Roger Dean Analyzed

Hi all.  I do an art analysis blog and thought you all might be interested in this week's column.  It takes apart some of the techniques he used to create the cover for Tales From Topographic Oceans.  And there's the obligatory mention of Avatar, too.  :-/

Check it out here: http://www.scottmcd.net/artanalysis/?p=337

Happy winter holiday of your choice.  ;)


Edited by scottmcd - December 23 2009 at 22:38

I don't think I'll want to repeat artists soon.  I started out focusing on comic stuff and historical illustration, but I decided I wanted to expand to CD/Album art too.

There's plenty of other material, though.  I could do a Hugh Syme Rush cover.  (Or Iron Maiden for that matter.)  Or H.R. Giger's cover for ELP's Brain Salad Surgery.  (I believe that the original was stolen and remains missing.)  And I intend to hit one of Mark Wilkinson's covers for Marillion or Fish.

Any cover or artist nominations?

Interesting analysis Scott. In his book (Views) Roger Dean says that the picture was a code for patterns located elsewhere, unfortunately he doesn't expand on that futher. As the pyramid and the geoglyph were added to the picture after suggestions from Anderson and White, I assume they are not part of the code, however I think that the stars may be, (and therefore not ornamentation as you suggest), simply because they are too carefully placed in comparison to other Dean starfields which are normally just paint splatters (the kind of thing done with a short bristled brush and a palette knife).  

Nice work Scott.

I watched Avatar last night and immediately thought of Roger Dean; the floating mountains, for instance, could not be an accident or coincidence. In fact the whole movie looked like a mash-up of Dean imagery and that 90s French computer game Flashback.