Brian Despain Art
The Haunting
Oil on board
7 x 7
I've always enjoyed the idea that the robots I paint are all part of a series. Not a series in terms of painting, (Okay, they are indeed that, but that's not what I'm on about.) but a series of robots constructed on some long forgotten factory floor. As part of the realization of that mythos I use very similar designs and design elements over and over. For instance this particular robot is quite similar to the one I painted in "The Discovery". Though they aren't identical one can see very clearly that the design of the first informed the design of the second.
It's probably no secret that I'm a huge fan of Star Wars (more to the point I'm a huge fan of the original trilogy. The last/first three movies suck droid ass and should be buried in a shallow grave and forgotten about... Sorry George.) The other day whilst avoiding work I happened across an entire wikipedia-esque website dedicated to the various astromech droids of which the infamous R2-D2 is one. There are any number of R2-D2 clones throughout the six movies varying in color, head shape, personality, etc. and as a kid I knew that these knock offs had differing names, like the ill fated R5-D4 what I didn't realize then and really didn't realize up until I found that page was that there's a whole history of not only the droids themselves but the company that produced them the various pros and cons of each astromech model, how much they cost, which came first, who owned them and on and on and on.
It's that little touch of reality, the reward for those that are willing to look a little deeper and to explore a little further that I find so amazing about pocket universes like Star Wars and it's why I continually try to push my universes a little further and my stories a little deeper. Will there one day be website dedicated to my robots extolling their virtues and exploring their various sagas? One can only hope. In the mean time while we're all waiting for that website to pop into existence, take comfort in the fact that out there somewhere there's another robot clanking off the factory floor and taking its first steps into a swiftly expanding universe.