Look Book and Smekday

This evening, on my train ride from Astor Place to the upper east side, I read The Look Book. (I knew the St. Mark's Bookshop wouldn't let me down.) It's just as good as I thought it would be. Of course it had to look great, it's Red Nose, but it’s also very sweet, creepy, clever, funny, and at times poignant.

I also picked up Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday , just out, and laughed three times on the first page. I'm off to LA tomorrow night and it will be a fight as to whether I'm reading this or Brian Slattery's new manuscript....Actually, who am I kidding, I'll be asleep within minutes of take off. I can never stay awake in moving vehicles.

Earlier post on The Look Book.

Earlier post on Smekday.

Red Nose Studios: The Look Book

Red Nose is one of my favorite contemporary artists, so, I was very excited to get an email this morning alerting me to the release of The Look Book.

“The Look Book is a charming peek into the lives of Ann and Ian, two siblings who leave the house one afternoon and see the world in unusual ways. The book combines stunning photographs of miniature scenes with dark wit and clever turns of phrase to create a delightful package.”

Chris Sickels, AKA Red Nose Studio, has more info on his blog, including sketches, here and here.

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.

Illustrators 48

lllustrators 48 is out and it has loads of great work from all of the best contemporary illustrators. I’m proud to say that Tor did very well in this edition, so, I will brag....

IMAGES: TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT

Michael Deas got a gold medal for his cover to Richard Matheson’s Earthbound. The painting is drop-dead gorgeous...but when it came time to design the cover, it just seemed to beg to be zoomed in on. I was a bit nervous to show Michael that I cropped out more than half the painting. He didn't seem to mind and, in fact, took a saw to the actual painting. SF/F peoples might not know MIchael by name but everyone has seen his Columbia Pictures painting and a number of portraits he did for postage stamps -- Stephen Vincent Benet , Cary Grant, (both of which I have in small frames on my office door) Audrey Hepburn, Lewis and Clark, and many others. Earthbound also won an award in Spectrum 13.

Craig Mullins did a series of George Alex Effinger books for us last year. I entered the first one, The Exile, and was afraid it might get overlooked since it was digital. The Society has a reputation, wether or not it's deserved, for passing up digital work. Sure enough, it got in. Craig is a rock start in the film industry, I was very grateful we were able to work on these books together. Our Sales force responded really well to this cover. I was surprised, I didn’t think they take much notice of a reprint of an older book but many of them raved about it.

Dan Dos Santos got the first two Christopher Pike Alosha books in, Alosha and Shaktra. This is one of my favorite looking series...and the third book, Yanti, is even cooler looking. Dan used himself as the model for Shaktra and has dubbed the painting, "Portrait of the Artist as a Thirteen Year Old Girl."

Red Nose Studio and the third “Borribles” book, Across the Dark Metropolis. I am such a Red Nose groupie, and he's a dream to work with. I just wish we had more call for his sweet and spooky dolls.

Greg Manchess’ painting for Gene Wolfe’s The Knight. It was fun to do a cover meant to read as an icon. Greg also did a series of black and white drawings for this book and its sequel, The Wizard. It has started off a nice trend in doing that kind of thing more often at Tor.

James Jean’s cover for William Sleator’s Amongst the Dolls. Cute and creepy. The wonderful thing about working with James is that you hand over a project and you never once worry about it -- you just know it’ll be fabulous and on time.

Robert McGinnis for Elmer Kelton’s Six Bits a Day. What can I say, the man is a legend. The first time I saw him at the Society of Illustrators I was trying to avoid an introduction, knowing I’d say something silly or, more likely, not know what to say at all. Turns out, he is extremely unassuming and once one of the other of us mentioned Andrew Wyeth, that was it. We talked for hours about how great Andy is. (Funny, Michael Deas and I have had that exact same conversation.)

John Jude Palencar’s cover for Cherie Priests’ Four and Twenty Blackbirds. This and it’s sequel, Wings to the Kingdom, are some of my very favorites that JJ has done for Tor....and he’s done a lot of great work for us.

Jon Foster has his Skyborn painting in. It’s also used as the cover to his art book Revolution. One of my favorites from Jon. Stupidly I did not buy it when it was displayed at ComicCon. Arnie Fenner was smarter than I and grabbed it. I’m alternately grateful that it went to a friend and seething with jealousy! (I shake my fist westward!)

Donato Giancola's epic painting for Sara Douglass’ Crippled Angel. This monster is, what, eight or nine feet long, and features about two dozen figures? Since I only needed the right hand side of the painting for our book cover he hung the piece unfinished. It was a wonderful and rare opportunity for people to see an artists process on display.

Congrats guys! Thanks for making us look good.

Society in 3D!

I went to the opening of the Society's Third Biennale Dimensional Salon last night. I always look forward to this show -- it makes you want to run home and play!....Until you realize how hard it is. A bunch of years back I saw this show and promptly hired Red Nose Studio to do our Borribles trilogy. It's still some of my favorite cover art.

The show is the brain child of Liz Lomax. I know how hard it is to start a show from the ground up so three cheers to Liz for keeping this show going. It just keeps looking better each time.

Red Nose took the gold medal this year. Congrats! I don't think he can walk into the Society without getting a medal thrown at him...but, you know, he really is that good. Melissa Ferreira had two great pieces in. Tim Holter Bruckner, whose work I always look forward to seeing in Spectrum, had three sculptures in the show, all of them very cool -- especially the jack-in-the-box self portrait. Peter de Seve had a sculpt from Ice Age 2. I saw a lot of great work from people that I didn't know of, but I'm excited to look up. There is also a nice catalog that goes with the show explaining how the pieces are created. My only complaint is that neither the wall credits nor the catalog tell you who the client was or how the works were used.

LEFT ROW: Melissa Ferreira with Arkady Roytman, Jon Foster, and Greg Manchess. Ferreira's work. Red Nose Studio, aka Chris Sickels. Liz Lomax. RIGHT ROW: Tim Holter Bruckner's work. Red Nose's work. BOTTOM: More Red Nose.