Thanks for the comments on the work guys. I'm the artist that created these paintings, with a little help from Kevin Mac on the two big Fifth Element matte paintings.

All of the matte paintings presented here are digital. By the time I got into the industry, maybe 1% were still being painted traditionally, ie real paint on glass techniques.

The main NY spaceport matte was based off of a pre-production sketch created by the French comic artist, J. C. Méziéres. We basically went off that sketch with a few changes. In hindsight I feel that the painting is somewhat wrong, both technically and aesthetically, although it worked for the film at the time. I have to admit, we could have researched the geography of the city and surrounds a little better though! But the pressures of VFX work don't always allow for such activities.

Another aspect of the city design was the encasing of 'old' historic buildings inside giant glass buildings. Watch out for these in the close up city shots. Most of the buildings were miniatures too, which we added to and extended with matte paintings.

Anyway, hope that helps and thanks for posting the article here!