Who's Behind the Dance of Death Artwork ?

Posted by Shadow on June 8, 2004 @ 14:35

Some Maiden BB posters e-mailed Monica J. Roxburgh, the woman who owns the rights to the masks used in the Dance of Death cover, and received a reply saying, in different words, the following:

The cover, although it is not mentioned in the credits, was made by none other by David Patchett, the guy behind Cathedral covers... Reportedly, Patchett's cover only included Eddie and the monks, but Rod thought it was really empty, so he hired someone from IM.com to design the characters surrounding Eddie using the program Poser. Then, he gave the roughs back to Patchett and asked him to work on the skin and mask textures... Patchett did so but was unimpressed with the result and asked not to be included in the credits. The masks have also been used in Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

The official explanation given by Bruce was that the cgi characters belong to Patchett as well, but he only gave it to Maiden as a rough, and they said they didn't want him to work on it anymore, that they "liked the vibe".

Many thanks to several Maiden BB posters

19 Comments

gor said:

hey! that's my post from my trivia thread...

#7278, June 8, 2004 @ 15:10

Shadow said:

Yep. There was a lot of posts in various threads saying the same, but your was written in the best English

#7279, June 8, 2004 @ 15:39

LooseCannon said:

Go Gor!!

#7280, June 8, 2004 @ 15:52

Real World said:

So the cover is unfinished

#7281, June 8, 2004 @ 16:48

The Saint said:

> hey! that's my post from my trivia thread...

I hesitated to put this as new before having another source, but Gor, did you uncover that story that I read in your thread ?

Cheers

#7282, June 8, 2004 @ 16:53

dogigniter said:

interesting... but not really

#7283, June 8, 2004 @ 17:14

The Saint said:

Mav, you shall put this on your DOD commentary...

or not ?

Cheers

#7284, June 8, 2004 @ 17:26

gor said:

well, i never posted this on the official imbb meaning it to end up as news and I din't expect it to anyway, I just posted it as it was posted when the fuss about the cover was still hot. I have tried vigorously to find Patchett's email and ask him personally but the bastard hides well ! As usual, I don't remember who had posted it back then, as I seldomly look out for the poster.

#7285, June 8, 2004 @ 17:40

The Saint said:

> well, i never posted this on the official imbb meaning it to end up as news and I din't expect it to anyway, I just posted it as it was posted when the fuss about the cover was still hot. I have tried vigorously to find Patchett's email and ask him personally but the bastard hides well  ! As usual, I don't remember who had posted it back then, as I seldomly look out for the poster.

Well, I hope you'll be able to find that Patchett... It would really be interesting to know the story behind that cover.

As for the person responsible of the humans around Eddie, I think Iron Maiden's management made him/her sign an ETERNAL CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSE !

Cheers

#7286, June 8, 2004 @ 17:43

gor said:

> Well, I hope you'll be able to find that Patchett... It would really be interesting to know the story behind that cover.

As for the person responsible of the humans around Eddie, I think Iron Maiden's management made him/her sign an ETERNAL CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSE !

Cheers

I think he's under no contract, he just fears for his life!

#7287, June 8, 2004 @ 18:01

The Saint said:

Have you tried contacting his management ?

[http://www.onefifteen.com/artist.htm](http://www.onefifteen.com/artist.htm)

Maybe by telling them you want to run an interview ? Or that you're interested in buying original artwork ? Or being at his next expo ?



Cheers

#7288, June 8, 2004 @ 18:04

The Saint said:

Interesting to note that someone might have spotted it a long time ago:

Yes, 3D-modelling is partly very bad, but rather Dave Patchett-esque (of Cathedral artist fame) cover isn't worst I've seen for sure (and insides are very stylish, indeed). What's this fuss about the cover art, it is the music that matters.

Source: [MetalProvider](http://www.metalprovider.com/am/reviews/im-dance.htm)

Cheers

#7289, June 8, 2004 @ 18:08

The Saint said:

I have the link to the original thread that talked about Dave Patchett in the IMBB:

[http://www.ironmaiden.org/bb/showthread.ph...&threadid=36516](http://www.ironmaiden.org/bb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36516)

Of course, it won't work, since the BB is down.

But here's the text:

*"So I have the 411 on the DoD cover art
This is unsubstantiated, but it has the ring of truth to it. It has been pieced together from contact with goblinart and Mark Wilkins.

An artist by the name of Dave Patchett designed the cover, which, at the time, was just the Reaper and the monk guys.

Smallwood sees it and decides it needs sprucing up. He contacts a small company in Oregon, USA and orders some masks. Then they employ a man named Simon Fowler who takes some models and does a photo shoot. With proofs in hand, an unnamed member of the Ironmaiden.com web team superimposes the figures over the original cover using Poser. Smallwood requests that Dave Patchett 'fix' it, so he redoes the masks and skin tone of the cgi figures. Smallwood requests that the cgi stays, so Patchett makes it as requested but requests that he's not credited for the artwork.

As a result, we have DoD.

So, Skunk, which one of you guys was the CGI artist?"*

Don't know who was the poster though... Maybe he will recognize his own words and help us contact other people to unlock the mystery

Cheers

#7290, June 8, 2004 @ 18:15

gor said:

yes I have. they haven't replied. i tried asking them for his email once more, lets see what happens. i said I wanted an interview with him. infact, he's the only artist on their roster with no contact info...

#7291, June 8, 2004 @ 18:18

The Saint said:

> yes I have. they haven't replied. i tried asking them for his email once more, lets see what happens. i said I wanted an interview with him. infact, he's the only artist on their roster with no contact info...

Seen that. Very frustrating. But maybe he wants to avoid the cohorts of Cathedral fans...

Names put in my above posts could help. That other BBer seemed to get the info with their help.

Cheers

#7292, June 8, 2004 @ 18:20

The Saint said:

Another artist named Steve O'Malley has worked on a few occasions with Dave, so maybe we could contact him and get some additional info...

I haven't looked for his contact yet...

Sorry to post that many ideas one after another

Cheers

#7293, June 8, 2004 @ 18:26

Anonymous said:

> Mav, you shall put this on your DOD commentary...

or not ?

Cheers

I shall... if the Lord giveth me time enough !

#7294, June 8, 2004 @ 18:46

Anonymous said:

Sorry to kick back up an old topic, but I would like to point out that the statement supposedly made by Ms. Roxburgh in the very first post of this thread is actually erroneous.

Goblin Art provided the masks for the *Dance of Death* cover, but:<ul>1. Ms. Roxburgh didn't know anything about David Prachett's involvement with the artwork for the cover;
2. Goblin Art never supplied any masks for the film *Eyes Wide Shut*.</li></ul>I don't know who made up this "information" about an email from Goblin Art or were the mix-up actually took place. We need to be more careful in the future about the so-called information we get from the official Maiden bulletin board...

#7295, October 4, 2004 @ 08:29

The Saint said:

The info came from the reliable gor, didn't it ?

Anyway, I don't think we're reporting info from the IMBB if it's just written as is. I always try to find another source or put it in the rumors section.

Cheers

#7296, October 4, 2004 @ 12:47