We got a very Lovecraftian story in on Tor.com, The City Quiet as Death by Steven Utley and Michael Bishop. It involved tentacles and, you know, once that happens any number of artists start looking so very appealing. So of course, I went with one of my faves, Jon Foster. (Its only just occuring to me that Jon lives in Providence. Hmmm?) He did two sketches and I honestly couldn't decide which I liked better. We went with the tall version, but I still like the horizontal equally as much.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Jon Foster's "The City Quiet as Death"
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12 comments:
lovely work! thanks for posting!
Jon Foster's work is consistently amazing.
I like the tall one. I think the image on the wall looks like it could be a shadow or just grafitti - it's more ambiguous than the smaller one to my eye.
The actual sketches for these hit you like a train. Certainly one of my favorites of Mr. Foster!
They are both great! I am kinda partial to the horizontal piece though. Any comments on the thought process involved in picking the tall one.
They both work really well IMO, I'm a fan of the horizontal one too, but that's only because I am really digging those tentacles. I have to admit though, seeing the bottom one as a finish next to the sketch up top, I reeeally like that palette choice. I'm guessing the top would've been done in the same?
both beautiful.. the top one is more mysterious compared to the tall one, but i love the paint application in the finished piece.
Monumentally gorgeous! I love it so much. I'm not biased, really.
that's nice. looks like a great application of the transform tool in building their own reference. very smart. Good idea technically and conceptually.
4 spambot posts! Kill 'em.
And I excoriate and sneer at illustrators who refuse to abide by the actual story imagery. It's brain-moribund inattentiveness or arrogance, or both.
The runner is youthful-athletic-shod. Don Horatio is none of the above in the story.
Apologies for the spam. Unfortunately I got hit with thousands all at once. It was impossible to keep up with. Now I try to hit them when I'm in an older post for some other reason.
I'm sorry you feel that way about the painting. I know many SF fans enjoy by that kind of literalism and we sometimes follow suit. Personally, I find when drawings that simply re-tell a line from the story are a bit flat or redundant. I'd rather the artist take he themes of the story and represent something that evokes the mood of the piece The running/being driven mad seemed to hit the mark so we stretched what an older man might be capable of in a run. Likewise, Jon created a shadow that is not possible in either the image set-up or story.
Well, I'm no artist, but I find it rather easy to imagine an evocative and dramatic image with a shoeless, desperate older man running from the Kraken-octopus. Silly me.
I misspoke, deceived by the image. In the story he is fleeing TO the Kraken. Silly me.
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