the Artwork
of ALAN BELLOWS!

Page printed from www.alanbellows.com
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Tesla's Tower

A fantastical vision of Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower.

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U.S. Grant

My pastiche portrait of U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant for the article The Reconstruction of Ulysses S. Grant.

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Isabel Godin Crossing the Amazon

Cover art for the article Welcome to the Jungle. The woman’s face is based on a contemporary painting of the article’s subject, the background is a photograph processed to resemble a painting. Jungle creatures and many other details added by hand.

Tools used: Photoshop, Artrage on iPad

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Uptown Motel

A photograph I took of a sign and then heavily modified to appear more dramatic and dilapidated.

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Dead Reckoning

Cover art for the article Dead Reckoning.

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Pugilism on the Plains

Cover art for the article Pugilism on the Plains.

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X-ray

My rendering of an x-ray of the mysterious device from the article The Zero-Armed Bandit.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Japanese Underground

The cover image for The Japanese Art of Self-Preservation, made to resemble ancient Japanese art.

Tools used: Artrage for iPad, Photoshop

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Night Launch

My impression of the nighttime launch of a home-made hot-air balloon used to escape East Germany. It is included as an image for Up in the Air.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Scientist Propaganda

A series of propaganda-style posters I designed to commemorate famous scientists.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Condamine/Voltaire

A pastiche of portraits of Condamine and Voltaire for the article The Enlightenment Guide To Winning The Lottery. I also added the frame, lighting, and wallpaper to improve the effect.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Sir James Dewar at the Foot of Mt. Hydrogen

Cover art for my article Absolute Zero is 0K; the one used in the article is a “diorama” style with animated background clouds.

Tools used: Photoshop

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We Three Kings of Kings

Simulated stained glass image I created for Three Thrown Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Tools used: Photoshop

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MicroKonzo

Cover image for the article The Curse of Konzo. The objects are bundles of roots from the cassava plant seen from the bottom, which I processed to resemble microscopic organisms under a microscope.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Inverted Jenny Express

A play on the famous “Inverted Jenny” postage stamps for my article Aches on a Plane.

Tools used: Photoshop, Artrage

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Armstrong Exposed

Cover image created for my article Outer Space Exposure. It is a combination of a NASA photo of an astronaut on the moon with Neil Armstrong’s head.

Tools used: Photoshop

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The March of Progress

The cover image for the article On the Origin of Circuits meant to evoke the idea of evolving creatures crawling out of the sea.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Playing Chicken

A portrait of young Harland “Colonel” Sanders for the article Colonels of Truth. On the live article, this image simulates a “dolly” zoom, which is much niftier than the static image. The service station in the background is Sanders’ actual service station, and the old man in the background is a photo of Colonel Sanders from later in life.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Morrison at Sea

A play on the famous Japanese painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa for the article Otokichi’s Long Trip Home.

Tools used: Artrage on iPad, Photoshop

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A Point

An example of work with physical media; Prismacolor pencil on black paper.

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Prescription Potato

A cover image I created for the article Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Spuds of War.

Tools used: Photoshop, Artrage for iPad

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Trippy

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Surface Tension

A pastiche I created for the cover of the article Surface Tension.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Switch Face

My painstaking rendering of the switch face on mysterious device from the article The Zero-Armed Bandit, used as the cover image for that article.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Beale's National Treasure

The cover art for the article 89, 263, 201, 500, 337, 480. It is designed to resemble the poster for the movie National Treasure, and it contains a number of secret messages.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Transportation

This image is a “cinemagraph”–a kind of seamless looped animation–on the live version of the article No Country For Ye Olde Men. It is much more interesting while in motion.

Tools used: Photoshop

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Archeology

The oldest digital illustration I could find in my archive, ca. 1993. Back then, popular drawing apps used 320×200 at 256 colors (like this image), or one could draw at 640×480 if willing to limit oneself to 16 colors.

Tools used: Deluxe Paint 2