Scified interviews Alien: Earth Xenomorph artist Ken Barthelmey & reveals unseen concept art!

Ken Barthelmey is a renowned creature and character designer, having provided a number of concepts for a number of high profile sci-fi projects over recent years - including more recently Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth series. For Alien: Earth, Ken provided a wide array of alternative Xenormoph design concepts, as well as rough sketches for the Eggs, Facehuggers and Chestbursters. However, the adult Xenomorph is where he focused most of his time. I had the pleasure of asking Ken some questions about his work on Alien: Earth and he also provided three pieces of additional Alien concept art we're exclusively revealing along with this interview! We hope you enjoy the read!

Ken Barthelmey Alien: Earth Interview

Scified: When did you first become involved with Alien: Earth?

Ken Barthelmey: In 2021, Tom Woodruff from Studio ADI reached out to me, asking me if I would be interested to create some quick concept designs for an upcoming Alien project. Alien is one of my favorite movie franchises so I was fired up to start.

I had already collaborated a few times with Tom and Alec before and working on an Alien project with them felt very special to me. I remember there had just been announcements about a new Alien film (Romulus) and the FX series. I hadn’t read the script, so I didn’t know which project I was actually working on, but they later confirmed it was indeed for the series.

Studio ADI was involved in the very early development phase of the project. Later Weta Workshop came on board and handled the final design and suit.

Over the years you’ve provided some incredible creature designs for a number of different sci-fi projects. Were Xenomorphs the only creatures you provided concepts for on Alien: Earth? What other creatures did you help design?

I did various sketches of alien eggs, facehuggers, chestbusters, and the full-grown alien itself. These were very rough pencil sketches, though. We only had a few weeks to compile a bunch of designs and I mainly focused on the alien. For the alien I created more refined drawings.

Were you given specific guidelines to adhere to for your Xenomorph aesthetics or were you given free range to explore your own ideas?

Production wanted the Alien to look similar to the original but still different enough. They didn’t want any of the biomechanical elements from the original and instead aimed for a more organic look. The brief suggested a crustacean inspired Xenomorph. The Alien also needed to be agile enough to climb walls, so the design had to reflect that. I remember that in my early sketches, I still included too many biomechanical details and had to pull back.

So far we’ve seen a crustacean-inspired Xenomorph and a few alternative designs that featured some Xenomorphs with more muscular tails for climbing – are there other variations you applied to other Xenomorph designs?

Besides those, I experimented with a very thin and elongated head. Another design featured sharp, pointed tubes on its back. While it looked intriguing from a design standpoint, it wouldn’t have been practical for a suit. The Alien had to be agile and able to climb walls, all of that had to be taken into consideration when designing a creature. I also created a version with thin, translucent skin covering its body. There wasn’t enough time to complete a colored 3D concept, but I’m sure I would have had a lot of fun creating one.

What’s the most challenging part of creating a new Xenomorph design?

Staying true to the original while giving it a fresh spin is the most challenging part. The Giger design is already perfect, it makes no sense to try to improve it, that would be impossible. The great thing about the Alien is that it mixes its genes with the host, which allows for a lot of creativity. They explored that idea in Alien 3, but I feel it could be pushed even further and I hope future films will do that. It would be a great opportunity to experiment with different designs. Imagine an Alien hybrid born from an animal like a lion, it could look familiar, yet entirely new. The possibilities are endless.

How long does it take you to go from conceptual idea to submission-ready artwork? What’s your creative process like?

I think I worked on the project for about two weeks. Because of the short deadline we could only spend a day or two on each concept. I remember Tom had meetings with the production team at the end of each week to present our work, so we had to finish everything as quickly as possible.

Which Alien: Earth piece are you most proud of?

I like the crustacean inspired Xenomorph concept. It was based on a personal piece I created in 2016. I always wanted to see a Xeno without lips and I would have loved to develop that design further in 3D.

What did you think of the other Specimens in the show and was the Xenomorph your favorite? Or did the T. Ocellus steal the show for you too?

The Alien is still my favorite, but they were all very creative designs and I liked that each of them had its own functionality.

As a “creature maker”, what did you think of the Plumbicare / Orchid specimen? We’re seeing more exploration into hostile flora in Alien: Earth and the upcoming Predator: Badlands – do you think hostile alien plants can be as terrifying as conventional organisms?

Conventional organisms can run after you, which is scarier for me. Plants are probably not as terrifying, but they are certainly extremely lethal!

You publicly mentioned you enjoyed Alien: Earth, can you tell us what your favorite moment in the show was?

My favorite moment in the show was the party massacre in episode 2. Overall, I liked the characters of the show. Kirsh and Morrow were my favorites. I also loved the paint job on the Alien. They added some patterns on the forehead, which I think worked really well.

If you had to pick one, which was your favorite episode?

Episode 5 was my personal favorite. I love the retro set design. The episode was well made and felt like a mini Alien film.

We’re big fans of your work and we want to know – what’s next for Ken? Are there any exciting upcoming sci-fi projects you’re currently or soon will be involved in?

Thank you. I created a few concepts for the upcoming Voltron film. I also helped design the main monster for an upcoming Indian horror film and there are a few other projects I can’t talk about yet.

I want to extend a big thank you again to Ken for taking the time to answer our questions and for sharing some of his unseen concept art with us! You can find more of Ken's work on his official website and you can stay connected with his ongoing projects by following him on Instagram, on X and liking his Facebook page!