The Making of iKlawa - 1

A cover for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (USA)

When I'm fully immersed in an assignment, I often come out at some stage of the production with concept art layouts so well defined that they can be exchanged for the real thing. This is just an expedient to show the publisher what the final output will be.

For an example, here we have some ideas for an illustration commissioned by Gordon Van Gelder ( The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) for the April 2006 issue cover . If you look quickly at these pictures as they appear in the blog, at a first glance they could seem a series of finished pieces, but take your time and click upon them. You'll see what we truly get during this round: just a pencil sketch mixed to a quick water-colored background!

concept art #1

The name for this Art Project had to be iKlawa, a word meaning spear in the Zulu idiom and its creation was intertwined to a novelet by the new fantastic author Donald Mead. If you wish to know something more about him - I wasn't able to find an official website - go checking immediately the radiant interview realized by The Slush God aka F&SF Assistant Editor aka John Joseph Adams. About the suggestive story, it was a blend of history and fantasy taking us into Zulu territory during the days of British colonial expansion. The reading was really superb. I put all my efforts trying to conjure up the magic atmosphere permeating the text.

As you can imagine, beyond the subject itself the real challenge behind a historical piece is that you cannot cheat anyone making up fantasy costumes and pretending they are the original stuff! Firstly, the author is the researcher Number One, then there will always be someone pointing the finger and saying 'Ehi, but...that gown is Swahili, not Zulu!' Out there there's a crowd of experts!

... and I did a lot of research here... You can bet on it. Anything you see in the drawings is one hundred percent Zulu native! The second sketch was simply a variant where Nokukhanya, the main character, sits inside a magic circle while the God-lizard's eye peers into the hut.

concept art #2

Along the way, a third sketch made his way through my sparkling brain and I fell immediately in love with a new idea. It was a dynamic vision and all the elements of the story were again present: the diviner, the God-lizard, the dream of the sea of blood, the Zulu and British armies going to clash in the background...

concept art #3

When I showed the material, I stopped for a while and I took a deep breath. Gordon said to me: "Well, Maurizio... I like second and third sketch! Both of them! What do we do now? Which one would you like to paint?'

...hmmm...

Yes. Which one? ;-)

to be continued