Keith Christensen

Keith Christensen is an American concept artist and designer with over twenty years of experience in film and television. A native of Chicago, Christensen attended art school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has worked as a concept artist since moving to Los Angeles in 1997. Besides drawing and painting, Christensen has also sculpted concepts and designs for television and film productions.

Christensen was hired in late October 2018 to create concept art for Dune and collaborated for over a year with director Denis Villeneuve and production designer Patrice Vermette. Pickups and reshoots in 2020 necessitated some additional work on existing and new designs.

Christensen's conceptual work on the film focused primarily on clothing and armour designs and character designs. These included Fremen stillsuits and clothes (including further elaborating preliminary designs by Joseph Cross), the armour and practical military clothing of House Atreides, House Harkonnen and the emperor's sardaukar, the clothing of duke Leto, Dr. Yueh, baron Harkonnen and Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, as well as the ceremonial clothing of the Bene Gesserit order and the representatives of the Spacing Guild.

Gallery

House Atreides

Duke Leto in House Atreides uniform

Duke Leto in House Atreides armour

House Atreides armour and armoured soldier (armour, sword, personal Holtzmann shield)

House Atreides armour (ortho sketch)

House Atreides commando (lightly armoured, helmet, projectile gun)

House Atreides commando (back and front)

Duncan Idaho in a House Atreides flight suit

House Atreides flight suit helmet

House Harkonnen

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in his custom armour

Alternate design, with baron Vladimir Harkonnen creepy suspensors

Glossu Rabban Harkonnen in his custom armour

House Harkonnen armour and armoured soldier (armour, sword, personal Holtzmann shield)

House Harkonnen armour concept art (ortho sketch)

House Harkonnen armour concept art (ortho sketch and render)

House Harkonnen armour with cloak

House Harkonnen armour with cloak (ortho sketches)

House Harkonnen armour and hooded desert cloak

House Harkonnen armour and hooded desert cloak (ortho sketches)

House Harkonnen desert combat armour and gear

House Corrino and the sardaukar

Sardaukar soldier in armour

Sardaukar soldier in armour (close-ups on details)

Sardaukar armour concept art (early ortho sketch)

Sardaukar armour concept art (ortho sketch)

Sardaukar helmet breakdown

Side-by-side comparison of soldier armour concept art (House Harkonnen, House Corrino's sardaukar, House Atreides)

Sardaukar soldier in alternate blue-tinted armour

Sardaukar soldier in alternate blue-tinted armour and 'insectile' slit visor helmet

Sardaukar soldier in alternate red-tinted armour and 'ghost' helmet

People of Arrakis, the Fremen and stillsuits

A dune man spice miner, spice harvester crewman

Stillsuit early design (with fluid sacks)

Stillsuit early design (refined)

Stillsuit early design (material study)

Stillsuit shoe and boot design variations (largelly unused)

Final design for the film's stillsuits

Stillsuit pouches and storage spaces

Stillsuit headgear gradual design studies

Stillsuit headgear gradual design studies

Stillsuit headgear gradual design studies

Stillsuit nostril plugs design studies

Stillsuit headgear design studies

Stillsuit headgear final design

Stillsuit glove design

Stilgar in stillsuit and cloak concept art

Fremen Jubba cloak concept (unused)

Crysknife concept art (first variation)

Crysknife concept art (second variation)

Crysknife concept art (third variation)

Sandrider stillsuit and protective clothing concept art

Fremen waternaster clothing and Water Rings concept art

Fremen sayyadina ceremonial clothing concept art

The Bene Gesserit Order

Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother cloak design

Bene Gesserit headdress and veil design

Bene Gesserit delegation arrival on Caladan

Fremen sayyadina ceremonial clothing

The Spacing Guild

Spacing Guild emblems

Spacing Guild representative (early sketch)

Spacing Guild representative (refined sketch)

Spacing Guild representative

Spacing Guild representative (with notes added by Christensen)

Other works contributed to by Christensen

Film concept art

• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• The Last Samurai (2003)
• Apocalypto (2006)
• X-Men 3 (2006)
• 300 (2007)
• Watchmen (2009)
• Tron: Legacy (2010)
• The Last Airbender (2010)
• Oblivion (2011)
• Battleship (2011)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (David Fincher adaptation, late 2000s, cancelled)
• The Avengers (2012)
• The Amazing Spiderman (2012)
• Man of Steel (2013)
• The Wolverine (2013)
• X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
• The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)
• Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
• Jupiter Ascending (2015)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
• Logan (2017)
• Dunkirk (2017)
• Ghost in the Shell (2017)
• The Dark Tower (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Aquaman (2018)

Television concept art

• Altered Carbon (2018-2020)

Animated series concept art

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• X-Men: Supernova

See also

• Art by Keith Christensen on the Dune Wiki

External links

• Keith Christensen's official website ("Art of Keith Christensen")
• Keith Christensen at ArtStation.com
• Interview with Keith Christensen (FilmSketchr.blogspot.com, 28 October 2021)
• Video interview with Keith Christensen (Designing Hollywood YouTube channel, 14 November 2021)
• Article on Keith Christensen's work on Dune (DuneNewsNet.com, 13 November 2021)
• Keith Christensen on the Internet Movie Database