Posts Tagged ‘Illustration’

17 items.

Work is Good

by Colleen Doran on October 25th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Culture, Illustration

Maurice Sendak on making pictures.

Difference of Opinion…


Art. Its definitions are legion, its meanings multitudinous, its importance often debated. But amid the many contradictory definitions of art, one has always stood the test of time, from the Upanishads in the East, to Michelangelo in the West: art is the perception and depiction of the sublime, the transcendent, the beautiful, the spiritual.

Art is a window to The Infinite, and opening to the goddess, a portal through which you and I, with the help of the artist, may discover depths and heights of our soul undreamed of by the vulgar world. Art is the eye of the spirit, through which the sublime can reach down to us, and we up to it, and be transformed, transfigured in the process.

Art, at its best, is the representation of your very own soul, a reminder of who and what you truly are and therefore can become.

Ken Wilber

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

Frank Zappa

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

Andy Warhol

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John Howe makes with the Fooony Balrog

by Colleen Doran on October 21st, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Culture, Illustration, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings

It made me shoot milk out my nose. Sometimes artists are asked to steer clear of film designs in our non-New Line-licensed illustrations. John Howe takes it to the limit.

I love this guy.

His new book is:

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Tolkien Art and Artists

by Colleen Doran on October 18th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Culture, Illustration, Culture, Literature, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings

A short list of Tolkien inspired/related books, which I recommend in my Tolkien art lectures. Not all of these are directly related to The Lord of the Rings, but feature artists closely associated with the work.

For example, Alan Lee, who is widely regarded as among the greatest of all Tolkien illustrators, has very few works in print. So, I’ve included some of his other books which I hope you will enjoy.

I’ve been asked to repeat this lecture at future appearances, so I will let you know when and where.

scroll

J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
by Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond
J.R.R. Tolkien
Mariner Books; 1st Houghton Mifflin

Tolkien’s World : Paintings of Middle-Earth by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien (Author)
Inger Edelfeldt, Tony Galuidi, Roger Garland, Robert Goldsmith, Michael Hague, Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Carol Emery Phenix
MJF Books

Realms of Tolkien – Images of Middle-Earth
HarperCollins Publishers

Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, the Tolkien Years
Watson-Guptill

John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop
Impact

The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Art of The Lord of the Rings
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Myth and Magic: The Art of John Howe
HarperCollins UK

The Mabinogion
Lady Charlotte Guest
Illustrated by Allan Lee
Harper Collins

Faeries
Brian Froud and Alan Lee
Harry N. Abrams

Castles
Alan Lee, David Day
Mcgraw-Hill

Recommended websites of noted Tolkien illustrators. Not all are official websites. Kay Nielsen was not a Tolkien illustrator, but his work was a great influence on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. The art there is in the public domain.

There are, of course, many other artists who have illustrated The Lord of the Rings who I have not listed here. This list covers those artists mentioned in my lecture.

Also, a number of Tolkien artist websites, including those of Darrell Sweet and Rowena Morrill, don’t feature many (if any) Tolkien works, so referring you to them would be beside the point. There are some unofficial sites out there which have their paintings, but I will only link directly to artist websites for the purposes of this discussion.

I’m an admirer of both artists, and Sweet in particular was a huge influence on me. As a kid, I loved his work on the adaptation of Howard Pyle’s King Arthur for Reader’s Digest. Absolutely charming!

There has not been a new collection of Tolkien art in some years. Long overdue, in my humble opinion. Of course, any collection would be contingent on the wishes of the Tolkien estate, and we have to respect that.

Gallery with over 70 drawings and paintings on permanent display by artist Roger Garland

Paintings and illustrations by Jeff Murray

Renowned Tolkien artist and scholar Ted Nasmith

Peter Pacownik artist for Tolkien related projects in Switzerland, as well as a Tolkien themed Tarot deck

Michael Kaluta website featuring extensive galleries including Tolkien calendar art

Top ranked realist Donato Giancola. Extensive galleries

Kinuko Craft, Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Winner

Ian Miller. Featuring extensive galleries and store

The cover art of Pauline Baynes

Renowned Tolkien artist and conceptual illustrator John Howe. Extensive galleries and blog

10 Time Hugo Award winning illustrator Michael Whelan

Gallery of the art of Kay Nielsen

Illustrator Michael Hague

Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, two of the most popular Tolkien illustrators

Colleen Doran. Licensing and merchandising artist. Cartoonist.

I’m totally plugging me.

My “Hobbit Feet” signed by Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Billy Boyd. Kinda neat.

hobbitfeetsigned

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Recommended Reading: John Howe

by Colleen Doran on October 5th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work, Culture, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Culture, Illustration, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings, Colleen's Work, Shows/Exhibits

The blogging is light, because I am not here. On the road, doing business stuff, and off to New York for the Lord of the Rings event.

I meant to get more commissions posted, but didn’t have time to scan any more before I hit the road. However, the pages from A Distant Soil are archived and ready to load.

My Tolkien art lecture has been truncated somewhat to fit the short time we have, and many people attending the Lord of the Rings weekend cannot make the Sunday lectures. I will post my notes and recommended research list here as time permits.

Until then, I can’t think of a better book to inspire the budding professional creator than Fantasy Art Workshop by John Howe, the famous Tolkien illustrator and conceptual artist. Howe is not only one of my favorites, but this book is also an excellent overview of life as a professional artist: fighting procrastination, late-paying and deadbeat clients, organizing the files. Nuts and bolts discussion that I find fascinating (and which dominates this blog.)

Like many artists, I assume the people I admire walk on water and have beds lined with rose petals. It is comforting reading accounts by someone as successful as Howe, who candidly relates mundane concerns with which all artists struggle. I truly enjoyed this book. Published by the same company as my Girl to Grrrl Manga and Manga Pro Superstar books. It’s on sale for a super-low price at Amazon just now.

I liked him so much, I took a picture. Actually, I think the publicity guy at Impact Books took our picture.

Here’s John Howe and Little Me at an Impact Books signing, promoting our tomes.

John and Colleen

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Mervyn Peake Exhibit

by Colleen Doran on October 4th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Illustration, Culture, Literature, Colleen's Work, Shows/Exhibits

Alas. It’s in Switzerland.

Lines of Flight

Mervyn Peake, The Illustrated Work
From 4th October 2009 to 14th February 2010

Opening October 3rd, 2009, 6 PM

In the presence of the Peake family and Michael Moorcock

Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) is celebrated today as the writer of the extraordinary series of novels about Titus Groan (often referred to as the Gormenghast books). Yet, during his lifetime he was more known for his graphic work.

From 1939 and for almost two decades, Peake produced illustrations both for his own work (Captain Slaughterboard; Rhymes without Reason) and for classics (Household Tales by the brothers Grimm; Alice in Wonderland; Treasure Island). His mastery of the pen and the pencil were unrivalled. Visually, his style could be disarmingly economical, using very pure and clean single lines to create a striking sense of volume. But with cross-hatching and dots Peake could also make his drawings look like engravings, providing the characters and objects he depicted, or the background to them, with rich and varied textures and a wide range of shades.

Mervyn Peake shows in all his images a fertile imagination, an inclination towards the grotesque, and towards the darker side of the soul. For throughout his life Mervyn Peake walked a razor’s edge as sharp as one of the lines he drew in indian ink: on one side lay his own mental fragility and on the other the fierce heat of his creative powers. Whether in writing or drawing, his pen defined the border between beauty and deformity, the familiar and the strange, and expressed a balancing act between his repulsion and attraction for the human race. It is tempting to compare the comet-like career of Mervyn Peake, the brilliance of his life and the lines of his drawings, with those “lines of flight” dear to Gilles Deleuze (A Thousand Plateaus, 1987) that characterize the trajectory of those who live their lives under the sign of experimentation and liberation.

As the hundredth anniversary of Mervyn Peake’s birth draws nearer, it is high time to pay homage to this fabulous one-man-band by displaying his illustrative work, somewhat forgotten today. The illustrations shown at Maison d’Ailleurs are seen for the first time outside the British Isles.

The Maison d’Ailleurs (translated as “House of Elsewhere”), is a museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland). It is a non-profit foundation functioning both as a public museum and a specialized research center.

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