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.

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.

Jon Foster’s MicroVisions

...and the cow jumped over the moon-girl.

Mr. Jon Foster, always an Art Department favorite.

This MicroVisions is becoming insanely good. I have to thank all the artists, again, for being part of it
.
*wondering what the inbox fairy will bring me next*

MicroVisions 5. Or, The Return of 5x7!

Think small.

Each year, Dan Dos Santos and I organize “MicroVisions”, an exhibit and auction to raise money for the Society of Illustrators’ student scholarship fund. Over the past four years it raised $20,000.00 which was given directly to students displaying exceptional promise in illustration.

I am proud to announce this year’s line-up of participating artists. I cannot thank these guys enough for dedicating their time and talent to this endeavour. To carve out time for anything beyond work and family is not a trivial thing to ask, so, applause to:

Scott Altmann
Scott Bakal
Rick Berry
Bill Carman
Jon Foster
Donato Giancola
Michael Kaluta
Tim O’Brien
Omar Rayyan
Jordu Schell
Allen Williams
Boris Vallejo

Bravo guys! Rest assured, the students really appreciate the support these scholarships represent.

The works will be on display at the Society beginning April 26th. Painting and auction updates as I get them.

RELATED: Past MicroVisions here.

Stemapunk Month Wallpapers: Manchess, Foster, Tenery, Frietas

We are preparing to send off Steampunk Month on Tor.com. Throughout the month we gave out desktop wallpapers. If you want any, or just want to see some brushstrokes (an in one case sculpture) close up, check out:

HMS Stubbington, the logo
Thom Tenery
Eric Frietas
Jon Foster
Greg Manchess

Jon Foster, new site

And speaking of new sites, Jon Foster has updated and redesigned his site. It's great to see his newer work collected. And even better, a chance to drool over his sketches. The guy does amazing sketches.

Jon Foster: Boneshaker and sketches

Cherie Priest's Boneshaker comes out at the end of September and it's getting a lot of buzz. I always double-like when one of my favorite covers accompanies a book that all the cool kids are raving about.

Art by Jon Foster.
Design by Jamie Stafford-Hill.
And check out Cherie Priest's website for series, The Clockwork Century.

The first sketch was a real contender. It had action and might have more commercial appeal than the others. The second sketch looked a little too young-adult so that was ruled out fairly quickly. (Although it would make for a great YA cover.) The third one seemed slightly riskier than the others but also felt like, if all the pieces fell into place, it would be demand attention on the shelves. I'm very glad it's the direction we took.

I have to admit, it does seem as though some authors have good cover karma. (Which unfortunately also means the reverse can be true.) I equally love the John Jude Palencar arted, Peter Lutjen designed, covers on Cherie Priest's "Eden More" books.

Jon Foster's "The City Quiet as Death"

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.

I'm a real author!

Woo-hoo! Just got a royalty check for Jon Foster's artbook, Revolution. I feel so legit now.

2009 Illustration Master Class registration now open.

I will write about this more in depth on Tor.com in the upcoming week but I have a feeling it will sell out fast -- in fact, it's already half filled by from last year's alumni -- so I wanted to mention it quickly here first. Illustration Master Class is a one week intensive class that is i-n-t-e-n-s-e!

Illustration Master Class
June 15-21, 2009
Amherst, MA
$1,850.00 - includes studio class, lectures, room and board.

Full and guest faculty:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Jon Foster
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo
Charles Vess

Some notes from this year's class here, here,and here.

Message Board.

Flickr set here

ComicCon Demos

Quick write-ups over on Tor.com:

Jon Foster

Greg Manchess

Rick Berry

Stephan Martiniere

Tor.com & Spectrum Hearts Rick Berry, Jon Foster, Greg Manchess, and Stephan Martiniere

Tor.com and Spectrum are working together to host a series of painting demos at San Diego Comic Con. The details may tweak a bit between then and now, but I was itching to spread the word so, here's scoop:

Spectrum Booth #4503

Thursday, 3:00 - 4:30
Jon Foster

Friday, 3:00 – 4:30
Rick Berry

Saturday, 3:00 – 4:30
Stephan Martiniere
(Creature development)

Sunday, 11:00 – 12:30
Greg Manchess

Greg Manchess and Dan Dos Santos Demo at RISD

A highlight of my year is an annual visit to Jon Foster's Rhode Island School of Design class. His students are great, Providence is beautiful in May, Jon's extended family of friends and artists are a delight, and Jon, himself, never seems happier than when he's playing match-maker between talented peoples.

This year Greg Manchess and Dan Dos Santos did a class crit and a demo. The object of their demo happened to be the super awesome former student of Jon's, Wesley Allsbrook. Wesley, I'm excited to say, is creating a short comic story for Tor.com. It's just a big happy circle of life thing.

Tor.com: More on What We are About + Royo and Foster Wallpapers

Firstly, for an impassioned and eloquent description of what we think Tor.Com will evolve into, and to to sign up as a beta tester, see Patrick Nielsen Hayden's post on Making Light and the 200+ comments that follow. (Houston, we have buzz.)

This week's visual delight....
Tor.com Wallpapers:

Luis Royo, from The Fantastic Art of Luis Royo.

Jon Foster, from Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster.

Jon Foster Podcast

Sidebar's talk with Jon Foster, Part 2, is posted.

I haven't heard it yet, but I'll make Jon my company while at work today.

Jon Foster Speaks

Jon Foster podcast on Sidebar.

Jon is one of my favorites artists and one of my favorite peoples. (Of course, I am in no way influenced by the fact I'm co-editor on Jon's art book Revolution.)

Sidebar has posted a great podcast interview so there is no excuse for anyone not to be smitten by him.

And the best news, this is listed as "Part 1". (My favorite quote so far, "Self deprecation is my other skill.")

Three Wolves

Raquel Aparicio

Sam Weber

Jon Foster

UPDATE:
Sorry - I should have explained this more.

A while ago I noticed these three wolf images and thought, “My, that’s a lot cool wolf imagery coming to my attention all at once.” It gave me the idea for the occasional lazy post of stumbling onto three interpretations of the same thing and posting them together.

So, these are not Tor covers. The first is, of course, a Little Red Riding Hood image but I’m not sure if it’s in print. The second looks like an editorial piece, but I didn’t go back and check. The third is for a Cherie Priest book, The Dreadful Skin. I’m not sure who published this one but I wish it was ours -- it’s one of my favorites from Jon.