Emilio Ruiz del Rio
i first heard of him when i was reading an article on Ray Harryhausen and Ray said he used a Spanish matte painter who worked on cut out aluminum. at first i thought it was a typo. cut out aluminum? much later i found his site and sure enough, he painted in camera mattes on site with aluminum. sadly he passed away this year. heres a few pictures of his work and a documentary has been made on him that i cant wait to come out on DVD.
Available link for download