Peter Ledger
Encyclopedia
Peter Ledger was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n commercial airbrush artist and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

.

Biography

In addition to studying art, Ledger worked with surveying teams in the Australian outback, hunted deer for the government in New Zealand, was a professional scuba diver, a leathermaker and a gourmet cook. He raced motorcycles, flew hot air balloons, was a body builder, and in later years became a private pilot.

Legder rose to the top as an illustrator in Australia, famous for his intricate airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...

 work and fantasy images. Ledger prepared the graphics for the 1974 Australian film, Stone, as well as the 1976 film, Oz
Oz (1976 film)
Oz is a 1976 Australian film written, directed and co-produced by Chris Löfvén. It stars Joy Dunstan, Graham Matters, Bruce Spence, Gary Waddell, and Robin Ramsay; and received four nominations at the 1977 AFI Awards...

. In 1977, he won the 'Art Directors Silver Award' for his stunning Surfabout poster. Also in 1977, one of his posters for Golden Breed (an Australian surfing apparel brand) was honored in the Graphis yearbook of award-winning posters from around the world. In 1979 he won an Australian King of Pop award for 'Best Album Cover Design' for The Angels
The Angels (Australian band)
The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...

' album Face to Face.
From around 1978-1979, he lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and worked for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

. One of his contributions to the comic book field was the first fully painted and airbrushed work on the series, Weirdworld
Weirdworld
"Weirdworld" was a fantasy series created by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog for Marvel Comics, set in a dimension of magic.-Publication history:...

: Warriors of the Shadow Realm
.

In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 to work on a project funded by George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

 and Gary Kurtz
Gary Kurtz
Gary Kurtz is an American film producer whose list of credits include American Graffiti, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. He later produced The Dark Crystal and Return to Oz after departing from the Star Wars series...

. It was a coffee table art book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...

 of Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times., as written and drawn by Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...

. Ledger was a big fan of Barks' wonderful duck art. His contribution was to hand-paint and airbrush all the stories. He met writer Christy Marx
Christy Marx
Christy Marx grew up in Danville, Illinois and is an American writer and a photographer. She has written scripts for various episodes of TV-series, mainly for kids' shows, including Jem, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Conan the Adventurer, G.I. Joe, Hypernauts, Captain Power and others...

 for the second time in that year. They were married on Catalina Island in March 1983. They worked together on comic book, movie and game projects for a total of thirteen years.

As a team, they produced a number of comic book stories, such as Carlos McLlyr, and The Sisterhood of Steel graphic novel.

Ledger worked in the film and television business, mainly doing storyboards and preproduction design. He painted robot suits and designed aliens for the movie The Ice Pirates
The Ice Pirates
The Ice Pirates is a 1984 comedy/science-fiction film. It was directed by Stewart Raffill , who co-wrote the screenplay with Krull author Stanford Sherman. The movie stars Robert Urich and Mary Crosby...

. He created the first Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...

logo, did the first character illustrations and an initial painting of the B5 station. J. Michael Straczynski
J. Michael Straczynski
Joseph Michael Straczynski , known professionally as J. Michael Straczynski and informally as Joe Straczynski or JMS, is an American writer and television producer. He works in films, television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas. He is a playwright, a former journalist,...

 used this art while selling the series.

Ledger loved planes and his particular deep interest, since he was a boy, was the German planes of WWII, most especially the amazing jet aircraft developed during the war. In 1988, Ledger and his wife travelled to Bonn, Germany to have his limited edition aviation print signed by famous German WWII ace, Adolf Galland
Adolf Galland
Adolf "Dolfo" Joseph Ferdinand Galland was a German Luftwaffe General and flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. He flew 705 combat missions, and fought on the Western and the Defence of the Reich fronts...

.

Toward the end of 1988, Ledger and Christy started working on computer games for Sierra On-Line. He created the art for Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail (1990 - Sierra On-Line), Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriach (1992 - Tsunami Media Inc
Tsunami Games
Tsunami Games was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1991 by former employees of Sierra Entertainment . The company was based in Oakhurst, California, which at the time was also the home of Sierra...

), Blue Force
Blue Force
Blue Force is a computer game released in 1993 by former Police Quest designer Jim Walls.-Synopsis:The player is a rookie police officer named Jake Ryan. Jake's father was a police officer, which prompted Jake to join the force. Jake's father was killed in the line of duty and his case has not yet...

(1993 - Tsunami Media Inc) and Blood & Magic
Blood & Magic
Blood & Magic is a computer game released by Interplay in 1996. It was the first real-time strategy game to use the Dungeons & Dragons license.- Gameplay :...

(1996 - Interplay Productions Inc
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...

).

From about 1990 on, Ledger concentrated on doing large wall murals and trompe-l'œil paintings. He partnered with British artist, Susie Wilson. Together, they created many trompe l'oiel works in the Fresno
Fresno
Fresno is the fifth largest city in California.Fresno may also refer to:-Places:Colombia* Fresno, TolimaSpain* Fresno, a ghost village in Nidáliga, Valle de Sedano, Burgos* Aldea del Fresno, Madrid* Fresno de la Vega, Ribera del Esla, León...

, Oakhurst
Oakhurst
-Places:in Australia* Oakhurst, New South Wales, a suburb in Sydney* Oakhurst, Queensland, about 220km north of Brisbanein South Africa* Oakhurst, South Africain the United Kingdom* Oakhurst, Kentin the United States of America...

, and Monterey areas. Most are in private homes, but some of their work can be seen at Castillo's Mexican Restaurant in Oakhurst, California
Oakhurst, California
Oakhurst is a census-designated place in Madera County, California, south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Oakhurst is located on the Fresno River south-southwest of Yosemite Forks, at an elevation of 2274 feet...

, on the way to Yosemite: jungle scenes, desert scenes, parrots, a pteradactyl bursting in through an open (trompe-l'œil) window.

Death

On the evening of 18 November 1994, Ledger was driving home to Oakhurst from Monterey. He was on a dark country road and he either missed or ignored a stop sign at a blind corner. He was hit broadside by a semi-trailer hauling a full load of cotton. Both vehicles were totalled. The truck driver survived. Peter died instantly. He was buried in the small, historic cemetery in Oakhurst.

His gravestone features a bronze plaque of his face (taken from a life mask), an epitaph poem that Peter had written a few years earlier, and numerous sculpted details created by his son, Julian Ledger.

Legacy

The Ledger Awards, named in honour of Ledger's contribution to comic book art, were organised to 'acknowledge excellence in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n comic
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

art and publishing'. The Ledger Awards commenced in 2004 and ran until 2007.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK