F&SF Magazine - "Five Thrillers" by Robert Reed

Taaadaaa...!!! Here's my new cover coming out this month on the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for the original novelet Five Thrillers by Robert Reed (April 2008). Oh, I'm really satisfied how this one turned out...!

INSPIRATION TIPS:

While I was reading this captivating story, I came across a chapter titled The End of the World. Wow, I thought! What an occasion! When will I have another first-hand opportunity to paint the end of the world?

I attacked the blank canvas and the above illustration is very close to my sketch #1.

After a week I dropped to Gordon Van Gelder a series of sketches, all of them tempting, but maybe he was hit by the same feelings and replied: "I've gotten a few opinions and all five of your sketches are well-received, but I think sketch #1 is the one to use. As you say, how often do you get to depict the end of the world?".

I tried to converge a cinematic sense in this one, so you can see that all the borders are slightly motion blurred. To the guy asking from the last row: "Yes, this isn't the end of the world of some distant planet. We are talking about the End of the World of our own Earth". I cannot add much more before beginning to spoiler you. Run to buy the magazine and leave a comment after having read Five Thrillers...! You're welcome!

Last Man Standing 3

(click on the pics for a larger version)

The ' Big Unveiling' is going on at the ConceptArt.org website. I can finally share the artwork I've been realizing for the massive and awesome competition organized by Cody Tilson: Last Standing Man 3 (theme for the first Round: Underneath it All).

Details

Alternative Realities - Sketch A or Sketch B?

One of the dangers for an illustrator is to fall in love with one of his/her concept arts. When you are working for a professional publishing house, it's probable you will be requested to create a few sketches or preliminary concept arts before going ahead with the commission. It's normal. They want you push the boundaries of your fantasy for them and you're going to be paid for something you love so much.

What if the chosen sketch is the one you love the less... ? It takes some experience to paint with an abstract-mode mind. It happened several times at the beginning of my career and I wished secretly that the publisher would choose the proposal 'A' instead of 'B'. This kind of situation is easy to happen with big clients.

F&SF Magazine - Alternative Concept Art
for 'Lázaro y Antonio' by Marta Randall

Q. How can this disturbing dilemma be solved ?

A. Well, once you have been hired, nothing forbids you in forwarding your proposals together with motivations that could influence the jury in a subliminal way. In addition to that, work hard, plunge in the stream and try to realize a series of concepts each one more captivating than the other, so you will not have to suffer too much!

Q. What about the discarded sketches?

A. Forget about them! Time is a harsh tyrant! At most, one day they could end up in a volume dedicated to you Art, couldn't they?

F&SF Magazine - "Lázaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall

- Composition Rules Tips

Here's my latest cover appeared on the June issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction for an original novelette by Marta Randall entitled Lázaro y Antonio. As you can see confronting the illustration with the magazine, this is a perfect example of partnership between image and type, whereas even the feared bar code doesn't cover relevant parts of the composition. As it always happens the original is much better, but the first impact is what counts...


The best illustrations are the ones which work with or without type. The artwork has to be complete and satisfy aesthetical as well as functional values. Don't think just for an instant that you can draw only the needed spaces. On the contrary, it's important to paint more than the visible surface. I'll try to explain this concept.

Take note that most of my artworks are digital. The forbidden areas in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science graphic layout are recurrent spaces: the upper and colored band, a lateral list of authors/titles and an impressive bar code on the bottom, so all my initial sketches develop along specular diagonals. In this case the character looks north-eastward. Being the artwork something composed on different digital planes - magic Photoshop stuff! - the background was painted separately on a different canvas while the character was glued on it during a subsequent phase. It means that behind the portrayed man there is a painted portion of drawing! All this comes back very useful when you need to move objects in the scene an inch ahead and it's an incredible bonus when your artistic flexibility has to meet the publisher's demands.

The illustration has received a lot of appreciations from my fans, but I think you should find and read the story that inspired my mind and let me dream for a few days another astounding and touching Universe! All the above processes can be compared to a sort of automatic writing. Once you've mastered the basic principles, you can dedicate yourself to the words and open the main door to the Art dwelling in your heart.

Expedition to DELOS 100

My illustration originally created for the story Pictures from an Expedition by Alexander Irvine and published on the cover of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, continues to live and prosper! These days has been published for the first time in Italy as a cover for the issue #100 of Delos, the news magazine published by the major Italian portal dedicated to fantastic literature!

Well, it’s not the same image indeed! I modified it adapting the size to the magazine format… and it came out something fresh completely different! I enjoyed the transformation. It seems now that the photographer holding the camera is more distant from the austronaut. As a consequence, the field of vision looks enlarged, the character more frontal and it’s possible to see much more Martian landscape in the background.

For all the fans, a faithful high-quality Limited Edition Print – 13” x 17” -, signed by the Artist is now available in the Store. I’ve been visiting the Irvine realm and the author has launched an interesting Blog. Rummaging through the posts, I saw another illustration realized for the same story by the talented Patrick Arrasmith gracing the cover of an astounding Alex collection released by Night Shade Books. Alex, that story rocks! And if I remember well there’s a follow-up in the making! ...or is it already out? :)

'Pictures from an Expedition' Bibliography

- THE MAGAZINE OF F&SF, 2003 September, USA

- SPECTRUM #11, Underwood Books, 2004 USA

- DESIGN GRAPHICS, Cover and Portfolio, 2004 AUSTRALIA and USA

- LIMITED PRINT EDITION, Manzieri Store, 2006 ITALY

- DELOS #100, 2007 ITALY