TRDL 2011 Series, No. 9: HAM: Spy Chimp

This week’s TRDL R3 Jam was ‘Historical Figures’
I was inspired by one in particular, in no small part to my love of simian silliness…
HAM [Holloman Aerospace Medical Center], our first chimp in space… I drew this pic in honor of the 50th anniversary of his flight. Of course, in my version, HAM wasn’t just our first chimp in space, but also a super-cool 60′s spy! Read below for notes on the process and what some of the details mean…

Please enjoy…

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This piece was done for the TRDL R3 Illustration Jam, which can be found here.

You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Background:

So HAM went 160 miles into orbit on 31 January 1961, suffering greater Gs than they trained him for, all on a stomach full of cereal, and when they recovered the Mercury capsule, he was basically giving them the thumbs-up from the cockpit, so I say he’s a hero to us all. In my piece, I was inspired by the notion that he’s not only a space chimp, but a SPY chimp, sent into orbit to thwart the efforts of those dang commies. Never mind the fact that there weren’t any dang commies in orbit, unless you count dogs. But hey.

Some reference material:

HAM training!

HAM boarding!

Here’s a general chimp "Sir, General Chimp, Sir!" for color reference.

Here’s the Elvis record I wanted to use. He’s BACK! Ha. It’s been so long.

The Mercury capsule…

This is the suit I used for HAM’s model. Interesting tidbit: in 2005, archivists at NASA discovered a few of these MOL [Manned Observation Laboratory] suits in deep storage and in great condition… these were a mothballed attempt at a ‘space spy’ suit during the cold war when such business was deemed imperative. So, you see, HAM has the right get-up!

Here’s a pretty good shot of a Soviet-era cosmonaut suit. We were once ‘doomed cosmonauts’ for Halloween.

Process:

So this would be a composite from the get-go. I knew they’d all be swirled up under HAM in a composition built around the jet blasts of the Mercury rocket, so i just visualized how they’d be organized, and then drew them all individually.

Here’s a composite of all the penciled scans.

The inks, with more detail. I wanted to get that retro composite vibe from paste-up, but not really emulate a book or movie cover… so i could get away with stuff like the counter the scientist is leaning on being a line edge, or the repetition of bananas. Oh those phallic bananas…

Capsule in final inks and ready for render… I love lil’ HAM up in there…

Scientist and Spy ready for render. I thought the cosmonaut spy/assassin came out great.

HAM ready for render. Chimps are hard to draw.

Finally, below, a very long composite of how I built up the background. I’m not very painterly when it comes to Photoshop, but I experiment. I built up the jet blasts with some layers of low-opacity work, then brought the record in, as it was supposed to be billowing around back there, then another set of layers over it, swirling around the figures a bit, and blurred up a hair. Then final comp.

Had a great time with this one!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 18: Artemis [Young Justice]
2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 79 – Catwoman Redesign
3. TRDL 2011 Series No. 85 – Enchantress