This is the third in a series of covers I was asked to produce for “The Planar Cycle” series by Chamberlain Potts. An incredible fantasy that gave me lots of amazing imagery to work with. Here I depicted “The Bleeding Elm“. A thirty-foot gnarly leafless tree with an abnormally thick truck. They’re covered in thick thorns and have vines that run along the ground to capture and impale anything that ventures too close onto the trunk. Along with the Cymarion in the foreground. I always do my best to ensure all my customers get the maximum value and impact and I also really enjoy doing this.
Lots of fun with this one. Dark forests are always a challenge. Once again the inspiration of Frank Frazetta and Todd Lockwood, as well as Alan Lee, Brian Froud, Rodney Mathews, and Peter A. Jones, play a big part, but hopefully I’m mostly channeling me!
Travis and I wanted to create a cover that looked like a book that could come from the Story. And we also created a map which was a lot of fun.
The inspiration of Frank Frazetta and Todd Lockwood, as well as Alan Lee, Brian Froud and Peter A. Jones, plays a big part. I think I’ve managed to put my own stamp on it though
If you want to check the book out, go here. Or here for the Hardcover
I’ve been working with E. M. Foner for a few years now.
He writes science fiction and Fantasy with a light comedic twist. In this case the cover for “Meghan’s Dragon” was to feature a young girl and her Dragon (who happens to also be extremely hungry all the time). And I have to indicate the humor found in the story.
Comedic illustration is never the easiest thing to do but when it’s done well it can be hilarious.
Mort Drucker
For me, there is nobody better at this than Mort Drucker (famous mainly for his work in Mad Magazine).
So when faced with this challenge I looked at what he does. And what he does is incredible, he sets up situations and then punctuates the joke using the characters facial expressions. I also looked at the Dragons created by Todd Lockwood, which are all pretty scary and used that as a direction to avoid! So with that in mind, I set about working on ideas and after several roughs and some to and fro between the Author and I/we finally settled on this.
My indicator that it works is that my kids laugh at it and immediately make up stories about what’s going on… Mind you, They are both under 9 years old and they laugh at my jokes too, so maybe that’s not the best guide… Anyway…
It’s probably the first time ever that I’ve welcomed people laughing at my work! Maybe I’m dragoning this post out a bit so I’ll end it here.
This is the second cover for the new series of science fantasy/dark fantasy books by Brian Choi and Erica Carson. If you want to buy the book or want to know more about the Authors :
Today “Twelve Foot Ninja” Release their New album “Outlier”
And I produced the cover art. Credit where credit is due though, TFN always have very strong ideas and without their direction this cover would not have worked half as well.
And this is their new single which I also did the cover for:
I’ve been working with TFN since 2010 and in fact they were probably the main reason I was able to move my focus to illustration.
Initially they asked for artists to send a couple of comic panels as samples since they were intending to produce a comic and or graphic novel. I don’t normally do this, but for some reason I had a good feeling about this work and so I produced the following.
TFN sample P1
Two incredible things happened. First the amazing Liam Sharp (currently the lead artist on Wonder Woman for DC) and blew my mind with this comment on my deviant page and I have to say that is probably one of the most inspirational moments of my life. A moment when it felt like all the effort was worth it after what seemed like an eternity of losing battles. I’m happy to say that we also became friends (even if it is only on social media). If Liam had not left that message I suspect I would have gone down another path.
Me feeling awestruck. Liam Sharp
It only gets better… After I’d given up on hearing back about the samples, Stevic from TFN got in touch with me and told me I’d got the Job.
From that point on I worked with the band mainly through Stevic and Dave MacGregor (their manager who they work very closely with). things went well. I worked on a lot of concept with them, finally deciding on the look of the Twelve Foot Ninja and we produced the cover for their second CD
Now we moved on to the next major project. The album “Silent Machine”
Silent Machine Cover
It had 12 tracks and each would have it’s own 6 page comic making up a graphic novella to go with the album.
I produced all the art and wrote the adaptation from the original plot/novel. But I had to tie the stories in with the songs. They pretty much gave me a free hand so long as I stuck to the plot; and the songs are very inspiring which made it a lot easier. It was a hell of a job, on a tight deadline, but we did it!….And I’m very proud of this work. Here are some pages.
I’ve worked on lots of other projects with them over the years and they have done a lot to help me out through some difficult times. They are great people and I doubt I’d even be doing this if it wasn’t for them.
Oh and I’m also working on another new project with them right now so watch this space, it’s going to be awesome!
Twelve Foot Ninja
Outlier
All art produced for “Twelve Foot Ninja” is copyright “Twelve Foot Ninja” and is reproduced with permission.
Now I don’t want to just copy the style of Frank, no, I want to pay homage by creating a piece of work that is clearly inspired by him, while being essentially my work. And it also must sell the book it is painted for by reflecting the atmosphere, characters and excitement contained therein.
David A. Brogdon gave me that opportunity recently. I read the book and discussed the concepts with him and above is the result.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express my appreciation for the impact Frank has had on my life but this kind of work goes some way toward that.
Alien abduction is not a subject I’ve explored in art before. This project gave me the opportunity.
The book is available here: https://goo.gl/ad2G4O Posters here: http://goo.gl/hggfPw
As a youth I spent hours in bookshops, looking for scifi and fantasy art on book covers. I’d find a few I liked, buy them and when I got home, I’d study the art and try to learn how to do it. I dreamed about doing that kind of art for a living.
Jim Burns, Todd Lockwood, Peter A. Jones, Chris Foss, Chris Achilleos, Frank Frazetta, Boris and Julie Bell, Bruce Pennington and Peter Elson (to name but a few) were major influences. In the past few years, I’ve even been lucky enough to get to know a few of these people.
Even more amazing I actually now get paid to do work in that genre. I produce a lot of Sci fi images for the Great and Prolific Author Richard Tongue. In fact, I’ve done more than twenty illustrations for him to date, and they just get more challenging every time.
Always pursue your dreams. It’s worth it.
Here are a few of the more recent covers I’ve done for Richard:
One more illustration from “The Secret War” from the amazing game “Era: The Consortium.”
Depicting a “Shade” in “stealth armour”, this image is my favorite from the series and of much of the work I have done, this has probably come closest to the image I had in my mind before I started work.
…and getting all the key element’s in place turned out to be a lot of fun.
Harvey Click always manages to overheat my brain cells in the best possible way!
I’m even thinking it might be cool to make a complete set of Tarot cards… If only I had the time.
keithdraws 