Richard Manning
The Alan Parsons Project I Robot 1976
The two lower walkways were montaged to a trace supplied by Storm. 'R Type prints were used and the backs stripped and the edges feathered. The Robot was positioned to cover the joins of the walkways. The Robot was a George Hardie design supplied to me as an accurate trace that I could work directly from, and traced in position onto Double weight Glossy unglazed Photographic paper.
Each differently coloured piece was masked with Transpaseal and aibrushed with Photo Dye. Bezier shapes cut from acetate were held at appropriate points to give a harder edge to some of the curved yellow,blue, green and pink curves. Airbrushing up to a loosely held shape gives a reasonably soft edge. The highlights are achieved with a Scalpel and a new 10a blade knifing the dye away. All the facets and particular shapes are masked and worked on. With all the colour sections complete in the head of the Robot, straight edge acetete masks are held in position and Windsor and Newton Permanent White is sprayed gently to give the effect of opacity on the leading edges, and weak sprays of Watercolour Lamp Black whiffed minimally here and there against a straight edge mask to give reflected dimension. Also continuance of the walkways is suggested from the edges of the head of the Robot, to give a semblance of transparency.
The neck I washed in solid black photo Dye and then with a loosely held curved acetate mask, airbrushed, with watery Permanent White, the shapes to give the effect of a movable rubber neck. The body was masked in sections with Transpaseal and airbrushed with watery black Photo Dye. On the head and body the reflected dark lines to the leading edges were applied with a Sable Brush and Photo Dye, the highlights to these edges were knifed and feathered with a scalpel. The illustration was then cut out with a scalpel, halfway through the Photographic paper,and the back stripped and the edges sanded and greyed. Finally mounted in position with Columbia Cement.
Hipgnosis Album Art
