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The Aria
The cover from the original edition of the third volume of A DISTANT SOIL. This was painted in Genesis Oils, which is not really oil, but works like it. It dries on demand at 250 degrees, which is a delight for illustrators. I quite like using it, but don’t get much chance to these days. This was one of the first attempts to work in this medium and it’s a little awkward, but I like the color. It did not print well at all, and it looks terrible on the book, but nice online. I think the printer actually used a low res scan instead of the one they were…
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Jason and Liana
An unusual mixed media cover, in handmade paper, gold leaf, pencil and digital. One of my favorites, I think it’s really unusual.
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NEW: Jason and Sere in Progress
Or more like almost new…I did a series of prints of highly rendered pencil drawings over 2 decades ago. Some of them were well done, and some of them were kind of awkward. While I liked the original drawing (not too bad especially considering it is older work,) Jason’s face was way off model. I’ve been reluctant to show the work again because of it, and don’t think I’ve shown it since I did it. I tweaked it in Photoshop, and am very happy with the result. I’ll use as an incentive print, and here is the coloring in progress. Below, the original drawing. As you can see, Jason’s face…
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D’mer
Mixed media collage. First off, Allan Harvey, the brain and brawn behind the restoration of A DISTANT SOIL, takes his art full time starting end of this year. Which means time to work on A DISTANT SOIL. Volumes III and IV will be a lot less labor than previous volumes, as we have almost all of the original art. A couple of setbacks, however. We pleaded with fans to loan us art back for the restoration of the books, but in a few cases, some fans opted to send us scans of the art. Turns out some of the scans are unusable. A lot of people with home scanners simply…
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Jason
This is an unusual watercolor, because it is painted on a resin board that gives the final art a very delicate and translucent effect. I don’t think they make it anymore.
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The Avatar
A watercolor portrait of Seren in formal dress as the Avatar. This is cropped badly and is fairly low res, but it is true to the color of the original on my screen. I like this piece, I think it’s an unusual look for comics, and it shows the influence of Sulamith Wulfing on my work. I really want to do more watercolor originals. My schedule is going to be a bit less crazy through Christmas, and I might have time to do a couple. However, it goes back to red alert in January. I’m not complaining. Also, if you are waiting on a shipment, I sincerely apologize for being…
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Emeris and Sere
The bad guys. In watercolor. Makes me wish I was doing more watercolor these days!
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A Distant Soil Alternate Cover
I haven’t done many variant covers for A DISTANT SOIL, but this is one of them, for issue 25. Watercolor. This was photographed by a pro before I could scan my own art, so the colors are a tad off. Hard to believe it, but this was painted in 1998.
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Vinyr and Eshi
These were used in a backup section in the A DISTANT SOIL comics with character portraits and info about the members of the Hierarchy. I am afraid some of the scans of the rest of these drawings seem to be missing, but these were shot from the originals.
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A DISTANT SOIL Cover Designs
A few years back when Jeff Smith, creator of BONE was giving me a pep talk, he had a word or two about how my cluttered graphic novel covers were hindering the series. He had his production dude (I think it was Steve Hamaker,) whip up a few ideas to show me what he meant. Here is a look. It was incredibly generous of Jeff to do this. There are several other designs as well. Jeff was thinking ahead to when the series might be collected in one or two massive trade paperback collections! Jim Valentino also thought my old cover work was dated, so when he decided to re-release…
