Paint Layers

INCOGNITO

2011-06-07T09:41:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I posted anything and I'm sorry about that. I'm in the midst of a move and a house sale. Some people can do this stuff as easily as walking a dog, but for me it's a nightmare. However, Art must go on! Here's a cover for a book called Incognito, by Gregory Murphy, published by Berkley Books. I don't know whether this cover is being used for the book or not. It is the second complete piece of art I did for this title, the first one was more of a romantic look, then the concept changed on me. This happens sometimes when a publisher is trying to place the book in the prefect niche and isn't sure how to appeal to that group of readers. I know very little about the story, except that it is a mystery that takes place in 1912 in New York City. I did tons of research for this image and learned, among other things, that the famous NY Public Library Lions were put there in 1912, the building was finished a year earlier. I love this era, and enjoyed looking at the familiar 5th Avenue in early photographs. It was just as busy as now, but with a different mix of traffic; carriages, double-decker open buses and all kinds of fancy motorcars. And the costumes! Men dressed in suits, whether they were laborers or bankers, but you can easily see in the photographs which is which, particularly from the hats. The rich had shiny beaver top hats or bowlers and the rest of the men showed their social status by how beat up their hats were, as well as the baggy knees of their pants. The women favored long, tight skirts that must have been very hard to walk in, jackets with fur, if they could afford it and then the hats. This was the era of some of the most outrageous hats ever created. Some were like good sized lampshades, with chiffon and flowers piled on top. That was the shillouette, Skinny body all the way up with a gigantic headpiece.
My wonderful costume person, Sharon Spiak came to the shoot with a genuine period skirt and jacket. The hat was her own creation, but fits the style perfectly. This was my first time working with Linda Holm a beautiful actress from Denmark. She very quickly caught the feeling I was after, in the body language and facial expression. I wanted her to look like she was up to something, sneaking somewhere, but also nervous and excited. The most difficult part of this image was getting the right look and feeling for the Library. I wanted to show more of period NYC, but it was impossible to get that across, without distracting from her. I worked from pictures I took in November last year. The pictures were daylight and it wasn't raining, but that's what artists are for. One little bit of trivia: The trees in front of the library were planted around the same time the lions were placed there and the were pretty small trees. But I needed the atmosphere that the bare branches would give to the scene, so I cheated and used large trees. All my efforts may be in vain, however, if the cover isn't used!
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THE BED & THE BACHELOR

2011-04-03T09:39:00.001-04:00

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These images are the front and stepback covers to Tracy Anne Warren's, The Bed & The Bachelor, Avon Books. I'm quite happy about the way they came out and it was a fortuitous combination of ideas and people at the right time, that made it possible. For a long time I've been playing with the idea of these romance illustrations being about something more than just a blatantly sexual way of selling books. Instead, I've been thinking about the deeper feeling we have in love and romance, feelings that can suddenly become the most important things in the world. That moment, where everything disappears but the object of your passion, is what I'm trying to get across.

I helps so much when you have an art director, like Tom Egner at Avon, who understands art and design and just as importantly, knows when to leave an image alone. That willingness to stand up to the forces of committee blandness is partly responsible for the existence of this image. And so are the models, Suzanne Fogarty and Anthony ...., Who put real emotion into their acting. Shirley Green, my friend and photographer and her assistant, Philippa Clayton, all were part of creating these covers.

As I was working on these, I began to have strange flashes of the famous painting by Delacroix of the Storming of the Bastile, during the French Revolution, in which a bare-breasted woman carrying the tri-color banner over the top of the melee, amidst smoke and mayhem. So I guess there's a feeling of heroism in the face of danger, or maybe it's more like the couple is saying, " This is all that matters!"...

here's a picture of that painting:

Is heroism sexy? Well, in her case it is. Can sexiness be heroic? It's interesting how, after the fact, revolutions seem heroic, but at the time, they are nasty, vicious and brutal. There are heroes, people who did the right thing in an important way, or who went all-out for the common good, disregarding their own safety. But only the winning side gets to celebrate them. This painting, done years after the revolution, looks a lot like pictures that came out of Cairo recently. On their faces is power, excitement and something that says, "This is all that matters!"

WINTER

2011-02-18T19:54:00.003-05:00

What a Winter we've been having here in the Northeast. I have gotten unused to Winter since my move to Florida several years ago, where temperatures in the 50s send people scurrying for their down jackets. But this Winter I've been in New York State, in the Hudson Valley, where we've had record amounts of snow. This image was created for my series, Forces Of Nature, about 2 years ago while in in Florida, but I called upon my many years of living in cold environments to help me imagine the dance of the Winter goddess. I guess that's what she is, reveling in her frosty medium. I originally conceived of the piece as a view looking over her shoulder as she hovered and brought frigid Winter conditions to a little town below. It never seemed to work. Then I played with the idea of her as a dancing figure, maybe even joyful. I used Heidi Bailey as my model, with Shirley Green as the photographer, Sharon Spiak for costume. My home team!
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MY WICKED MARQUESS

2011-01-23T10:57:00.001-05:00

This is the front and inside cover for the book, My Wicked Marquess, by Gaelen Foley, published by Avon Books. From the beginning, I wanted this image to have a look of "dark passion", a kind of desperate intensity that sex can have. But how to get that across? The art director had requested they be in an interior, so I started playing with different interiors in my sketches. I decided an empty mansion or chateau would be better that a furnished room, hinting that they are there illicitly, but also that for them, only they exist. I liked the curving stair and it gave me the idea to have the models form a similar twist, at least on the front cover. The models, Harmon and Suzanne Fogarty, caught the concept perfectly during the shoot. By happy accident , on some of the shots, Harmons face was slightly shadowed and I decided to go with that and really make his face in shadow, bringing out the girl in light. I think there is something in the finished image, the spooky stair, the desperate intensity of their bodies, that successfully expresses my original concept.
For the inside cover, I had to invent a bed for them, not a real bed, but more a pile of blankets and stuff the threw together in the empty mansion. Again, I played with shadows, bringing darkness over their legs, to emphasize their faces and upper bodies. Suzanne and Harmon made this one sexy and graceful at the same time. Thanks to them and to Shirley Green, photographer and Sharon Spiak, costumer.
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SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY

2010-12-02T15:14:00.001-05:00

I am often called upon to do Christmas covers throughout the year. This one was done in sunny Florida, but I have a large reservoir of snow knowledge to call on from living in the North! This cover for the book, Somewhere Along The Way by Jodi Thomas, started with a photograph by Jim Begley, www.wowphotoshdr.com. He's a talented photographer from Kentucky, who allowed me to use the picture he took of the local Mayor's house in Corbin KY. I changed a lot about the setting and of course, translated it in my own way. I may use it as a Christmas card, if I ever get around to writing any! Many thanks to Jim for his lovely house picture.
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BOOKS VS KINDLE

2010-10-07T17:08:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of discussion going on lately amongst my colleagues and with art directors about the future of books and specifically, book covers. Most of us were raised in households filled with books and we grew up loving them. Nothing nicer on a rainy afternoon than curling up with a good book, that kind of thing... So we don't quite know what the younger generations are thinking about books. Do they have the same attachment to the traditional medium? And what about the covers? Will Kindle books not need them? At the moment Kindle is still in black and white, but other devices now come with color, so our covers can be displayed. But you have to decide to look at the cover, instead of it being there throughout the reading experience. I enjoy having a beautiful cover, asking to be picked up and read. Another question is how are the books going to be sold, if the cover is only digital? Will there be full color displays in the bookstores? Will there even be bookstores? So many people have told me they respond to beautiful covers by picking up the book, greatly increasing the chances they'll buy it. I do the same thing.
One of my favorite things to do in Sarasota on a Sunday was to go into the Sarasota News and Books on Main Street. You got great coffee or cappuccino and croissants, all while perusing the latest books chosen by a very knowledgeable buyer. Sadly, like so many bookstores around the country, this place closed early this year.
Which brings me to the question, how do you pick out books? Do you read reviews? Are you a browser, who likes to pick up the books and read a bit? Do you latch onto one author and read everything he or she writes? How does the cover influence you? What do you think about ebooks?
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WHEN BEAUTY TAMED THE BEAST (A KISS AT MIDNIGHT)

2010-10-06T18:57:00.002-04:00

This is a two part cover for the book, When Beauty Tamed The Beast, by Eloisa James, previously known by its working title, A Kiss At Midnight, Published by Avon Books. The theme is vaguely reminiscent of The Beauty And The Beast, but my illustrations imply that the beast is a statue of a lion, which perhaps contains the handsome prince. Ms. James has been doing a series of Fairy Tale inspired romances, a previous one was Cinderella and they are continuing. I think it's rather cool, and it gives me a chance to play with the fantasy side of romance. From the start, I was heavily influenced by the 1960s film, La Belle et Le Bette, by Jean Cocteau, a masterpiece of film making that is infused with an incredible atmosphere of magic. Unlike the dumbed-down version of the story that Disney offered up, Cocteau dives into the psychology of the story, exploring the deeper meanings in the myth, with profound results. In my image I tried to stick with the feeling of longing in the girl, alone embracing her stone lion. Why is she there at midnight? who is she waiting for, or is she dreaming it all? The second scene doesn't answer much, she could still be dreaming. But the dream has it's happy ending.
Models were Steven Muzzenegro and Bonnie. Photography was by Shirley Green and costumes by Sharon Spiak. Thanks again, team!
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MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH

2010-07-14T11:59:00.000-04:00

This image was done for the cover of Move Heaven & Earth, by Christina Dodd. My model was the truly beautiful and talented actress, Ewa Da Cruz. I wanted to get across the stormy determination hinted at by the title and I think the portrait here captures that kind of personality. I liked giving this a true Regency look, but with a twist from the historical portraits of the period, in that she is looking away. That is a distinctly modern approach and creates a feeling of being there as an observer. When I create a book cover, there is only one chance to get across the story. One image. Many different approaches to that problem have been tried over the ages, including incidental clues that help imply a context, having multiple scenes from the story meld together like movie stills fading into each other. But my favorite way is to let the eyes tell the story. The eyes and the body language. The stormy background helps support what we are seeing in her lovely and quite powerful expression
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SEVEN NIGHTS TO FOREVER

2010-07-09T10:31:00.000-04:00

Seven Nights To Forever, by Evangeline Collins, Berkley Books. I created this cover fairly recently, but wanted to wait for the book to be published before it was posted. I have always enjoyed using pattern in my work, both for galleries and for illustrations. I don't always get the chance, so whenever possible I go for it. My interest in working with pattern goes way back my early days as an artist, experimenting with ways of reconciling realism and abstraction. I wanted them to coexist. Often pattern gets incorporated into my work as an intentionally flat passage, that forces the eye to look at the whole composition in a different way than if it were a simple rendering of the "real" scene. My use of pattern has been evolving though, and often finds itself worked into the real space of the image as if it were something actually in the picture, like in this case. Here, the pattern looks as if it is some kind of fabric on the bed, as opposed to floating above the picture, as in many of my pictures. In another post, I'll show an example of that kind of image.
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RELEASE FROM PRISON

2010-06-16T21:36:00.002-04:00

Ok, I was wrong, there were six illustrations, not five! This is the last of the Reader's Digest paintings I did for Rosalind Laker's Venetian Mask. I don't remember exactly how it occurred, but the heroine's husband was taken to prison on some charge, no doubt the work of the evil villain. Our lady bails him out and basically saves him, too. Talk about heroic! I had him in his cell, writing a letter ( to his wife, no doubt), when she arrives and the door is flung open. I tried to make it look like he jumped up so fast that he knocked over his chair and spilled the ink. Being one of the upper class, he would have had a chair and table, perhaps, and writing instruments, unless he was really in trouble. I based this cell on a jail cell I remembered seeing in the Doge's palace, near the Bridge of Sighs. For those who aren't familiar with Venetian history, there was a slot in the wall of the palace through which accusations could be slipped anonymously. To be accused, was to be found guilty. It was up to you and your family to prove otherwise. A system that was all too easy to abuse and a great way to get rid of an enemy or a rival. The accused entered the palace for a hearing and sentence over the bridge of sighs, so called because it would be, for so many prisoners, the last view they would ever see of their beloved city.
I'm quite proud of this series and others I did for the Digest. I hope you enjoyed seeing these images that haven't had a viewing in many years.
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THE RESCUE

2010-06-15T09:55:00.001-04:00

Here's our girl being really heroic! Her friend, seen earlier in the bridal gondola, has fallen out of favor with the evil husband . He has been keeping her in a kind of dungeon, without food. Somehow she manages to bluff her way into the palazzo and finds her friend in a terribly weakened state. Then the husband comes home. Smart thinking, to bring a pistol along!
This is one illustration where I built a miniature cardboard and wood set, to help me envision the space the actors would be in. I had to know what angle to place the guy so that he would appear to be coming down the high stairs. In the studio we had him up on a ladder and the camera was almost on the ground. You really have to plan ahead to shoot this many scenes in 2 hours. I think this is one of my favorites of the series, because of the strong angles in the composition and because of the powerful body language of the heroine.
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THE DUEL

2010-06-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

Honestly, I forget who is dueling whom in this scene. I think one is the mean husband and the other, the nice guy our heroine ends up marrying. The duelers are both wearing Bauta masks, but have removed the outer clothing and hats, to have more freedom to move. I placed them in one of those small squares that you find throughout Venice. Little alleys lead off in all directions and you can get very lost quickly. A crowd of party goers stand around watching the entertainment. Dueling was illegal, but with everyone masked, they could get away with it.
On my wanderings in Venice I had the feeling of ghosts around me in those quieter areas, especially at night. History isn't dead there but lives on and there is a sinister undertone to the city and its history. Rivalries, hidden intrigues, plots and murders abounded amongst the debauchery of Venetian society. Ms. Laker really caught that feeling in her story. Of note is the black Bauta at the left, with the lower part fringed with black lace. It's a very disconcerting look, at the least! It's always disturbing to talk with a person wearing a mask. The seem to take on a strange power that an ordinary face wouldn't have. Perhaps because it defeats our ability to read that face.
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VENITIAN MASK- THE BRIDAL BARGE

2010-06-13T16:30:00.001-04:00

As promised, I'm continuing to post illustrations I painted for Rosalind Laker's book, Venetian Mask, as published by Reader's Digest in 1993. This scene shows the heroine's best friend on her wedding day procession by gondola. She is visibly unhappy, because this is a forced marriage, due to economic circumstances and the guy she's marrying is known to be a real creep, but very wealthy and powerful. I wanted to give the viewpoint from gondola height, to direct the eye. The miserable bride is the focus of attention even though she is off to the right. In the printed book, this image was spread across the top of two pages with text below. Venice was still fresh in my mind from an earlier trip and I was excited to be able to place this scene in the Grand Canal. Did I take liberties with the architecture? Yes. And of course no bride would allow her wedding dress to drape into that water, which was even dirtier then, but it created such a nice flowing line and helped get across her defeated attitude, I did it anyway. I believe the model used for the bride is Sue Brown. Brigid Hobbie played the family member behind her in the gondola and I may have posed for the guy in front, but I'm not sure. This painting is four feet long, in oil on wood.
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VENETIAN MASK-THE MASK SHOP

2010-06-12T09:48:00.000-04:00

This is another of the paintings done for Rosalind Laker's Venetian Mask, published back in 1993 by Reader's Digest. It shows the heroine at work in the shop that creates and sells masks. She is being noticed through the window by her future husband. I imagined this shop to be in the arched arcade that surround Piazza San Marco. All the masks were all carefully researched. One particularly strange one is at the upper right, which is known as the Plague Doctor. I read somewhere that during the plagues that swept Europe in previous centuries, it was believed that breathing bad air was the cause of the disease, so doctors wore these peculiar masks to sort of filter the air before they breathed it in. Can you imagine being deathly ill and visited by a doctor wearing a mask like that? How horrific! The heroine was played by model Brigid Hobbie, I don't remember the guy's name. I was honored when Reader's digest used this image on their Christmas card for that year, the second time they used one of my illustrations for their card. The first one was for a book called Anya, set in Russia in the 19th century which I'll post at another time, if there's any interest. This is an oil painting approximately 32 inches high. Please leave your comments!

VENETIAN MASK TITLE PAGE

2010-06-11T20:05:00.001-04:00

I thought it would be fun and interesting to post a series I did for a story written by Rosalind Laker, called Venetian Mask, which was published in Readers Digest in 1993.These are all oil paintings and they hark back to an earlier era in illustration. The story features a gutsy heroine, a dramatic rescue and tons of wonderful period detail to help the reader feel immersed in the time. I had been in Venice eight years earlier and had taken the photograph of the great piazza at night. Of course the people in Comedia Del Arte costumes weren't there. One of the wonderful things about working on an historical project is to learn about things I didn't know about before, such as the characters of the Comedia del Arte, a very early form of street theater, which dates back I think to before the Rennaisance. I learned that people regularly went out at night wearing masks and this allowed them to behave in ways they couldn't normally act if people knew who they were. The lower classes could sometimes infiltrate the high society if they were good actors and vice versa. The masks themselves were very specific and not just random disguises. The oldest and most common type, the Bauta, is shown here on the second from right figure. It was always worn with the lacy mantle, tri-corner hat and long, concealing cloak. To me it looks very skull-like and creepy. In this scene, four of the main characters meet in Piazza San Marco at the beginning of Carnivale. They are all dressed as specific Comedia characters, I think the woman on the left is Harlequina, I don't recall what the man is and the other woman is Columbina. This story also takes place at the time of Vivaldi and is really the high point of Venetian culture. This, being the title page, was spread across two pages, with some type over it. I'm going to be posting all five of the illustrations from this story over the next few days. A note about the process of creating this series. As usual, I did sketches and then hired models and costumes. Because I was paying for all that, I wanted to keep the costs affordable, so I used only four models! I'm in some of the scenes, too. The other thing of interest is that I set up all the scenes and shot them in Black & white film in just two hours at Bob Osonitsch studio in New York. The prevailing thinking was, these are paintings and the photos are just reference help. Things are different now. I hope you enjoy a look back at these vintage images.
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THE SUBSTITUTE BRIDE

2010-06-10T08:47:00.001-04:00

Here's a piece I did for a book called The Substitute Bride, by Elizabeth Lane. It is set in 1906, a period that hasn't been so popular among romance authors of late. I really like this period, because of the opulence and sophistication in the fashions, architecture and decoration. A very elegant era. The couple has parked for some heavy petting on the street in San Francisco's Beacon Hill area, ( before it was all destroyed by the earthquake! ) Realisticaly, they wouldn't dare do that in the street, under a bright light, but who cares? It makes for a nice picture, with the lighted buildings behind. I emphasized the play between warm and cool colors in the composition. The carriage was created in the 3D program, Cararra because I wanted to have the exact angle and lighting for the couple to look like they are seated in it. My models were Tracy Weller and Harmon ?? (the last name escapes me). Both excellent models. Costumes, as always by Sharon Spiak and photography by my friend, Shirley Green. A word about the use of 3D "props". In the old days, I used to make little models with lighting, in order to help me get the correct angle, light and shadow. I don't claim to be an expert 3D artist, but I do manage to create serviceable props and settings when I need to. It's actually a very interesting way to work. My inspiration for setting up miniature scenes originally came from Maxfield Parrish, who used to build very elaborate miniature scenes, using rocks, mirrors ( for the water), sand, plaster, etc. He apparently had a collection of favorite rocks for this purpose. Mine were mostly wood and cardboard, sometimes painted. Sometimes I used toy cars or plastic models. Nowdays, 3D has dispensed with all that. Interesting to note, another artist/hero of mine Fortuni, was really into designing theater sets. He would make complete miniature stages, with working parts, lights curtains, everything so he could control the effects on the big stage. There must be something very exciting about working this way for many artists.
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FALL from The Forces Of Nature series

2010-03-23T12:31:00.000-04:00

This oil painting is part of that ongoing series I've been creating over the years. I thought of her as I worked on the painting, as the embodiment of fall and like my previous post, Winter, is commanding and playing with her element, the falling leaves. But there is an air of sadness to her amidst all the beauty. It's a feeling I often associate with fall, a kind of pleasant melancholy. There is still some leftover warmth from summer, but with an undertone of the approaching winter. Fall always seems too short, in my opinion, but so delicious, with ripened apples, a hint of wood smoke in the air, warm sweaters and fall foods. The light changes and days shorten. Perhaps our lady is playing with her leaves one more time before the real chill begins.
I went to New York and photographed a model for this, Ewa da Cruz. She acted the part so beautifully, we didn't want it to stop! Shirley Green was the photographer and Sharon Spiak created the costume.
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WINTER

2010-02-25T09:07:00.002-05:00

This is an another in my series of Forces Of Nature, that I've been working on slowly for years. The idea is to embody the particular Force in a woman. It's an ancient tradition, but of course, I give it my own style. In this image, I was imagining the figure of Winter as dancing and delighting in her frigid powers. Earlier versions of this had her looming over a small, snowed in town, but I like it better with just her, playing with the flying snowstorm.
People in much of the world have been seeing plenty of her magic this year!
The model was Heidi Bailey, Shirley Green studio and Sharon Spiak, costume.
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A DUKE OF HER OWN

2010-01-29T19:52:00.000-05:00

The reason I haven't posted in a while is that i've been incredibly busy, creating more covers. This one is for a book by Eloisa James, titled A Duke Of her Own, ( Avon Books). Ms. James seems to be setting her stories in the late 18th century, the Marie Antoinette era, as some like to describe it.This is nice, because it allows me to play with the flow of huge amounts of fabric, that were used in dresses of the period. I doubt very much if we'll be seeing a lot of mens' clothing from this period, because it is so outlandish by today's standards. Men were peacocks in fashion then and it baffles the mind to figure out how they could have a decent sword fight in all that getup. A great movie for this period is Vatel, which tells the story of a party planner for a duke when Louis XIV was coming to visit with his hundreds of courtiers. Vatel, ( Gerard Depardieu ), the man in charge of making it all work from pies to fighting ships to fireworks displays has the job from hell. Watching the movie you get to see what went on behind the scenes in the Sun King's court. But I digress. This cover has been very popular, so I'm showing it here, with the whole art, not the cropped version you see on the book cover. The Duke is really going to town with his lover on the inside cover! The models were Christine Donlon and Paul Marron, the costumes by Sharon Spiak and Photography by Shirley Green. I made the scene on the inside cover in 3D to fit the figures.
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IN THE WARRIOR'S BED

2009-10-23T21:07:00.003-04:00

This was done not long ago for a book called In The Warrior's Bed, by Mary Wine, Kensington Books. It's a Medieval/Scottish genre book, which I haven't read.I have been getting a lot of compliments on this cover, though, and I am working on its sequel, Bedding With The Enemy.
It's nice to work in the Medieval era for a change from Regencies. Does anyone know why there are so many Regencies these days? They used to be the tamest books out there, but now, the shirts & gowns are flying off! I this cover, I chose a period pattern as a background. I knew the art director wanted to keep the design simple and I love working with patterns. This one reminds me a bit of Fortuny, the great Italian designer from the early 20th century. I was very impressed with his studio in Venice and loved the way he resurrected Rennaisance and Medieval patterns, often printing them in gold or silver on velvet. Let me know what you think!

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KISMET

2009-10-03T11:19:00.004-04:00

Kismet, a new book by Monica Burns, is published by Berkley Books. The book has an exotic flavor that I wanted to get across, something about Asia, opium and subterfuge, with a lavish overlay of sexual desire. I chose colors that are reminiscent of India, hot, dusty, beautiful, and contrasted the light blue gauzy dress the woman is almost wearing, to be a cool diagonal flow across the hot palette. What do you think? Does it work?

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ALL NIGHT WITH A ROGUE

2009-07-09T10:51:00.002-04:00

This one is for a book by Alexandra Hawkins, titled, All Night With A Rogue, (St. Martins Press).

I was given just the sketchiest of directions and was therefore pretty free to play with the model's pose and the lighting. Christine Donlon and Harmon Walsh, both actors as well as models, did a great job. I started with Christine on the floor, with a low camera angle and then had Harmon come in behind and beside her. There are several trends in evidence here, the tendency to "crop off their heads!" as you can see in the actual cover and also in the pose, which has the guy behind and more shadowy. I was thinking about these things while directing, but also about the beautiful classic lines of her face and the tender, but sexy interaction between them.

Costummes by Sharon Spiak, Photography by Shirley Green.
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DEVILISH DUKE IN MY BED

2009-06-13T21:09:00.004-04:00

This is one of my favorite recent covers, done for the book, Devilish Duke In My Bed, by Sophie Jordan, Avon Books. There is a very hot inside cover, too. The model was Suzanne Fogarty, one of the best models, who manages with grace and style to embody whatever sexy pose I ask for.

In this case I requested an auto-erotic feeling, as if she was getting turned on just from the thought of her lover. I did a lot of painting in this one to further that concept, turning up the heat and emphasizing her body writhing under the satin sheets. Her skin was made very pale and hair, very light blonde to contrast with the rich colors of the sheet and patterned background. I notice in my work of late, that I care less and less whether the background or setting makes sense in a literal way, but works in an artistic way to further the feeling of the piece. My thanks to Suzanne and Shirley Green, my photographer. Thanks also to Veronica Bennet, who keeps me on my toes and posting more regularly! Please visit her website for a treat, at : http://www.veronicabennet.altervista.org/

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Cover Cafe article!

2009-05-15T10:53:00.005-04:00

I've chosen an real classic from my collection of book covers past, in honor of the recent article posted in www.Covercafe.com/BTSCgriffin.shtml This was for the book by Jennifer Blake, called Midnight Waltz that was published in 1984. It's interesting to notice what has changed and what has stayed the same about romance book covers in the intervening years. When I painted this, I was trying to bring back a fine art look to the cover image and I wanted to convey a mood that fit with the intense feeling of romance in the book. Amidst the bubble gum covers at the time, all screaming at the reader with huge, gigantic flowers and saturated colors, I thought this classical approach would really stand out. And it did! I understand this sold very well and was soon to garner a bunch of imitators. I still do these moody covers from time to time, when the subject seems to warrant it, but for the most part, publishers shy away from greys, browns, and dark purples. Yet I think this holds together because of its close color harmonies. It is saved from total gloom by the patch of orange sky, looming over the victorian hotel. There is a feeling danger and urgency, indicated by the blowing dark cloud, whipping palms and crashing waves.

Another thing that was popular then, but has just begun to come back, is the image wrapping around to the back cover. At the time I did this, most artists treated the back cover differently from the front, often having a vignette showing another scene from the story. I felt it would be much better to sweep right across, continuing the panorama in one image. I'm sure the typesetters hated this, because their blocks of copy were harder to read, but I think the customers liked it. I also had an ulterior motive, with an eye toward the future, to create a painting that would make sense in a frame as a work of art. Some of these painting are in frames in private collections and they do work that way. The rest are in storage bins awaiting the day when they might be rediscovered like Pulp Fiction illustrations were a while back. At one time those cover paintings were hard to even give away, but after a good amount of time had passed they became campy and interesting again. Their prices at auction have been rising ever since.

I did many covers for Jennifer Blake books through the 80s and early 90s for Ballantine books. I'll haul one out and post it from time to time. Meanwhile, visit CoverCafe.

Please leave your comments!

WHEN THE DUKE RETURNS

2009-04-15T19:17:00.004-04:00

This is the front cover illustration I did for Eloisa James' When The Duke Returns, Avon Books. The model was Ewa Da Cruz, costume by Sharon Spiak and Photography by Shirley Green. I was looking for a way to get across the title's celebratory feel, but also an intimate romantic sense and hit upon the idea of using fireworks in the distance. It is smoky out there and our heroine is smiling coyly at the off stage Duke. The mask helps convey the thought of a vaguely naughty party. On the stepback image, which you see when you open the front cover, she now has her man in her arms. I liked this pose very much and it was a happy accident, made by trying different positions. To me, he looked so heroic, but also so fragile and she seemed both hungry and protective in her touch. The party keeps going on out there somewhere... but she has her duke!

Please leave your comments!

THE SHADOW AND THE FLAME

2008-10-27T20:07:00.003-04:00

This image is for the first book in a series of four, I think, by talented author, Denise Rossetti, who is exploring afresh direction in the Fantasy genre. It is a hot book, in many ways and well-written, too! I recently was interviewed by her on her blog, http://www.deniserossetti.com/blog/, for the launching of the series by Berkley Books.
Briefly, it's a fantasy world in which certain rare people are inhabited by powers , such as Fire , Breath, Shadow, etc. The Powers are also very involved with the sexual natures of their carriers, though it seems they are incomplete without their opposite power. Denise, forgive me if I mangled this synopsis!
My challenge was to get across this intense sexuality and heat of the fire spirit within our heroine. I worked with a scene where Cenda is beginning to explore her sexual nature with the fire in her tavern room. I wanted to get across the torment she had about her, the longing and also the amazing power of fire that she was just beginning to control. My model for this was Ewa Da Cruz, who once again carried a role way beyond the usual! Photography was by Shirley Green. Inspriration was partly the work of William Blake, whose 18th century paintings transcend time.

Please leave your comments!

THE STEEL WAVE

2008-08-24T20:17:00.004-04:00

This is an oil painting for the book, The Steel Wave, by Jeff Shaara, published recently by Random House. It was created using as reference that famous photo of the Omaha Beach landing on D-Day, photo used with permission. Whenever I do a war image I feel a deep sadness the whole time. I hate war and think we humans should evolve past this type of brutality. At the same time I mourn the young men and women who get thrown into the middle of these things! I can imagine their terror as they struggled in the icy waves to get ever closer into range of the machine guns and exploding shells. How did any of them survive and how did they remain sane after witnessing that maelstrom of death? I am humbled to be portraying them and yet I condemn those "masters of War", who brought into being the need for those soldiers to wade ashore that day!

Please leave your comments!

RUNAWAY McBRIDE

2008-07-12T11:28:00.004-04:00

I haven't had a call for a lady wearing a bustle in ages, so when I received this assignment, Runaway McBride, by Elizabeth Barton, Berkley Books, for a woman wearing a beautiful bustle ball gown, it was an ice change from the string of Regencies I've been doing. Costume history note: 1870s were the era of the bustle, an enlarged, padded under structure that protruded out the back, emphasizing the rear, but also giving the upper body a lean look by contrast. Corsets helped with this part,of course. By contrast the Regency women's fashion was emulating the ancient Greek look of unstructured simplicity, moving the waistline high, just under the breast and allowing for long, flowing folds below. I think it would be interesting to bring back the bustle, but I can't see it happening in todays world of cars, elevators and computer desks. Maybe at some gala occasion it would be quite a departure.
Enough about fashion! I was very pleased with the way this image came out. It was one of three I submitted. I wanted the girl to stand out an be featured, but also for an design element to flow behind her. In this case a William Morris inspired design was used and seemed to work well with the period and pose.
I want to thank photographer, Shirley Green, model Lauren Delollio and costume designer, Sharon Spiak for their great help in making this image possible.
Please leave your comments!

SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER

2008-01-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

This illustration was done recently for a book titled, Scandal's Daughter, by Christine Wells. It's a case where where I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on the writing or story, but it looks to be getting great reviews. I was given the barest of facts, the heroine's age, hair color, time period and a bit about her character. They also had a scene in mind, which is helpful, but the rest I basically made up and hoped it was right for the story. I went with the heroine's personality, which was independent and strong-willed. The publisher mentioned an English house in the distance and a horse grazing mid-ground, so I decided she had been riding, even though wearing her Regency dress. I gave her chamois gloves and a riding crop to help get that across and had her thoroughbred wearing a saddle. The idea of having her looking away from us, into the scene was requested from the art director and I really think it brings the viewer right into what she's looking at. This is also a way of allowing the female reader to place herself in the role of the heroine, and not get hung up on her face. In this case, the face, and body, too, belongs to Suzanne Fogarty, a model I have worked with many times and always is superb!

Please leave your comments!

MIDWIFE OF THE BLUE RIDGE

2007-11-28T20:14:00.000-05:00

Here's another strong, independent woman to add to my growing collection of heroic women. It's a recent cover for a book by new author, Christine Blevins, soon to be published by Berkley Books and titled, Midwife Of The Blue Ridge. The book is set in 1763 and has a very original story .
......."In the highlands of Scotland, Maggie Duncan is desperate to alter the course of her lonely, hardscrabble life. In search of a new beginning, the young midwife puts her mark to terms of indenture, turns her back on her homeland, and embarks on an adventure into the great unknown.
Maggie survives the perilous journey across treacherous seas and makes landfall in Virginia Colony. Her indenture is sold at auction and she is bound to provide four years of service to a farming family living on the remote frontier in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
No longer under threat of war, the Virginian uplands are being claimed and settled by bold men seeking their fortunes. Frontier folk face adversity daily as they carve out an existence in this wild, beautiful place. Rugged backwoodsmen vie with determined homesteaders and brutal land speculators for ground, game, and the favors of a handful
of women.
More than one of these daring men are drawn to the pretty midwife, and more than ever Maggie must rely on her wits, her healing skills and her strength of heart to survive in a savage land where the whisper of Indian uprising lies just over the horizon."
I was given this assignment as a rush job. The author had actually provided a great sketch, so I was able to "see" Maggie in my mind, given very little information beyond a brief description. This is either intuition, experience of just luck. Maybe all three rolled together! The cover crops in on my image just below the woman's nose, so Christine had never seen her face. When I sent her a jpeg of the full image this was her reply: ....."it is a bit eerie to see the full image. Your version of Maggie is exactly ? I mean EXACTLY how I pictured Maggie Duncan in my head. It is actually amazing to me that you caught her with such minimal information."
Well I'm pleased that she's pleased and the publisher is happy, too.
I don't know why, but I really like portrying heroic women. Maybe it's the contrast between their beauty and their determination, but actually, their beauty is partly a result of their determination! Whatever the fascination is, give me more stories like this to illustrate!
Model: Cole, from Click agency. Photography, Shirley Green. Costume, Sharon Spiak.Thanks all!

Please leave your comments!

THE ALCHEMIST'S APPRENTICE

2007-10-11T18:16:00.001-04:00

This image was done as the cover illustration for the book, The Alchemist's Apprentice, by Dave Duncan. The story centers around the apprentice of legendary alchemist and prophet, Nostradamus. Talk about a cool job! The story takes place in 16th century Venice and it's a great read, full of intrigue, action magic and the feel of Venice at its height.The art director wanted the cover to have the look of an old painting and also to convey the alchemy theme. Lucky for me, they haven't changed Venice in all that time, so I was able to start with a current photo of the Grand Canal. I had to cheat a bit to get a view down the canal from a balcony, which doesn't exist. I made that in 3d and other objects in the scene, but not the armilary sphere. That beautiful astrological device would have taken me too long to make in 3d and I had a good picture of one in a museum somewhere, so it was blended in. The young man went through quite a lot of turmoil. As it turns out, the art director, editor and others were uncomfortable with the first guy I had , who was dressed accurately in striped velvet pantaloons, tights, a doublet, etc. The whole Shakespear look. They were concerned he might not convey the "manly look" they wanted. So after various attempts to macho him up, we replaced him with the guy you see here, wearing clothing much more fitting the 18th century. I guess mass market books just aren't ready for the pantaloon! I gave the image several brownish "glazes", the same as I would do with an oil painting, and then added a semi-transparent crackle. This looks best when it's not an all over effect, but rather, appears in patches that fade out into a painted look. I could describe the technique further if anyone is interested.
Please leave your comments!

1830 TEXTILE MILL

2007-10-09T18:59:00.001-04:00

This image was created for a textbook double page spread. The client wanted a view of the inside of a textile mill, typical of mills that flourished in the early 1800s. These were operated by children, as well as women and men and were really hellish places. I had to do a lot of research to get the feeling of what it was like inside one of these. Powered by water wheels and later, huge steam engines, they were dangerous, noisy and filthy places that shortened the lives of those who worked in them. This was before the birth of photography, so I had to rely on eyewitness drawings, but these were often sanitized. Dickens wrote movingly about the mills in his short but powerful book, Hard Times, and his view of them was very dark. This illustration began with an 3D construction of the interior space and machines. I used an architectural 3D program called Sketchup, then Cararra, another 3D program which renders more realistically. I only had to make one of each machine, and the clone them to fill the mill. It was a challenge to get the shafts of light pouring through the dust, which I managed by cutting virtual windows in the roof and blasting a bank of "lights" through them. The addition of "atmosphere" in Cararra helped make the effect. The people were created crudely in Poser and imported into Cararra, where their main function was to cast shadows and help me work out the relative sizes of people to machines. None of this was easy and things kept going wrong as the file size grew larger and larger, slowing the program down to a crawl. It also took a lot of time, but I just worked on it when I was in that technical state of mind. The final rendering took all night and half of the next day! After the rendering was in the bag, I started working on it in Photoshop. That's where I painted in the clothes and features of the people and worked on thousands of little details that give an image life. 3d programs a good and getting better every year, but I find they lack control to really bring out what I want in an image. ( or I may not have enough skill & patience! ). After fussing with this thing for almost a month on and off, I presented it to the client, - who wanted changes! This is one of the most frustrating aspects of being an illustrator. Changes.
The client doesn't know or care how much work you've put in, they just want it to say what they want and in this case it had to do with showing the misery of the children more clearly. A rare case where the client actually makes the image better! I worked on it for another week, drawing peolpe freehand and emphasizing the brutish manager and the suffering Dickensian children, while adding more grime. The final result reads like a story more than my initial sketch. I believe looking at it now, that the actual scene was probably much grittier, darker and filthy, the story much more tragic.
Please leave your comments!

DEATH

2007-09-13T20:48:00.000-04:00

I've been a baaad blogger! Not because I haven't had images or comments to post, but due to being so busy with illustrating and with a major house redo here in Florida. I will try to post some examples of what I've been busy with. First, however, is my latest addition to the FORCES OF NATURE series, that has been going on forever, titled, DEATH. (Now there's conversation stopper!)
I think the image illustrates many conflicting and ambivolent feelings I have about death. For instance, is woman in my image menacing or welcoming? Is the scene calming or disturbing? Yes! I do see death as a force of nature and one which is vital for life. But it also terrifies the part of me that wants to continue to exist forever. These ideas swirling around the issue of death made it an irresistable subject for my series. I went to New York in April and shot a group of these: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall and Life. There was incredible excitement at those shoots, perhaps because we were all allowed to do something different from the usual book cover fare and because the concepts were abstract and open to interpretation. The photographer, Shirley Green and the costume stylist, Sharon Spiak were both in the "zone" and I was my crazed self, trying to direct something toward my vision that quickly took on a life of its own. I owe a great deal to the model, Ewa da Cruz, an actress who truly became the character of death.
I had discussed with her two possible was of playing the part, as a fearsome destroyer, and as a welcoming bringer of peace.
She said, " I'll do it both ways!" and she did. I ended up working with a somewhat 'inbetween' image. My painting depicts Death, suspended over a calm sea and gloomy sky, with some light coming through. I worked a lot on the cape to give it a rather gothic look, a bit like bat wings and created an strange pattern that becomes part of her costume. She has another pattern, like a star that reminds one of church windows. I felt compelled to add the black, slashing and torn, fluttering object flying around her to symbolize the fears that are there when confronted with our final hours. All the patterns were created in Illustrator and the image designed in Photoshop. Please leave your comments!

THE MOON

2007-02-11T15:46:00.000-05:00

THE MOON, the latest in my series, Forces Of Nature, is so new it's still wet! No one has seen it, so this is a first time viewing for readers of my blog.
I have always felt a close affinity with the Moon, at times feeling like it influences my moods, even things that happen. But mostly, I love the magical quality of moonlight, the light source of choice for Romantics!
This image is the second Moon I've done for the series, and probably won't be the last. For one thing, I want to get closer to the magical aspect and to capture the quality of light it reflects better. That light is a peculiar color, not a warm light, but also not just a blueish light either. It seems to be both at the same time! I went back and forth between the blues and naples yellow while working on this.
About the image itself. I imagined a man alone, but with a full heart, falling in love with the Lady of the Moon. She looks down and seems to see him, above the whole bustling city below. She looks lovingly at him as he shows his longing for her with his outstretched arms. Of course they can never be together, but she will look down on him every month.
There were no models in this one.
I am very curious about how you react to this image. Please feel free to let me know!

THE STORY GIRL, #1

2007-01-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

This was the first of eight covers done in 2002-3 for a series of books by L.M.Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables. The series was called The Story Girl Of Avonela, published by Zondervan. In the story, the main character always wears red clothing and is prone to odd hats. She also tends to be a leader to the gaggle of kids that are her pals, often reading to them, so, to introduce her in this first book I had her sit close to the viewer, apart from the other kids, book in hand. My interest was mainly on the lovely face of Amber, a fresh young model, who has a beautiful, exotic look. She appears on all of the books in the series. I posed her in a position reminiscent of Renaissance figures, this appearence further enhanced by the abundant drapery of her dress. To help give her a plane that was distinct from the background I used a device I've employed before, a flattened plane of overhanging leaves. In this case the sun, shining through them making them glow and gave me an excuse to hit her with areas of intense sunlight. It also alowed me to minimize the detail of the background scene, which is a good thing, because it would have been incredibly hard to paint all that small stuff and would have competed with the main figure. But my favorite reason for using the overhanging leaves is for the graphic effect of forcing the eye back and forth between the flat composition and the spacial illusion of depth. Between a flat pattern and an image you look into. It's a theme I return to constantly!

DIVINE BY BLOOD

2007-01-17T19:51:00.000-05:00

This image is the cover illustration for PC Cast's latest book in her 'Divine' series, DIVINE BY BLOOD, which is not yet released. This image is meant to show the daughter of the woman in the previous books, who has inherited the divine powers from her mother. I have to give credit where it's due and the design for this image was devised by the art director, Kathleen Oudit, at Luna. She came up with a powerful concept that was exciting to work with. This is really a pleasurable symbiosis, whene the artist and director are so much in sync that ideas flow back and forth freely. Thanks, Kathleen! And thanks, PC, for coming up with a story of such imagery!
Anyone who notices a resemblance in these covers to work by Maxfield Parrish is correct. He was a major influence and we set out to emulate his paintings, but, of course, do it in our own way. One of the ways I keep my art fresh is to continually look to the past for inspiriation. What I love is how an idea becomes transformed as it gets reinterpreted. Cross-cultural and across time, ideas get filtered through the culture we are living in. That's how we end up with crazy and wonderful things like the movie, MOULIN ROUGE. I'm sure Max did the same!

DAWN

2007-01-07T20:05:00.000-05:00

This is an unpublished painting that is actually a predecessor to my Forces Of Nature series. I painted this to try and push the illustration market in a direction I wanted to go. I've tried this many times over the years and it almost never works! Well, not right away. Sometimes it take years for the publishers to decide it's a look they're after. This one never got me any work, and I don't know why.Maybe you all have some thoughts? It was intended to be a woman feeling the pleasure of awakening in this beautiful, somewhat fantastic setting. The comment it received most often was, " she looks lonely! ", not good for selling books, I guess. The publishers of romance interprted the image as if the girl awakened alone, maybe she spent the night alone, maybe nobody loves her!
For inspirationI took my cue from perfume and fashion ads where the woman is often shown alone, just looking beautiful. But I guess I broke one one of the unwritten rules of romance covers at that time.
I learned a lot doing this, just seeing how I could play with light and with the theme of a single girl. I think I was struggling with the realism of the scene, really wanting it to go into the magical realm, but it just teeters on the edge of fantasy. I guess I wasn't readu to push it over!

THE COURTESAN'S COURTSHIP

2006-12-05T16:58:00.000-05:00

I created this cover last year for a Harlequin Historical by Gail Ranstrom. The idea was to somehow get across that this is a story of intrique and maybe dark deeds, as well as romance. The art director suggested we show the back of the woman's dress open, to suggest she's dressing (or undressing!). I used Maria again, but made her very blonde, and Jason Wright. This is set in the regency period of London,( around 1815), but I think it has more of a Grace Kelly Hollywood look. Whatever, it was a very popular cover! I'm showing you the larger, uncropped image, as it was done for the final art. What the art directors do with my images is pretty much out of my control!
This is a digital image, composed in Photoshop and made much more painterly in Painter. When I work, I try to have the technique enhance the spirit of the book. If this were a modern spy story I think the old fashioned paint look wouldn't be right. But in this case it seemed to fit.

SAGKAFIOR

2006-10-22T19:14:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a while, sorry! Things have been a little out of whack recently, probably due to the fact I moved to upstate NY for the Fall. Nice place to be for Fall, but such a big change from tropical Sarasota! I'm finding my moods being strongly affected by the ominous change of Fall into Winter, with it's lessening light and dissappearing foliage. I'm not used to coat-wearing and huddling inside. I lived up here for many years and the same thing happened every time. It's one of those deep, animal things... One of the consequences of the darkening season is that I get more intensely into creative projects. It's a way of fending off depression, I think, but it works! I notice there's an edgier quality to my work, with a more troubled spirit. But that's kind of interesting.
This piece, named Sagkafior, (for no particular reason-I just wanted a mysterious sounding name!), is an experimental piece, not done for a client. I was attempting to tell a story in a more abstract way, hinting at the nefarious goings-on in the story,(if it was a story). I imagined a queen of an alternate world. Beautiful, but evil, she schemes and plays people off each other, while gathering power around her ever tighter. But really, I also just wanted to play with design ideas, so things don't really have to make sense, do they?
This image was built on a shot of a new, ( to me), Egyptian model named Ewa, that Shirley Green photographed and kindly allowed me to play around with the shots. Because no client is waiting for his or her concept to be realized, I can be free to push the envelope. There are so many elements and textures in this that I'll just name a few: the "ribbon" is a doodle I saved and scanned, texture in the upper right is frost on a window, the wheel thing is part of an architectural decoration on a Chicago building.
Ok, now I've taken all the mystery out of the image. But that is partly why I do this blog. To lift the veil of mystery we artists try to maintain around our work. There's an awful lot of B.S. out there concerning how art is created, and I think it's harmful. Art usually doesn't just flow like a faucet out of an artist's fingertips. Most of the time it's thought about, planned, tried and rejected. Ideas are played with and played with some more. I believe most artists only have a vague notion abot where their work is going and that's as it should be. It keeps life interesting. But it also makes for anxiety when you embark on new direction, as I'm always doing. I have reinvented my art so often that it's hard to nail down my style for gallery owners and art directors. My hope is that somehow an essence of whoever I am comes through in all these different styles. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

THE QUEST

2006-09-28T19:53:00.001-04:00

This image wasn't done for a book, but was one of those things I do for pleasure, when I "cut loose". It's just fun to try new ideas out that nobody has to see, - unless it turns out well! And believe me, there a plenty on the cutting room floor, as they say in the movie biz. So I guess I like how this came out. It really started with a face from a shoot I did several years ago. I was having Irina twirl in the wind, wearing dress, a long cloak and a sword! She was playing with different expressions of fierceness and something about this frame struck me as intense and beautiful.
I added lots of hair and started playing with the background, which was a swirly fantasy scape. It didn't work. It got put in a folder,where it sat for maybe three years till I retrieved it. This time I had a better idea of where I wanted it to go, perhaps as a result of something I'd figured out in that time.
That is one of the interesting things about working creatively, ideas evolve. Often an idea is hatched, but the knowledge or experience isn't ther to make it work. The artist, Charles Burchfield went bask to little sketches he'd done 20-30 year earlier and glued them down in the middle of large watecolor paper and just elaborated on the images outside of the small original rectangle. He did some of his best paintings like that. Anyone who is not familiar with his work should have a look.He was a truly unique painter and viataly in touch with nature and with expressing emotion. He also managed to convey sounds in his paintings!
Wow, that was a tangent! All I was trying to say was to hang on to those ideas you have an maybe later you'll know what to do with them!

THE PRICE OF MURDER

2006-09-22T20:05:00.000-04:00

Here's another mystery cover, done for a Berkley book of the same title by Bruce Alexander. It is the last of his Sir John Fielding Mysteries, sadly the author has died. I was asked to create an image that looked like a period painting, but gets across the mood and hints at the story. The series is set in Regency times, but involves a young investigator who works for and is the 'eyes' for the blind Sir John. There's a nice mix of views of the better side of London society and the really seamy underbelly of dark streets, danger and shady characters. The story begins with the discovery of a murdered child and that's the scene I was asked to do.
I started by doing a lot of research into early photos of London, but they don't really exist from this early on. Photography really started to be a real device for recording scenes in the 1840s, while this story is set around 1815. there were later pictures of the Thames area, but by then the character had changed quite a bit, so I extrapolated from photos taken a little north of london back in the 1870s which showed smaller buildings and a little more humble waterfront. To these I added a faint St. Paul's on the opposite shore, and populated it with figures and a cart. The figures were all made up, using reference of workers and fishmongers in old photos, with one especially important figure, the fishmonger on the right sadly carrying the bundle containing the dead child.
It's an incredibly gloomy scene! You can almost smell the coal smog. I was worried that the art dierctor would hate it, saying it was too dark and to lighten thisngs up, give it a blue sky,etc. Surprisingly, they went for it, maybe because it conveyed the mood of the story.
I used the horsecart, the most foreground object in the scene, to draw the eye in and then over the diagonal line of the road to the man and his bundle. So, rather than just see a gloomy old painting, the mind is curious. Just what is going on here?

IN THESE DARK HALLS

2006-09-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

This one goes way back, to 1986, two years after my Italy trip. I think it is heavily influenced by Carravaggio. I don't remember the real title for this book, but I was doing a bunch of covers for the well known mystery author, Mary Stewart, so it could have been one of hers.
I love doing mysteries, especially when I can get into the pychological state of mind of the protagonist. In this case a young woman in hard times is married to a rich but disturbed Lord who takes her off to meet the folks, a difunctional family unit, if there ever was one! Just when she is getting used to the icy dislike of the in laws, she begins to think her new husband might be trying to kill her! She is snooping around at night, in my picture, trying to find clues, when she hears someone else skulking around,-maybe her murderous husband? I chose to bring the girl right up front so we can see her expression, while she is turning and directing our look to the shadow of an offstage person at the bottom right. It is much more frightening sometimes to just hint at the "monster in the house" than to actually show him.
The Carravaggio influence is in the strong light and shadow on the girl and the contrast between her and the dark background. In an illustration you have to grab the attention of the viewer and make the important action in the story you're telling very clear. Every element in the picture should help direct the eye to that message. But art works best when there is more to it than just the obvious message. We want to read into the image and in this case, the eye keeps coming back to the girl whose expression is somewhat ambiguous. Is she frightened? Determined? Curious? What does her hand express? These are the stories under the Story and help give the image interest.

THE SUN

2006-09-05T19:14:00.000-04:00

THE SUN, from Forces Of Nature series. This is the latest image in the group, in fact the paint is still wet! This series is not for any book, but is part of an ongoing set of allegorical images I'm doing, using female figures to embody the forces of nature. This is the second attempt at The Sun, the first just didn't feel right. I found the sun to be a very challenging subject, perhaps because it is so important. The painting went through months of changes, sometimes looking to harsh or too warm or too religious, like those paintings in Mexican churches of the Virgin Mary. That wasn't what I wanted. Instead I envisioned a woman, young and powerful, radiant with energy and even sexuality. Yet there is a spiritual quality about the sun, too and I hope I conveyed some of that in this piece.
I set up problems for myself from the start with the lighting. Where was the light coming from? Behind her? To the side? From inside? Each question goes to the essence of what she is and I never really decided, so the light comes from behind her, as if she was bringing it to us, but also from the sides, as if it were wrapping around, in order to keep her from being just a silhouette.
Departing from my usual practice, I didn't use a model, but instead created a woman in Poser. I wasn't happy with the poser girl's face, so I borrowed a face from an earlier shoot, but changed it drastically, adding yards of golden hair and her gold accessories. Her gesture kept troubling me. Was she aggressive, like a warrior? Her gait and body posture sure looked that way.
I tried adding a spear or something to her hand, but it seemed distracting and too warlike. I don't think of the sun that way. In fact, I don't think of the sun in only one way, it is so important, so vast and life-giving, but can also kill with it's heat and intensity. I think this won't be the last version I do of The Sun. Wait 'till you see my rendition of The Moon, as a contrast! It's in the works now.
It's important to note the difficulties and the failures when talking about the process of art. Museums rarely show artists' failures, and they don't show up in books much, but believe me, they exist! The creative process is hard, messy and generally a fight between discouragement and perserverance. A typical project for me starts out with the excitement of potential. This could look cool, or maybe like that! It's all possible. Then my limitations begin to show. I get depressed. "What a lousy artist!", goes the voice in my head. Sometime, often, that voice wins and the image never gets finished, particularly in my personal work.
In Illustration, of course we don't have that luxury.We have to come up with something at least acceptable, if not better! What pressure! But this is also one of the great things about the job. We aren't allowed to give up, so somehow we find a way to get beyond the discouragement and then something begins to work.
My Grandpa told me back when I was just a kid, that the true test of whether a profession is a good choice for you is how much you love of it's drudgery! So much of what goes in to any work of art is like that. Just menial, hard work. Drudgery. But somehow it can be therapeutic, just to clean the brushes, or arrange the computer files. Inspiration comes along to those already working.

SEA GYPSY

2006-08-30T21:09:00.000-04:00

This illustration was done recently for a Fern Micheals novel of the same name. I'm happy with the way it came out, I don't mind saying! It is a digitally painted image and I do mean painted. It was quite a challenge to get the girl looking natural on that boat and to have the water rippling out from her toe, but it was the labor of love. I enjoyed every minute of it! The model is Laura Williams, one of the best and most versatile models arround. She never fails to catch exactly the feeling I'm after and she does it with ease! The was no boat,( totally made up ), or water at the shoot. Laura was perched on a bench, with her legs draped over a sawhorse. More and more lately I'm finding art directors asking me to have the woman turne away, or somehow anonymous. The thinking is that she could be you, the reader,( in a perfect world!). I think they're right. But it's a bit of a shame not to see her lovely face!
Here's a link to Fern Micheals' site: http://www.fernmichaels.com/newsflash.html

DIVINE PHOTO

2006-08-26T20:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, In the interests of being informative and because PC Cast expressed an interest, I'm posting the photo used as reference in her cover, Divine By Choice. To recap the process a bit, I do a sketch, set up a shoot, pick the model, interpret the costume, ( in this case bringing in yards of gauze), specify the lighting, point of view and general pose. In the New York phot studio, the photographer, the costumer and me all run around like mad to achieve this result, wind blowing, fabric being wafted with lots of help, while the model, Maria, becomes the goddess, - all in one hour! In my studio I select the shot from about 90 frames and begin creating my illustration. It's not easy to describe how I do this. It is a bit like collage, mixed with painting, but also something else that the computer bring to it. I have to be mindful of the vision I have, no matter how focussed I get on the details. Back in the days of straight painting, we illustrators used different methods to help keep perspective, like looking at the painting in a mirror, or through a reducing glass, ( which makes the image very small), or even taking the painting outside, where it always looks tiny, pale and weak! But it's helpful to see the image with fresh eyes, to gauge whether it's getting the look we wanted. Nowdays on the computer, I can reduce the image on the screen, flop it, print it, whatever.
With this illustration I wanted to get across her divinity and her relation to the old tree, which I think is a portal to the other world. I wanted the tree to have a spirit, and envelop the girl, but also let her stand out in all her glory. I remember trying various electrical rays and lightning behind her, to show her magical power, but the art director wisely talked me out of it. The tree itself was inspired by several different ancient trees, one being a huge tree called the Angel Oak. It is really out of scale with her. She would have have to be very tiny in the picture or the tree would be just one massive wall of bark. So I just used some limbs from that, the trunk from another tree and the moss from yet another tree, which I then added to. I was trying for the whole scene to look like it was a sacred, ages-old place, and felt it needed a special stone, perhaps created by some long lost culture, to mark the spot. The stones were made in 3d, using Cararra with some wonderful, lichen textures I collected from somewhere and then given the embossed symbol and lots of chips, cracks, encroaching moss, etc. in photoshop. I sound very technical but it actually feels like painting.
It is essential with figurative painting, to get the figure to "inhabit" the space. There are techniques, like making sure the perspectives agree, the lighting and shadows, but also the artist has to"feel" the figure's gravity intuitively. I envision a line of weight, running from the top of her head right down to the soles of her feet. When we stand, our weight is often carried more by one leg than the other. Paying attention to that leg helps visually anchor the person in the scene.

DIVINE BY CHOICE

2006-08-25T17:53:00.000-04:00

This cover was done for the second book in the series by P.C.Cast, Luna Books, soon to be released. Maria, the same model from the first cover, portrays a heroine now at home with her divinity. She stands in front of an ancient tree, a portal into the other world where she is a goddess. This was done without having read the book, so I just imagined, based on a spare description, what the scene was like. There's a long-running dispute about how accurate the cover artist should be to the author's story. I've witnessed authors and editors holding up production because an item of clothing was the wrong color, but just as extreme, covers that don't have anything to do with the story inside! Some sort of happy medium is best, where the artist has license to interpret the scene and give it visual excitement, but also is reigned in a bit, so that the illustration really is about the story. The challenge for the artist is to find a way of summing up the scene in an image, without getting lost in slavish worrying about every detail.
It works best for me when I read the story and can visualize the characters, setting and action. I think there is usually a dramatic point in the story that might lend itself to imaging, but the spirit of the book has to be considered. Is it an action-packed adventure,or a thoughtful, poignant love story? These would require very different approaches! That love story might be best hinted at, with a subtle image, like a hand lifting a tea cup, or a beautiful scene that has a poetic connection to the book. The illustrator also should remember his or her image will help sell the book. So in that sense, accuracy to the story is less important than who is the intended reader. I've never liked this part of the creative process, because I think all sorts of people respond to good images. But there is a reality that can't be ignored! Readers picking up a book that has tough guys and explosions on the cover, would be upset to find a gentle story about a woman finding her true love, nor would the reader be happy who picks up a book showing laces, flowers and sunshine, only to find a book about monstrous flesh-eating aliens!
Why I don't like to pigeon-hole the intended reader too much, is because these conventions become stale very quickly. You can see this phenomenon in book stores, where all the books in a certain genre take on a look that is incredibly similar. They all are using the same symbols. Adirondack chairs are big right now. Check it out!

A GRATEFUL HARVEST, Prairie River Series

2006-08-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

This oil painting was done for the second book in the Prairie River series,by Kristianna Gregory. All four books of this series used the same central character and I used the same model as that lead character. Luckily, because these were spaced over a few years, the character in the book was maturing right along with my model, Kelly Lynch! From the first book to the last, she had tremendous ability in acting a role outside herself. She showed a lot of spirit, especialy in the first shoot as a 13 year old alone in a studio of adults, lght and camera pointed at her and the photographer and myself calling out directions.
I was after an heroic look to the scene, the young girl/school teacher toughing it out on the prairie. I wanted a sense of urgency, conveyed by the look on her face and the kid's poses, but also in almost every element in the picture.
I believe that everything in an illustration should support the story or feeling you're trying to convey. If it doesn't, it's a distraction.

Captive Dreams

2006-08-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

This is a recent cover for Berkley and I'm afraid I don't know the author. I'll try to find out. Fantasy starring sexy alpha males came up in the discussion on Michele Hauf's Blog,(http://dustedbywhimsy.blogspot.com/). So here's my contribution to the genre. By the way, the dragon is supposed to look like it is made out of metal, like a broach, or something like that. I found it hard not to make it into a real, living creature. To do this image I had to train my eyes to see the guy the way a woman would. I asked myself, " What does a woman find sexy in a man? " All my experience indicates it's not the way he looks as much as the kind of person he is. Strong, decisive, but listens to his woman. He's independent, but devoted to her, and because he's magical, he can take her away from her mundane life! And of course he wants her body passionately! Is that about right? No wonder guys feel intimidated by the romantic ideal! Both sexes constantly do battle with the ideal and the real.
We might be strong, but we don't know how to listen, or we're good listeners, but can't whisk anyone anywhere! Do women read these books and then turn and look at their mates with dissapointment?

DIVINE BY MISTAKE

2006-07-28T13:11:00.000-04:00

This digital painting was a cover illustration for the first of 2 books for Luna by P.C.Cast. The second is called, Divine By Choice. I enjoyed creating this image, even though tons of work went into it. Another opportunity for fantasy and a goddess! Most of the work went into creating the dias she stands on. It was made entirely in 3d. The horse heads were made in Poser and imported into Cararra, where they were flattened and attached to the steps previously made to form a frieze. The other motif used on the step fronts was made in tiny parts, assembled and stuck on the steps. The bronze incense burners were also created in Cararra. I applied and refined the stne and bronze textures in Cararra, too. The rendering from all this was brought into photoshop, where I added the background, running horses and grass. All this before the shoot. Actually, I made a girl figure to stand on the dias in Poser, to help the art director and photographer visualize thow it would look. On the day before the shoot I found an area of wild grass growing by the roadside and cut a large pile of it. My wife, Tabita gathered it into a tight bundle and braided some strands for a rope and we trimmed the bottom flat. I bought about 6 yards of flowing white cloth and lugged it all in to the studio for the shoot.
I had worked before with Maria, a tall, voluptuous Russian model, and she seemed right for this part. Sharon Spiak, costume designer, dressed her and Shirley Green, Photographer, set up lights and a platform to match my sketch and we were off!
The shoot was like a ballet, with various participants. I believe all the work plus my enthusiasm helped everyone get into the spitrit. This wasn't an ordinary, everyday shoot. We all knew we were creating art!
I don't want to forget another key ingredient in this process, the art director. I had the priviledge in this series of working with one of the best, Kathleen Oudit. It is not an exaggeration to say in many ways she was a co-artist on these two. We often work closely, inspiring each other with flashes of imagination. It is a rare pleasure to work with her !
As you can probably tell, I love my job. I often do way more work than necessary, going beyond what is called for, but I don't care! There is something about creating beauty, about giving a project your whole heart that is wonderfully fullfilling.
Very few people know what goes into making these images. Now you do!

F is For Freedom

2006-07-26T12:15:00.000-04:00

I did this oil painting for the book, F Is For Freedom, by Roni Schotter in a re-publish by Scholastic. The story is about a young girl who discovers her home is part of the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves go North in the pre Civil War era. The two young models, who look just right in their mid-19th century costumes, were comparing notes after the shoot, talking about working in Italy for Vogue Bambini and Gap Kids, etc. Quite a contrast! I try to get the models interested in the drama of the story, how frightened they would be, the danger & excitement. I get totally caught up in the mini movie we're shooting. Of course, I do a lot of work post-shoot. For instance, one girl's expression is good in one shot, but the other's is better in another shot, involving lots of swapping of body parts. Many of changes go into the hair, costumes, colors and getting the figures to be 'in' the landscape. The painting is about 36 inches high.

Time Walker

2006-07-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

I created this image for Time Walker, another in the Time Twist series by Harlequin. All the books in this series deal with time travel in some form. I believe this was about an Native American from hundreds of years ago, who is a shaman and somehow managed to suspend himself in a time-less zone, to be discovered by the heroine. As with the other books, I knew only the barest elements of the story, just one or two, really. The rest I just made up. My apologies to the authors if I didn't adhere to their stories! I pictured the man doing a ritual dance that somehow performed the magic of time suspension. The model, Richard Myers, was able to get into the part, once in costume and camera shooting. He was excellent and went beyond what I was hoping for. I decided , after looking at the shots and not being able to pick just one favorite and seeing two or three shots together, to combine multiple shots in one image. This was really kind of a happy accident, but I had been experimenting with ways of depicting motion, so multiples had been tried before. I liked the way the several shots were a little cinematic and went along with the theme of moving through time.

Legend Of the Christmas Stocking/Title Page

2006-07-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

This is from my first fully illustrated childrens' book, titled The Legend Of The Christmas Stocking, published by Zondervan in 2005. I didn't write the book, but did all the illustrations. It is set in New York in 1815 and is a sweet morality tale about the spirit of giving. My favorite image from this book is this title page. I really got into showing a South Street seaport kind of place. I love History and doing this scene in a place I'm familiar with, set back in 1815 was a thrill! I took liberties with the place, of course, widening the street and making up storefronts and things in a romanticized version of what it might have been like. The boy in the foreground is the main character.
All the images were designed in Photoshop, Cararra, and Poser, and then painted in oil on canvas. I love the feel of paint and I have more control over color blending, but it's hard work. Plus, no "undo" button! I photographed a boy dressed in a costume for the front cover, but all the other pages had made up figures. On a few pages I found it helpful to use Poser to get the basic forms of the people and also play around with interesting viewpoints, but then I just drew & painted. It was quite a change from working with very photographic reference for clients who demand high realism, to trusting my hand and eye. It taught me a lot about trusting my abilities.
I used to work directly from my imagination and still do that in lots of areas on even realistic images, but for many years the emphasis has been on realism,- in the paperback industry at least.

The Proposition

2006-07-12T08:32:00.000-04:00

This was an Inside Cover for a Harlequin Historical book of the same title. It seems there's a big following out there for Mounties! Dudley DoRight, notwithstanding, I guess women love that red uniform and the heroic reputation that comes along with the Mountie legend.
One of the challenges when designing these covers is allowing for all the type, logos and the accursed UPC code, which takes up a huge amount of illustration real estate! In this case the UPC code takes up the whole lower left of the image! But limitations have always been part of working for clients. I like to think that most artists in the past, ( up to maybe the late 19th century), as illustrators. They were hired to paint images to fit certain areas, tell a certain story, on and on. Sometimes the patron insisted on having his visage included in the action to be imortalized as a witness to some saint's matyrdom.
Things aren't usually that bad now, but we don't have the time they used to have to complete a picture. It's both a curse and a blessing. At least things can't drag on too long. the art has to go to the printer! The book has to go on the shelves!
The curse is that you seldom have enough time to refine all the elements as you'd like. It teaches you to see and think efficiently, to go for the essentials. What's the story? What's the setting? Action? Mood? And then to see it in you mind, the best way to convey all that.
In this illustration, I knew the couple had to travel a long way through the wilderness, the classic romantic theme of a couple being forced together, falling in love along the way. I concieved of this scene all at once, the warmth of the fire contrasting with the cool darkness outside their warm circle. Then it was a matter of getting the couple to be believable in this story. Fortunately, I was helped by having 2 terrific models, Nando and Suzanne Fogarty, plus a genuine (rented ) Mountie uniform and prairie dress costume. Warm gels were used on a very low angle light, cool gell on a second background light.

Morning Glory

2006-07-10T19:57:00.000-04:00

I painted this illustration in oil back in 1989, for a book by the same title by author LaVerle Spencer. Quite a good book, actually, which they later made into a movie. I recently gave the original painting to my 80 year old parents and noticed the toolbox, saw, etc wasn't in the image! I remembered that the art director or editor at Ballantine books must have felt it cluttered things up too much! Oh well it's still there, it's under the grass I had to paint over it. There's a definite inspiration from Norman Rockwell in this one, I don't mind admitting. I didn't like adding the morning glories climbing up the right side of the image,it didn't look believable, but they wanted them to be visible at the edge of the front cover. They call that a " step-back " cover.
I brought my shaker rocker into the photo studio and had one of the most used Romance models of the time, P.J., now married with kids, bring her boys in to be in the shoot. Simon Rogers, British model, still in the biz, played the part of the out of work drifter in this depression-era story. At this time, we were shooting black and white film, so all skin tones and other colors were made up. I found an old, decrepit house on Mountain road, Dutchess County, NY, which became the inspiration for this house.

Not Qite An Angel

2006-07-09T16:27:00.000-04:00

This is an example of a hybrid art form that I've been involved with, neither strict painting or straight photography, but a fusion of both. It is a collaborative artform. The image is concieved of, a model is chosen, I bring in props, ( in this case yards of light, diaphinous cloth ), the photographer sets up light, wind and camera position as I want and then we see what'll happen! In this case I was working with one of my favorite models, Irina, (who is also featured in several of my Forces of Nature series). She is one of those rare models who seems to intuit what I'm after and express it with her movements. It's theater, dance, silent movies, all rolled into an hour of intense activity! I'm very glad to be working with photographers now, who use digital cameras, allowing the shots to be seen almost instantly. This is such a huge help over the way it was back in the dark days of film! Then we hoped and prayed that what we saw was what we'd get when the pictures were developed.
When I first started using photgraphs as reference in my paintinngs I tended to feel what I call, "Art Guilt ", which was a general sense that I was cheating by not painting from my imagination or life only. I couldn't resist photos, though and when I began doing illustrations, using them as reference became second nature. I don't feel Art Guilt much anymore, but am occaisionally reminded of the feeling when I meet an "Art Purist" . These people are seldom producers of mush art themselves, but frown, sneer and look down on any artform they see as impure. I suspect their very strict standards actually prevent them from creating most of the time.
Today I was reminded of Art Purity when I tried to list this Blog on a site that said, "No Photographs!" It started me thinking. Would they see this image, for instance, as a photograph? Probably. And yet, the shots didn't look like this before I started working with one of them, changing, painting, adding and subtracting. It's not really a painting, though, I will agree.

Gossamyr emblem

2006-07-08T08:15:00.000-04:00

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Seraphim

2006-07-07T19:53:00.000-04:00

Seraphim, the first cover for Michelle Hauf's Changling series was done in 2003. I was thrilled to be working on this kind of project, a female fantasy/warrior/Joan of Arc type character, battlling the forces of evil! After so many years of Romance covers, I was trying to get the srt directors to see me in a different way. I felt I had so much more to offer in art. The realms of Fantasy and supernatural hadn't been tapped at all. I had tremendous fun with this one, both shooting it and doing the illustration. I chose an untried model, Topaz, who seemed to have the edgy look and slight boyishness I was after. The suit of armor, of course, didn't come in the female variety, but was nevertheless a good authentic looking costume, that took about 45 minutes to put on the model. Things seemed iffy, until we got he in front of the camera. That's when magic happened! That's also when my excitement about this image must have bee transferred to Topaz and Micheal Frost, the Potographer. Sometimes I can see that we have the cover in one shot, and that was the case here, but I got her to be even more edgy and powerful. It's method-acting really, and one of the most fun parts of my work. I would describe it as intuitively feeling what the model has inside. That fire, the fragility or confidence, whatever, and bringing it out. Working with the photos and my imagination later in my studio, I felt that something really special was being created. I've been a painter most of my life, but the collaborative storytelling and imagemaking is something quite unique to this business, I thnk.
A link to the author, Michelle Hauf's Blog: www.dustedbywhimsy.blogspot.com/
Please leave your comments!

Public Wife, Private Mistress

2006-07-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

Working with art directors can be a lovely experience, or it can be hell! Sometimes we're just not in sync, they want the art to go one way and I see it in a different direction.This can lead to stiff, or uptight-looking images, but sometimes the challenge of doing something in a different way than you're inclined to do it can lead to suprising results. That's what happened in this piece. These books are always about a Greek, Italian or Spanish billionaire, who just happens upon an ordinary girl from Midwest, USA and falls for her. Hard. The art director wanted all the books in this line to be very photographic looking, which is a lot harder than it sounds. The photographs we take in the studio are not intended to be ready for the cover. For instance, at this shoot the couple wasn't in Sicily, but in a NY studio, on a table with a cloth over it. The girl was a brunette and a bit too large for the guy. There were no candles, etc. I decided on a high viewpoint, to be able to see past them and take in the shoreline. Because their relative sizes weren't a good match, I chose to put the guy in front with the girl behind, which allowed the guy to spread out a bit. I still reduced her later, but it seemed to work. Not only that, through a magical process of collaboration between the photographer, ( Shirley Green ), the models, ( Emrie, Jason Wright ), and myself, a really nice, sexy mood occurred. I'm offerening suggestions and commands, so is Shirley and the two models are doing what they can to be in the part. The whole thing, from putting on costumes, setting up the lighting & set and shooting maybe 75 pictures takes under an hour! When everyone's in the groove, it seems like a Major Motion Picture ! Anyway, I had my way two years after the job was finished. I simply re-worked it to be more painterly, the way I originally intended.

Sunshine Diner

2006-07-04T19:33:00.000-04:00

This was done as "wrap" book cover, which means it goes from the front around the spine of the book to fill the back cover, too.
The image shows my admiration for one of the greatest Illustrators, Norman Rockwell. I grew up looking at his Post covers and wondering how anyone could paint like he did. Not just the technique, but the story-telling. I don't know where I saw a grimy old Diner like this, but it must be a compilation of many Greasy Spoons I've eated in and drunk bad coffee in. It may be part Rockwell, as well. The diner interior and exterior were made in Cararra, which is a 3d program. First I shot models at a table interacting. The photographer for this , Michael Frost, had some diner cups and other items and even the correct table and benches, making it somewhat easer for me in that they could be touching the cups. I then made the diner to fit them in Cararra.
In that program you can move he lighting around in your model and move the viewpoint, ( also called the camera in 3d programs), to view the scene from any angle you choose. I matched the angle that looked right for my photographed couple and rendered the scene. The rendering and photo were combined in Photoshop and I think the Sunshine Diner type and menus were done in Photoshop, too. I worked on this in Painter to give it a painterly look and back into PS to mix it all up. The last thing added was grime and a color layer to tone down the exterior, to help give it the feeling like you were outside at dusk, looking in.

Bewitching Familiar

2006-07-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

This was another cover for the Time Twist series, published by harlequin. It was a blast, getting the models to act like they were being spun through time & space! I ended up having them sit, or lie on small stools while the photographer shot from above. I was trying to get them to imagine they were being pulled apart and had to hang on. Interesting lighting with a green gel helped Models: John Paul Feiffer and Desiree, ( never learned her last name). This is an example of an image that is a hybrid of photography and digital painting. In this series the art director wanted a photographic look. I think the result is something you couldn't do with just photography.

Prairie River

2006-07-03T19:59:00.000-04:00

I did five covers for the Prairie River Series.This was my first 'young adult' series in a while and it was especially memorable because Scholastic wanted it done in traditional oils. The model, Kelley Lynch literally matured as the series progressed, Which was good, because so did the character in the book! In this cover, the first, the heroine arrives as an orphan trying to find her own life in a town way out west somewhere. I put her in the middle of the dusty street, looking a bit lost while the stage coach takes off in a cloud of dust. At the shoot I knew I wanted a twisitng motion in her body and that lost, but confident look and Kelly nailed it. It's one of my favorite parts of the job, bringing out something special in the models. When it's good, it's Art being created before your eyes! Somewhere inbetween silent movies and theater. More later on this series...

Man From Forever

2006-07-03T19:49:00.000-04:00

Man From Forever was part of a 12 book series called "Time Twisters", all dealing with time travel. This one involved a Native American from the past, or something. I rarely get much info on these, and even more rarely remember the books after they're done. The series was fun to do covers for, in spite of a demanding art director. I could tell the models all enjoyed working on projects where they could play and use their imagination. I did, too. after so many Romance covers, Sci-Fi and fantasy is a treat!

THE DOVE

2006-07-02T18:33:00.000-04:00

This digital painting was originaly much brighter in mood, but I reworked it after Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld invaded Iraq. The girl, of course, represents peace or the yearning for peace. Her dress and shawl grade to blood red at the bottom as a way of using color to express emotion, the emotion in this case being despair about the needless horror and killing, which I felt would only stir up even more bloodshed. I doubt if we have ever had such wrong-headed leaders running the US. Their idea of working things out is to shoot first, ask questions later. Or never!

Please leave your comments!

Gossamyr

2006-07-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

I created this illustration for a book by Michele Hauf. Gossamyr is the second in the series, the first being Seraphim. Rhianna was the third book in the group . They're all about powerful women/warriors/fairies/godesses that inhabit another world. I enjoy creating these powerful women for a combination of reasons. The concept of beautiful, feminine creatures having vast powers is just intriguing and sort of sexy to me. There's also the feminine principle, which is that men carry in them the ideal female, the oposite, but also part of their masculine self. So in these powerpuff girls I'm also bringing for to the female side of me. But mostly it's just fun to get the models dressed up in these fantasy costumes and act out these powerful roles!
Photographer: Shirley Green. Model: Hillary. Costume: Sharon Spiak. Styling: Nevio Razzagani
Link to Author, Michelle Hauf's Blog: www.dustedbywhimsy.blogspot.com/

Gossamyr/ For book of same title

2006-07-01T10:27:00.000-04:00

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The Night, from Forces Of Nature Series

2006-06-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

The Tides, from Forces Of Nature series

2006-06-29T21:01:00.000-04:00

FORCES OF NATURE series

2006-06-29T20:39:00.000-04:00

I've been working on this series called, FORCES OF NATURE, for maybe five years. The idea was to give myself a 'grand project' outside of my illustration work, but using the techinques & skills I've developed for Illustration. It's based on the ancient concept of allegorical figures representing, in this case, anything I see as a force of nature. Traditionaly, allegorical figures were used to represent ideas like Wisdom, Justice, or Liberty, like the colosal statue in NY harbor. Seasons have also been represented by figures. I set out to do 12 of them, so they could become a calendar, perhaps, but I haven't been pursuing that too hard. In fact, I've been taking my time with them, for a change. The illustration business is pretty high pressure and you don't often have the time to really develop ideas over time. So giving myself a defined project like this keeps me focused and provides a framework for developing long-term ideas. So far, I have: The Storm, The Tides, The Stars, The Night, The Day. Previous versions of The Sun and The Moon are being re-worked. Other themes that I'm considering are: Time, The Volcano, The Forest and the four seasons, done individually. The Wind might also be an exciting one. The project started out digitally, posing models, or using shots from previous photo shoots and going from there. More about models and shoots later. Now I've taken to painting these in oil about 36 inches by 24 inches. This fits in with the leisurly pace I have set for the series and allows for further development.

The Stars, from Forces of Nature series

2006-06-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

THE STORM, form Forces Of Nature Series

2006-06-29T10:32:00.000-04:00

2006-06-29T10:19:00.000-04:00

Global warming, tropical hurricanes, floods, etc. The world climate is in trouble and we have corrupt idiots "leading" our country. It's hard sometimes to be optimistic, but the world has always had terrible troubles. Anyone who is interested in History knows that plagues, wars and all manner of catastrophies are the usual state of affairs. This makes me want to hold on to the ones I love and cherish beauty and the good things in life. It's a time for Art, if there ever was one! I look at the process as a meditation sometimes, but at other times it's more like perpiring or breathing. You do something persistently enough and it becomes the thing you do. It also develops into something bigger than yourself. Delusions of grandeur and other ego trips seem to loose their grip when the humble process of work goes on and on. We work, we try, we strive to do good work, as good as we can do. But it's the doing that is the spiritual thing.

DAY from Forces of Nature series

2006-06-21T14:35:00.001-04:00

FIRST POST!

2006-06-21T14:02:00.000-04:00

Mid-day, mid- work week. Why should anyone care about art? Because we dream of better things. Because we have nightmares, fall in love, get dissed. Because life is full of experiences felt deeply, but very hard to bring to the surface . There are other ways of expressing ourselves than smashing things, driving too fast, getting drunk, etc. And we all have inside that feeling that no one can hear us or see us. No one touches that essence of ourselves. THAT is what art is for!
It's a way of first communicating with yourself and then with others something yearning to come out and be seen. A spark of life! A moment of greatness! A sense of beauty!
You can tell, that I care about art. Mostly creating it, but more and more, helping others to discover it. I don't care if it's traditional painting, or objects made from trash, or items created in the computer. All media is valid.But it works best if it comes really from inside you, even if it's unschooled or rough. It's a spiritual thing. It's also a fun thing! It's about not being quite as alone as before.
I would love to hear from you and share my long experiences at making art. Maybe we can help each other!