photorealist painting techniques

PHOTOREALIST PAINTING TECHNIQUES

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PHOTOREALIST PAINTING TECHNIQUES

This is an example of a drawing of one of my photorealist paintings.

I’ll take you through the process of creating a photoreal painting, in this case one of Osaka City as well as using other works to

explain the techniques of photorealist painting.

Published by Mark Alan Russell

This version - 26th January 2010

FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON MARK’S ART GO TO

http://photorealistpainting.com

This book is self published by Mark Alan Russell and is free and subject to no restrictions imposed by the author. I believe in

free speech.


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CONTENTSTOOLS YOU WILL NEED 4SELECTING AN IMAGE 7COMPUTER WORK 10DRAWING 11BASIC COLOR THEORY 16PAINTING 18

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TOOLS YOU WILL NEED• MDF Board

• A mechanical pencil with a 0.5mm lead and some replacement leads

• A few HB pencils

• A good pencil sharpener

• An eraser

• A bowl (to put those messy pencil sharpening’s in)

• A large steel ruler (preferably at least a metre long)

• Some high quality acrylic paint. (See later article on paint colors and mediums)

• A minimum of two ice cube trays (for your paint palettes)

• Taklon haired brushes - 000, 00, 0 sizes are essential and a few larger ones come in handy

• A paint rag

• Several sheets of wet and dry sandpaper - 800, 600, 400, 320 and 240 grit

• A jar of water for cleaning brushes

• Cotton buds

• A water sprayer for keeping the acrylic paint at the right viscosity

• A desk capable of holding the board you will work on as well as the computer monitor

• A comfortable chair

• A computer with reasonable performance

• A scanner

• An image editing program like Photoshop or Gimp

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MDF BOARDMDF board is the perfect support for painting photorealist paintings. Why? Because it is smooth, strong, inexpensive, takes well

to being drawn on with pencil and when you need to use an eraser it allows it to be corrected with minimal problems. It also is

apparently long lasting and if prepared well stable; which when you have poured your heart and soul into a work, not to mention

hundreds of hours, is very important. It comes in a great variety of sizes and is available from just about every good hardware

store. When buying it be careful to check the boards because sometimes they can have damaged edges or surfaces that have

been scratched, banged into or walked on. I generally use 3 mm thick board for small work (up to 60 cm), 6 mm for medium

sized work (up to 90 cm) and 12 mm for anything larger.

PENCILS AND RELATED ITEMSA good mechanical pencil (I use a Rotring brand) is absolutely

essential because they make the drawing of fine objects so much

easier due to their even and consistent line width. A normal HB

pencil can yield, if sharpened to a very fine point, a hairs width line

and when dull, a thick line. Having to maintain an even line width

is impossible so I use a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil 95% of the time.

The rest of the time I use good quality Staedler HB pencils and a

high quality eraser and pencil sharpener. These are best obtained

from an artist supplies shop or equivalent mail order company. I also

find a common cereal bowl or dish comes in handy to put pencil

sharpening’s in.

RULERSYou will have to draw a grid, so at least a one metre stainless steel

ruler will be required, it will have to have at least one edge divided

into a usable set of units. I live in a country that uses the metric

system so I use a base system of either 10, 15, 20, or 25

millimetre squares when constructing my grid. I use three

sizes because some situations don’t require the use of a

large, unwieldy ruler, they are 300 mm, 600 mm and 1000

mm.

ACRYLIC PAINTBuy the best paint you can afford, and if you are new to

painting keep it very simple with color selection. I could

mix every color with just 9 colors if they were the right

colors! The difficult part is finding out where the paints

hue lie on the color wheel in order to make the right choice. Paint manufacturers aren’t always the most helpful but I will use

Chromacolour, for the paintings in this tutorial. I would recommend as a minimum 8 colors - they are; Chroma White, Chroma

Black, Chroma Violet, Chroma Blue, Chroma Green, Chroma Yellow, Chroma Orange, Chroma Red, I would also advise buying

their brush cleaners.

I would highly recommend using the Chromacolour brand because it is far superior in its opacity and covering power which are

important when painting in very thin layers and it also changes very little from wet to dry (normally acrylic paints will dry about

5% darker). The paint dries to a smooth matt finish and performs very much like any other acrylic - just better!

In the past I have primarily used the Luiqitex brand and a little bit of others like Windsor & Newton. I can certainly recommend

these two brand’s if you can’t get the Chromacolour acrylic paint.

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ICE CUBE TRAYSIce cube trays make the best acrylic paint palettes, they are cheap and can be obtained in a wide variety of sizes.

BRUSHESI buy taklon brushes, usually Roymac brand, and lots of them because they can get ‘splayed’ after use. No matter how well

you clean them this will happen and they will be difficult to use for fine work, but hang on to them, they can be then used for

mixing or sometimes you’ll need a brush to be used in a manner that deliberately gives a ‘textured’ mark. I would recommend

you purchase a minimum of three each of 000, 00 and 0 round sizes in a good quality brand. Cheap brushes will cause endless

frustration. It is also handy to have several flats up to about 30 mm wide. Also some sort of acrylic brush cleaner comes in

handy to maintain them.

PAINT RAGI use a variety of paint rags to clean

brushes and occasionally I need to wipe

up an accidental paint drop or smudge

and the best type is a ‘cheesecloth’ type

because it doesn’t tend to leave much

‘lint’.

WET AND DRY SANDPAPERBuy several sheets each of good quality

wet and dry sandpaper in 240, 320,

400, 600 and 800 grit. These are used

for maintaining a very flat and smooth

paint surface as you progress in building

up layers of paint.

WATER JARAn old jam jar will do perfectly well for the job, it needs to be clean and kept clean with a good wipe every time you change the

water.

COTTON BUDSI buy a box of 200 cotton buds from the supermarket and use them a lot, they are handy for blending and creating ‘effects’.

WATER SPRAYERA general purpose water sprayer comes in handy for adding a mist of water to the ice cube tray paint palette.

DESK AND CHAIRA good setup of chair and desk is essential because you will spend a lot of time working on painting photorealist work. The

desk needs to be quite big, preferably with a few draws to put your paints and equipment away when not used. Mine is around

1400 mm x 550 mm and when I work on large board I have to use something to prop up the overhanging board. I use a plain old

kitchen chair at the moment, but if I could afford it I’d certainly look at getting something that would ease the back strain!

COMPUTER, SCANNER AND SOFTWAREYou will need a reasonable computer to view the image that you will create. It also needs a good monitor which is set up

reasonably accurately in order to show colors as truthfully to the original as possible. I adjust mine by eye and with some

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experience but I notice many people have horrible settings on their computers so it is worth getting a second opinion and

sometimes I also use the original print source next to the monitor to compare. Photoshop is great software and is what I use

but their are many others available that will do the job - freeware like Gimp is more than capable. I use an old 600 dpi Canon

scanner to bring in a magazine page into the digital realm. Many of these items are quite common and as long as you can do

basic image manipulation, show a grid, use a set of layers and zoom in and out on your computer you’ll do just fine.

SELECTING AN IMAGEI select images to paint with two main questions in mind. One - is it a visually complex and interesting image? Two - what

does the image say? Most photoreal painters are only concerned with the visual aspects when considering their work, but I

believe that it is most important to say something other than ‘here is something nice and complex to look at’. I would strongly

encourage aspiring photorealist painters to look at Dutch art of the seventeenth century and its relationship with the community.

It was capable of conveying almost every facet of the society from wealthiest down to the poorest. We should strive to do

the same by bringing the good, bad and the ugly of our contemporary world to our work. One of the best ways to do this is to

use other peoples work by appropriating images from books, magazines, newspapers, and the internet. I have painted my own

photography and I encourage this in others but the sheer wealth of images is hard to ignore.

I believe that the first consideration should concern the technical merits of the image, specifically the sharpness and amount of

detail, followed then by the composition and narrative. Many a time I have been asked to copy an image that just isn’t suited to

photorealism - it’s been blurred by a shaky hand, or poorly composed by the center of interest being cropped awkwardly. I just

say no and explain that it simply isn’t good enough.

The second consideration should be the images ‘message’ that the average person would read. I have produced work that takes

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This image is simply not suitable for a photorealistic painting

due to the motion blur and all that refracted light of the

water. The text would also present an incredibly difficult

challenge to realistically ‘clone-stamp’ out.

this factor as my prime consideration. However this is a very

personal subject and I can’t ‘teach’ the answers to this.

There are other considerations however; is the image

within the artists ability?, and if the image is not your own

photography then the legality of copying it. The first question

is something the artist must consider seriously because it can be incredibly frustrating to find some way into producing the

work that you are way out of your depth and you have wasted a lot of hours with the only solution to abandon the work. If you

aren’t a professional artist and don’t intend to sell the work then the legal question shouldn’t stop you - go ahead and make art!

I consider copying the

photographic image to be

making work ‘after’ the

original photographer and

a huge complement. They

almost always have been

paid well for their work and if the work matches very closely the image

they should be proud, if not I would question wether they were truly an

artist or someone who does it purely for the money. I look to the Dutch

art of the seventeenth century for a defence to this attitude - copying

others work was the most important way for an apprentice to learn his

trade. The rest of the history of art is full of copying others images, some

extremely closely, some loosely.

When I was a young child my father had brought back this book simply

titled ‘Osaka’ from his trip as a merchant seaman to this city. It was

produced as a ‘trade publication’ for the 1970 Osaka World Fair. I spent

This is a stunningly beautiful image and

would make an impressive work due to

the sheer complexity of the composition.

It would be difficult and time consuming

to remove the text however.

Peter Robinson posing beside

this gorgeous Ferrari would

be an interesting painting,

it also is as sharp as a tack

and removing the words and

little graphic in the upper left

wouldn’t be to hard. It also has,

I believe, a strong conceptual

value because it talks about

both wealth and beauty at the

same time

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many hours looking at this book as a child. The images fascinated me, showing vast vistas of Japanese life and culture. This

image in particular has lead me to appreciate the complexity of this type of photo and then to become a photorealist artist. I

have had to wait until I thought my skills were at the level needed to give this important work in my oeuvre justice.

The image is so difficult that to do it accurately with less skill you must enlarge the scale of the work. I don’t particularly like the

really large, overblown proportions of much of contemporary art - it seems to be like a form of shouting. Now I will tackle this

work with a certainty of purpose and immense confidence that will hopefully stand the test of many centuries to come. I also

hope that others will appreciate this book on the painting of the image and maybe some can follow in my footsteps.

One of the image’s I will use to demonstrate photorealist painting techniques is the image of Osaka shown. I will go

through, step by step, and explain as best as I can the process so you can see just how something so complex can be copied.

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COMPUTER WORKFor the Osaka painting, I scanned the image into my computer at 600 dpi. Unfortunately the paper it was printed on had a fine

texture like canvas, so I had to use the dust and scratches filter (filter ¦ noise ¦ dust and scratches) at 2 pixels radius and a

little gaussian blur at about 2 pixels radius to remove this first. It’s quite common to have to use a similar process to remove the

screen effect that modern day printing uses, so play around with these two handy tools first. Then when I am happy with the

image and think it has that smooth

photographic look I save the

original .bmp file as a .psd. Then I

duplicate the original background

layer, and using this layer (I’ll give

it a name like edge) apply the find

edges filter (filter ¦ stylize ¦ find

edges). Then still on the edge layer

I then play with the brightness and

contrast (image ¦ adjustments

¦ brightness/contrast) a little to

remove the very fine ‘textured

detail’ that is unnecessary. I then

will need to decide on a scale to

produce the work, so I spend quite

a bit of time looking at the most

complex passages of the photo in

the drawing version, zooming in

and out with one question in mind -

can I draw and paint this section at

this scale?

If I make the work too big, which

is easier, it will lose a great deal of

visual appeal I believe. So my goal

is to reproduce the work on a scale

which is ‘just on’ that limit of tightly

packed detail. I decided that the

Osaka painting was not going to be able to be done on anything less than 120 x 128 cm. That means it fits nicely on a board (you

have to allow some edge space for framing) which comes in 123 x 200 x 1.2 cm thick. With some of the smaller paintings like

‘Carolyn Francis’ I have painted on a smaller scale than I would have preferred. This is because a smaller size is faster to finish

but more difficult to do well, and I like to challenge myself. If I were asked to do it to the most realistic scale I would have done

it at 60 x 78 cm, instead of 20 x 26 cm.

I then set the image size to suit this (image ¦ image size). I don’t want to resample the image so I de-check the box and change

the size to suit in the document size box. I then set my grid preferences (edit ¦ preferences ¦ guides, grids, slices & count) to

use a 1 cm grid. This is a ‘variable’ but after many years of experience I almost always use this scale of grid because it makes

for a more accurate drawing. Now I have one more thing left to do - drawing a blue colored dot on the centre of every fifth

grid square. This is to make ‘getting around’ a little easier and helps reduce timely drawing mistakes. It’s useful mostly in the

drawing stage but it also gets used in the painting stage, although mostly this layer will be off.

The find edges filter will provide you with a line drawing. It might not look ‘right’ but

copying this somewhat abstract looking view of the image is the key to my technique.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to get the preparatory stages right. So

make sure you always have a backup of the original image file before you go making

adjustments. You should end up with a psd file with three layers, the original image as

the background layer, the edge layer and the dots layer.

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DRAWINGDRAWING A GRIDNow I get the MDF board, measuring it up and marking the basic outside dimensions of the image. There is a planned offset all

around of around 12 mm which add’s to the size and then I cut this with a circular saw. In all cases of my painting I only had to

trim one side because I planned the size to fit the board. In all of the other cases I would make the image fit a store bought size.

The next step is to mark the grid up and if it is a smallish work (60 cm x 90 cm or less) then it is relatively easy as a 1 metre

rule will cover edge to edge. However large boards are more difficult because you need to establish a smaller set of grids within

the larger grid. This process requires a lot of measuring and checking because drawing the grid out by as little as 1 mm means

you will face problems in the drawing of the image later. So getting this stage right is very important, so do as I do and measure

and check and check again and if you make a mistake, rub the line out carefully with an eraser and redo it. It will take several

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hours. Osaka took me eight hours. A smaller work like ‘Carolyn Francis’ or the ‘old Yarra Glen railway station’ should less than an

hour including the time I would take in marking up the board to be cut and then trimming it from the larger sheet (I use 60 x 90

x 0.3 cm for small paintings).

I number every fifth square around my edges when marking out my grid and to aid in locating a particular square (there are

15,360 in Osaka) I carry this methodology into the internal squares by placing a small blue pencil mark in the centre of every fifth

square. If you look closely you can see these,

THE DRAWING I usually start in the bottom left hand corner in a large work like

Osaka, otherwise I will start with the most prominent or easy

segment of the edge drawing layer. On a large work like Osaka I

have to set the board up on my desk so that it sits flush with the

front edge and the overhang on the rest of the board is supported

with a couple of milk crates and an appropriate sized book.

The next step involves looking for long lines that form the edges

of the major structural components in the small area that you

will work on. You then start to mark those lines in. The basic

methodology of photorealism (well my way at least) involves

breaking the image down into these smaller versions by using a

grid. So when you draw you measure by eye where a line fits in

relation to its singular square.

Take the example above, I say to myself when analyzing the image on the computer (which is zoomed in to make the detail

easy to read); that line begins a little below the halfway point of that square, slightly to the right of the centre of the square

and rises ever so slightly across two squares and a bit, then it angles up to the right a bit and leaves that square slightly to the

left of the centre of the square. Then with that in mind I draw the line, checking it against the computer image. I proceed to

lay in most of the important, straight lines like this first, in my area of work (which often is only 5 x 5 cm). I also look for marks

that are somewhat like a known figure, things like a letter or a numeral are the most common that I can recognise. This makes

it easier to get their ‘shape’ right. In the example above I have noticed a stretched letter five and a letter J that form part of

other forms. Marks that are easiest to place are drawn first, then the rest is drawn in. You don’t have to finish one square before

finishing another, sometimes it pays to ‘take a line for a walk.’

One of the most annoying things about this process is it’s easy to draw the small area of work in the wrong area. That’s what

the dots are for but even then you must check often that you indeed are drawing in the right location. So I often double check

and even triple check by

counting the blue squares

on the computer (say fourth

square from the left, seventh

square from the bottom) and

then doing the corresponding

to the board. There’s nothing

worse than drawing for an hour

or so and then when you take a

break and look at the full view

of your work and realise - ‘hey

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I have outlined above, and when this is done very accurately you will have an easier time of the painting. However there are

going to be times when the drawing is extremely abstract or detailed that it seems worthwhile to skip on the quality aspect. It

can take me several hours to reproduce five squares wide by five squares high of such a chaotic tangle of lines and marks, but

it makes painting the image so much easier. In my earlier work I would get disheartened at some of the more difficult drawing

passages and when I came to painting found it was easier to do the drawing than try and paint it in. They were hard learnt

lessons.

If I have to paint an image like the Carolyn Francis one where there are extremely abstract areas like the grass and trees I don’t

put anything more than a few ‘markers’ in the drawing. These markers will be large outlines of highly contrasting areas. The

chaotic abstract areas would have been impossible to reproduce and I have to paint a ‘likeness’ in. These areas that are not

drawn in are almost universally things like gravel, leaves, grass etc. I will spend a bit of time to explain the painting process for

these areas in the painting chapters.

You have to discriminate however, not every mark gets put down because the ‘find edges’ filter finds even the slightest changes

in tonality within the image and shows a line. So switch between the two views and decide for yourself whether it needs to be

drawn in, a lot of it chaotic ‘noise’. Which goes back to the question you will have to ask yourself when doing the first computer

that doesn’t look quite right’. If this happens then rub it out and do it all again. I never said it was going to be easy.

Much of what you see in the computer generated drawing is rather abstract and it is going to be quite difficult to draw. It pays

to constantly look at the photographic version in order to understand just what it is you are drawing. However you should

always attempt to copy as faithfully as possible the drawing image, and not draw what you think it should be.

The process of drawing a complex image such as Osaka is often best broken down into a simple square by square process as

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work, (brightness & contrast adjusting after the find edges) - do I move the slider a little this way or a little that way? You

need some experience to make these decisions but I believe it’s best to leave a little noise in because you can always ignore it

later. Even though I said that it’s best to draw ‘square by square’, it’s not always necessary and is easy to make ‘wrong location’

mistakes like this so I recommend drawing the long unbroken lines that may dominate a small or large portion of the image are

that you are working on. Then you can return to fill in the small details, square by square. If you look at some of the photo’s

you can see many long lines that cross many squares. They are almost always drawn first when I move to a new section of the

work.

With the Carolyn drawing (which is only 20 x 27 cm.) you can see that details like the tree and it’s complex branches weren’t

even given an outline. When it came to work on these areas a simple dark wash of color was used to position the basic shape.

From there I could still see the square’s so I could still place the various features of the tree accurately. I still had to draw the

important elements like Carolyn, the seat and the basic outlines of some of the graves. This particular work took 23 hours all up

and only about two of them were needed for the drawing. This early stage of painting shows how in a photorealistic painting

a simple few basic washes over a good drawing can make a painting begin to work very early in the process. Elements like

the dress only required a few ‘internal lines to position the elements which are then finished with more detail by the painting

process.

When I drew the Vanquish painting I knew that the abstract textured areas of the gravel was impossible to draw so it needed

was just the basic lines that denoted the cracks in the ground. As you can see this work uses a larger grid square and there are

no blue dots in every fifth square. That’s because this was done many years ago and was not part of my work practice. It pays

to keep an open mind about techniques and to always consider any extra steps, or different approaches, in order to improve

ones abilities. With the sheer number of windows in the buildings I had to make written notes about these - something brief like

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‘32 x 54 for right building’ so I

could count them and check that

I’d got it right.

Every new work will present

new problems so sometimes

you have to be flexible with your

process.

With another small work like the

Old Yarra Glen railway station

piece I decided to take a little

more time with some of the

abstract elements like the trees

in the background. Some of the

detail was ignored but the basic

outlines were drawn in. The

grass in the picture was treated

in a similar manner because it’s

only important to get the general

location of these sort of things as the painting process itself is

where you’ll refine and pick up the detail. That’s a general rule

I have - if it’s highly detailed texture then just mark some basic,

high contrast, elements in the position they’ll take up.

A work like Osaka doesn’t really have much of this except at the top of the painting where the detail’s in the distance become a

blur the further they are from the camera. There are a few elements that stand out so they’ll get drawn. The rest will be put in

with the painting process.

The old railway station had a great deal of detail and it was necessary to choose where to apply it. The old locomotive was

full of rust stains and patchy paint so many years of experience tells me that they too can forgo the drawing stage. However

A good photorealist painter knows that he is actually

painting (and drawing) abstraction and then sets out to

duplicate the close up abstract elements as accurately

possible in the position of the picture that they occupy.

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elements like the basic outlines, windows and all the long lines that make up the handrails were deemed to be important to be

drawn as well as the myriad of ‘dots’ and small circles. I find that because these have an ability to make the basic underpainting

stages easier they are important and get drawn in with some accuracy. What happens is when you go to lay in a wash of color

you can just paint around them and they’ll still be there as you work on getting the color right and when that’s done a little dab

of color is all that’s needed to bring them back up to the fore.

BASIC COLOR THEORYFirst I need to explain that ‘color’ in the terms I will use throughout the book has three properties. If you are familiar with an

image editing program like Photoshop then you will know that a color can be measured and can be described numerically. You

can change the method of displaying this information in several ways. They are RGB, CYMK, Lab and HSB. We will use the same

concept as the HSB system of describing color. Any other ideas of primary, secondary or tertiary are also unhelpful.

HSB stands for Hue, Saturation, Brightness. They are the three separate properties that make up every color. Hue is the proper

term that most people use to describe the family of color. When we are talking about color we should say it’s a red hue or green

hue, or even more accurately we should refine this to a red - orange hue in order communicate it’s ‘color’. Please do not call

colors silly names like Irish moss green - that’s what paint manufacturers call their products and it’s not very helpful. Brightness

(or value) is simply a scale of black to white values or lightness and darkness of a particular hue. Saturation (or chroma) is the

scale of intensity or dullness of the hue, or its sometimes referred to as a colors key. These concepts are difficult to explain in

words and the best way of learning this is to use an image editing program and use the color picker, set to HSV and do just that,

pick a ‘color’ in the big square box and then proceed to adjust the three sliders and observe the effect it has on the final ‘color’.

When I paint I mix a range of expected colors but this often grows considerably, so I utilise many palettes and organise them in

groups of hue. I will refer to twelve hues - they are red, red/orange, orange, orange/yellow, yellow, yellow/green, green, green/

blue, blue, blue/purple, purple, and purple/red. Most paintings will have three or four of these hues dominating the image and a

few smaller areas will need the rest. The lesser needed hues can go in their own pallete but it is important to keep a separate

green palette, green/yellow palette and green/blue palette for a painting like Osaka which is primarily made of these three hue

family’s.

I’ll analyze the image before making up my palettes up. I’ll usually have

one row of lower key of the expected range of brightness for a hue and

one of more intense saturation. It pays to have many ‘wells’ in the ice

cube trays as you soon find that you’ll be modifying a color to suit a

particular passage of paint then when you need that original color - it’s

gone. That’s Ok - you’ll get plenty of practice in color matching when

painting photorealism.

When I paint I use a small halogen desk lamp to illuminate my

workspace, and when I go to mix or adjust a color I’ll often hold the

palette up under the light and compare it to the small image file that I

use to display a currently picked color (I find photoshop’s small square

box in the color palette to be too small). I have the color picker always

open and use the paint bucket to pour the sampled color into a small

untitled file. The color palette tells me exactly what I need to know - just

where the hue lies on the color wheel, its chroma and its brightness.

- HSB - hue, saturation, brightness. It’s very important to match your

color’s to what photoshop tells you, even when you think it’s wrong.

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I picked a random, relatively high key blue to begin this demonstration

of my approach to color. Notice that it is a blue that is ever so slightly

biased towards blue/purple and it’s 240 degrees around the Photoshop

Color Wheel. It also has a saturation value of 89%and a brightness of

93%.

I have typed 9 into the Saturation box and this reduces the intensity

of our 240 degreee blue making it a dull blue, a very greyed out light

blue. Note the brightness still remains at 93%.

Now I have altered the brightness to 20% which makes a very greyed

out dark blue.

Adjusting the saturation to 89% makes a very dark blue. Note that each

time I only adjust one of the three properties that makes up ‘color’.

Finally I enter the same values as the first example used but now the

240 degrees is 127 degrees which gives us a green hue of the same

saturation and brightness.

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PAINTINGGETTING READYYou need to think and plan ahead with your plan of attack. Analyze the image - are their broad areas of relatively unchanging

color, are there any strong geometric shapes in the image or are there very abstract areas full of ‘noise and chaos’, what, if

any, colors dominate? These questions when answered will inform your plan of attack. You should paint large areas of relative

unchanging color first, followed by strong geometric shapes, and then everything that’s left can be painted in. So with these in

mind you should place your drawn up board on a desk (or any horizontal surface really) and the computer monitor nearby with

all your brushes, paints, palettes etc. at hand. This can be a challenge with large works. I have managed to do with what I have

and if you are dedicated you’ll find some arrangement. One word of advice - be very careful with paint, keep a towel underneath

palettes if they are to sit on the board you are working on and be very careful not to knock them over! There’s nothing worse

than spending countless hours only for a moment of clumsiness to ruin it all.

MIXING THE FIRST FEW PALETTES With everything in place begin to mix those first few palettes of paint. I’ll use one of my paintings - Vanquish as an example.

First remember to organise your palettes according to hue. One each (sometimes I’ll even have two) for a particular hue. In the

case of Vanquish the sky was a blue purple, so I used ultramarine at one end of the tray and added a little black (to take the

chroma out a little) and then used a brush to place a small amount of this base hue in the following wells. The sky was almost

uniform but got paler towards the horizon. I would then add white in slightly differing quantities to give me a gradation of the

same hue but different values.

I would then ‘try them out’ on the board in a somewhat thin wash of paint, not to thin but thin enough so it still leaves the grid

easily visible. The problem with acrylic paint colors is they tend to dry a little darker than when wet so this is a test of your

color mixing accuracy, but it is okay if you don’t get it right first up, because there are many more layers going to be applied.

19

Lay broad flat areas down first and where they come up against detailed passages, take your time and use a smaller brush,

being careful to paint up to but not to paint over the edge (don’t fret when you do just use a cotton bud to clean it up). Painting

the first layer or two of the sky in the Vanquish painting would have taken many hours so don’t rush it. Once your happy with

that first layer you can start to mix up the other palettes for the next most prominent or easy areas. I would have needed

several for the buildings - red, red/orange, orange, orange/yellow, etc. - actually I would of needed to start mixing a lot of paint.

I have a word of advice don’t be confident that a particular color is spot on in any of the three measurements - hue, chroma or

value until your just about finished. Why? Because it’s very difficult for the eye to judge or compare with the original until all the

surrounding colors are painted in. So the process is one of gradually ‘bringing up the paint’ over the drawing. My paintings are on

average made up of four or more thin layers of paint.

Take the example on the right this is taken

at the halfway stage after maybe ten hours

of work, the basic colors are laid in but not

that accurate yet, you can still see the grid,

(better in real life than with the camera) and

from here on in you just use the view on the

computer monitor to inform - ‘what color, in

what shape, and where’. Now that might seem

a little weird but in this tutorial I can’t foresee

the many different challenges and problems

that viewers of this work will come up against

but I would always want to keep that previous statement in mind.

WHAT COLOR, IN WHAT SHAPE, AND WHEREThe best photorealistic paintings have a certain abstractness to their quality. Zoom right into a photo and you should see what

I mean, there is a somewhat chaotic bunch of different colored shapes essentially that when you take a more distant view

coalesce into the real, This is the true key to my photoreal painting. I try very hard to paint those exact same qualities that my

computer shows me. If you can see the passage you are working on as being what it is then a good solution would be to rotate

the image 180 degrees in photoshop and work upside down or maybe just turn the work 90 degrees. I had to paint most of my

larger paintings using this technique because I simply couldn’t easily reach the far end of the board.

For chaotic areas like the gravelly asphalt in Vanquish I would have painted in the yellow parts, the red parts and the cracks etc.

with a thin layer of paint and gradually layer by layer painted in an approximation of the type of chaos that I would see on the

monitor. I would look back every few minutes or so at the monitor and see just the sorts of colors and ‘motifs’ that went into

making the gravel look just like gravel. For areas like trees with leaves, if there is a basic drawing to follow - of say a prominent

branch here and there, then you can quite satisfactorily replicate the original in the photo. Take your time and remember to

follow the golden rule, - what color, in what shape, and where.

There are many techniques I use that are commonplace, hard edge, painting, wet in wet, blending, dabbing, dragging and

wiping with my fingers, a rag or cotton bud. This tutorial isn’t about these things (there are plenty of other books covering this)

but explains the things what I do, that aren’t common knowledge in the art world. And that’s where I had to create my own

techniques along the way. I have endeavoured to cover as much as I can but for many of you that take up the challenge of

photorealist painting you’ll encounter the same problems or new ones. I am quite happy to answer any questions you put to me

but I would urge you to reread this and see if there are any hints already provided that you might of missed.

1

THE PHOTOREALIST ART OF MARK ALAN RUSSELL

2

Published by Mark Alan Russell

This version - 26th January 2010

THE PHOTOREALIST ART OF MARK ALAN

RUSSELL

FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON MARK’S ART GO TO


This book is self published by Mark Alan Russell

and is free and subject to no restrictions

imposed by the author. I believe in free speech.


3

ContentsGROWING UP 4NECRONOMICON 10 5SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE 6SEA SLUG 8KING OF DIRT 8FAST, BEAUTIFUL, DANGEROUS 10INTERFET 11EXPENSIVE TOOLS 12THE BIGGEST ARSEHOLE ON THE PLANET 13DECKEL MAHO GILDEMEISTER 14VANQUISH 15SELF PORTRAIT 16FLOWERS 16C IS FOR CHAMPION 18REBECCA AND HER CHILDREN 19THE SMALLER PAINTINGS 20JESUS CHRIST 20CAROLYN FRANCIS 21COWS IN A PADDOCK 22NEDA AGHA-SOLTAN 23RAILWAY TRESTLE BRIDGE NEAR YARRA GLEN 24ORANGE FLOWERS 24GLASS PLATE WITH FRUIT 25VINEYARD 25OLD YARRA GLEN RAILWAY STATION 26BERNARDINI 26THERION DRAWING 27

4

GROWING UP

I was born Mark Alan Russell on 27th March 1968 to parents Kathleen and Alan. Attended local

primary and secondary schools until leaving unceremoniously aged 15 to find work. Funnily enough there

was little in the way of practical art education at my secondary school and I gained nothing from it. I do

remember taking a class called ‘Art Appreciation’, it was occasionally boring but it did provide just what

it’s title suggests; art appreciation. On the other hand I really did enjoy a subject called Graphic Design,

which covered more of the Illustration and Technical Drawing sides to art. Nonetheless I found myself at

the young age of 15 embarking upon the journey of life. It’s sufficient to say that I struggled to hold down a

job - (50+) ranging from shop assistant to factory-hand followed, mostly finishing with my storming out over

some petty conflict or other.

MARK ALAN RUSSELL AGED 5

5

NECRONOMICON 10

Whilst I was struggling to ‘find myself’ and hold down a job I started to take a bigger interest in

the world around me. I would spend a lot of time at the library. One area of interest was art. I knew from

painting t-shirts in my teenage years I was good at art and enjoyed it. So one day I bought some canvas

board, paints and brushes and had a go at making something that I wanted to put on my lounge room

wall. I decided to ‘appropriate’ somebody else’s work. The first work was a copy of Necronimicon 10 by

H.R. Geiger an artist who’s work first came to my attention in the mid to late seventies thru my father’s

Omni magazines. Geiger’s work was a massive inspiration as the work was unrivalled in it’s uniqueness

and it’s ability to make one think about subject matter that was generally outside of the art realm.

Geiger’s complete lack of acknowledgement in books on modern art, despite probably having the most

known work of any living painter made me take the view that the art world was either largely corrupt or

couldn’t recognize talent due to their elitist avant-garde approach. I decided that I would paint solely for

my own pleasure and benefit (my family were horrified at the sight of my first painting).

MY COPY OF H.R. GIGER’S NECRONOMICON 10 - 1997

Whilst it isn’t strictly a photorealist work but it did lead to me learning much in the way of

my drawing and painting skills. I still look at this work and find it absolutely fascinating and it is very

important to me and isn’t for sale for this reason.

6

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE

In the last few years of the millennium I began to paint. I had been inspired by the work of

the photorealists, particularly Richard Estes, who’s work mainly features views of New York city, using

reflective windows to make the viewers eye spend a considerable amount of time taking all the detail in.

The most appealing thing was the extraordinary time one could spend looking at the work, admiring the

skill of the artist.

The first true photorealist painting was taken from Snap, a BMX magazine, I had now learnt a grid

would enable a detailed drawing to be made, and that this was to be the key to creating my own photoreal

work. It featured a group of BMX riders in the first berm battling for position. I was always a keen cyclist

and had started riding at the local BMX track in my early 30’s discovering a passion that I’d missed in

the early eighties when it was going through its first surge of popularity. The picture features two riders

prominently – Christophe LeVeque and John Purse, who at the time were dominating BMX. The race was

called the So Cal Nationals and this became the basis for the title of the painting - ‘Southern California

landscape’. Metaphorically speaking this was perfect as an example of America’s worldwide cultural

influences. The addition of a commentator in a green jumper was added to create an idea that this art was

about commenting and not just a visual thrill.

A computer running Photoshop was used to view the work, which meant learning a new set of

skills. The original layout of the magazine article had several photos inset over part of the shadows of

the riders. I then had to work out what actually lay under the overlaid images, so I whited out them out

and with a pen had an educated guess. Once I was happy with the forms I painted them. Still unsure I

contacted the photographer Keith Mulligan who e-mailed a copy of the original. Much to my delight I was

very accurate in filling the shadows in! There were problems encountered, however, the background was

changed because it didn’t suit my needs and the use of canvas board didn’t lend itself to detail work, (I

RICHARD ESTES - SPIRIT

7

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE - 1999

decided to use a different support for when starting the drawing for the next work).

IT’S A LITTLE BEAT UP - BUT THIS IS THE ORIGINAL

8

SEA SLUG (Nembrotha Purpureolineata) - 1999

SEA SLUG

My next painting was of a Sea Slug (Nembrotha Purpureolineata). It was a quick and easy painting

to do and was done for my friend Stefan who selected the image from a scuba diving magazine. There are

a number of wildlife artists who use photorealism in depicting their subjects. I guess that I am the first to

photorealistically depict a poisonous sea slug! It was a beautiful image and was largely painted with big

brushes and my fingers. It is the last work I did using canvas board. After a stupid argument I took the

painting back.

KING OF DIRT

BMX was to feature again in the next work, titled ‘King of Dirt’ after the contest series, it featured

a rider (TJ Lavin), mid-trick, (Backflip Turndown) over a big dirt jump. The actual contest took place on Pier

17 in New York City! The painting is also where I really began to use the incredible power of a computer

to manipulate the image to be drawn and then painted. In this case the image was changed to reduce to

the obvious curvature from the wide angle lens. Again the source was from the same BMX magazine and

the photographer was Keith Mulligan. However I felt the subject matter wasn’t serious enough and nor

9

KING OF DIRT - 2000

was it as hard as I had expected. I did continue to improve on many levels; the initial computer work, the

drawing stage and finally the painting stage. There’s a lot to making a photoreal painting work and there

were no teachers I could look to, no books or anything. I had to develop my own techniques and skills.

KING OF DIRT ORIGINAL

10

FAST BEAUTIFUL DANGEROUS - 2001

FAST, BEAUTIFUL, DANGEROUS

The turn of the millennium saw new, harder images being tackled. My first paintings involved a

learning process; everything had to be learned through trial and error, as I have had no formal art training

whatsoever. A Mercedes CLR sportscar in the pit lane at Le Mans was to feature in my next painting, the

formula one driver Mark Webber was to flip one of these, and another driver looped twice, prompting a

magazine called Racecar Engineering to do an article on the technical and scientific reasoning on why this

could come about. As an avid motorsport fan and fascinated by engineering this photo was perfect – it was

all there for a more serious approach to my art. The notorious narrative of its existence was important, the

people in the background going about their business was visually interesting and the technical complexity

of the surfaces of the car all made for an incredible work of art. I also thought it really cool that there was

even a photographer who appears to be taking the photographers photograph! I named the work Fast,

Beautiful, Dangerous.

There was a realization that so much time was going into the drawing and painting that a work

diary needed to be kept. The total time amounted to 295 hours! It took something like eight hours to just

draw the wheels. The original image was a somewhat limiting factor due to it being too small for what I

really needed - to have every little detail available for the computer to show. It was also difficult to paint

things like the silver blue paint with its reflective qualities and the many people’s skin colors but when you

try for a photorealistic copy these are what make the difference.

The work was entered in the local annual art show organised by local government but didn’t

win any prizes or sell. I was happy enough with the work and looked forward to producing more art that

focused on a more ‘technical’ view of the world.

11

INTERFET - 2001

INTERFET

As a keen observer of the politics of the world I was strongly in favor of the Australian military

deploying to East Timor in order to stop the horrific violence being enacted upon the local Timorese

population after a successful vote for independence. Immensely proud when they did deploy, I painted a

photograph of a sunburnt Australian soldier on top of a vehicle manning a machine-gun. Another soldier

stands further back as they patrol the streets of Dili, the capitol.

This picture was the first move into the truly conceptual realm. The painting wasn’t produced in

order to provide visual stimulus in order to satisfy; but was about an idea – of war and aggression and right

and wrong, and I believe this was a conceptual work even more than a piece of photorealism.

It was difficult to paint the flesh tones of the sunburnt soldier in the very bright sunlight and the

creases in the uniform - it ended taking 166 hours all up. When it was done I sold it to the lady who lived

in the front unit who bought it for her boyfriend. They broke up, she left for another state in a hurry and

he was left with the packing of her things for the removal van. He packed it in a way that when it arrived it

was badly scratched. As I paint with a system of very thin layers of paint and then use very find wet and

dry sandpaper to keep the paint surface totally smooth it was returned to me months later to be repainted.

This took 18 hours! However when I tried to contact the owner she had moved on again and I took

ownership again I guess. I decided that I would never sell a painting to anyone again unless it was framed

behind glass due to the very easily damaged surfaces.

This (and Fast, Beautiful, Dangerous which was done at the same time) were difficult pictures to

do as I had to have surgery to my left hand due to being assaulted by three young men. The surgery was

botched very badly and I had to undergo constant, painful hand therapy which yielded next to no results

and made my life very hard. The depression of not being able to work, and no action from the doctor

12

EXPENSIVE TOOLS - 2002

who’d operated on me, was immense. This was the lowest period of my life and I really struggled but my art

helped me get through it. Later I had the finger completely amputated.

EXPENSIVE TOOLS

Racecar Engineering contributed the original for the next painting, to be called Expensive Tools. It

features a trio of Makino CNC Machining Centres linked by a common palette loader which were producing

Formula 1 engines and cylinder heads. The scene is in a factory - Mugen’s in Japan. The painting is visually

exciting but also embodies the conceptual in that the process of painting photorealism is very much like the

machinery. Accuracy being the key to Photorealism is represented in a photoreal painting of a machine that

is accurate down to 1/1000th of a millimeter! The time spent painting the details was incredible, an example

being the series of holes in the lower right - they took 35 hours! All up the painting took 224 hours.

I feel that art which goes beyond straight photorealism and has a conceptual element to it is all

the more powerful for it. I often look to Dutch art of the seventeenth century and it’s all encompassing

view of daily life even to be an incredible inspiration. A perfect example of this is Rembrandt’s painting of a

cows carcass. This sort of painting would most typically have been purchased by a butcher, as the art was

reasonably affordable. Expensive Tools would best be appreciated if it were to be purchased and displayed

by an engineering company. Whether they would understand and appreciate the metaphor I intended to

make with the practice of producing photorealism is another matter.

13

THE BIGGEST ARSEHOLE ON THE PLANET - 2002

THE BIGGEST ARSEHOLE ON THE PLANET

September 11th 2001 was so shocking to witness that I had to paint a response to what I saw as pure

evil. Time magazine donated the source image of Osama bin Laden sitting in his tent; when it came to

composing the size of the piece it was decided to add the title to the work written at 90 degrees on the

right side of the board. This work was called ‘The biggest arsehole on the planet’, I don’t want my position

to be misunderstood.

The size of the initial photo from which I started with was quite small and I took little time to do

the work - 121 hours. When it came to doing difficult passages such as his beard I didn’t spend as much

time as I could have. The painting is meant to be 100% conceptual.

I fully expect to get in a lot of trouble with all sorts of Islamic extremists because of this work but

to be a true artist you have to be true to yourself and not worry about what the rest of the world thinks. I

am doing this art for myself - no one else. Future works will develop this particular theme of my thinking. I

have an image I have begun to draw. It is called Failed Mission and is discussed later in this book.

I am not the only one who has taken a similar view - Denis Peterson depicts the worst aspects of

our world by showing the homeless, and the poverty of the third world. He calls his work hyperrealism but I

have an aversion to the over categorisation of art. For me it’s all photorealism. Even artists like Damien Hirst

have taken photorealism as a medium to talk about unpalatable subjects. His theme is death and he has

had assistants churn out images of cadavers in morgues.

I think it is very important as an artist to show the world as it really is - both at it’s most beautiful

and at it ugliest. The worst indictment of the impressionists was there refusal to paint the horrors of the

French revolution, instead painting a wonderfully pretty world.

14

DECKEL MAHO GILDEMEISTER - 2003

DECKEL MAHO GILDEMEISTER

The idea behind the next painting is to return to comparisons between my art and the

extraordinary accuracy and repeatability of CNC (computer numerical control) machinery with the process

of photorealistic painting. DMG (Deckel Maho Gildemeister) are a company of the highest quality; a quality

that I consider to be at the cornerstone of my art. This machine is the most capable of all types of milling

machines due to it being 5 sided, 5 axis in its ability. Essentially it can machine almost any shape and this

particular machine is also extremely fast, powerful and it’s price is well in excess of the million dollar mark.

I am very proud of this work because it does set new standards for my work. The painting of the

lettering is incredibly difficult and due to my perfectionist nature I am still working on refining this in 2009!

It was however shown at a local library with another work in late 2003. At that stage it had taken 329

hours, it’s now at the 481 hour mark.

When people look at this work I want them to take the time to read the description and the table

of specifications, then look closely at the precision of the individual letters, then gaze at the images. I

want them to take it all in, then wonder why someone would paint something like this. I hope many would

arrive at the conclusion that it must be important to the artist. And it is, I want people to understand that

this work is actually talking about people’s art judgements. Much of the ‘art world’ haven’t a clue when it

comes to one of the most important subjects for an artist - his technique. It’s almost never discussed in the

contemporary art world and if it is probably because generally speaking contemporary artists have little

skill when it comes down to the truth of the matter.

15

VANQUISH - 2003

VANQUISH

The next painting was chosen mainly because it was a very difficult work, visually stunning, and

intended as a homage to Richard Estes’s work who inspired me to take up painting. Taken from Autocar

magazine it features the new Aston Martin Vanquish, the car was designed as the flagship for Aston by

its new owners Ford and represents a stunning mastery of all that represents the quintessential design

hallmarks that set this marquee apart. The car was driven before it’s release by a journalist across the USA

and photographed against an incredible backdrop of Houston city.

The two page spread had to be scanned into the computer before being joined, then the text

removed. Buildings like this were a time consuming challenge and took 150+ hours just to draw! All up 556

hours was invested in the work before it was shown at the local library. The windows were one of the

most difficult passages I’d undertaken and the gravel carpark wasn’t far behind in getting it to look just

right. The car by contrast was very easy.

One of the things that is good about using other commercial photographs to paint photorealism is

that you can start with a photograph that would simply be out of the reach for the average Joe. There’s

no way I could afford the ultra high-end costs of the photographic equipment nor could I have access to

subject matter such as this work and others. A perfect example is the Osama work!

Upon completion it was rather ironic that it was to be a Vanquish in the picture as Mark felt he

had truly conquered his mastery of technique, however I am ever the perfectionist and this work is being

retouched and is owing 579 hours.

16

SELF PORTRAIT

I painted a self portrait, despite having major issues with my appearance, however this didn’t stop

me from hiding any flaws. I saw it as absolutely dishonest to hide my many chins by simply toning down

the shadows that produce these forms. I strive to show things as they actually are. The good, the bad and

the ugly.

I only had a very low-tech, low resolution camera but the 640 X 480 pixel image was sufficient to

lay down a decent drawing. I learnt a lot about the color of human flesh as it relates to painting and this

work is not perfect but when I see other artists work I often cringe. It’s usually to high key for a start and

often looks like they have some weird, odd colored fake tan on! Hair is another thing that is problematic for

the photorealist painter. Often a camera doesn’t capture every hair it does reproduce many very difficult

passages for the artist to draw and paint. Due to the low resolution of the camera I used I found the result

not as satisfying as it could be. The time taken was only 84 hours.

FLOWERS

My mother asked me to paint a beautiful work of flowers next. The image was taken from a book

on flowers that had been provided and was quite easy to produce taking only 84 hours. It is an incredible

work who’s beauty is astonishing and a tribute to all the Dutch flower painters of the seventeenth century.

It takes pride of place in my parents lounge room of their home.

SELF PORTRAIT - 2003

17

FLOWERS - 2004

18

C IS FOR CHAMPION - 2008

C IS FOR CHAMPION

The ‘C is for Champion’ image when first seen would be so difficult to paint it just had to be

tackled. It was an incredible challenge as every square centimetre was complex and the title ‘C is for

Champion’ was a great metaphor for my boastful accomplishments. I had to paint it first and this work,

more than any would come to stand for my theme in art - to strive for perfection. Perfection being, in

my eyes, the ability to recreate just that - what my eyes saw. When people see this work almost without

exception the first thing people ask ‘is that really a painting?’

The painting was begun in January of 2005, but it isn’t complete and the photo was taken at the

midpoint of 2007. So far the time taken painting and drawing stands at 591 hours. Unfortunately my life is

becoming more and more difficult due to mental health problems. I estimate the time will be around 800+

hours! I want to be remembered for this work more than any other as it is such a difficult piece and was

undertaken through a period of my life when not much is going well.

I’ve tried to sell some of my work but come up against the ‘art world’ and have basically given up

on being a professional artist. However the reward of such an amazing piece of work slowly coming to

form keeps me going as well as the thought that someone, some day will see and love my work; and be

wealthy enough to pay what I ask for it. It is hoped that this work will be marveled at in centuries to come.

19

REBECCA AND HER CHILDREN - 2008

REBECCA AND HER CHILDREN

Late in 2007 I was forced out of my rented flat due to no circumstances of my own making. I went

to live in several boarding houses and early in 2008 met the subject of the next work - Rebecca Parker. I

took many photo’s and she rarely smiled but a few, like this one, she did. I had an argument with her and

we went our separate ways. I was feeling really bad about some of the things I had said to her so this was

what I made as a way of saying sorry.

The result is a stunning example of a loving mother and her two children. The mental health issues

I have resurfaced and we argued again soon after completion, and I fell out with Rebecca again. However

we made up and she allowed me to enter the portrait into Australia’s most important art prize - the 2009

Archibald Prize. It took 169 hours to paint and didn’t make the cut. It does bring a lot of joy to Ms. Parker

and that is all that matters. Although due to Rebecca’ drug addiction we have fallen out again and I fear

the painting has either been stolen or destroyed.

20

THE SMALLER PAINTINGS

A new series of works was started in late May 2009, inspired by the movement of a group of

artists who call themselves ‘daily painters’. They don’t form a coherent ‘style’ but all share a discipline

towards their work which generally means working every day on their art. Some can produce a new work

every day but my photorealist approach means this isn’t very practical.

I’ll add to the book as the paintings are produced and photographed, provide some basic details of

their size and maybe a brief explanation.

JESUS CHRIST - 2009

JESUS CHRIST

I painted this for Rebecca Parker. The work is Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board, approx. 13 x

30cm.

21

CAROLYN FRANCIS - 2009

CAROLYN FRANCIS

I had a very intense relationship with Carolyn which ended in many tears. This painting is in a

cemetery near to a home we shared. The work is Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board. approx 20 x 27cm.

22

COWS IN A PADDOCK

I live in a beautiful town in Australia called Yarra Glen and have decided to paint many of the

beautiful things I see on a daily basis. The work is Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board, approx. 20 x 27cm.

COWS IN A PADDOCK - 2009

23

NEDA AGHA-SOLTAN

As soon as I saw the horrible video of her dying in the streets of Tehran after being murdered by

the Iranian authorities I decided to paint her portrait. It’s part of the conceptual approach I have to my

work. The work is Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board, approx. 20 x 27cm.

NEDA AGHA-SOLTAN - 2009

24

RAILWAY TRESTLE BRIDGE NEAR YARRA GLENI’ve painted another beautiful part of the town I live in – Yarra Glen. As you come into Yarra Glen from

Lilydale there are a few of these trestle bridges left from the old railway line. This one thankfully wasn’t

burnt down in the recent bushfires that devastated the area. Painting photorealism on this scale is quite

difficult.

ORANGE FLOWERSI’ve spent a lot of time painting these flowers. Photorealism isn’t easy to do. It is quite surprising what

makes an image hard to do. It can be the colors, scale of the image or the surfeit of details. This painting

was all three. Apparently they are commonly known as ‘pigface’.

25

GLASS PLATE WITH FRUITOne of great loves is that which I have for Dutch painting of the seventeenth century - which I consider

to be the first era of photorealism.. I particularily love still life painting because they paint the surfaces of

things so accurately and it is a joy to the eye to see what a two dimensional, flat, colored, bit of board (or

canvas) can convey of the three dimensional world. When it is done well it makes me rather awestruck.

This is what I try for in all of my work but it’s not the only thing.

VINEYARDThis painting is of a vineyard in Yarra Glen, the heart of the Yarra Valley, famous for it’s wine, I painted it

hoping it would appeal to tourists. It was reasonably difficult to do because trying to get the realism just

right on this small scale requires acute observation and a very deft touch using the OOO brushes that I

use 80% of the time.

26

OLD YARRA GLEN RAILWAY STATIONThe good thing about photorealism is that you can paint scenes from a time well before you arrived. The

trains haven’t run for many, many years and the yellow locomotive has gone (you can still see the yellow

locomotive at Healesville railway station ) but the Yarra Glen railway station still looks pretty much the

same as this ten year old photo..

BERNARDINIThis painting is of an American racehorse named Bernardini. The original image came from a magazine on

racehorses (Bluebloods May 2009) after Joe from the Yarra Glen newsagents asked me for a photorealist

painting of his favourite subject.

One of the difficult aspects of duplicating an image such as this is the abstract and often chaotic

27

‘passages’ or areas which can be extraordinarily complex; both the ‘shapes’ and colors can present a huge

challenge to the artist if he is to succeed. This is the key to good photorealism. To get the colors to blend

sometimes you have to use the ‘side’ of the brush or a cotton bud and for this work I must of ruined 5 or

6 good brushes trying to get that effect.

Due to the depth of field issues of the original photograph the bacground is rather blured and non-descript

which I think works quite well in that it forces the viewers eye to look at the detail and the ‘surface of

things’. Like the silks on the jockey and the sweaty, muscular horse.

THERION DRAWINGIt took 19 hours to complete this drawing of Therion.

GALACTIC SPACESHIP HANDBOOK - 4027

PUBLISHED BY MARK ALAN RUSSELL

2CONTENTS

CIvILIAN SPACESHIPS 5ARIBOO 3 CLASS 6

AYAIL CLASS 8

AZIK 10

BAHLROUS CLASS 12

LIPOCK CLASS 14

MODIFIED VONX CLASS 16

MUBARIK CLASS 18

OORSTANISCLAV THE THIRD 20

RASERS CLASS 22

SRANTIS CLASS 24

TRISTRAN CLASS 26

ULIAS 28

VONX CLASS 30

WERPIS CLASS 32

GOvERNMENTAL SPACESHIPS 35ADARI CLASS 36

CBAHLRO 38

EFOSI CLASS 40

HASU CLASS 42

IJINT CLASS 44

NIZ CLASS 46

QUINCER CLASS 48

SAPROUS 50

TRANSTAR CLASS 52

MILITARY SHIPS 55ASP CLASS 56

DESMONDAR 58

GRESTICHA CLASS 60

KANDIREBS CLASS 62

MARTAN CLASS 64

NELLIA CLASS 66

ONISTUS CLASS 68

PRASTUS CLASS 70

VLADIMIR THE DESTROYER CLASS 72

WUSTINCH CLASS 74

YEBISAR CLASS 76

5CIvILIAN SPACESHIPS

The first spaceships that humans built were government craft,

but in the late 21st century, the large scale production of spaceships was

undertaken by commercial interests in order to meet Earth’s growing need

for rare elements which could be stripped from the asteroid belt. Now

80% of all spacecraft are civilian, the majority are freighters which travel

far and wide in the known galaxy. They range from personal spaceships

owned by the wealthy to colossus freighters many kilometers long,

weighing many millions of tons. Freighters create prosperity through trade,

corporate exploring craft open up new frontiers across the known galaxy,

passenger craft ferry tourists to exotic worlds and colossus colony ships

transport entire populations to new worlds.

The spaceship manufacturing sector employs many billions of

people in the construction of civilian spaceships and their greatest source

of income is derived from the construction of what many see as mundane

craft but the technology is often at the cutting edge, barely behind the

military’s. Their purposeful exteriors may not excite young teenage boys

but those in the know look to these craft as the true kings of space.

6ARIBOO 3 CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Ariboo 3

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Personal explorer / luxury transport

NUMBER PRODUCED 686

MANUFACTURERS Markil Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Golk

YEAR BUILT 4024 - 4027

COST WHEN NEW $42,000,000

NUMBER OF CREW 20

MEDICAL FACILITIES Level 4

ARMAMENTS Can be customised to support light weapons systems

CRUISING SPEED 240 light years per day

MAXIMUM SPEED 355 light years per day

RANGE 17,700 light years

These spacecraft are some of the most

incredible vehicles available and yet are only

available to citizens of the wealthiest system: Golk.

They represent the ultimate in materialistic excess

today. Golk’s unparalleled productivity is due to vast

cybernetic systems which churn out machinery and

goods which are at the cutting edge of hi-technology.

Due to this, the four hundred million inhabitants of

this ultra-wealthy planet enjoy the highest per-capita

wealth in the known galaxy, even exceeding that of

the peoples of the Yark Empire by a factor of around

10 to 1!

The Ariboo 3 is an enormously popular

‘personal spacecraft’ of enormous size but fits the

category only due to it’s usage. It is often heavily

customized to taste and outfitted to sumptuous levels

with exotic surface finishes and art adorning the

interior. They are usually multi-capable with roles such

as galactic explorer, transporter or warship, which they

fill with aplomb equally. Ariboo 3’s are seen across the

7known galaxy and draw gasps when spotted due to

their extravagant nature.

Designed and built by the Markil Engineering

company they are heavily automated and require only

twenty flight crew, their medical facilities are entirely

robotised and the armaments are also fully automatic.

The navigation system is Level ZZZ precise and

incredibly fast and the Ariboo 3 class can even adopt a

form of ‘stealth cloaking’.

The most famous of these ships was the

vessel who’s registered name was unusual - 9764. This

ship was taken by it’s owner Ashaw Trilbort to find the

lost colony world of Hmashilt, and was involved in the

conflict which destroyed the nearby inhabited asteroid.

The ship was extensively damaged and still floats in

orbit around Hmasilt.

Most of these vessels are used for private

excursions to exotic planets for the most indulgent

form of luxury adventure holidays. Justine Redmond,

the owner of the Interplanetary Zoo on Golk employs

just such a craft to travel across the galaxy and

capture all manner of beasts and bring them safely

home. Her spacecraft aptly named the ‘Darwin’ is

equipped with a variety of ground transport vehicles

and can also boast of an extensive scientific laboratory

which is used for studying the specimens for disease’s

before bringing them out of their home system.

The interstellar customs and police have also

taken to the Ariboo 3 class because of their extensive

capabilities. They employ them as unmarked vessels

and this has lead to many a smuggler becoming a

victim of the Golk authorities entrapment.

Several of these craft have been offered in the

used spacecraft market and despite the high asking

price they are snapped up very quickly.

8AYAIL CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Ayail

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Large Freighter

NUMBER PRODUCED 32

MANUFACTURERS Zoorast Spacecraft Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Dilcom



NUMBER OF CREW 42


ARMAMENTS Can be outfitted with Crestex System’s Smart Missile System




A very large freighter, the Ayail class is

designed to carry enormous containers that hold an

enormous open volume of just about anything that

needs to be transported around the galaxy - even

other spacecraft!

These craft are amongst the biggest civilian

spaceships that have ever been made and are a rare

sight indeed with just 32 being made. Made in the

Dilcom system which is one of the newer sectors of

space they have contributed much to the burgeoning

economy of the new colony world. They feature

advanced systems which would put many military

ships to shame, such as their sophisticated navigation

systems which can assist hyperspace jumps down to

an accuracy of several hundred metres! They also have

a secret anti-missile system which was only revealed

when the Redara military tried to intercept a fleet of

them. The Redaran military suffered no losses except

to their pride when they attacked with a barrage of

missiles which were rendered 100% ineffective within

9

ILOS 45A ENGINESCREW / ENGINEERING FACILITIES

/ WEAPONS SYSTEMS / CARGO

SHUTTLE STORAGE

PRESSURISED CONTAINER

a matter of minutes. The incident made the news on a

galactic level and created a sense of awe about these

special machines.

Extremely expensive they earn their keep by

performing freighter tasks that can’t be undertaken

by any others. They have moved everything from

fruit to unfinished destroyers with ease, and security.

The large containers are virtually an open-space

interior which can support a range of modular racking

which can hold container modules from K1 to AA

size. They also feature a small number of shuttles

to assist in loading but this is primarily handled by

third party shuttles capable of utilising the ‘Adaptable

Loader/Unloader interface’. This entails a shuttle

‘piggybacking’ the load in a similar fashion to the Ayail

class itself and when the craft meet they use a series

of robotic arms to pass the containers from shuttle to

freighter. It is quite elegant to watch for those who are

unused to such things.

The Ayail class has been used around the

known galaxy, having the enviable record of travelling

to 3080 of the known 3812 settled systems.

10AZIK

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Azik

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Custom built galaxy wide explorer

NUMBER PRODUCED 1

MANUFACTURERS Bix Spacecraft Manufacturing

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Hadron

YEAR BUILT 3870


NUMBER OF CREW 100+


ARMAMENTS Plasma Cannon, 45 Smart Missiles




12BAHLROUS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Bahlrous

TYPE OF SPACESHIP General purpose freighter

NUMBER PRODUCED 250+

MANUFACTURERS Easil Spaceships

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Trin



NUMBER OF CREW 45


ARMAMENTS None




speed is sufficient to transport the rare and expensive

Yaris fruit from the Fewish world to many of the

nearest planets in just a few days. The wealthiest

people across the sector can then enjoy the fruit at its

best, after their ripening.

The Deost conglomerate made them

somewhat famous when they featured strongly in

advertising wearing brightly multi-colored exterior

paint schemes which made many look differently to

the usual workhorse’s of space. The paint returned to

A very purposeful looking craft the Bahlrous

class of freighter is a common sight in the wealthy

Rulis sector of space. They were designed to transport

troops and their equipment in the Trin-Camult war,

but the first ship was completed 4 days before the

end of the conflict, leaving an enormous oversupply of

new freighters on the market. These were fast, very

defence capable ships and were snapped up by smart

investors. These days they ply their trade across the

Rulis sector in a timely manner. Their 50 lyd cruising

13

CARGO SHUTTLE STORAGE

RADAR HOUSING RECESS

POWERFUL JIS 438 ENGINES

normal after eight years but many still associate the

Deost conglomerate with the public relations ploy that

made it a household name, and the Bahlrous class

famous.

They also have been adopted by a few

pirates in the unruly Pasik sector, mainly for their

incredibly hardened exteriors which are incredibly

difficult to penetrate with the moderately powered

customs and police craft of the area. However they

are gradually becoming a rarer sight as they become

more difficult and expensive to maintain. Many of

the unique electronic systems are now starting to

show failure rates that are unacceptable to the local

authorities and all the spare parts have been owned

by the Easil consortium since manufacture. Their

unique, uncompromising, approach to design makes

them being copied by a rival spaceship manufacturer

prohibitive. Those that do survive however are likely to

continue for a few more decades yet.

14LIPOCK CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Lipock

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Small Freighter

NUMBER PRODUCED 55

MANUFACTURERS Daldis Corporation

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Masir



NUMBER OF CREW 7


ARMAMENTS None




16MODIFIED vONX CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Vonx type 2

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Medium Freighter

NUMBER PRODUCED 27

MANUFACTURERS Ael Systems

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Telkis



NUMBER OF CREW 45


ARMAMENTS Custom Smart Missile System




18MUBARIK CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Mubarik

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Colony ship

NUMBER PRODUCED 2,000+

MANUFACTURERS Fwing Tran Spacecraft

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Hajisk



NUMBER OF CREW 65


ARMAMENTS None




20OORSTANISCLAv THE THIRD

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Oorstanisclav the third

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Corporate ship

NUMBER PRODUCED 1

MANUFACTURERS Yark spaceyard

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Yark


COST WHEN NEW $1,200,000,000

NUMBER OF CREW 35,600


ARMAMENTS Multi, capable




Oorstanisclav The Third is named after the

ruler of the Yark Empire who lived for 420 years after

inheriting the fledgling colony world from his father

Oorstanisclav The Second. It is unparalleled in its

combination of size and wealth it creates. There are

other corporate ships but none like this incredible

vessel, as this ship generates many billions of galactic

dollars per week as it traverses the galaxy. It’s ability

21to absorb many large freighters loads of raw minerals

daily and its ability to manufacture vast quantities of

hi-tech commercial wealth is simply awe inspiring.

At the time of construction this was the most

expensive spacecraft ever built but it soon repaid the

investment back to the wealthy owner - Oorstanisclav

The Third. It has been upgraded continuously but

essentially retains the same shape it was designed

with. It however was severely damaged in the Chalist

conflict of 3770 but was towed back to Yark for a

full rebuild. This time it was rebuilt with far greater

defensive and offensive abilities.

Incredibly fast, this ship travels from wealthy

sector to wealthy sector plying its trade in its vast

assortment of goods. As an enormous automated

manufacturing facility - it requires a supervisory and

maintenance crew of around 25,000. In addition there

are over 10,000 flight crew. They live permanently on

the ship, rarely leaving for any length of time, due to

the fact they share amongst themselves 40% of the

profit!

It is rumored that a sister ship is to be built in

the Yark colonies, however the government strongly

denies this. If it were true it would have a severe

economic impact on many worlds. It is more probable

that a new clean sheet design is being considered,

if this is the case then knowing the wealth chasing

culture of Yark it is likely to be even bigger, more

powerful and productive than the original.

22RASERS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Rasers


NUMBER PRODUCED 24

MANUFACTURERS Baf Cos

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Slipshow 2



NUMBER OF CREW 145


ARMAMENTS None




The Rasers class freighter is a very rare ship

and is almost never seen outside the Dvelk worlds,

however there are few ships which enjoy the notoriety

that this class of vessel does. Due to the galaxy wide

coverage of the Yabba Terrorist campaign these

vessels are etched into the minds of many billions.

Rwasid Honjak the enigmatic leader of the Yabba

Enlightenment Movement chooses to use a fleet

23

of seven Rasers Class to bring horror to those who

choose to ‘dishonor’ his backward belief system.

Three invaded colony worlds form the basis of his

supporters which number in the tens of millions. One

of there best tools for coercing other people to bow

to his movement are these very capable ex-freighters

converted to military use.

The unusual asymmetrical design was first

intended to be a very capable fast freighter and was

produced in the Slipshow 2 system by a new company

- Baf Cos. They served for the first ten years doing

just as they were made to do - move goods from

system to system quickly and cheaply. The invasion

of Qradtok the home planet of the Slipshow 2 system

by YEM lead to 18 of these vessels being captured

and subsequently modified to accept the Mretish

Frequency Dispersal System. This is a weapon first

developed 600 years ago and due to it’s outrageous

horror was banned by the then Galactic Government.

It basically uses a chaotic wave energy which can

turn all organic matter into ‘mush’ within seconds. It’s

range depending upon it’s power could be as much as

a radius of five kilometres. The Rasers Class is a very

capable vehicle in atmospheric flight and can even out

manoeuvre some dedicated atmospheric fighters! It

has extremely powerful gravity effectors which came

into being because the Qradtok planet has variable

gravity, being between 1.2g and 1.7g.

24SRANTIS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Srantis



MANUFACTURERS Various commercial organisations

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Across the many Srantis settled worlds

YEAR BUILT 3860 - Now

COST WHEN NEW Estimated $40,000,000

NUMBER OF CREW 200+

MEDICAL FACILITIES Very limited

ARMAMENTS 4 Plasma Cannons




26TRISTRAN CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Tristran

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Luxury Passenger Transport

NUMBER PRODUCED 10

MANUFACTURERS Zoorast Spacecraft Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Dilcom



NUMBER OF CREW 400 - 700 First Class passengers


ARMAMENTS Not disclosed but proven to be very defence capable




28

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Ulias

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Research ship

NUMBER PRODUCED 1

MANUFACTURERS Unknown

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Unknown

YEAR BUILT Unknown

COST WHEN NEW Unknown

NUMBER OF CREW 240


ARMAMENTS Extensive - details unknown

CRUISING SPEED In excess of 100 light years per day

MAXIMUM SPEED In excess of 200 light years per day

RANGE Unknown

ULIAS

``

30vONX CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Vonx



MANUFACTURERS Ulyian Consortium

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Earth



NUMBER OF CREW 150+


ARMAMENTS Custom Smart Missile System




This class of freighter is the most common

medium sized freighter in the known galaxy.

Manufactured for 70 years by the Ulyian Consortium

in their vast facilities in Earths orbit, they are the

backbone of most freight companies who need an

inexpensive, versatile and dependable vessel to

move cargo. They have a rather brutal but purposeful

design which was penned by the noted spacecraft

designer Augustus Russell before he was famous

for his more extravagant designs that were used

by the Gelk Corporation. The Volk class represents

the stereotypical view that the public has of what

a general purpose freighter looks like, and for good

reason - they are extremely common and many other

freighters have been designed with a good deal of the

Volk’s features.

Initially they were a custom ship built for Tralis

Freighters in the Lhasa system but their very low cost

31and reasonable performance had them being built in

ever increasing numbers for many others. They have

been used as the basis for numerous conversions to fit

other roles, and some are even the mainstay of small

military fleets.

32WERPIS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Werpis

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Asteroid processing plant

NUMBER PRODUCED 1,600 +

MANUFACTURERS Dershoo Astro Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Earth





ARMAMENTS None



RANGE 4000 light years

Produced in vast numbers these specialised

craft are the result of an intense effort by the Earth

systems many factions to regain a market share once

diminished to very low levels by outdated equipment.

The Nostoilabesh class of Asteroid processing plant

had dominated the industry for several decades and

eventually driven the Earth system economies to the

brink of collapse. The Nostoilabesh were produced by

33

CREW ACCOMMODATION

MINERAL STORAGE /

LOADING AREA

HEAT EXCHANGE VENTS

the Qart species and had flooded the mineral market

with very cheap products to such a degree that the

Earth system central government were forced to

embark on a concentrated building program.

The design work was handed to the Dershoo

Astro Engineering Company and this helped restore

the once great conglomerate to profitability again.

After the initial batch of 35 were completed their

efficiency was noted by other companies; and various

governments, and then the orders started to come

in rapidly. Due to their size and length of build time

these orders went into a backlog queue and the sheer

demand meant they occupied the shipyard facilities for

over 100 years!

Over this time they were refined in their

design and their manufacture. They still remain the

dominant asteroid processing plant today. They are

weird looking craft and are rarely seen except by their

crew as they leave or arrive for their often several

month long shifts.

35GOvERNMENTAL SPACESHIPS

36ADARI CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Adari

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Patrol ship


MANUFACTURERS Senter Corporation

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Theta



NUMBER OF CREW 43


ARMAMENTS




38CBAHLRO

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS

TYPE OF SPACESHIP

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE

YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




40EFOSI CLASS


TYPE OF SPACESHIP

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS


YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




42HASU CLASS


TYPE OF SPACESHIP

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS


YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




44IJINT CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Ijint

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Pirate defence / customs / police

NUMBER PRODUCED 22

MANUFACTURERS Vranos Galactical Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Tolp

YEAR BUILT 3625


NUMBER OF CREW 285


ARMAMENTS 32 Masers - various size, 50+ missile launchers, several thousand missiles-

various types and extensive defensive capability.




46NIZ CLASS


TYPE OF SPACESHIP

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS


YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




48QUINCER CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Quincer

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Patrol ship


MANUFACTURERS Plas Spacer Systems

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Eshaw



NUMBER OF CREW Minimum of 8, has facilities for up to 45


ARMAMENTS 2 small masers, 3 missile launchers, 100 smart missiles.




50SAPROUS


TYPE OF SPACESHIP Jail ship

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS


YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




52TRANSTAR CLASS


TYPE OF SPACESHIP

NUMBER PRODUCED

MANUFACTURERS


YEAR BUILT

COST WHEN NEW

NUMBER OF CREW

MEDICAL FACILITIES

ARMAMENTS




55MILITARY SHIPS

Military ships across the galaxy have reached the zenith of the art

of spacecraft manufacture. They are almost without exception the largest,

most powerful, stealthy and ultimately destructive objects that humankind

has ever made. They range from small spy satellites to thunderous

battleships many kilometers long.

56ASP CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Asp

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Military grade support ship

NUMBER PRODUCED 17

MANUFACTURERS Davis Manufacturing

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Swistor

YEAR BUILT 3895-3897


NUMBER OF CREW 68


ARMAMENTS Very limited, 30 Redmond Class defensive missiles



RANGE 800 light years

58DESMONDAR

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Desmondar

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Battleship

NUMBER PRODUCED 1

MANUFACTURERS Illiajan Astro Engineering

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Vankor

YEAR BUILT 3965




ARMAMENTS 2 Large Accelerated Maser Cannons, extensive missiles, mines




60GRESTICHA CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Gresticha Class


NUMBER PRODUCED 22

MANUFACTURERS Ford Manufacturing

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Swiport





ARMAMENTS Numerous Laser Cannons, missiles




62KANDIREBS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Kandirebs

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Cruiser

NUMBER PRODUCED 4

MANUFACTURERS Hre People

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Hre





ARMAMENTS Numerous Laser Cannons, missiles, 340 Gre Class Space Fighters




64MARTAN CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Martan

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Frigate

NUMBER PRODUCED 319

MANUFACTURERS Gonshar Corporation

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Gonshar 2



NUMBER OF CREW 75


ARMAMENTS 2 Maser Cannons, 200 Derishaw Class Automated Missile Drones




66NELLIA CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Nellia

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Spy satellite master ship

NUMBER PRODUCED 327

MANUFACTURERS Klish Stellar

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Yex 3

YEAR BUILT 4000


NUMBER OF CREW 450+


ARMAMENTS Very limited - usually accompanied by a destroyer and frigate




68ONISTUS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Onistus

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Cruiser

NUMBER PRODUCED 65

MANUFACTURERS Lowra Industries

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE (Multiple) - Federated Gral Planets





ARMAMENTS Numerous Laser Cannons, Julias Missile System




70PRASTUS CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Prastus


NUMBER PRODUCED 5

MANUFACTURERS Lan Spaceship Manufacturing Corporation

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Brak 2



NUMBER OF CREW 12,000+


ARMAMENTS Vast offensive / defensive capabilities, details unknown




This vast class of battleship has patrolled the

Brak 2 system for over a hundred years and rather

successfully, no raid on the wealthy homeland of the

Brak species has even come close to the bejewelled

home planet. Much of this is due to the enormous size

of the Prastus Class, which at almost 16 kilometers long

is capable of housing an incredible arsenal of weapons,

both offensive and defensive.

Designed and built prior to the Euwis species’s

hostile engagement of all its neighbours in 3903, this

proved a decisive weapon in the conflict. The attack on

Brak 2 was thwarted initially by just one ship of this

class - Qafist, and when the Euwis returned with their

entire fleet - 2400 ships - these too were defeated

- by the remaining four vessels which had returned

promptly.

The Prastus class remains one of the most

capable military ships ever built, but little detail is

known about the armaments that she contains. It

is known that they house several thousand fighters

which are incredibly fast, maneuverable and armed

with a powerful anti-matter cannon. These alone

71probably accounted for over half of the losses by their

enemies. They also have a well shielded hull which

can only be breached by a constant barrage of energy

weapons which can cause an overload and then allow

a breach.

These vessels are also quite fast and known

to be extremely accurate in their hyperspace jumping.

The two Davis Energy Field Engines are the largest

built ever and give of a familiar red glow when idling.

They sit half exposed at the rear of the spacecraft and

are a rare sight in most sectors of space, despite the

Brak species having offered the technology for over

two hundred years to any spacecraft manufacturer

that can afford the licensing costs.

72vLADIMIR THE DESTROYER CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Vladimir The Destroyer

TYPE OF SPACESHIP Destroyer


MANUFACTURERS Flijist Consortium

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Kiestra



NUMBER OF CREW 245


ARMAMENTS 4 Medium Maser Cannons, numerous defence/offence missiles




74WUSTINCH CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Wustinch


NUMBER PRODUCED 12

MANUFACTURERS Pret Fan Ship Construction

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Dwal 6

YEAR BUILT 3923


NUMBER OF CREW 11,000+ flight crew, 100,000 ground troops


ARMAMENTS Extensive offensive / defensive capabilities




76YEBISAR CLASS

NAME OF SPACESHIP / CLASS Yesibar


NUMBER PRODUCED 4

MANUFACTURERS Davis Manufacturing

SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE Ralton



NUMBER OF CREW 2,300+


ARMAMENTS Extensive offensive / defensive capabilities




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