The following appeared on TheForce.Net, reproduced here with permission. For a direct link to their article, click here .

Artists of TPM: Iain McCaig

Sun, Nov 14, 99 11:20:06 PM EST

Well folks, here's the final installment of information gathered from discussions with the artists of The Phantom Menace as they've done several tours and lectures promoting the film. In this third of three segments, we'll take a closer look at Iain McCaig, storyboard artist for TPM. If by chance you did miss the first installments earlier this week use our search feature to find them quickly.

Now for Iain... what can you say?

Queen Amidala, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul... when Iain was hired onto the film, about a year after the initial designs had begun, he was taken aback by the fact that noine of the characters had been designed. Everyone was doing ships or creatures or environments... where were the people?

As a storyboard artist, Iain must know something of the characters he is working with. Well, there wasn't anything to tell him about them, so it became pretty apparent that someone was gonna need to do some design work before he could really go anywhere... Beginning his segment of the talk by showing the segment of Lynne's Diary which involved costuem design Iain began by segueing into the creation of Queen Amidala's wardrobe... as the video faded the image of the Queen (page 112 Art of TPM drawing 2) was put up to a great response.

Now, Iain immediately stated his lack of knowledge in drawing costumes.. matter of fact, in that same drawing, the 'collar' isn't really even a collar... it's an excuse for not having to draw a neck!) as Iain went on, he let us in on such bits as... if you want to turn a drawing into a Star Wars drawing (that is, if you're doing a design and it just doesn't seem to fit in the SW universe..) nothing solves your problem faster that putting a floating droid in the shot. PROBLEM SOLVED!!! So, when you look at the drawing of the Queen on pps 108 and 109 (the two that are related...) well, that explains the droids!!!

Much has been said about Iain's work on Maul, from the initial nightmare sketch to Bozo the Clown, to the Sith witches, tattooed senators, and such... yet in each telling the wonder doesn't diminish, it grows. He has such command over what he does that even his moments of sheer terror seem somehow inspired. Speaking to a designer, he fully conveys the need of balance in design (Maul's piano-wire bound head contrasted with the beautiful feathers tied in the wire...), of the ever-changing diversity around him, the wealth of inspiration every person he meets is capable of providing him as he grows weary. Perhaps one of the most intersting concepts to Maul was the decision to reveal, such as it is, his face as opposed to putting him in a mask. To paraphrase: Darth Vader wore the best mask ever. You're not gonna top that, so the answer is to take the mask away and begin to go into the face. The Sith who appear to have facial tattoos actually have been 'jack-o-lanterned'... if you look well you can see the designs carved into their faces!

As for the other characters... anyone vaguely familiar with modern Hollywood recognizes the inspiration for much of his work, and it's easy to see that everyone has their favorites for casting in certain roles. Iain was no exception drawing (literally!) on the Fiennes brothers, on his fellow artists, and on a couple of friends and relations. This is kind of cool to watch because if nothing else you get a feel for how a person understands and wants to see the film develop. Kinda cool...

The Q&A session at the end of the talks covered a range of questions about the time involved on E1 as opposed to what's ahead for E2, the character stereotypes, where the casting would be if the artists could have their say, how to become one of Iain's students, overcoming getting put on the wall of shame, influences of other illustrators on designs and the like.

All in all, a great night with a great artist!

It's really a shame to see him go, although we do hear his replacements are doing well!