"This painting was done with oil on a 48.4"X3.6" aluminum panel, in my studio in France. The acrylic underpainting created a light texture which can evoke the film grain.
ALIENS is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I put pressure on myself to capture the essence of this masterpiece in one dynamic frame. James Cameron is an amazing director but also a great artist who designs all his movies. My aim was to highlight the great designs and details of the Queen and the Power Loader. I used the futuristic vertical lights of the Sulaco's hangar to emphasize the perspective and create movement.
The textures are a big part of the esthetics of this movie, so I focused on the glossiness of the Queen, the reflections on the steel and the psychedelic shapes of the smoke (that reminds the egg scene of the first movie).
Finally, more important was to catch the dramatic stakes of this iconic scene. During the production of the movie, they named this confrontation "Mother VS Mother". The presence of Newt in the background underline the whole thematic of this story."
