Behind the scenes on the Eye of the World ebook cover

I talk a bit about the beginings of the Wheel of Time ebook cover program and working on The Eye of the World ebook on Tor.com.

"....It seemed a natural to start the series with a portrait of a young Rand beginning an epic journey, the scope of which he could perhaps sense but not truly grasp. David’s luminescent paint lights Rand from within. In a way, it seems to be a portrait of Rand best seen at this time, when readers know so much about what lies ahead of him..."

The full story here.

Eye of the World ebook now on Amazon

Quick update to the post below:

You can now order The Eye of the World ebook on Amazon.

I little behind-the-scenes post on the cover tomorrow.

David Grove, Hall of Fame: a Greg Manchess introduction

Tor will be releasing The Eye of the World, the first Wheel of Time ebook, tomorrow. As announced, each of the Wheel of Time ebooks will have a different artist on them: First up is David Grove on The Eye of the World ebook.

For some background on David, below is Greg Manchess' introduction at David's induction into the Illustrators' Hall of Fame, June 2007.

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One could describe my friend David Grove as a reluctant illustrator....but a focused one.

You’d never know it from looking at the work of course. There’s nothing reluctant about any of it...the passages of color, sweeping strokes and soft sharp edges blending in and out with such
control....no one goes into this kind of focus with reservation.

I’ve always gotten the sense that David was a bit of a maverick. Born to parents who were both artists, David decided that he would be a chemical engineer. He won a scholarship to Syracuse from a drawing competition.

But after being there awhile he changed his major to photography. He liked the technical side of things. After college he made enough money in a photography studio to indulge his wanderlust and fled to Europe.

Living in Paris, he lived the cafe lifestyle over there and made some money playing jazz piano. After a time, money running low, he was hired to do some pencil drawings for a Macy’s-style shop in France. He lived on the money he made from that one job for 3 months. Living an
exotic European lifestyle.

He was later convinced to come to England to work at a studio, Artists Partners. This only lasted for a year....he might have remained in England but for the toxic nature of English food. He just could not take one more fish and chips. After all, he was getting older, he was 29....that stuff can kill a man.

He came back to the US and after seeing more of the great works of all the great illustrators living in Westport....he promptly fled to California. Where he found a bit of the Parisian cafe life in San Francisco.

At this point, David was doing all sorts of work for advertisers and publishers. I remember one distinct cover of a book he did about some rebels. The title escapes me but the image is vivid. Four figures in a mean-spirited pose, weapons in hand, one figure was a nun. The nun has nothing to do with the story I’m about to tell...but I’ve never forgotten that cover. Maybe he can tell us about the nun later.

David needed guns for this pose and instead of buying them, his technical side had the bright idea to build them. All he needed was the shapes and light on them to draw convincing weapons. But spray painting them in his apt would never do....so, like any sane man, he took them to the roof of the building.

Now, in those days, the SF Police were rather sensitive to rooftop snipers. But David had a deadline....and his focus was on the work. As he was spray painting a few of the fake guns on the roof, he heard the distinct crackle of a police radio, that seemed awfully close. Maybe down in the street. He kept on spray painting. But he soon had an odd sensation of being watched.

He held up the cardboard gun to check out how the sun was glinting off the steel grey cardboard barrel he was spraying, and as he turned to step back for a better look he noticed the door to the roof, and watched, bewildered, as a huge barrel of a gun slid slowly out of a small window by the door and was pointing directly at David.

Moments later he recalls being set upon by rather large members of SWAT, being thrown down and angrily frisked while all sorts of screaming ensued about how he should not try anything like ‘moving.’

With much frenetic silver-tongue reasons, he finally convinced them that the guns weren’t real. One SWAT member went over and picked up the toilet paper roll, cigarette pack, taped weapon and confirmed it.

He was led down to his apt where he showed them what he was doing and while still explaining this in the stairway, as the police were headed out the front door, he happened to notice that his entire block had been cordoned off and a large crowd of people had gathered to watch the SWAT guys shoot the ‘sniper.’

This doesn’t say much about David’s actual painting but more about his focus. He has a tremendous focus and a dead serious laser guided desire to wrangle a piece of painting into the most lovingly crafted flow of beauty.

So much so, that one time David was rubbing away at his painting, in the days when he used acrylics and inks instead of the guache and acrylics he would later use, to get a nice wash of color just perfect for a portrait head that he was doing for TIME magazine......when suddenly he realized he had rubbed completely through the illustration board he was painting on.

This is focus. This is David’s focus.

When I look at his work, I hear it as well as feel it. His washes and color become lyrical in a musical sense. His work is Beethoven strong....Mozart playful....and Paganini driven. And the light....oh....it is scrumptous, edible...it’s not the way the light falls on an object that he paints, but the light the painting generates within itself. It’s as if you could look at a Grove in the
dark and still see it by it’s own light. (I have a Grove at home...I often use it as a nightlight)

I first met him when I was a student. We got along immediately. I loved his passion about illustrating and getting it right. He was the first real professional illustrator I’d ever met. And when I & a friend brought our portfolios over to his apt one day, I realized that this was the lifestyle I wanted to have as an illustrator myself. He was an American Illustrator with a European lifestyle.

He said goodbye to us that day, wished us luck and said, “just remember...when you get out of
school and into the field, I’ll be your competition.”

Again, David's focus.

It is my great honor to introduce my old friend and colleague for the Society’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame....

TOP PHOTO:
Murray Tinkleman, David Grove, Gary Kelley, Linda Kelley, Terry Brown.

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Party

Last night was the annual SFWA schmooze fest. Let me start by saying, Liz Gorinsky is a horrible influence. She’s made me stay out for more 3:00am breakfasts this month then I have in all the years since college. But besides the groggy wake up this morning, I had a great time.

Once again I got a few artists friends to bring in some work for a little mini display of sf/f art. This year we had Dave Palumbo, Tiffany Prothero, Bruce Jensen, Scott Altmann, John Jude Palencar, Eric Fortune, and David Grove. (Thanks again guys!)

You are spared the traditional food eating shot since I had forgotten my camera at that point. (Although the truth of the matter is, I only set up these exhibits/lectures/whatever for the excuse to have good meals with cool artists.) Here are some random photos of the evening:

TOP SET:
Jozelle, F. Paul Wilson, Gordon Van Gelder, Anna Genoese, Richard Curtis, Ellen Asher, Michale Swanwick, Jim Frenkle.

SECOND SET:
• Lots of Tor peeps. I think just about every department is represented here: Steven, Melissa, Kristin, Sara, Melanie, Cindy, and Liz.
• Tor authors David Keck and Kate Braillier.
• Liz Gorinski and Diana Fox.
• Jannie Shea and Andrea Senchy -- the people that make the Chesleys and many, many convention art shows happen.

BOTTOM SET:
Some of the artists in attendance: Arkady Roytman, Tiffany Prothero, Dave Palumbo, Doug Beekman, Scott Altmann, Tony Palumbo.

In Honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day

David Grove's super awesome drawings for Gene Wolfe’s Pirate Freedom, due out next month.

In the Office

Suddenly my office is full of paintings...which doesn’t happen much in these days of jpegs and ftp sites.

Update: Sorry -- getting a fair amount of email queries -- I should have done this the first time around:

Tiger and woman: John Jude Palencar for Paul Park’s The Hidden World, the last in his “Princess of Roumania” series.

Knights through trees: David Grove for David Keck’s In the Eye of Heaven

Wizard over smoke stacks: Eric Fortune for Lisa Goldstein's Red Magician. (An upcoming Starscape edition, not the version linked to.)

Polar bear: Greg Manchess’ Nanuk. Not a Tor book...just a wee painting on it’s way to the Society of Illustrators’ permanent collection.

Visiting Day at Tor

I got a surprise visit from John Scalzi yesterday. We talked a little bit about the cover for his new book – a new story arch in the “Old Man’s War” universe. We’ll keep John Harris on the series but, perhaps, try to do something with the layout to set it apart from the story arch that concluded with The Last Colony. Nothing radical, just a subtle something to cue the reader that they don’t need to have read the other three books first.

David Grove is being inducted into the Illustrators Hall of Fame tonight. He stopped by the office yesterday for a quick Tor tour. I’ve worked with David for a few years but this is the first time we’ve met. I have to say, it makes a big difference in the working relationship when you have a personal connection with the artist. Face-to-face contact is to email what an original painting is to a jpeg -- not necessary to get the job done but it makes doing the job a whole lot more enjoyable. It turns out that David is a charming guy who is quick to laugh and has some strong opinions. In other words, excellent company.

PHOTOS:

John Scalzi with Pablo Defendini, mass market cover designer. (And Whatever and Art Department commentator.)

David Grove and Heather Elmer.

Team Wolfe in my office, left to right: Greg Manchess, who did the covers and interior drawings for Gene Wolfe’s Wizard Knight series. David Hartwell, Gene Wolfe’s editor, showing off an early galley of Pirate Freedom. David Grove, who did the covers and interior drawings for Soldier of Sidon and Pirate Freedom.

Winter 2008 Catalog

We just wrapped up the Winter 08 hardcover catalog. Tor puts together three catalogs a year which means four months of book covers need to be completed by one date each season. Of course it always gets a bit hairy towards the end and inevitably things get tweaked as the season progresses. I say “tweaked” in both less and more, sometimes much more, generous terms.

I think we are in pretty solid shape this season -- thanks, always, to my incredible staff. Seriously. These guys are amazing. Great designers that never seem to get flustered with all the changes and last minute additions. Our unsung hero, especially around catalog time, is Vanessa Paolantonio. Besides her own design work she has the thankless job of keeping the rest of us on track. (Hmmm, it may be time for a group “Yay us!” lunch.)

Now that the catalog is done the next thing that happens is the sales conference. At that point, any of the covers can still get nixed if our reps feel they just aren’t hitting the mark. Often we get away clean — by now we have been trough a number of dress rehearsals for that meeting -- but it’s not uncommon, either, for one cover to be completely scrapped at that point. We’ll see how well we do in August .

Here are a few random Winter 08 covers.

In the Court of the Crimson Kings: Sequel to The Sky People. Art by Greg Manchess. Anytime we can make sci-fi pink is a good time.
Pebble in the Sky: Peter Lutjen has set up this nice series template for four Asimovs reprints we will be publishing throughout the next year.
Blasphemy: This took many iterations but the final, with all it's foily goodness, looks pretty great. Thanks to Howard Grossman. (You can't see it here but the final is printed over foil, matte finish with spot gloss on the type, and embossed.)

Space Vulture: Taking a page out of Hard Case Crime's play book -- pitch perfect retro art by Glen Orbik.
Spider Star: First time working with Daniel Dociu. A pleasure to work with -- we’ll be seeing him many covers in the future, I'm sure.
The Boundless Deep: Eerie and pretty. Thanks to Jamie Stafford-Hill.

And a trio of nautical themes:
David Grove for David Keck’s In a Time of Treason
Shelly Wan for Misty Massey’s Mad Kestrel
Donato Giancola for Kathleen Bryan’s The Golden Rose

David Grove, Hall of Famer

I've been meaning to show off David Grove's cover and drawings for Gene Wolfe's Pirate Freedom for a while...And now, I just learned that David will be inducted into the Illustrators' Hall of Fame this summer. I couldn't be more thrilled for David. He is an amazing artist and this honor is well deserved. I come into work each day with one of his drawings on my wall and it makes me smile every morning. I love how abstract and spontaneous he can be within the bounds of realism -- he can tell a story without ever giving too much of it away.

Pirate Freedom will feature about 20 drawings at the chapter breaks and will be out in November.

Soldier of Sidon

Tor will be publishing Soldier of Sidon, the next "Latro" novel by Gene Wolfe, in October. This made me very excited because I was able to hire David Grove to do a series a beautiful chapter drawings. We don't get a chance to do black and white imagery often enough.