Peter Elson: Science Fiction Illustrator | Hacker News Reader

Peter Elson: Science Fiction Illustrator

peterelson.co.uk

41 pointszeristor10 comments

Amazing images. On the other hand I was duped into reading some pretty dreadful sci fi books as a kid because on the amazing cover art created by people like Peter Elson and Chris Foss (E E Doc Smith springs to mind).

You can’t judge a book by its cover...

I learnt the hard way. ;0)

Homeworld from 1999 was heavily inspired by Elson's work:

http://www.peterelson.co.uk/images/gallery/large/PebbleInThe...

https://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/3936-homeworld-gam...

There is even character named "Group Captain Elson" as tribute to Peter.

Was given this book as a present when I was a kid, its images still occupy a big chunk of my imagination and the Elsons were definitely my favorites. Kind of illustration in reverse--it's a loosely related collection of stories inspired by the images (I think mostly or all originally painted to illustrate other stories).

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Space-Battles-Stewart-Cowley/dp...

I was going to say these reminded me of that Space Wreck book series - wish they would go back into publication, they were really popular during their run but unfortunately the kind of books that got passed around a lot and acquired a lot of wear, so it’s hard to find them in good condition.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the Riddick movies was the alien planets actually looking alien instead of like Canadian forestland. (Or gravel pits if you remember ‘70s Dr Who episodes).

His paintings feel extremely nostalgic to me because they remind me of Amiga graphics in the 1987-1993 era.

It's probably due to three factors: 1) Elson's bright colors with limited color blending evokes the Amiga's limited 32-color palette; 2) the texture detail is often similar in granularity to a low-resolution hand-pixelated image; 3) scifi and fantasy paintings were often recreated by young Amiga artists.

Nice to see this boosted after several days.

Of course there’s the Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Elson

Which credits him with being the inspiration for the Homeworld series of games.

I loved seeing his pictures when I was younger. So inspirational.

Oh, he died in 1998. I thought this was an obituary.

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