Sam Weber’s Ender’s Game ebook cover

I am very excited to release Sam Weber’s ebook cover for Ender’s Game. This was a blast to work on.

For the whole skinny on the how the cover came about, Sam’s thoughts, and a some process pictures, check out the Tor.com article.

Sam Weber on Sidebar

Sam Weber is interviewed on podcast site Sidebar Nation.

...keeping me up well past my bedtime ’cause I’m way too impatient to wait until tomorrow to listen in.

Sam Weber on The Wheel of Time and The Shadow Rising

Sam Weber and The Shadow Rising

I’m very excited to present the next of our Wheel of Time re-packaged ebook covers: The Shadow Rising with art by Sam Weber.

When we started this project I knew we wouldn’t have an artist more primed to be involved than Sam. He’s a huge fan of the series and it shows.

If you are fan of Sam’s and/or The Wheel of Time, head over to Tor.com to see him interviewed on video, read his essay about his cover and the motivations of the character he chose to depict, and see process images of the painting.

RELATED:
All Wheel of Time ebook posts are archived here.
Which include:
David Grove on The Eye of the World
Kekai Kotaki on The Great Hunt
Donato Giancola on The Dragon Reborn

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.....

Sam Weber, new site and Lord of the Flies

Same Weber relaunched his website. Which would be great news all on it's own, but, even better, he's included his work on Lord of the Flies.

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.

The Wheel of Time eBook repackaging. (Or, Wo0t!)

Tor's biggest selling fantasy series is Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. If you don't know already, it's hard to overestimate just how popular this series is. Beginning October 27th we will start to release ebook editions.

The most exciting part, for me at least, is that they will have new covers -- each book by a different artist. We have a great mix fantasy heavy-hitters and artists not typically associated with the genre. Each will bring their own style to the project, creating fourteen new visions of Jordan's world.

Commissioned so far:

The Eye of the World
David Grove

The Great Hunt
Kekai Kotaki

The Dragon Reborn
Donato Giancola

The Shadow Rising
Sam Weber

I have a loose wish-list for the rest of the series and have been working closely with the WoT editor, Harriet McDougal, and have started an excellent dialogue with Tor.com's Leigh Butler, and Dragonmount's Jason Denzel on these. I'll release images as I can. From teh couple sketches we have in so far, this should be a fun ride!

Please note: Images above are samples of past work from the artists, not paintings for this project.

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]

Sam Weber and The Lord of the Flies

I'm currently filling out an questionnaire that asks for my dream project. The Folio Society has stolen my dream project!....Ok, maybe that's a bit disingenuous since I wouldn't have thought of it until I heard about it from the artist first. And since I wouldn't have an outlet to do such a project, I'm guess I'll be glad they are:

Sam Weber is working on six paintings for one of my all-time favorite books The Lord of the Flies. I seriously cannot imagine anyone with the cool dark soulfulness that could handle this better than Sam. Due out in December.

(No pressure here, Sam. None at all.)

Some book covers featuring techno geekery, contemporary Shakespearean fantasy, and zombie-zeppelin-steampunk fiction.

I don't seem to be able to get to any real post writing. I hope to soon, but in the meantime I can show off some pretty covers for upcoming Fall books. This is the gray suite.

Makers by Cory Doctorow
Design by Peter Lutjen

Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter
Art by Sam Weber, design by Jamie Stafford-Hill

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Art by Jon Foster, design by Jamie Stafford-Hill

Jesper Ejsing visits

Somehow I doubled booked judging the Society's Student exhibit with a major Sales meeting. I knew both were on Tuesday morning, you think that would have tipped me off to the fact that I couldn't go to both. Thankfully, Jesper Ejsing was in town, visiting from Denmark, and he took my place. I was bummed to have missed the judging. The student show is in many ways more rewarding (or at least, interesting) than the pro show. It's a constant balance between judging ability and potential.

I was, however, able to catch lunch with the crew. Thank god. Me skipping a meal would be a sign that the end days are a'coming. Seen here: me, Donato (mostly hidden by my big head) Jesper Ejsing, Dan Dos Santos, and Sam Weber.

Afterwards Dan and Jesper stopped by to visit. There was some shenanigans with a sword but somehow all in the room left with ten fingers and toes each. I met Jesper at last year's Massive Black's workshop. His work was great then and even better now. He mentioned doing a major overhaul of his website later this month so, I'll point you to this interview with some great step-by-steps.

Speaking of Sam Weber, or, MicroVisions 3

I seem to be popular these past seven or ten days. Sam Weber and Dan dos Santos stopped by. Sam was dropping off his MicroVisions 3 painting, and it's to die for.

MicroVisions is a student scholarship fundraising auction. Each year, Dan and I ask a handful of sf/f artists to create a 5x7 painting. These are exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and then auctioned on eBay. 100% of the proceeds are put into the Society's scholarship fund.

(I really didn't mean to get into this but my fingers seem to keep typing...)

Seen here, MicroVisions 1 and 2. The third exhibit and auction will go up in June. A few paintings are done already. Once a few more are in, I'll start showing them off.

This year, our extremely generous crew includes:
Daren Bader
Jason Chan
Erik Gist
Joe Jusko
Nic Klein
Todd Lockwood
Glen Orbik
Yuko Shimizu
Shaun Tan
Sam Weber

Tor.com Wallpapers

This week’s wallpapers, courtesy of Sam Weber (my latest art-crush) and Shelley Eshkar (my art-crush since we were freshmen together.)

Enjoy.

Personal Vision

Sometimes I feel guilty about being so NY centric on this site....but then, I live in NY, so here we are:

I'm very much looking foward to this. Marshal Arisman is legendary for his speaking abilities for good reason. Yuko is amazing. And I'm hoping to get to meet Sam Weber, who's done a couple of covers for us this year and has quickly become one of my favorite artists.

PERSONAL VISION:
Marshall Arisman Moderator.
Nathan Fox, Sam Weber, Yuko Shimizu, Eddie Guy
Thursday, February 7, 2008
7:00 - 8:30 PM; doors open at 6:30
FIT: 27th Street & Seventh Avenue, NYC
$20 at the door - Students $5

Artists Against the War

Some quick shots from the last night's Artists Against the War opening reception at the Society of Illustrators.

PAINTINGS:
Ralph Steadman, Barry Blitt, Sam Weber.

PEOPLE:
Steve Brodner, Peter de Séve, Thomas Fuchs and Yuko Shimizu, Tim O'Brien and Ellen Weinstein, the crowd.

Three Wolves

Raquel Aparicio

Sam Weber

Jon Foster

UPDATE:
Sorry - I should have explained this more.

A while ago I noticed these three wolf images and thought, “My, that’s a lot cool wolf imagery coming to my attention all at once.” It gave me the idea for the occasional lazy post of stumbling onto three interpretations of the same thing and posting them together.

So, these are not Tor covers. The first is, of course, a Little Red Riding Hood image but I’m not sure if it’s in print. The second looks like an editorial piece, but I didn’t go back and check. The third is for a Cherie Priest book, The Dreadful Skin. I’m not sure who published this one but I wish it was ours -- it’s one of my favorites from Jon.