1919 - 2010

ROBERT T. MCCALL

TODAY’S LESSON

• Robert T. McCall

• Fantasy, Imagination

• Futurescape Crayon Resist

MCCALL’S LIFE

• Robert McCall was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1919.

• He was always fascinated by things that fly.

• After attending Art College, he worked at Life Magazine illustrating stories about futuristic

space travel.

• He and his wife lived in Paradise Valley, AZ since 1970.

• He died at the age of 90 in 2010

• NASA asked him to illustrate the history of the space program.

• Mr. McCall drew a series of postage stamps depicting space history.

• He was a consultant on the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek: The Motion

Picture.

MCCALL’S LIFE

“The Space Mural

– A Cosmic View,”

which greets

visitors to the

National Air and

Space Museum in

Washington, DC.

There are 6 large

murals he painted.

“A COSMIC VIEW” – MURAL AT AIR AND SPACE

MCCALL’S ART

• Air and Space travel was his focus

• He paints the future as he imagines it

• Much of his art are “futurescapes”,

• Large pictures that reflect human beings building a clean, beautiful new world with the help of futuristic technology.

• Many of his futuristic paintings are set in the Arizona desert.

• Some of his futurescape murals can be found at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Disney’s Epcot Center, NASA and the Challenger Space Center right here in Arizona.

“Mars Metropolis”

VOCABULARY DEFINITIONS

• Bird’s-eye view

• Seeing from of view from an altitude or from a distance.

• Imagination

• Creative ability to form a mental picture of something that is not real.

• Futurescape

• Painting of the future as the artist imagines it; works of art that reflect the world in the

future.

• Shape

• A flat figure created when actual or implied lines meet to enclose a space. A change

in color or shading can define a shape. Shapes can be divided into several types:

geometric (square, triangle, circle) and organic (irregular in outline).

ROCKETPLANE 2050

Do you know why this is a bird’s eye view?

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE PORTAL

What shapes do you

see in this picture?

UNTITLED IMAGE

Do you recognize the desert of Arizona?

MCCALL’S ARGOSY

• Cosmic Birth (1990) is a

whimsical title for a smaller

spacecraft dropping from a

larger ship.

• The landscape of this work

was inspired by a trip the

artist took to Canyon de

Chelly in Northern Arizona.

MCCALL’S COSMIC BIRTH (1990)

• What do you see in this painting?

• What place has the artist shown in the

background?

• What season do you think it is – how can you

tell?

• What does the artist show in the foreground and

background?

• Is this real?

• Do you usually think of spaceships in a natural

setting? Where do you usually imagine them?

• Where does it look like the artist would be when

he painted this picture? Where is the horizon

line in Cosmic Birth?

• What shapes do you see?

• How do you think the artist feels about future?

LOOKING AT THE ART

WHAT WE WILL BE DOING

• Using your own imagination to make a futurescape.

• Sketch futuristic objects in a natural setting (i.e. ocean, mountains, desert, etc.)

• Sketch lightly so you can easily erase changes and to be sure you have your

name on the front of the paper.

• Think about the vantage point you will use (bird’s-eye or other?).

• McCall created his spaceship by repeating circular shapes.

• After you have lightly sketched your picture in pencil, you may fully color your

spaceships with crayons.

• When that is complete, outline your background and spaceship shapes with a dark

crayon or pastel. Then you can lightly “wash” your artwork with your watercolors.

• Be sure to add more water on your brushes so the paint is very transparent.