"I'm the only one who can paint the Moon,
because I'm the only one who knows
whether that's right or not."
- Alan Bean
Alan Bean Memorial Poster
This memorial poster aims at celebrating the life and achievements of Alan Bean, a renowned American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Known for becoming the fourth person to walk on the Moon in November 1969 on the Apollo 12 mission, Bean was also an artist; his colorful paintings, described as "the first paintings of another world by an artist who was actually there" (alanbean.com), contain Moon dust and were sculpted using the astronaut's Apollo hammer and boots.
Picture: NASA/Photo of Astronaut Alan Bean taken by Commander Pete Conrad
Painting: Copyright by Alan Bean
The poster is based on the duality of Alan Bean: the moonwalker and the painter. The photograph and the painting come together to create the astronaut's figure at the center. The helmet's visor, taken from the photograph, connects both sides and unifies the design. The colors of the photograph were slightly adjusted to better match the painting, and texture (Moon's surface) was added in transparency on the left to mirror the sculpted aspect of the right.
The weight of the text was kept minimal to maintain the focus on the combined image. The Apollo 12 mission patch was added at the bottom of the photograph to create balance in terms of color. Bean's signature was enlarged and placed on the bottom right as a reference to the artist signing his life's work and legacy, while mirroring the more text-heavy top left corner.
Below are early thumbnail sketches and digital drafts.
