Charles Vess’ Instructions by Neil Gaiman

This is just lovely. Neil Gaiman reading Instructions while showing Charles Vess’ drawings from pencil to paint.



And...Charles was kind enough to give me a signed and drawn in edition of his artbook Drawing Down the Moon to give away on Tor.com. Details soon!

Art Out Loud DVD trailer

Trailer for Art Out Loud, Vol 3 from Kate Feirtag on Vimeo.

A little set-up tease for an upcoming DVD of the September 12th's Art Out Loud at the Society of Illustrators with:
James Gurney
Sam Weber
Charles Vess
Donato Giancola
Greg Manchess

Earlier report of the event here. I'll give a heads-up when the DVD is available, of course.

Hmmm..makes me want to start another Art Out Loud.....

Art Out Loud 6: James Gurney, Sam Weber, Charles Vess, Greg Mnachess, Donato Giancola

MORE PHOTOS HERE

We decided to take advantage of having so many artists in town for the Spectrum reception by hosting the sixth installment of the Society of Illustrators painting demo series, Art Out Loud. We had James Gurney, Sam Weber, Donato Giancola, Greg Manchess, and Charles Vess painting simultaneously while spectators milled about, watched, and asked as many questions as they could think of.

It's an extraordinarily generous thing for the participating artists to do -- not only did they volunteer their weekend away, but painting in unfamiliar surroundings with a hundred brand new best friends watching cannot be easy. Art is not typically a spectator sport and artists are usually left to face "ugly stages" and failed experiments on their own. On top of that, add the fact that many of the people in the audience were equally accomplished illustrators themselves. And yet all five of these guys did a tremendous job.

The doors opened at 1:00 and the crowd broke into groups around each easel. After a quick introduction the artists started to address the group around them and encourage questions. Some viewers parked next to one artist for most of the four hours, absorbing everything they could, others took a more ala carte approach and skipped around, taking little bits of inspiration from all of them.

Greg Manchess worked on a continuation of his "arctic explorer" images. He also brought a stack of completed paintings for people to look at.

James Gurney had Walt and Roger Reed come in to sit for him while he painted their portraits and interviewed them. While he worked, he let people thumb through his sketch books -- every page is a watercolor masterpiece tracing his travels through Malta and France. He also had an early copy of his upcoming "how to" book, Imaginatve Realism. It looks so good, even I feel like I need a copy and I don't paint.

Donato gave me a great surprise. Back in June I put on a full suit of armor during a painting class. (Wouldn't you?) After it created a stir, Donato ran out and set up lights to take photos. He mentioned he wanted to do a Joan of Arc painting but I never thought he'd actually get around to doing so...until he showed up to Art Out Loud with a four foot long panel with Me-As-Joan drawn on it. I was humbled and tickled, to say the least.

Charles Vess continued a large scale Lady of the Lake painting that he began at the Illustration Master Class. He also had previews of his upcoming art book, Drawing Down the Moon, and his next children's book with Neil Gaiman, Instructions. (Me wants!)

Sam Weber started with an abstract mono-print and delicately turned it into a haunting portrait. It was interesting to see his board covered in reference shots, but used more for inspiration than literal translation. Eric Fortune watched him for quiet a while, they both have a similar style of slowly laying layer upon layer of near-impossibly thin pigment. At one point, I overheard Eric and Sam agree that the best part of painting is "the last 20 hours."

It was an inspiring day. If the demos weren't enough for anyone, then having people in the audience like Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, John Cuneo, Terese Neilsen, Eric Fortune, Bruce Jensen, Daren Bader, and Craig Elliot should have kept anyone busy.

Once again, thanks to Greg, James, Donato, Sam, and Charles. And a huge thanks to the Society staff. They spoiled us and the audience endlessly -- from quiche in the morning, to gourmet lunch sandwiches, fresh fruit, and home baked cookies. It was an afternoon that couldn't be beat.

Art Out Loud 6: Demos with James Gurney, Charles Vess, Sam Weber, Donato, and Greg Manchess

It's been too long since the last Art Out Loud painting demo, making us doubly excited to announce Art Out Loud 6.

Five artists will be painting and answering questions simultaneously within the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame gallery. If you get there early, the Spectrum exhibit will be on display in the main gallery from noon - 4:00.

The line up is awesome with a great array of painting styles. These guys are not just the top artists in the field but they are also incredibly giving and eager to share what they have earned over the years. Stop by and bug them with all the questions you can think of.

James Gurney
Sam Weber
Charles Vess
Donato Giancola
Greg Manchess

Art Out Loud 6
Saturday September 12th
1:00 -- 5:00pm
Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street, NY NY
$10 students, $20 members, $25 non-members
Refreshments included
RSVP kevin@societyillustrators.org / 212 838 2560

Warning: Space is very limited and tickets are cheap. Buy tickets in advance, all previous Art Out Louds have sold out.

[Write-up of previous Art Out Loud: Jim Bennet, Gary Kelley, and Greg Manchess]

Charles Vess at work on Neil Gaiman's Instructions

Sometime you just have to love opening email. This morning I got a note from Charles Vess showing off a few new paintings for his next children's book, Neil Gaiman's Instructions. He's also posted some sketches and final paintings on his blog, Greenmanpress.com. Like their previous collaboration, Blueberry Girl, Instructions based on one of a Neil's poems -- this one about how to survive a fairytale...which isn't surprisingly different than how to survive life.

Charles gave me a sneak peak at the project about a month ago and I've been excited to see it develope. I know he's working like a bandit to get it done on a rush deadline but you'd never know it from the quality of the artwork. These are simply amazing.

Blueberry Girl, Charles Vess and Neil Gaiman at Books of Wonder

[Pictures here]

Originally I started this entry with “What a great day.” but Neil Gaiman’s post, late last night, gave the day an even greater poignancy in reflection.

Books of Wonder hosted an art exhibit, reading, and signing of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' new picture book, Blueberry Girl -- a prayer to a new life.

The day started not-early-enough before Bridget McGovern called and told me that there was already a line out the bookstore door. It was a quarter to 11:00 and the signing was scheduled for 1:00. I hustled over and, thanks to Bridget, we got in soon after and had a low ticket number.

Once in we had were able to view the artwork for a while -- I've talked about the paintings before but I had not seen all of them and I certainly had not seen them framed up and presented as a single body of work. It's a wonderful collection of images, in a slightly different style for Charles. Later on he would tell the crowd that it took him a long time to give himself the permission to utilize so much white space in the paintings. I’m thankful that he was allotted that time. It adds a dreamy every-time-ness that is so appropriate for the book.

Not unexpectedly we ran into many other artists -- Rebbecca Guay, Michael Kaluta, Rick Berry, Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon, Kristina Carrol, Tristan Elwell, and others. Michael Kaluta mentioned the glow of the room and he was right -- the place was packed with people excited by words and pictures, and packed with friends and artists that had traveled up to five hours to wish Charles and Neil, and their book, well.

After the art viewing the crowd gathered around on the floor in a semi-circle, kindergarten story-time style. Neil talked about writing the poem (in a hotel room in Vegas, of all places) as a gift for Tori Amos and her soon-to-be-born daughter. He read the book, noting that it was one of the few times he could read an entire book to a roomful of people and be done in two and half minutes.

Charles gave a quick slide show going over his first rough thumbnails, refined drawings, and some alternate versions of the paintings. He mentioned that the 18 lines of the poem doesn’t have a linear narrative so he quickly came to utilize images of pathways and migrating animals as a means of visualizing the journey of a girl’s life. He also mentioned that he did not want to lock down the “Blueberry Girl” as a specific person with a particular nationality -- instead he changes her race throughout the story and makes her any girl. The repetition of animal imagery helps maintain consistency throughout -- the same owl connects a blond haired girl on one page to an African-American girl on the next, and so on.

The goal of any artist working on a picture book is to add another dimension to the story -- to make the words and images together become a greater third thing. It’s an unqualified success. Bravo to both creators.

And then the signing began...lots and lots of signing. Again, thanks to Bridget we were able to get in early. I've known Charlie for years but have never met Neil...and was very shy to meet him now. Bridget forced my to say hello and I’m glad she did. All the rumors are true - he is the most gracious and charming thing you could cross paths with.

Some friends and I left for a while to garb a bite to eat and came back a few hours later - Charles and Neil were only halfway through the line, still chatting and being gracious to everyone as they stepped up. We left for dinner and Charles showed up hours later, high on adrenaline. It was a great night of eating and talking. Charles showed off the proofs to his art book, Drawing Down the Moon (due out “before Comic Con)....Holy smokes does it look great. A thick book, just about every paintings and drawing being a full page. Charles does not have an extensive collection of his work online, going through these pages and seeing so much work in one sitting is a heart-stopper.

Charles Vess and Neil Gaiman at Books of Wonder, mark your calendar

This is a can't-miss event. Charles Vess and Neil Gaiman will be doing a Blueberry Girl reading, signing, art show, slideshow, book launch party at Books of Wonder on March 7th.

From Charles' blog:
"All of the original art will be on display and for sale, Neil will be there to read the text (and , one can only assume , other written delights) and I will be presenting a slide show discussing the visual evolution of his 18 line poem into a 32 page picture book."

I fortunate enough to see a number of these paintings at ComicCon a few years ago and I'm very excited to see them again.

I started an event page on Tor.om with some details -- I'll add more as they are announced.

RELATED:
Charles Vess Society of Illustrators lecture
Charles Vess and Michael Kaluta: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

2009 Illustration Master Class registration now open.

I will write about this more in depth on Tor.com in the upcoming week but I have a feeling it will sell out fast -- in fact, it's already half filled by from last year's alumni -- so I wanted to mention it quickly here first. Illustration Master Class is a one week intensive class that is i-n-t-e-n-s-e!

Illustration Master Class
June 15-21, 2009
Amherst, MA
$1,850.00 - includes studio class, lectures, room and board.

Full and guest faculty:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Jon Foster
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo
Charles Vess

Some notes from this year's class here, here,and here.

Message Board.

Flickr set here

The credits I promised earlier.

TOP ROW:
Charles Vess, Aleksi Briclot, Nic Klein, Keith Thompson, Donato Giancola, R. K. Post, John Harris

BOTTOM ROW:
Brois Vallejo, Steve Hickman, Sam Weber, Brom, Dave Seeley, Dan Dos Santos, Eric Fortune





TOP ROW:
Shelly Wan, Shaun Tan, James Gurney, Vin Di Fate, Jeremy Geddes, Kinuko Craft, Patrick Arrasmith

BOTTOM ROW:
David Ho, Red Nose, Tristan Elwell, Scott Altmann, Scott Fischer, Robh Ruppel, JJ Palencar





TOP ROW:
Jaime Jones, Vance Kovacs, Steve Youll, Cory and Catska Ench, Jason Chan, Todd lockwood, Daren Bader

BOTTOM ROW:
Jaime Jones, Craig Phillips, Erik Gist, Christian Alzmann, Greg Manchess, Omar Rayyan, Thomas Kuebler

And Another Hobbit

In the comments section of the previous post, Charles Vess turned me onto Tove Jansson's take on The Hobbit -- and it is charming and fantastic. She also has an Alice in Wonderland that I am just loving. I'm looking forward to learning more about Tove Jansson.

Charles - You need to start some kind of "Artist of the Day/Week/Month" blog. 'Cause, like, you have tons of free time, right?

World Fantasy Con, the Rest of the Days

I meant to blog each day as it happened but, as it happened, it got way too busy, too fun, and too tiring to do so. It was a great combination of meeting new people and talking to old friends -- whether they be artists, writers, or other publishers.

It certainly had one of the best art shows I’ve seen at a convention. That doesn’t happen by accident. Kudos to the art show organizers who stated a year ago that they were working for a show that would rival the Rhode Island World Fantasy. They succeeded. The exhibiting artists were all top notch and the Jeff Jones exhibit was very sweet icing on the cake. Besides the work, a highlight of the show as having many of the artists whip out sketch pads and draw throughout large portions of the day.

Unfortunately, the artist Guest of Honor, Moebius, did not not have the most impressive display. It was just a few prints that weren’t presented well. His speech, however, was charming. He would let his thoughts meander to the point where you’d wonder where on earth could he be going and then he'd pull it all together....and then wander even further out and pull it together again. He talked a lot about surrealism and action painting. He mentioned that he discovered surrealism when he was three -- that he drew his house with a chimney and smoke when their house didn't have a chimney. "I was speaking in symbols." He talked a lot about not drawing individual characters but, instead, trying to portray humanity as a character - linking into a collective symbols.

Jane Frank moderated a panel on digital versus traditional painting. It was a bit of an unfair fight, being a panel of five oil painters and no digital painters, so I threw out some devil’s advocate statements. The main thing I took issue with was an assertion that there were no young artists left and the ones that are around are not being properly trained. To the statement, “Where are the young people?" I had to say that they were all at ComicCon, which is an incredibly rich and vibrant community of artists of all media and all ages. The sf/f cons have stagnated a bit and don't seem interested in reaching out to newer artists, but that certainly doesn't mean they are not around. And as far as training goes...I’ll leave that for another post.

I moderated a panel on “What Makes a Cover Work” with Lou Anders, John Picacio, Tom Kidd, and Jacob Weisman. I was, honestly, quite nervous. The room was larger and more full than I had thought I would be but I think we did alright. Unfortunately, between being nervous, watching our time, and moderating I have no memory of what we said. Whatever it was I’m sure it was witty and insightful.

What else...

Shaun Tan got a much deserved World Fantasy Award for art. Gene Wolfe got best novel, for Solider of Sidon. Yay. And a personal favorite of mine, M. Rickert, got best anthology for Map of Dreams. Again, yay!

I heard about two sf/f illustration exhibits brewing, one in Connecticut and another in Michigan. (I hope I remembered that correctly.) Hopefully the curators for both will keep me posted.

I know I’ll regret missing someone if I do the shout-out thing but I’ll go ahead and do it anyway. I will even highlight names so that anyone that cares can skim and the rest of ya'll can stop reading:

I was thrilled to be seated next to Jane Yolen for the banquet. Hanging out with Steve Erickson and Cam (whose last name escapes me) was a blast, although they kept me up way too late. (I still say CampCon is a good idea, guys. Who wants to attend yet another panel when there are three-legged races to be run.) Thanks to Jeremy Lassen and Liz Gorinsky for late night breakies and getting me back to NYC. Lots of great talk time with Todd Lockwood, John Picacio, Lou Anders and it’s always a good day when I get to see the Vallejo/Bell/Palumbo posse. Thanks to Robert Wiener for putting together the Jones exhibit. I didn’t see enough of Charles Vess, Tom Kidd, Steve Hickman and some other folks but it was great to have some quick talks in and around other events. Vincent Villafranca is an awesome sculptor that I met at last year’s con, this year he had all new stuff, all of which I would have stolen if they didn’t weigh so damn much. As I mentioned in my earlier post, meeting Shaun Tan was a real kick. Mike Dringenberg has an awesome set of drawings for a new Firebird collection that I will look forward to.

I know I’m missing other highlights but at this point my mushy brain is barley functioning so this’ll have to do. I apologize for the fuzzy photos. My camera battery wore out and all I was left with was my crappy cell camera.

PHOTOS

Donato Giancola drawing. Dave Palumbo, Julie Bell, and Boris Vallejo drawing.

Todd Lockwood giving a quick digital demo. Omar Rayyan showing off is paintings in the lobby.

Saratoga Springs, City of Horses.

ComicCon Wednesday: Booth Hopping

Wednesday's set up is always a bit frantic but things seem to move very smoothly today. Most everyone was a bit bleary eyed from taking early morning flights. (I'm so glad to have come in a few days early.) Still, it's amazing how the buzz in the room will kick in a second wind.

After helping a few friends set up their booth I was able to run around and say a few "hellos" before having to settle into the Tor booth. Pictured here:

Charles Vess showed me some stunning paintings for an upcoming picture book of Neil Gaiman's poem, "Blueberry Girl." The paintings are a bit of a stylistic shift for Charles - a bit softer and more ethereal, less line work and more interaction in the inks. They really are drop-dead gorgeous. (For more info and better pictures click here.) No less stunning are his new paintings for a new edition of Stardust. There are banners for the Stardust movie all over the city -- it must be an exciting time for Charles.

Spectrum has a a booth for the first time. Here are the editors, Arnie and Cathy Fenner, and Arlo Burnett, Spectrum's webmaster. They have some photos from the day up on their website.

Rebecca Guay at her booth. I did not intend to give her wings...but now that they are there, I kinda like them.

Charles Vess Lecture

Charles Vess' lecture at the Society of Illustrators last Wednesday was a great time. The house was packed with an interesting cross section of people -- as Charles said, an interstitial crowd. The lecture was a highly personalized art survey of fantasy painting from the 19th Century up to the present. He titled it "Part Seen, Part Unseen" because it focused on work that does not attempt to dictate every detail but, rather, lets the viewer participate in the picture. Much of the work featured soft edges and what Charles nicely termed "poetic space." He covered many obscure European artists and when he showed more popular artists, like Rackham and Dulac, he found atypical works from them. Clearly he spends a lot of time searching books stores for these examples -- I can't imagine what his library looks like. Every slide was stunning -- I was hearing sighs from the people around me with every image.

Towards the end Charles launched into some of his own work and talked a bit about his process. The way he described the layering of inks made me wonder if his process was closer to glazing in oil painting than it is to watercolor...except for the added pressure of not being able to make corrections. Michael Kaluta mentioned that Charles is a "triumph of doing exactly what he wanted to do" -- rather than bending to more marketable imagery he waited to build an audience for the paintings he wanted to do. (And perhaps skipping a few meals in the early days to do so.) You can see his love of magic and story telling from his work, his influences, and in the way he describes working -- always looking for stories within the picture and making up stories as he paints them.

Charles is also creating some sculpture -- most notably a nineteen foot high fountain for his local theater. He seemed to relish the idea of having artwork out in the open where people could touch and interact with it. He then closed the lecture with a trailer for the Stardust movie. (Charles attended a screening at the TriBeca Film Festival. You can read his report here.)

In closing, Charles thanked the Society for hosting the lecture and called the institution the "womb of illustration." (Later in the week Chuck Pyle would call it the Vatican of illustration.) The annual Student Scholarship exhibit was up -- more on that soon, but it I did get a kick out of overhearing Delia Sherman telling Charles something like, "I can no longer complain that kids aren't taught to draw any more."

Look out for Charles' art book, Drawing Down the Moon, in August from Dark Horse.

Earlier post with some images from the lecture here.

PICTURED:
Michael Kaluta and Charles / Charles talking / Audience / Dinner, at which I had just as much fun as the lecture. (I now have a very long "movies to watch" list.) Around the table: Charles, me, Suzanne Golden, Joel Goss, Michael Kaluta, and Donato Giancola.

Charles Vess Lecture: May 2nd, NY

UPDATE: Charles talks about the talk here. And mentions a Jim Hanley’s Universe signing on Friday, May 4th. And sends me some images that will be discussed at the lecture – seen to the left.


CHARLES VESS
Part Seen, Part Imagined
An informal visual survey of three predominate threads of the fantastic in the arts: the English fairy painters, the American pulp tradition, and the visionary artist.

Wednesday May 2nd, 2007
6:30 PM
$10.00 / $6.00 students
Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street
New York, NY 10021
212.838.2560
info@societyillustrators.org

I had the pleasure of seeing part of this lecture on Charles’ laptop at a bar in Austin. He covered a lot of great obscure and well-known paintings from 19th Century up through today. I’m very much looking forward to hearing the full lecture.

A new deluxe edition of Stardust will go on sale that same Wednesday.

[Earlier post on the collaboration between Charles and Michael Kaluta on Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall.]

LEFT ROW: Quint Buchholtz, Yevgeny Rachev, Ivan Bilibin
RIGHT ROW: Frantisek Kupka, Eugene Grasset, Arnold Bocklin

Charles Vess in New York: Save the Date

Okay, so this is a bit to early to be mentioning but I'm very excited about it. I will, of course, repost this in at a more useful date.

CHARLES VESS

Part Seen, Part Imagined: An informal visual survey of three predominate threads of the fantastic in the arts: The English Fairy Painters, the American Pulp Tradition, and the Visionary Artist.
May 2nd, 2007
Society of Illustrators, NY

I must confess to being supremely self-serving here. Charles had his laptop out at the Austin World Fantasy and showed a few of us some amazing artwork from a lecture he gave at the Conference for the Fantastic. He covered obscure and well-known fantasists from the 19th Century up through today. I really wanted to hear him give the full lecture so, it was either wait for the stars to align at some convention or convince the Society's lecture series chairman to invite him up. It didn't take much convincing.

World Fantasy Convention

The World Fantasy Convention started on a somber note. Our plane had a sergeant escorting a fallen soldier back to his home in Texas. The pilot asked everyone to remain seated on the plane to let the soldiers off first. It was a sad and touching ceremony.

Once we got to the hotel, the convention was one of the most enjoyable that I have been to. I was a bit irked that we seemed to be surrounded by strip malls rather than being anywhere near what I would have expected to be called Austin. Even when you don't leave the hotel, it's nice to be able to sense the city around you. But the company was so good we didn't mind too much. We were able to escape for about an hour on Thursday night to see the hundreds of thousands of bats flying out from Congress Bridge. The locals seem to poo-poo the event, not matching the millions of bats that are seen in the warmer months, but it was still pretty damn impressive.

The convention was superb. It had, not one but, two artist guests of honor! Not only that, but, they picked artists that are not part of the regular convention scene -- Gary Gianni and John Jude Palencar. It made for a great art show. I hope that the Saratoga World Fantasy Convention takes note of that. (Being in the Tristate/New England area they have so many artists within just a three to four hour drive -- Barry Moser, Tony DiTerlizzi, Jon Foster, James Gurney, Michael Kaluta, Scott Fischer...I'm sure that I am forgetting many others. It's a great oportunity for an excellent art show. But I digress, back to Austin....)

This year's art show was solid! It was smallish, but very high quality. I'll take that over a large so-so show anytime. Palencar brought in 14 large paintings, each one a treat. Gary Gianni brought in four fantastic paintings from Conan, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane. Greg had four paintings from The Conquering Sword of Conan. John Picacio exhibited his book covers and editorial work, including some of his 3/D assemblages. Charles Vess had two color paintings and a bunch of ink drawings from his Susanna Clarke book, The Ladies of Grace Adieu. (Thanks again, Charles, for the book!) Michael Dringenberg had a nice showing, including a work-in-progress. He would work on it each night and then rehang it in the morning. Gary Lippincott shipped in some great work. There was a sculptor there that I had not known before, Vincent Villafranca -- cool robots made of nuts and bolts.

The best thing about World Fantasy is that you can actually spend a decent amount of time with people. I had a great time talking with John Jude Palencar, Arnie and Cathy Fenner, Charles Vess, Gary Gianni, John Picacio, Robert Wiener, Andrew Wheeler, Lou Anders, and others. A lot of potential art books were discussed around the bar -- if even just a few of them materialize it will be an exciting time for art books.

I was honored (and nervous) to except James Jean's "Best Artist" award at the banquet.

Gary Gianni gave an excellent slide show, despite the fact that the projector refused to focus the images. He showed his influences -- Dore, Rembrandt, Wyeth, and others. He also shared his process -- thumbnails to photo shoot, to final painting. He talked a lot about blurring edges, rather than over-rendering, to create a sense of movement. He was able to turn the misfortune of the slide projector into a positive by focusing on the design of paintings ,breaking the paintings down to their essential shapes and groups of figures -- the overall impact of the design rather than the details. Gary is charming, funny, and very smart....the kind of guy you wish could be your neighbor.

Sadly, John Palencar's Powerpoint presentation did not work. Instead, Arnie Fenner did an on-stage interview with him. They talked about commission work and gallery work. You could hear a few gasps in the audience when John talked about burning his bad paintings as a means of exorcising them out of his system. When asked if an artist can own a style, he said, "No. Visual language has already been stamped out, we are talking in dialects now." He also stated that, "a good painting asks as many questions as it answers."

While sitting in the bar, Charles Vess showed us a bunch of fantasy paintings from the 1800s (I believe) to the present. They were the images from a lecture he gave at the International Conference of the Fantastic. By the looks of it, I am very sorry to have missed that. Hopefully there'll be another opportunity to see him present it.

The trip home was, thankfully, uneventful. It seemed that about two thirds of the plane were convention attendees -- Gordon Van Gelder, Ginjer Buchanon, Graham Joyce, David Keck, and many others -- just the kind of thing that makes you think, "If anything were to happen to this pl....."

1001 Nights of Snowfall

Earlier I had mentioned that Charles Vess and Michael Kaluta have collaborated on a new Fables book, 1001 Nights of Snowfall. The book also features the artwork of many other artists, including this cover by James Jean. Charles points out on his blog (with more fabulous images) that it is now out and in the world...I know what I'm buying at the World Fantasy Convention.

World Fantasy Convention

Greg and I will be at the World Fantasy Convention this year. I'm looking forward to this even more than usual. The artists line up is fantastic. Two artist guests, John Jude Palencar and Gary Gianni. Plus, Greg, Charles Vess, John Picacio, Mike Dringenberg, Gary Lippincot and others. And, the Franks from Worlds of Wonder and the Fenners from Spectrum. It should be a particularly rich art environment.

I am not scheduled for any panels but I hope to attend the following:

Fri 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: John Jude Palencar

Fri 4:30 PM-5:30 PM: Interpreting REH's Fiction in Art:
Artists who have illustrated Robert E. Howard and other heroic fantasy present and discuss their work. What are the appeals and challenges of working with Howard's worlds and characters? (Gianni, Palencar, Picacio)

Sat 11:00 AM-Noon: Gary Gianni

Sat 3:30 PM-4:30 PM: Contemporary Art and Fantasy Book Covers
Does a successful 21st century fantasy cover necessarily have to be representational? What influences the degree of representation in a cover? (Anders, Gianni, Givens, Palencar, Vess)

Sun 2:30 PM-3:30 PM: Art in the New Millennium: What is an Original?
With computer technology and a new generation of good artists using these tools, what constitutes an original? (Dringenberg, Palencar, Picacio, Snellings-Clark)

In celebration of Robert E. Howard, the image above is from Greg's recent paintings for Conquering Sword of Conan. He'll have some of these paintings on display in the art show.

Vess and a Storm

Charles Vess seems equal parts proud and relieved to be done with 70 black and white drawings plus color paintings for the limited editions of George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. I’ve seen a few of these drawings at various conventions— fantastic work! Check out what Charles has to say on his blog.

And “cheers” to Subterranean Press for doing illustrated books for grown-up folks.

Charles Vess Blog

Charles Vess has a new blog! He has kicked it off with a report from the set of the Stardust movie.