Denver Harrington

Frank Herbert’s Dune has a new deluxe hardcover edition, illustrated by artist and author Matt Griffin. As we fold space and time towards a future where Dune 2020 is on the big screen, we continue to speculate about what to expect. I recently caught up with Matt Griffin to talk about his work, his new hardcover design for the novel and what his hopes are for the up coming film.

“Over the years in London I had learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, so the transition to digital art was pretty natural.” Matt says. In his 20’s, Matt worked for Sky Sports and Channel 4, stating that he took a roundabout path towards becoming an illustrator, though his obsession had always been there since being very young. “My style has evolved from that as I got better technically and discovered my own way of working.”

Matt says his inspiration comes from all kinds of sources, books, films, wild weather and, my favourite, philosophical debates over a pint. I asked him about what materials he liked to use. “Mostly digital, – I do use ink and paper for a lot of it too – mostly making textures and custom type.”

DUNE: Matt Griffin’s Deluxe hardcover edition

“I am extremely excited about this.” Matt said, explaining that Dune has been a favourite of his since being a teen. “The image for the cover happened almost by accident – the result of a happy one, experimenting with various textures and mediums. I was playing with ink and water and thought the result looked like a kind of sandstorm. So I adjusted the colour, put a Paul Atredis character in it and shared the image online.  People liked it, and it got shared a lot. One of the people who liked it was an Art Director (Adam Auerbach) I have worked with at Penguin, and he was putting a new edition of Dune together.”

Matt also says there’s an illustration on the inside of the dust jacket and two illustrations for the endpapers. “I illustrated a new map,” he told me, “the pages are going to be stained on the edges and overall it’s going to be a really special edition. It’s a dream come true really.

Mood, Tone and Working Process

“I often like to give my work a kind of mysterious quality, especially when it comes to sci-fi. So the intention was to give it this sense of intrigue – a sense that there is more to this than a man in a sandstorm. That’s why he’s almost silhouetted (except for his Spice-infused eyes of course). Around his head is a kind of subtle halo, hinting at the messianic nature of his story. And the bigger circle behind him is also meant to be quite ambiguous – it could be one of the moons, it could be Arrakis…the blue hints at the future transformation of the planet as Liet Kynes envisions it. Even the fact that he is standing quite happily in what look like very fast winds is on purpose – hinting at his power. They are a little like clues – an artistic interpretation.”

DENVER: “What is your working process when you approach a project? Do you move around a lot for ideas or do you already have plenty of drafts you return to?”

MATT: “It depends. Sometimes lightning strikes quickly and I know exactly what I’m going to do. Mostly I take some time to ruminate…I read the book, I watch the film.. I go for a walk and then doodle in a notebook. I let things gestate in my brain and see what it spits out! It’s probably my favourite part of the process – just thinking. Often on professional projects the client has a clear idea of what they’d like to see. So it does vary. That’s what keeps it interesting…”

Matt Griffin’s Books

DENVER: “I’d like to ask you about your writing, you have three books available. I know you like Irish mythology. Can you tell us about these books and how you got into this?

MATT: ” Yes I have three books for young readers (10+) collectively called The Ayla Trilogy. They are about a group of friends that are sucked into a lethal, scary adventure in ancient Ireland. I have always been interested in story telling (and writing), and have always dreamed up worlds and characters and creatures. And yes – as part of that I’ve always been interested in the amazing mythology we have here in Ireland (our history is very ancient). I was working with the Irish publisher O’Brien Press as a colourist on a graphic novel back in 2013 and the art director there asked me if I had any stories of my own I’d like to pitch. Something dark and based around Irish mythology (they knew me well at that stage!) So I pitched the story of book 1 (A Cage of Roots), they tested me by having me write a couple of chapters and then agreed to publish it. I was able to design the cover and do all the chapter illustrations too. I had plotted out the second book and so they agreed to publish that (Storm Weaver) and finally the trilogy ended with The Spiral Path.

DENVER: “Love the titles of those books, they sound great. Have you ever read American Gods?”

MATT: “Yes I have read American Gods a couple of times – love it (and all things Gaiman).”

DENVER: “Who is your favourite Irish mythical being?”

MATT: ” Favourite Irish mythical being? A boring choice but probably Cuchulainn (our main hero really) because he fought the armies of 4/5’s of Ireland single-handedly and he had these cool things called Warp Spasms (as seen in 2000 AD’s Slaine comics)”

In 2017, the Literary Association of Ireland named A Cage of Roots children’s book of the year. “I still pinch myself,” Matt says, “Yet another childhood dream come true.”

DUNE 2020, thoughts & Expectations

“My feeling is it couldn’t be in better hands.” Matt explains, a fact that’s not lost on those who have been watching the last run of science fiction films by director Dennis Villenueve. With Blade Runner 2049 surprising everyone with its aesthetic loyalty, it’s intriguing story, it’s expansion of the universe and introducing newer themes built on what was already there. “Look what he did with Blade Runner, (another life-long favourite of mine). He implemented his own amazing vision while staying true to the source. It’ll be even more interesting to see this as the source is the book, rather than a film. So he can put his own visual stamp on it, rather then retreading what Lynch/Masters/Ringwood did with the ’84 film (which I also love). I have no hopes positive or negative to be honest! I just look forward to seeing what they come up with. Can’t wait.”

DENVER: “What if you were asked to portray the battled from DUNE’s warring families, which battle scenes would you like to approach and how would you storyboard or demonstrate this as an illustrator?

MATT: “I’d love to approach the Fremen fighting the Sardukar. The Sardukar are meant to be the ultimate army, but the Fremen kick their asses! Gurney and the boys are often surprised at how easily the Fremen beat them. So depicting their ferocious and ferociously effective fighting style would be a blast.”

Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE 2020 filming continues, and fans are keeping an ear to the ground for any rumbling signs of the film’s overall appearance, and though we only have a few clues, I’ve been interviewing concept artists about style, epic battles and the visual depictions behind this hauntingly surreal science fiction world.

Recently, I got in touch with artist Luke Oram to ask him about his own work and how he envisions the world of DUNE as both a reader and an illustrator.

Luke blends a traditional approach to painting with various modern imaging tools to present some colourful and stunning illustrations. His work is primarily aimed towards the music industry, painting masterful images for album covers, posters and promotional artwork. “I tend towards an interest in dreamlike or otherworldly atmospheres in my work,” Luke told me.

DENVER: So Luke, what are your influences and how did you initially get into illustration?

LUKE: I was always interested in art from a very young age, spending a lot of time drawing dinosaurs, monsters, aliens and such. I grew up in 80s Britain where there was an abundance of fantastical imagery – I have an early memory of looking at 2000ad in the newsagents while my mother was occupied with my younger brother. It’s very vivid, I can still see it decades later. I also very clearly recall seeing TV promos for the films Labyrinth and Legend and being captivated by them – I’d ask older relatives what films like Alien were about and then try to draw whatever they described.

Growing up in the 80’s, I felt a sort of parallel experience here. This conversation had immediately made me nostalgic about the dark and gritty comics of the time, the wild artistic imagery of Judge Dredd and the Alien, even the rare action figure sets that are now collectables. Before the internet, kids had to go and seek things out a lot more and coming across independent comic stores made you keep an eye out for such places and remember where to find them. There was a place in my town called Wallpaper Supplies that had a very unlikely comic book store tucked away at the back of the outlet. While my parents were shopping for interior decorations, I hung out there, trading X-Files cards and looking out for exciting new comic book releases. In the early 90’s, I was awestruck when I’d found a Dark Horse comic of Newt’s Tale from the alien series and had to get it.

“Most of my influences are passive like that,” Luke said. “Simply imagery I absorbed from my environment during childhood – especially stuff like Nemesis The Warlock, Nausicaa, and the (Moebius-designed) film Time Masters. My parents had lots of Reader’s Digest hardback books containing lots of classic painting, photos of exotic places and information on how technology works. This is what you did before the internet.”

When it comes to personal goals, Luke Oram said he has an idea for an illustrated graphic novel and is already working on a book with his friend about British Folklore, further motivated to one day work with British Science fiction author Alastair Reynolds.

DUNE 2020 – Imagery, scenes and story

Luke’s detailed work portrays epic and mythical moments, detailed with a classical touch in style. I wanted to understand what his vision would be for the new DUNE film from an artistic perspective to try and glimpse at what his own hopes were for the visual aesthetic and style.

LUKE: I think it’s a difficult task because the world of DUNE is so particular. It’s technological but also very ornate and stylised. These are human cultures that have developed to grow over the advanced foundations of their worlds in ways that yield a diverse set of visual aesthetics. I am fond of Lynch’s movie, but it makes choices that are simply incongruent with how things are described in the book – for example the Fremen stillsuits in the film are form-fitting and black, compared to the original description of the costume that is more reminiscent of Bedouin dress.

DENVER: What do you think about how the film might show the DUNE planet Attakis, what are your hopes here?

LUKE: I really want the film to capture the sense of Arrakis as a character – vast and mercilessly inhospitable to the point of oppressing the off-world characters. Paul endures with the Fremen because the Harkonnen think there is no possible way that anyone can survive in that endless desert.

Luke discusses Villeneuve’s other work and visual style as: “a strong visual language and compositional sense (shots of empty streets in Prisoners are bleak and threatening alone) that I’m hopeful this aspect can really come across. DUNE may have some things in common with a vibrant space opera setting but underlying that is a remarkably well considered ecosystem and economy.”

Approach and technicalities

LUKE: I’m very much a ‘planner’ in this regard. As most of my work is for clients, they will usually have visual references and possibly an overall direction in mind. This might be quite vague such as “an ethereal scene” or very specific and descriptive, so I have become habituated to making lots of preparatory sketches and rough compositions in order to show that to the client. This carries over into my personal work, I will have an initial spark of inspiration but from that point onward it’s procedural- sketches, reference, iterate the design until the rough looks good etc. I’d like to think my style takes in a good amount of ‘classical’ painting influence – very big fan of Turner and Titian – as I often attempt to reproduce some of my favourite works as a technical exercise. Of course, that is mixed with lifelong illustration favourites such Moebius, Bruce Pennington, Alan Lee, and Rodney Matthews – the last two of which I have had the pleasure of meeting recently.

Film anticipation and special effects

DENVER: A lot of DUNE fans are anticipating the special effects. Do you prefer CGI or a more authentic approach? And if you had to think of a regional location for the film’s shooting, what sort of locations as an artist, would you choose as references for your artwork?

LUKE: Completely favour practical effects in movies. Part of that is just me being a curmudgeon, of course, but I think the results speak for themselves. Go and watch David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia to see just how effective great use of location and actual people running around can be. It’s clearly the inspiration for Lynch’s DUNE, and by extension most subsequent DUNE based works.

Location wise the story calls for a truly enormous desert, so no filming on a beach and comping the ocean out afterwards. I always felt Caladan’s climate and architecture evoked an imperial central European atmosphere- perhaps a splendid old estate somewhere in Czech, Germany or Poland would capture that. For Geidi Prime I think I’d draw inspiration from heavily industrialised places such as Port Talbot in Wales. I read that Chris Foss developed his entire spaceship design principles from seeing steam cranes and docks when he was young – there is certainly something deeply imposing about the vast metal structures from that period and that can really fire the imagination.

When you review some of Chris Foss’ spaceships for Jodorowsky’s DUNE, and parallel them with the crane ports in Port Talbot, you do get a sense of where it was drawn from and how it was layered in colour. Industry is a great source for artists. When I was studying art in my BA, I remember many of our class outings were based around old industrialised milling and steam engines and there were some real visual gems to draw on.

Epic Battles and stylization

I asked Luke how he would portray epic battle visually and what we can expect from the design team and visual concept artists.

DENVER: What techniques would you employ, and how do you think the film’s art team will try and tackle this?

LUKE: The immediate thing that springs to mind is that most of the action in DUNE takes place at night, in order to avoid the unremittingly harsh sun of Arrakis’ daytime. With this in mind I can imagine a foreboding, heavy dusk. The air as thick with dust and dread as the terrain is thick with hidden enemies, slowly creeping into position. Suddenly the night is broken as forbidden atomics melt a pass into the shield wall, and the blast throws vast armies into stark contrast as the first charge commences. That’s the kind of atmosphere I would aim to bring- chaotic and terrifying. Very much portray the storm of battle as a storm, and focus less on clean images of soldiers lined up in formation.

Style and depictions

DENVER: I like this piece about the Devourer of Dimensions. It really reminds me of something Lovecraftian. Did you know Geiger was drafted for an earlier development of DUNE? Do you think this sort of style would be suitable or can you see a different style being represented? (For example, DUNE the books often reminded me of Salvador Dali’s dream scapes.)

LUKE: Yes, I am aware of this, and I have seen Jodorowsky’s DUNE which details so much fantastic and visionary art.  I do think Geiger’s style would be wholly appropriate for the Harkonnen aspects – dark and eldritch industrial – but perhaps the various religious aspects in the story would lend themselves more readily to the surreal sense of rapture we see in Dali’s work. Given Dune is such a large cultural universe it would likely be a great idea to use these drastically different artistic languages to represent these different settings in the story.  The audience will be aware of the context to different aesthetics and that can be played with to remarkable effect by a filmmaker.

DENVER: Luke, thank you for your time and your insights! Your work is excellent and it’s been great speaking with you. I look forward to your future releases.

To check out more of Luke Oram’s work, check the link in this description, or go to the web address: http://lukeoram.com/

Since the announcement of DUNE 2020, many fans have been wondering what sort of visual storytelling to expect from the upcoming film which is presently in production.

(Follow duneinfo.com @duneinfo to learn more.)

I will be speaking with various industry artists to determine what sort of aesthetic we can expect from the film release and get an insight into how the DUNE lore and story may be visually presented.

For freelance concept artist, Simon Goinard, the art of visual storytelling involves a process of finding a moment reduced from storyboard images that explore narrativity, as is the case for his research work for DUNE.

When it’s ready, the results speak for themselves. If a poet’s task is to capture a moment in just a handful of words, then an artist’s image can inspire a poem of an epic thousand-word tale.

Simon’s skillful collection is impressive, producing a combination of geometric, abstract and impressionist images for a wide range of clients, including Disney, WBros, Ubisoft, 20th Century Fox and many more (links at end of page). Some of his more recent works involve concept art development for his DUNE portfolio. Although this work is not directly related to the movie development, I’m hoping that with Simon’s feedback, viewers can get an understanding into working processes and ideas from experts that could give us some visual queues of what to expect. Although his newest additions are not yet available, I spoke with Simon to ask him about what we can expect to see from the upcoming work and how he visualizes the DUNE lore. To get an idea of how he will present the work, I wanted to know what his approach would be for mood and tone.

DUNE lore, mood and tone

“Basically the main idea was to have at least one bit of storytelling in each of pieces.” Says Simon, “as they were primarily made as an image board, the mindset was really to test narrativity in the DUNE lore. Right after that I tried to experiment with simple geometric and/or organic designs when possible.”

Utilizing digital tools, and trained in oils and acrylic, what visual artists such as Simon are capable of producing is nothing short of staggering. The range and depth and vision can be heightened and edited a thousand ways. Fans of Dune are very specific when it comes to their personal vision. When reading Frank Herbert’s novels, I personally often imagined a very eldritch and Gothic universe. DUNE has a cult following and a loyal and particular fan base, and expectations for the upcoming film are mixed. What a few are most concerned with in regard to the visualization often comes down to CGI treating the world as a new Star Wars, making it as big and as grand and showy as possible.

For this reason, some fans are curious about practical effects over CGI, which brings to mind one burning question. Where on earth is like Arrakis when we regard location? I asked Simon Goinard what sort of locations he thinks would best capture the film’s aesthetic, and how he thinks the film would be best conveyed.

Arrakis Settings – Practicality and CGI

“I don’t like the mood of the Sahara desert for DUNE, I really don’t. Arrakis is harsh, stronger than just emptiness. Too strong for just plain practical locations, frankly.”

Regarding the practical effects approached (David Lynch’s DUNE 1984, for example) it’s easy to see why CGI might be preferable. DUNE 1984 was a great film when I was a young teen but admittedly didn’t age well and visually often falls short. Today’s audience craves for something more, and to really capture the character of Arrakis, we would have to see this inhospitable place in all its vastness and darkness and hostility.

“At the end of the day, DUNE is a scifi novel, it should feel out of this world,” Simon explains. “So I’ll go for CGI here.”

There is nowhere on Earth like Arrakis. CGI has come a long way, and in my own view, I think a soft combination of CGI and practical techniques, if done well, could deliver good on a vision of Arrakis. There are many ancient buildings and temples that, if manipulated visually from old buildings and ancient temples of the middle east, could provide great reference points for The Citadel of Leto, for example and other such buildings.

Visual storytelling in epic battles

DUNE is an epic, the stories comprise history with houses and family names and tribes that reach throughout it’s expansive story. And fans want to see battles that matter. I asked Simon how he would portray epic battles in visual story telling in DUNE and what ideas he would be eager to explore?

“Story telling is linked to unsaid things most of the time, that’s strange to say but its a fact. What the viewer imagine in a picture will always tell more than what he see in it right away, and that’s what you should try to aim for. DUNE is no exception so I would go for something like two characters fighting in dynamic poses, both of them engulfed in shadows fighting in a sand storm for example. Shadow play Basically.”

Sandworms

This creature is a fan favourite, something many loved about the Lynch film (myself included) and had a clear vision of from the books. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Simon’s representation of the Sandworms, of which I think I can see a very distant teaser in one of his pieces.

So, I asked him: “When approaching this animal, what is your method and how do you intend to present them in your Dune portfolio? (More menacing, or as a distant reference).”

“I’ve already designed the Sandworms I would love to see, two types actually, but I will not share them. I’m basically keeping the DUNE landmarks hidden from my website for now.”

With two Sandworms in the design, I’d like to guess Simon is thinking about the Sandtrout as it was introduced on Arrakis before growing into the devouring behemoth we know from the novels, artistic representations and films.

Simon’s work beautifully captures contrasts and lighting, the white and violet working with deep, amaranth reds and black. I wanted to know if these choices were intuitive or if he approached his work with a steady plan. I asked Simon how these choices bring out a character.

“Yes it’s planned. I’ve strangely always seen the DUNE world in extreme opposite contrasts. Everything is at war in its universe for me (and I really think that a black and white film of DUNE could work extremely well by the way.) In term of paintings I will manifest this by thinking like Mark Rothko or like a Fauvist painter, that’s why you have those color choices in my pictures.”

Impressionism & mood

In case you aren’t aware of Mark Rothko’s abstract impressionism, these influences are visible in some of Simon’s works. Rothko demonstrates colour combinations and harmonies that artists can find inspiring for backgrounds, setting, mood and contrastive elements, a perfect inspirational choice for colour relations, and would explain too why Simon can visualize a black and white film of DUNE.

Simon Goinard’s work represents a deep understanding of colour theory which he draws on as he explores alien worlds and represents ethereal moments and strange technology, complementing a French and German abstract impressionistic style.

“On top of that my strokes are often impressionistic yes, as I search for some kind of mastery in them all of the time.” said Simon. When asked about his personal goals for this project, he explained: “In term of goals, apart from the storytelling, I think showing a constant personal vision of the lore is my priority here.”

If you want to check out Simon Goinard’s whole portfolio, follow the link to his website: www.simongoinard.com

If you’re interested in the DUNE lore, keep your eyes peeled for the release of his new work.

NOTE: All featured work is property of Simon Goinard

Thank you Simon for your contribution to this project.