Christopher Leith Evans is an American artist, digital matte painter and visual effects art director for major motion pictures. Evans' paintings are characterized by a highly realistic representation of landscape, architecture, and the human figure.
Early life
Evans was born in 1954 in Bremerton, Washington, to Virginia Joan and Alan Edward Evans. As a child, Evans was encouraged by his parents to express himself through drawing and painting. In high school, he joined the staff of the school newspaper, drawing cartoons and caricatures, writing and illustrating articles and taking photographs. Inspired by a teacher, Evans began to focus his academic career on art, traveling to Europe upon graduation and viewing classical art in museums in Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and England. While his family members supported his artistic endeavors as a youngster, when Evans applied to college he was encouraged to seek an education preparing him for a "real job". He began classes at UCLA as an art history major, but continued to paint in his free time. Upon showing his work to his art history professors, Evans was encouraged by them to change his major area of study, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1977 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, sculpture and graphic arts. He continued his studies and received a Master of Fine Arts from the same university in 1980.
Film career
Shortly after college, Evans watched the film The Empire Strikes Back. Impressed by the film's portrayal of the Cloud City, he submitted samples of his work to George Lucas' company, Industrial Light & Magic, and was offered a position as a matte painter. Evans subsequently became the head of the matte painting department at ILM, where he continued to work until 1989, contributing to such films as Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Dark Crystal and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While at ILM, Evans was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Willow, and was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for his work on The Ewok Adventure. After leaving ILM, Evans joined Matte World Digital, where he worked as a digital matte painter and art director, contributing to films including Titanic, The Green Mile and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
