AdrianJune 22, 2011 at 11:34 AM

    Is that Ian McCaig of Fighting Fantasy fame too? or is that a name clash?

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  2. James GurneyJune 22, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    Adrian, I think so. I'm not sure what he did on Fighting Fantasy, but if his name is spelled "Iain" it' probably him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. phiqJune 22, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    Adrian - Same guy, yep ;-)

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  4. Torbjörn KällströmJune 22, 2011 at 12:48 PM

    Ian looks a bit like Matt Smith in the first pic :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJune 22, 2011 at 1:20 PM

    Iain worked at Pixar for a while back in 08, and we discussed how much we loved your work!

    His boards for Dinotoia are fantastic! The man definitely knows his dinosaurs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. BjörnJune 22, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    Heh, funny to see 20 year old sketches from Iain! I'm a great admirer of him ever since I laid hands upon his Gnomon DVDs. He seem like a blast to be around :)

    Good to see two veterans together! :)

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  7. Humza KhanJune 22, 2011 at 3:09 PM

    awesome!

    www.humzakhan.com
    www.humzakhan.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Super VillainJune 22, 2011 at 5:30 PM

    his work in the starwars art books is absolutly amazing! been a big fan of his for a long time!

    glad to see he has finally got a blog up, i'm been seeing "coming soon" on his website for the past 5 years, haha, really glad to finally see more of his process and work!

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  9. Jaime GervaisJune 22, 2011 at 6:54 PM

    So Epic! You guys look great there! Iain's book "Shadowline" is truly an amazing collection of his works. I really can't thank you enough for creating the "Imaginative Realism" and the "Color and Light" books! They are among my most treasured books I own! Nothing like a truly instructional and inspirational book from such a respected Master! *hugs from Vancouver, Canada!*

    -Jaime :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. friendfinderJune 23, 2011 at 8:22 AM

    hey this was the 20 year old sketch from Iain McCaig.huh.!!!
    pnr status

    ReplyDelete
  11. stephen molyneaux June 25, 2011 at 5:15 AM

    great likeness of all of you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. JeffApril 28, 2019 at 11:53 PM

    Very cool. Would love to see you two do some watercolor painting together.

    ReplyDelete

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