Forget dispassionate critical opinions. I love Charles Vess’ artwork and I love Charlie. Of course the drawings are enchanting but, the real power comes from how complete his worlds feel. Delightful but not without there own dangers. Add to that his level of detail and atmosphere, and you get the sense that he is simply reporting the world as he sees it...And I’m more than a little bit envious of that.
Drawing Down the Moon is a magnificent mid-career retrospective. Two hundred pages beautifully printed on quality paper and, best of all, large images (like every art book should be, and too rarely is.)
The most exciting part? As fantastic as it is, given the work seen in Instructions (only their latest New York Times bestseller—congrats, Charles and Neil!), and other recent paintings, I bet the best is yet to come.
Now for the giveaway part! I asked Charles if he would do a quick drawing in a copy to give a lucky Tor.com reader...
The Rules: To be entered to win, all you have to do to is comment below (once; duplicates won't count) before noon EST on Thursday, May 20th. We’ll pick a name at random. (If you want to be cool, you can name a favorite artist or two in your comment. Or a particular painting you enjoy. No, you don’t have to. It won’t affect your chances of winning, and we won’t think worse of you...not much worse, anyway. )
If you don’t happen to luck-out and are a bit leery of ordering art books online only to discover tiny thumbnail images in a sea of pontificating type (oops, was I ranting again?), here’s a quick flip through:
Irene Gallo is the art director of Tor Books and Tor.com
