Artist Hugo Nominee Spotlights

Over on Tor.com, I posted quick spotlights on the five Professional Artist Hugo nominees. I asked them to send in 3 paintings from the past year and to give us a few words on their year or the work they chose to display. Come on over to see....

Bob Eggleton

Donato Giancola

Shuan Tan

Dan Dos Santos

John Picacio

Art Hugo Nominations

Congrats to all the Hugo nominees. Lots of friends on that list!

Since this is the Art Department, a special shout-out to the Professional Art nominees:

Dan Dos Santos
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

And for Best Related Book: Spectrum 15. Congrats to Arnie and Cathy Fenner (and all the artists that make up Spectrum.)

Last year I kinda dropped the ball on doing nominee profiles. I'll make a better effort of it this year. Stay tuned...

Speaking of Bob Eggleton

Bob Eggleton and Marianne Plumridge rescued me from spending an entire day in a meeting, for which I am very grateful. Bob, as always, seems to have hands in a dozen differnet projects. He just delevered a children's book on dinosaurs which I'm looking forward to seeing. I'll have to hound him for a heads-up on publication date.

Wallpapers: Bob Eggleton and John Picacio

Free at Tor.com, courtesy of Bob Eggleton and John Picacio. Hugo contenders, they is.

SF Signal is Talking to Artists

Go see how Todd Lockwood, Dave Seeley, Jeremey Geddes, John Picacio, Donato Giancola, Glenn Orbik, and Bob Eggleton answer the question:

As an illustrator, what was it that drew you to science fiction and fantasy to begin with, and what place do you feel illustration has in the science fiction and fantasy field?

Richard Powers: Hall of Fame

I think John Picacio is the first to praise the Science Fiction Hall of Fame for selecting Richard Powers as their next artist Hall of Famer. If I weren't so busy at the moment, I too would be saying how awesome this is.

(Hurray to John, who is always quick to point out the importance of past artists on today’s field.)

Here is David Hartwell -- Tor editor, art collector, and long time friend of Powers, with a personal essay.

And here is the Powers Compendium -- a fantastic collection of Powers covers. (But leave plenty of time for browsing it without any thumbnails to help guide your way.)

UPDATE:

Bob Eggleton reminded me of Jane Frank's book, The Art of Richard Powers.

(And hurray to Jane for keeping artists like Powers and John Berkey in the bookstores and in the minds of today's painters and fans.)

Boskone: Saturday

PICTURES:

Hanging out at the bar.

Omar Rayyan busting out the watercolors at the bar.

Bb Eggleton painting demo.

John Godin's super cool meerschaum pipe collection.

World Fantasy Day 1

World Fantasy is off to a nice start. I had half a day to run around before things got started -- Saratoga Springs is a perfect October town.

I had never met Shaun Tan before but I am not entirely surprised to see that he is a great guy. I bought his latest book, The Arrival, about a month and half ago and I keep meaning to get to writing about it. If ya’ll are smart, you'll stop reading this and go pick up a copy.

The only panel I went to yesterday was a drawing demo with Bob Eggleton, Donato Giancola, and Shaun Tan. It was a big room with a large crowd. The smarter among us sat up front on the floor and had great view of all three of them drawing and answering questions as they went.

At one point Shaun said something very interesting which made me think I should hunt done a pen. Of course, by the time I found one I had completely forgotten what he said. Some thoughts from the second half of the hour:

Donato mentioned that he likes to read the book and then let it sit in the back f his mind for a while. Letting it percolate. When he gets to sketching he’s left with the memory of the book, allowing him to capture mood and themes rather than specific scenes.

Bob mentioned that he liked to work more quickly, reacting emotionally to the book. He also mentioned that Lovecraft was one of the most inspiring writers for him - both or the reading experience and for visual inspiration.

When asked about their dream project, all three said that they simply wanted more time to do what they are already doing better.

Bob and Donato said that their early appreciation for draftsmanship came from comics.

Shaun and Donato talked a bit about working beyond the given assignment -- getting to a place in their career where they were confident enough to add their own voice to the project.

So that was yesterday, with the addition of lots of food and late night talking, of course. The art show looks amazing but I have only skimmed it so far. I'm off now to spend some real time there.

Bob Eggleton is showing some pictures from World Con on his blog, including a group painting demo with him, Michael Whelan, and Naoyuki Kato.

Bob Eggleton: Hugo Nominee Profile

Third installment of Hugo Nominee profiles:

Having won nine Hugo, twelve Chesley, and two Locus Awards, and The Skylark Award for Science Fiction genre contributions, Bob Eggleton is arguably one of the genre’s most popular artists. His work can be seen on hundreds of books covers, magazines, posters and prints, and other products.

Eggleton has worked as a conceptual illustrator for the Academy Award nominated animated film “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” and “The Ant Bully”.

Between demanding deadlines for book covers and movies, Eggleton has two art books of personal work, Dragonhenge and The Stardragons. Collections of his illustration work include, Alien Horizons: The Fantastic Art of Bob Eggleton, Greetings From Earth: The Art of Bob Eggleton, The Book of Sea Monsters, and Primal Darkness: The Gothic and Horror Artwork of Bob Eggleton.

Bob Eggleton has been elected as a Fellow of The International Association of Astronomical Artists, and is a Fellow of The New England Science Fiction Association.

When not working, Eggleton enjoys buying dinosaur toys, traveling, fitting in the odd bit of landscape painting, and watching Japanese monster movies. He is married to Australian artist, Marianne Plumridge. They live in Rhode Island in a condo largely populated by a legion of Godzilla toys.

You can follow Bob Eggleton’s work on his website and his “painting a day” blog.

PAINTINGS:
Illustration for upcoming book One of Our Robots is Missing (Baby Tattoo Press)
Wraparound cover for Brain Lumley's Tarra Khash: Hrossak! (Tor Books)
Cover for We the Underpeople by Cordwainer Smith. (Baen Books)

Art Hugo Nominees

Congratulations to the Hugo nominees. After the time spent at last year's World Con business meeting debating the Art Hugo, I am glad to see that, while not a widely different line up than in recent yeasr, all five of these these artists are, in fact, current and influential artists. All five are wonderful at their trade....and they are pretty great peoples too. Congrats guys!
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio (Double congrats on the wedding!)
John Jude Palencar

If the boys are game I'll soon post mini galleries of their work created in past year.

Amazing Visions Exhibit

For those in, or traveling to, the Northwest: Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle will host an exhibit of fantasy and science fiction artwork throughout April. The line up looks top notch. If I were in the area, I'd be sure not to miss it.

April 13th 2007 - "Amazing Visions" group show co-curated by Travis Louie Artists: Matt Wilson, Wayne Barlowe, James Gurney, H.R. Giger, Charles Vess, John Brophy, Terese Neilsen, Kuniko Y Craft, Vincent Di Fate, Vince Natale, Don Maitz, Gregory Manchess, Jeremy Bennett, Brian Despain, Brom, Mark Garro, Stephen Hickman, Chet Zar, James Warhola, Kirk Reinert, Basil Gogos, Dave DeVries, Donato Giancola, Miles Teves, Bob Eggleton, Omar Rayyan, Joe DiVito, Tristan Elwell, Daniel De Santos, Gabe Marquez...and more.

At LunaCon

You know, there really is more to the job than hanging out with artists but it just so happens that there has been a lot of hang time lately.

Lunacon was loads of fun. Dave Seeley did a great job as Guest of Honor. He was on panels day and night - slide shows of his work, progressions of paintings, industry info, prop making, you name it. He also had a massive exhibit in the show -- very impressive. Dave was instrumental in setting up the "studio" that hosted a number of planned and unplanned demos which seemed popular.

All the art programming I saw was well attended. I must say, Lunacon treats the artists right. I think last year's World Con had three or four programs items for artists over the entire four days - Lunacon had multiple tracks of art programming all day long, all weekend long.

Two of my favorite paintings in the exhibit sold -- the portrait that Donato had started at Art Out Loud and Dan Dos Santos' Spirits that Walk in Shadow. (Someone remind me to get a raise so I can buy more art.)

I got to meet a bunch of the conceptart.org crowd. Shout-outs to Shay, Brendan, and Ben. (Sorry if I've missed anyone.) I realize I've met some of you at Art Out Loud but my mind tends to be mush by the time we get to those demos. It was great spending real time talking.

Some random shots. (I'll leave out the wheelbarrow racing to protect the ridiculous.)
LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Dave Seeley and Dan Dos Santos, Donato, Bob Eggleton, Dan Dos, Shay Casey, Brendan Keough, Arkady Roytman, Dave Palumbo, Rebecca Guay.

Next up, some actual book covers, I promise.

Bob Blogs

Bob Eggleton embarks on a painting-a-day project and a blog. As Bob would say, kewl!

"The fun part of doing these paintings quickly is that it teaches you to be observant, and timing them to an hour or less, you get what you get and don't get too picky or fussy."

Spectrum Exhibition...Again!

Not new news, but I'm just getting around to mentioning it here:

I am happy to announce that a second Spectrum exhibition will be held at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in September 2009. That may seem like a long way off but, trust me, I'm already shaking in my Berkenstocks.

The exhibit will include selected works from Spectrums 12 through 15, representing each of it's categories -- Advertising, Book, Editorial, Institutional, Dimensional, Uncommissioned, and the newly added Concept Art.

We held the first Spectrum exhibition a year ago September. It was curated by Cathy and Arnie Fenner, Greg Manchess, and myself. It featured 190 works selected from Spectrums 1 through 11 covering 155 artists. The opening had over 300 attendees, including almost all of the exhibiting artists, and lasted late into the night. Everyone said that they were having the time of their lives -- extremely gratifying after two years of work putting it together, bit by bit. Unfortunately, while playing host I spent the entire night saying hello to everyone and not getting to actually talk to anyone. Too bad, 'cause a lot of really cool people were there -- J.J. Palencar, Robert McGinnis, Kinuko Craft, Raymond Swanland, James Gurney, Thomas Blackshear, Leo and Diane Dillon(!), Thomas Kuebler, Tim Holter Bruckner, Justin Sweet, Bob Eggleton, Charles Vess, Brom, Scott Gustafson, Stephan Martiniere, and so many others I regret not mentioning by name. Quite a number of collectors, editors, and art directors were also in attendance.

The exhibition was very well attended throughout it's run . Again, very gratifying. I was hanging around the place quite a bit, as you can imagine, and I often ran into groups having made the trek from various far off states. I was even more touched that people who had little or no connection to the genre said it was one of the best shows they had seen.

I've said it everywhere I could but it's worth repeating: It would not have happened without co-curators and tireless collaborators Cathy and Arnie Fenner and Greg Manchess, and for a tremendous amount of help from Arkady Roytman, Bridget McGovern, Dan Dos Santos, and Donato Giancola. And, of course, it really would not have happened without the mountains of hard work that Cathy and Arnie put into Spectrum each and every year.

It was loads of work, but it was also loads of fun , so....September, 2009, we'll do it all again!

FURTHER READING: Here is an interview that Sequential Tart did with me about the show. Spectrum's site has a quick article and more pictures here.

TOP: Banner. MIDDLE: A few views of the exhibition. BOTTOM, LEFT SIDE: Crowds in the exhibition. Crowds at the after party in the dinning hall. Leo and Diane Dillon. Kinuko Craft. BOTTOM, RIGHT SIDE: Michael Whelan, Stephan Martinere, Donato Giancola, Joe De Vito. Sandra Lyra. Michael Kaluta and Scott Gustafson. Cathy & Arnie Fenner, me, Greg Manchess.

Spectrum 14 Call for Entries

I just got a copy of the Spectrum Call for Entries in the mail. A nifty Brom poster! If you are not on the mailing list, you can download the entry form here. Enter early and enter often! Last year I wrote an article about Spectrum for Realms of Fantasy. Here is an excerpt:

Why would an artist spend hard earned money just for the chance of being in Spectrum? While the desire to have your work seen by art directors and production designers is clear, most artists point first to the satisfaction of being thought of as a peer amongst their colleagues and heroes. For a young up-and-coming artist, it can go a long way to validate the decision to embark on such an unpredictable future. The newcomer Daniel Dos Santos explains that, "there is nothing more rewarding than to see your artwork displayed next to the people who inspired you to enter the field in the first place!" Established artist, too, are not immune to the rush of being included in the annual. Gregory Manchess stated, "I love seeing my work next to artists like John Berkey, artists that I grew up admiring, and next to the young hungry artist just making their way up in the field. It keeps me from being complacent, it keeps the whole field energized."
More practical and concrete concerns are, however, not far behind. It is advertising that money can't buy. Donato Giancola states, "My experience abounds with tales of referrals, licensing of commercial reproduction rights, new commissions, and original art purchases all stemming from my direct involvement with Spectrum. It has been one of the most instrumental aspects in the development of my reputation as a career artist." As a vetted publication, it is time effective, one-stop shopping for art directors, production designers, and fine art collectors world wide. A handy way to keep a year's worth of the field's best work at your fingertips. For a young artist, it can be the first time their work is being seen by thousands of potential clients, with the unspoken caption "best of the best." For the established artists it is always imperative to maintain visibility in the market place. With new art directors entering the field at all times, it is important for artists to make them aware that they are around and producing innovative work.

I'd like to thank Cathy and Arnie Fenner for graciously offering to let the paintings created for MicroVisons, a student scholarship fund raiser, free of the entry fee. Last April twelve artists dedicated their time and talent to create a miniature painting, just 5x7. The paintings were exhibited at the Society for a month and then auctioned on eBAy. They raised well over $5,000.00 for art students. Huge thanks to Julie Bell, Bob Eggleton, Boris Vallejo, Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, Vincent Di Fate, Lars Grant-West, Stephan Martiniere, Jon Foster, Adam Rex, John Jude Palencar, and Scott Fischer for participating.

Bob Eggleton & The Ant Bully

Bob Eggleton created a mind-boggling 300 drawings and paintings for the upcoming Warner Brothers movie, The Ant Bully. These two are charming as heck. I hope there is an "Art of..." book in the making. Bob got to team up with his "Jimmy Neutron" colleagues, Don Maitz and Fred Gambino. From Bob, "Seeing the whole thing through from start to finish, and creating art alongside so many talented, imaginative people is such an exciting thing and I’m so proud to be a part of it.”

Bob will be speaking, along with another artists and the director, at Comic Con: Thursday at 2:00