Sliders Inkworks Artwork
Earth Prime has obtained the original artwork commissioned by Inkworks for its Sliders “Alternate Worlds” trading cards — including an exclusive peek at the Kromagg homeworld!
To view a larger version of the image, simply click on the thumbnail and a larger version will appear in a pop-up window. The images below are exclusive to Earth Prime and are presented here with the artists’ permission. They are not for use on any other site.
Zina Saunders
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- “I took out a photo reference for this one from the library,” says Saunders. “This was in pre-Google days, when I would make bi-weekly trips to the library for reference on all my jobs.”
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- “This idea was Greg Goldstien’s, I believe,” says Saunders. “I actually wasn’t too crazy about using Jane Pauly, primarily because she has such a bland, featureless face. I prefer to paint people with more character.”
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- “It’s a big painting and I really liked painting it,” says Zina. “And I liked putting in the special effects. I always like doing portraits the best. It’s my favorite [of the series,] too!”
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- Why would Inkworks commission artwork for a world we barely saw? “I don’t know,” Zina answers. “Maybe they wanted something dramatic and violent?” Are the gunmen in this painting based on real people? “Yes, they’re real people: well, sort of real… they’re me! I often use myself as the model for my illustrations. I might still have some of the polaroids of me posing for this.”
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- “The card was meant to be an homage to the Mars Attacks! card my dad did of the Martians blowing up the Empire State Building, so it was sort of tongue in cheek,” notes Saunders. “But then 9/11 happened, and the art takes on a whole new meaning. “There are so many layers of memory and sadness and horror that this painting now imparts. And that’s what art is supposed to do: make us feel something.”
David O. Miller
The Kromagg Homeworld
“I was told that they wanted sort of a movie matte painting ‘look’ to this with lots of high tech buildings built around the giant trees of the foggy Kromagg home world,” says David Miller. “If I recall at that time the ships the Kromaggs flew had only been seen briefly in one episode, which Inkworks provided to me on tape. I had to pause, rewind, play, pause etc. so I could get an idea what they looked like and try to match the general shape of the ship.
“The art I produced for this was to be sliced up into 6 cards. Therefore I had to make sure I had something of interest in each of the six sections that would make up the cards. Adding to the challenge was the fact that once laid out together all six cards made one large image and that image had to then work as one composition. It was an interesting challenge; I must have worked three weeks straight on this one.
“My contact at Inkworks actually stopped by my studio to take a look at the finished work (he lived just a few miles away) and told me that it was the largest piece of art that he had ever purchased — the art is two and a half feet by two and a half feet. I guess I like to work big.
“After working so hard on this particular image I was not really pleased with the way Inkworks reproduced it. They used a metallic ink on sections of the card that in my opinion obliterated most of the detail and made the image hard to see. In fact, as far as I know, this is the first time this painting has ever been shown as a complete piece the way it was meant to be seen.
“I’d like to say that it’s great that there are still a lot of fans out there for this show and that some of you are interested in seeing my art for it. Maybe someday we’ll see a newer version produced using the same concepts as the old.”