Today would have marked Chesley Bonestell’s 125^th birthday. Throughout the 1930s Bonestell worked as an architect and then a movie matte painter on high profile projects ranging from New York’s Chrysler building, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and George Pal’s War of the Worlds, but it is astronomical art where Bonestell is best known and revered. His first astronomical paintings were published in the 1940s—a series of astoundingly realistic images of Saturn as seen from its moons for Life magazine. In the 1950s, Wernher Von Braun asked Bonestell to conceptualize near future space flight, and Viking Books collected a series of his paintings about lunar expeditions called The Conquest of the Moon. These images helped inspire a nation to strive toward the stars.

[Read more...]

Pastiche? Mash-up? The best form of flattery? Whatever you want to call it, artists have enjoyed riffing on historical paintings for ages. For some, it’s a fun way to learn and explore issues of color, composition, and application of paint by intimately copying from a master. For others, it’s a means to tap into the feelings and emotions already assoctiated with the original image, (for humour or drama.) Seeing John Mattos’ great modernist takes on Star Wars made me want to seek out other views of science fiction via the classics. Here’s what I found....

[Step into our gallery...]

Best 20th Century Science Fiction Novels

1. Dune, Frank Herbert (1965)
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (1985)
3. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov (1953)
4. Hyperion, Dan Simmons (1989)
5. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)

[Fantasy and 21st century...]

HarperCollins is showing a sneak preview of Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex’s picture book collaboration, Chu’s Day, about a little panda with a big sneeze. The book was inspired by Gaiman’s trip to China, during which he had the unique experience of having a panda sit on his lap.

Gaiman says, “Chu’s Day is the first book I’ve ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk. Those ones. I hope that they like it, or at least, that they love Adam Rex’s amazing illustrations.” (Gaiman sneezing lessons here.)

[Take a look]

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” — Andrew Wyeth

I’m no fan of the cold and yet winter images and Christmas are among my favorite things in life. There is a calm about winter that is beautiful, harsh, and mysterious.

So, on this Solstice Day, with so few hours of sunshine to warm us, I asked a number of artists to send me some of their favorite winter paintings. I asked nearly 20 people, expecting about half to respond. In fact, everyone responded, often multiple times. Clearly, I am not the only one that finds both comfort and mystery in these images.

Without further ado, here are some of the images that some of today’s finest illustrators think of when they think of winter.

[An enormous collection of winter images]

Dave McKean, frequent Neil Gaiman collaborator,  released a few “visual moments” from a special edition of  Gaiman’s upcoming novel The Ocean and the End of the Land...and it looks spectacular. 

 The Ocean at the End of the Lane comes out on June 18, 2013. Described as “a fable that reshapes modern fantasy,” Ocean’s story unfolds as follows:

[Read more]

I’ve worked at Tor Books for nearly twenty years and I had never visited our bindery before. As the art director, I’ve been to our jacket printer, of course, but my job usually ends there. I had never been to the place where the guts of the books are printed, bound, and shipped. What better excuse to remedy that than to watch A Memory of Light—the final volume of a series that has been with me my entire carreer—go from rolls of clean white paper to shiny new hardcover books? A trip to historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Quad Graphics was definitely in order.

[A Memory of Light comes off the belt]

For those of you that missed the 150 foot Batman post, I couldn’t resist this redux, now with a 100% more dwarves! 315 Park Avenue South is exactly halfway between my apartment and the Tor offices. For nearly two decades I’ve watched an anonymous group of painters create 150 foot movie poster murals on the side of the building.

I’ve always wondered how they construct the image and what it might look like from up close while it’s being put together. It’s one of the very few places where advertising is still painted — it’s an original work and it changes up about once every six weeks. I even joked that one day I would sit outside the building all day and wait for the crew to come out.

[Then they did. With dwarves!]

This April, Tom Cruise visits post-apocalyptic Earth to SAVE MANKIND! in Oblivion. I know it’s just the art director in me, but the Sam Weber-esque grey-white pallet makes me want to bite. Morgan Freeman nevers hurts, either. Anyone else interested?

[Trailer and screen caps...]

With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit a week away, the world is in a three-foot-high frenzy. Of course, The Hobbit has been inspiring artists and readers for generations. Artwise, I’ve always had a soft spot for The Hobbit; I love that it lends itself equally well to delightful and weighty interpretations. Below, let’s take a look at how just a few of the unofficial band of “Tolkien artists” have approached Bilbo’s story.

Above, The Battle of Five Armies by Justin Gerard.

[The Hobbit as depicted in art over the decades]

Hot off the press, the first F&G’s for A Memory of Light. (F&G means “folded and gathered pages.”) To be clear, the printing is not done; it will literally take weeks worth of press time to do that. (And then there is the binding, packing and shipping.) But before you know it, it’ll be January 8 and the end of one era...and the start of a new one.

A few months ago, Allen Williams emailed me a painting for an upcoming anthology, Queen Victoria’s Spellbook. (You can see the image in the post below.) Allen has been one of my favorite artists for a while now, and if you take a look, I think it’s easy to see why. His illustration is a great image of a reader, which got me thinking... what other paintings feature books?

[A massive collection of art featuring readers and/or their books]

Congratulations to Victo Ngai for winning a gold medal at the Society of Illustrators for her image on the Tor.com story, “Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill.” To say Victo is a rising star is an understatement—a young illustrator whose work has been ulitized by any number of publications and advertising firms, including The New York Times, The New Yorker.

“Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill” was not an easy assignment—a fantasy story in which the magical element could not be visualized. Victo made a compelling dreamscape from it. One that catches a reader's attention in an instant and begs them to come closer and linger.

The Society of Illustrators Annual Awards are one the premiere showcases for outstanding work created worldwide throughout the year. Thousands of entries are received and juried by a team of illustrators and art directors. It is truly an honor to be selected for the annual, and a great honor to be one of the few chosen for a medal. 

To our readers in the U.S., Happy Election Day from Tor.com Central! 

David Grove passed away last week after a long struggle with emphysema. He was an immensely accomplished illustrator since the 1970s, having worked for just about every book publisher, magazine, movie studio, and major advertising firm over the past four decades. He was inducted into the Illustration Hall of Fame in 2007, and a retrospective of his work was mounted by the Society of Illustrators in the summer of 2012.

I’m sure most Tor.com readers remember the Something Wicked this Way Comes movie poster above. I had the honor of working with David on a number of SFF book projects—a few Gene Wolfe books (including interior drawings), David Keck’s novels, and The Eye of the World ebook cover, among other projects. David’s work was fluid and dream-like but, make no mistake about it, everything was thoughtful and planned. There was no aspect of his life where he did not strive for beauty and perfection. He will be deeply missed. 

[More images...]

Archers are cool, there’s just no two ways about it. There is something particularly elegant about the bow and arrow. It’s a romantic weapon that exudes competence and stealthy precision. So, next up in my “Picturing” series of obsessive image collections is an ode to all manner of marksmen, from pre-history to future times.

Above, The Hunt by Odd Nerdrum.

[See more]

Like Tolkien, the Song of Ice and Fire Calendar has become a yearly art event to look forward to. Past editions included the excellent work of  John Picacio, Ted Nasmith, and Michael Komarck. This year we are treated with a year’s worth of Marc Simonetti paintings of Westeros. This video shows a ten minute time-lapse of Marc creating the cover for George R. R. Martin's 2013 Song of Ice and Fire calendar. Anyone who is interested in digital painting—or who just wants to be mezmerized for a few minutes—should check it out below.

[The making of A Song of Ice and Fire 2013 calendar]

The 2012 British Fantasy Awards were announced this evening at Fanatsy Con in Brighton. This year’s BFAward Judges were James Barclay, Hal Duncan, Maura McHugh, Esther Sherman, and Damien G. Walter. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
 

[And the winners are...]

It’s the first day of fall...and the last of these “odes to the season.” It seems fitting to end in Autmun. As with Picturing Winter, Spring, and Summer, I have asked a few of my artist friends to share with us some of their favorite paintings that depict the Fall. It’s a complicated and beautiful season—mixing a desperate need to soak in the last bits of sunlight, an ostentatious display of color, and the warmth of the coming holidays with a sense of loss and decay, foreboding...and magic. The spirits come out in fall and we transition from being outdoor people into an introspective, interior mindset. So, without further ado, below you will find nearly one hundred images of autumn that are joyous, colorful, and dark.

The above by Carlos Schwab.

[Picturing autumn, an equinox celebration]

The winners of the 2012 Chesley Awards were announced this evening at Chicon 7, the Chicago World Con. The Chesleys are given by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists each year for excellence in genre art.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

[The winners are...]