MicroVisions 7 Contributors Announced

MicroVisions 7 has begun and it’s a stellar line-up.

For those new to the event, each year Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, and I ask a dozen artists to create a 5x7 painting of their choosing. These miniatures are exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and then placed on auction with all proceeds going to the Society’s student scholarship fund.

This year’s contributors are:

Scott Bakal

Julie Bell

Scott Brundage

Brian Despain

Nathan Fowkes

Rebecca Guay

Scott Gustafson

John Picacio

Dan Dos Santos

Peter de Seve

Chris Rahn

Terryl Whitlatch

The exhibit will run in May, with the auction taking place late in the month. Details will be posted as the event draws near.

The Society Scholarships are among the illustrations industry’s toughest awards. This year, over 8,000 entries weher examined by 25 judges. Just over 200 students will be accepted into the exhibit, and about half will earn cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially, they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists (and their nervous parents) by proving their voices stand out amongst thousands of others. It’s never long before you start seeing the winners on their way to becoming the field’s biggest names. John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Dan Dos Santos and hundreds of others have become noted illustrators since the Scholarship’s inception in 1981.

Once again, I would like to thank the artists involved for heir generosity. The illustration community is incredibly supportive. Not every profession would donate time and energy into supporting their future competition.

Jon Foster on Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought, once and again

Here’s a situation where we got a great image from Jon Foster but...Marketing felt it was missed the steampunk mark a bit. I hated to admit it, because it is a great painting, but it does feel too solidly placed in actual history. So, giant steam robot to the rescue!

And through the wonders of the internets, the first still gets to live in the world.

For Cherie Preist’s Dreadnought, sequel to her Boneshaker. You can see another Foster-Priest collab set in the same world on Clementine, published by Subterranean Press.

UPDATE: For author squee.

Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing trailer. In word, awesome!

Shaun Tan’s fifteen minute animated adaptation of his book The Lost Thing—the story of a boy’s empathy with a lost, er, thing and his attempts to help it find its place—is completed and making the festival circuit. If anyone gets a chance to see it, please report back! I’m dying to see it.

In the meantime, anyone else as in love with Shaun’s work as I am can play around on thelostthing.com.There are character studies, color keys and production drawings to see. And if that is not enough, check out this 5 minute documentary on the movie.

6,600 thank yous

A huge thanks to all that participated in MircoVisions. It was a record-breaking year, at $6,600.00!

Thanks to all the artists and bidders, winners and losers. Sadly, it takes a runner-up to make an auction — we appreciate all of you.

There will be a few more smiling kids next May because of all your efforts.

...Now, who should we get for next year.....

MicroVisions 5 auction now live!

MicroVisions 5 auction is now live on eBay.
Opening bids start at $50.00.
Auction ends Wednesday, May 26th.

Each year, Dan Dos Santos and I ask about a dozen artists to create a 5x7 painting of their choosing. These miniatures are exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and placed on auction with all proceeds going to the Society’ student scholarship fund.

This year’s contributors pulled out all the the stops and created an amazing exhibit. A huge thank you to the artists that have given so generously of the time and talent: Scott Altmann, Scott Bakal, Rick Berry, Bill Carman, Jon Foster, Donato Giancola, Michael Kaluta, Tim O’Brien, Omar Rayyan, Allen Williams, and Boris Vallejo.

The Society Scholarships are among the illustrations industry’s toughest awards. Less than two hundred students are chosen to be in the exhibit from nearly 6,000 entries—about half of them earn cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially, they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists (and their nervous parents) by proving their voices stand out amongst thousands of others. It’s never long before you start seeing the winners on their way to becoming the field’s biggest names—John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Dan Dos Santos and hundreds of others since the Scholarship’s inception in 1981.

For those of you in New York, the exhibit is on display at the Society of Illustrators through May 22nd.

Julie Bell and The Path of Daggers

This month’s Wheel of Time ebook release features the fabulous Julie Bell!

“In the end, Julie created strong and individual characters, each one looking as competent in their own right as the next, clearly working together for a greater power.”

Check out the Tor.com article to read the whole story, including a video interview with Julie.

Boris Vallejo’s MicroVisions

Last, certainly not least, Boris Vallejo.

You know, when you’re dealing with Boris you never expect anything but his “A” game...and still he can knock your socks off. Wow.

Tor Books turns 30!

Last Friday was our birthday — Tor turned 30!

To commemorate the occasion, I put together a “walk through the halls” photo essay. Come on by and say Hi. It’s a peak inside the offices along with a quick introduction to some of the people behind the books.

Rick Berry’s MicrvoVisions

Rick Berry’s “Rainmaker” MicroVisions.

I was lucky enough to pick up one of Rick’s unreal portraits at this year’s Boskone. I love how his figures feel as though they are part of some primal shadow world, just on the cusp of corporeality.

Check out his newly updated website and his artbook, Sparrow.

Happy birthday, Mr. Sondheim

Donato Giancola’s MicroVisions

Anyone following Donato Giancola’s website closely has seen a few new Lord of the Rings drawings and paintings. That’s because he’s working on what sounds like a dream job, a Tolkien inspired art book for Underwood Books (the publishers of Spectrum.)

Donato took advantage of the time spent on MicroVisions to creat this portriat of Dwarf Telchar forging Aragorn’s sword, Narsil, which will also appear in th ebook.

I’m getting so excited to see this little show. It will be on the walls at the Society of Illustrators starting April 27th. The auction will be the first or second week of May — stay tuned for details!