Tor.com animations, Illustrating Conan, and Dave Stevens

I'm still in holiday mode, playing catch-up here and there. Here are a few Tor.com items from the past week:

Saturday Morning Cartoons.
Flutter: Two high school students: a boy runs and a girl paints. Pure energy and expression.
Walls: Claustrophobia, isolation, and observation.

Illustrating Conan
Read what Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni, Greg Manchess, and Jim and Ruth Keegan have to say about the difficulties of taking on Conan under the weight of the character's visual history.

Dave Stevens: Brush with Passion
Arnie Fenner writes a very personal essay on Dave Stevens and working on Brush With Passion
with Dave.

Andrew Chase and Trionic Morphatractable Engineer

Mary Robinett Kowal, professional puppeteer and science fiction writer (and wouldn't you kill to have that resume) sent me a link to Andrew Chase's website. Mr. Chase is working on a picture book named The Trionic Morphatractable Engineer. I don't know much about it except that I love this steampunk/Erector Set giraffe and can't wait to see more.

Andrew Chase's website (with ugly watermarks - insert my usual rant against watermarks.)
Unwatermarked gallery on Baekdal.com

Massive Black Art Book

Massive Black, the gracious hosts of ConceptArt.org, have an art book being released in January through Ballistic Publishing.

"Massive Black, Volume 1 brings together more than 700 pieces of artwork by the Massive Black team from studios in San Francisco, Shanghai, and Bangkok. It is a spectacular collection of art produced for high-profile game properties, internally developed game worlds, and the personal art from the world’s most exciting art studio."

More info, inlcuding early-bird specails, here.

A Sad Farewell to Edd Cartier

Edd Cartier passed away on Christmas day. He was a highly regarded and influential artist from the 30s to the 60s, most famous for his work on The Shadow and John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories. He had a humorous and fluid style, equally adept at seemingly effortless figure drawing, creature design, and hardware. He showed us a future that was truly strange, maybe a little dangerous, and always fun.

James Paick

I love artists that update their websites. Even more, I love mind-blowing artists that update their websites. Here's two new paintings from James Paick. Check out Paick's blog for others.

RELATED: James Paick Interview

Merry Christmas

Santa as high adventurer, FTW.

Francis Vallejo and Dean Cornwell

It's hard to remember that Francis Vallejo is still in school, and it doesn't take a genius to predict that he'll soon be at the forefront of many an art director's mind. Solid, confident drawing skills, expressive and individual voice, and incredibly hard working and knowledgeable about the history of illustration.

And.....he's just uploaded 118 Dean Cornwell images for you to download. All scanned from original magazines -- someone's morgue files that he lucked into. (Of course that's "luck" in the "being aware and working hard" sense.)

Go! Download and be inspired!

RELATED: Francis Vallejo at the Society of Illustrator's Student Exhibition.

Animation Saturdays

Christmas on Tor.com Saturday Morning Cartoons.

The Legend of the Turning Stone: A creepy french yuletide.

A super charming CBS spot from R. O. Blechman.

And, the original Frosty the Snowman from the most awesome UPA. (There is something both joyous and a little maddening about all the bouncy pep in Frosty's step.)

Happy Solstice

Hardie Gramatky style.

Tor.com Meet-up

The first Tor.com meet-up was a success. Team TorDot showed up at Revival, a long-time Tor watering hole, early to spread out buttons, t-shirts, books and galleys. A quick toast to ourselves and then, in short order, various members of the community filtered in and took over the entire second floor of the bar.

Art represented well. In attendance was Donato Giancola, Sam Weber, Greg Manchess, David Trowbridge, Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon, and Mark Scheff. I hope my fuzzy brain isn't forgetting anyone.

Thanks to everyone who showed up to say hello. It's nice to be reminded there are bright shinning faces behind the avatars. We're already talking about a picnic in the Spring. Stay tuned.

More photos here.

Today Outside the Flatiron

Today in the Flatiron

Adam Rex Interviewed

Adam Rex is interviewed on Nebula Awards -- talking about his work as an illustrator, a writer, and in between.

Todd Lockwood's Pirate King Step-by-Step

Todd Lockwwod has posted an extensive step-by-step for R. A. Salvatore's The Pirate Kingcover -- including reference shoots and perspective drawings.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

[Via Suvudu]

Saturday's Animation: "Rabbit" and "Herr Bar"

This week's edition of Tor.com's Saturday Morning Cartoons: Rabbit and Herr Bar.

Rabbit: Dick and Jane turned surreal cautionary tale. "Rabbit" is becoming a classic. I saw it a few years ago (probably via Drawn, maybe?) No one who sees it seems to forget it. Once I started the Saturday animation series I got about a dozen emails suggesting its inclusion.

Herr Bar: trippy, sensual, experiential toe-tapping goodness for the eyes and ears.

Andrew Jones Downloadable

Massive Black just released their latest downloadable instructional video. At $15.00, this series of demos are great info dumps without stressing the pockets. Proceeds help maintain Conceptart.org.

Painting the DragonForce Cover with Andrew Jones
Once again Andrew innovates the use of digital tools inside of a traditional foundation, freely combining Photoshop, Painter, and ZBrush to create stunningly powerful and sexy rock art. Original score by DJunya.

RELATED POST: Andrew Jones, live painting, and the Illuminated

Sunday Beach Walk

Love on a Stick

1989, Hauppauge High School, Terence Dollard wrote, sang, and directed "Love on a Stick." Now it's available to the world...

Razer

Color me flabbergasted. I just ran into a thread by Russian artist Razer on ConceptArt.org. I could go on and on about his facility with unusual and difficult perspectives and ability to draw figures, hardware, and landscape (not common among concept artists that tend to specialize) but it's his epic vision of a future that envisions nature in concert with technology that make me both excited and a little sad that I'll never get to poke around these neighborhoods myself.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

Because I feel a Kubrick re-watch film fest coming on:

Mark Schultz Podcast Interview

Check out Mark Schultz on Sidebar Nation.

Eustace, SFWA, and SVA

Just a quick catch up on a a few art and/or SF related events I went to over the last few weeks.

It turns out that Eustace was a neighbor. By which I mean, Rae Irvine, the man that drew Eustace Tilley, the monocled New Yorker logo, used to live down the block from me. (And if I'm looking at the picture correctly, in my dream house.) A few weeks ago I attended a local historical club's lecture given by John Dietz outlining the various artistic residents of Brookhaven Hamlet in the first half of the 20th century. It turns out to be quite an impressive list, especially considering how tiny the Hamlet is. The quote of the day was about pianist Emily Wagner, apparently the New York Times obit reported she was "one of those women with short hair and long vision." William Glackens, also a neighbor.

Then there was the annual Science Fiction Writers of America cocktail party, affectionately known as the "Mill & Swill". Always a good time, but this year particularly so because two friends I had not seen since High School showed up. Out of the blue, Jen Salerno and radio host/screenwriter/all around cool guy Mike Sargent. Oddly-but-entertainingly, they brought Melvin Van Peebles with them. Bridget McGovern writes up the evening here.

Lastly, Bridget McGovern, Liz Gorinsky, and I attended the SVA graduate class exhibit, including a Cthulu show. I was glad to meet Viktor Koen in the non-email sense. Viktor had just completed a cover for Tor's steampunk novel The Affinity Bridge. Also in attendance were a number of illustration's luminaries, including Marshal Arrisman and Brad Holland. (Brad talked about possibly doing some sequential work for Tor.com. Which would be awesome, needless to say.)

IMAGES: Irvine's Eustace. Joe and Gay Haldeman and Mike
Sargent. SVA opening. SVA student You Byun.

What Movie Posters Should Look Like

This is being linked to everywhere so, why not here. Criterion DVD packaging makes me lament modern movie posters.

Eric Fortune Fine Art

Eric Fortune has been turning his attention to a gallery career as of late, and the results?....Are to die for. Check out his fine art blog.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

This week: Wind Along the Coast and Meta Pre Ptolemy

For thems that expressed concern on the amount of downer animated films I've been picking for Tor.com, you have to admit these two are delightful. Or, as Todd Lockwood said, "you have to love a cartoon in which they milk a fish."

For book lovers

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Via Coudal.com

Hurray for the home team!

Jamie Stafford-Hill's design for Make Room, Make Room
has be listed as a "Best of 08" on The Book Design Review. Check it out. You can even vote on your favorite.

Art Books Reviewed

Parka Blogs is dedicated to quick reviews of science fiction and fantasy art books, design , and toys. The book reviews come with lots of pictures and, best of all, a quick video flip-through from beginning to end.

(via ConceptArt.org)

Saturday Morning Cartoons: "When the Day Breaks" and "One-eyed Ophelia Jackson"

This week on Tor.com Saturday Morning Cartoons:

When the Day Breaks -- which I've shown here before but I think of animation as film's poetry -- it becomes better the more you see it.

And fun adventure tale: The Story of One-eyed Ophelia Jackson. (Because, as someone on tor.com already mentioned, eye patches are kick-ass.)

Shaun Tan on an animated version of The Lost Thing

For the Shaun Tan fans out there...which should be everyone out there:

Shaun Tan is working on an animated short for his picture book The Lost Thing. Check out a five minute documentary on Shaun and the movie here.

So. Many. Great. Pictures.

Charley Parker, of Lines ad Colors, mentioned One1more2time3's in a recent blog post. And for that I owe him dinner, should we ever meet.

One1more is an animation blog showcasing drop-dead gorgeous drawings from movies, big and small. It looks like this is the relaunch of the site so the archives aren't deep, but what is there is so very, very rich. I'm looking forward to reading all of it and staying tuned.

Wetlands Sunset

The quadrupeds say Hi.

Jack, Briana, Fiona, and Morgan

Happy Thanksgiving