Winner of "Most Unexpected Re-use of Tor Cover Art" goes to....

John Harris, formally from John Barnes' Armies of Memory.

Wallpapers: Chris McGrath and John Harris

Fireworks from Tor.com...or at least, exploding spaceships and sexy babes. This week's wallpapers are courtesy of Chris McGrath and John Harris.

We also announce that the site will launch on July 20th, aka moon landing day. Yay! This will give us a day or two to get our feet wet before head into a lot of ComicCon coverage.

John Harris and A War of Gifts

I saw a few copies of Orson Scott Card's A War of Gifts floating around the office today. Funny, I work on these things so early that by the time they are actually books, (with pages and everything!) I'm surprised to see them "still" hanging around. But I digress. Here is the art, sans cover design. It’s an Ender's Christmas story so I asked John Harris to make the space station look like a Christmas ornament.

Two New Covers from John Harris

Sketch, final art, cover.

I recently mentioned how much I love seeing sketches -- I particularly love John Harris'.

MicroVisions Raises $4,000.00

The MicroVisions auction ended a few hours ago. Eleven wee works of art raised $4,000.00 for the Society of Illustrators' Student Scholarship Fund. Individual works went from $100.00 - $700.00. I was lucky enough to walk off with one myself: Eric Fortune's exquisitely painted and very funny robot assassin. (Note: that's not a sword she's wielding...)

The SI Scholarships are among the industry's thoughest awards. Only about 100 students are chosen to be in the exhibit from over 5,000 entrees -- about half of them are given cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially (and possibly allows them to dine on something other than ramen noodles for a time or two) but they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists by proving that their voice stands out amongst thousands of others. Many past winners have become the field's biggest names -- John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka and hundreds of others since the Scholarship's inception in 1981.

All of which is a very long winded way to say: Thanks to all the artists for giving up their time (a few of which had been past scholarship winners) and thanks to all those that bid. Even though you may not get to see it, next year some student will have a large grin on their face because of you.

MicroVisions 2: Bid Early, Bid Often!

Last year, Dan Dos Santos and I asked a group of artists to dedicate their time and talent to help raise money for the Society of Illustrators' student scholarship fund. Each artist created a 5x7 painting that was exhibited at the Society for a month and then auctioned on eBay. That auction raised $5,700.00 for art students.

We are very excited to announce this year's auction is now up and running on eBay. Ten paintings and one sculpture. All were on display at the Society throughout June. All proceeds will go to help the next generation of illustrators.

Auction deadline: July 21
Click here. Or search "MicroVisions" on eBAy.

This year's participants are:

Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai
Tristan Elwell
Eric Fortune
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
John Harris
Steve Hickman
Bruce Jensen
Tom Kidd
Red Nose Studio
Dave Seeley

MicroVisions 2

We got the first two MicroVisions paintings in and I am getting very excited about this show!

John Harris
Red Nose Studio

These 5x7 mini works, and nine others, will be up for auction on eBAy in June. All proceeds will go to the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship fund. I’ll post details as the time draws nearer.

MicroVisions 2

Last year Dan Dos Santos and I asked a group of artists to dedicate their time and talent to help raise money for the Society's student scholarship fund. Each artist created a miniature painting, 5x7, that was exhibited at the Society for a month and then auctioned on eBay. All of the proceeds went to the scholarship fund. That auction raised $5,700.00 for art students. We are very excited to announce this year's participants:

Patrick Arrasmith
Tristan Elwell
Eric Fortune
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
John Harris
Steve Hickman
Bruce Jensen
Tom Kidd
Todd Lockwood
Red Nose Studio
Dave Seeley
Ashley Wood

The paintings will be on display in June and, once again, auctioned on eBay. I'll update this site as the paintings come in and the auction draws near.

PHOTO: Last year's auction. 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.

John Berkey and John Harris

Stainless Steel Droppings has posted a profile, with lots of pretty pictures, on the Johns, Berkey and Harris -- two of the field's very finest artists.

In the summer of 2004 I was privileged to have attended John Berkey's induction into the Illustrators Hall of Fame. I was quite nervous to meet John and didn't manage to say much more than "hi." Vin di Fate read a wonderful appreciation. "[John Berkey's] signature style is one of vigorously applied brushstrokes -- never labored -- that in a series of strategically placed dots and dashes, form images so vivid and so credible that they seem to go beyond photographic reality, and yet the artist's hand is always present. We look at these illustrations and know that they are paintings -- they are not photographs -- and, more importantly, that they are art." The full essay is reprinted in Illustrators 46.

Here is an earlier post I made on John Harris.

Thumbnails: John Harris

Thumbnails: 30 Second Interviews

John Harris has been one of my personal favorites ever since I began work at Tor. I love his work for many of the same reasons I love Martiniere's -- they resonate a sense of awe and scope, a kind of "big picture" science fiction. His futures seem simultaneously possible and dream-like. The paintings are never labored, they invite the viewer to participate in them, to contemplate the future and its repercussions in their own mind. His art book, Mass, is a must have.

Favorite painting you did in the past year?
A Jack Vance cover for Bookspan and the cover for The Last Colony. [Bottom image.]

Dream assignment?
Lost Worlds in space.

Do you remember the first time you knew you wanted to be an artist?
I remember when I was six or seven I had chickenpox. I was kept in bed for an age and, getting bored, I started decorating the wall beside my bed with a stubby pencil. I suddenly discovered the magic of marks and how they could make worlds appear in my head. The wonder of it survived my mother's wrath and remains with me to this day.

A career highlight?
In 1985 NASA invited me to watch a launch of the space shuttle and paint a picture for their collection, and which now is part of the Smithsonian collection. [Top image.]