The Wonder Cabinet

Comicon International 2008

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:22:13 GMT

My schedule for the Annual Gathering of The Tribes in San Diego is as follows:

BOOTH:

Coppervale (Jeremy and James Owen) and Club 408 Graphics (Rich Henn) are sharing a corner booth in the Independent Publishers Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall. We'll be at Booth #1907.

PANELS:

Friday, July 25th
Kids! The First One's In The Library!
11:30AM - 12:20PM (Room 5AB)
D.J. MacHale (Pendragon) and James A. Owen (Here, There Be Dragons)

Saturday, July 26th
Comic Book Tattoo Panel
11:30AM - 12:30PM
(I'll be cheering on Rantz and Tori from the sidelines)

SIGNINGS:

Wednesday, July 23rd
Comic Book Tattoo Signing - Image Comics Block
7PM - 8PM
James A. Owen & Elizabeth Genco

Thursday, July 24th
Comic Book Tattoo Signing - Image Comics Block
4PM - 5PM
James A. Owen, Derek McCulloch, and Colleen Doran

Friday, July 25th
Post Panel autographing in th autograph area from 12:30 to 1:30 (Table A4)
James A. Owen, D.J. MacHale, P.J. Haarsma, Rebecca Moesta, and Michael Reisman

Sunday, July 27th
Mysterious Galaxy of Books Signing - Booth #1119
10AM - 11AM
James A. Owen

I'll also be making appearances at the Simon & Schuster booth, where they'll be giving out a limited number of advance reader copies of THE INDIGO KING. And of course, the rest of the time, I'll be at the Coppervale Booth (#1907) selling, signing, and sketching in STARCHILD, HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS, and more!

What else has been in the works

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:41:40 GMT

There's a great interview over at The Pulse with my pal Rantz Hoseley, who's pals with Tori Amos, who was the inspiration for the massive anthology COMIC BOOK TATTOO. Fifty+ creative teams adapted Tori's songs to comics, and I had the honor of doing the song ROOSTERSPUR BRIDGE.

The feature included a sampling of pages, including one of mine, which I can show you here:

The rest of the feature can be read here.

I'm writing, so here is some art...

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:07:18 GMT

I'm in the midst of a metaphoric battle with my next novel, and so have had no time for posting and correspondence - unless doing so provides my brain with enough of a break to sort through whatever it is my subconscious is messing with. So. I give you art.

I'd already posted a few pages of my comics adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's classic horror story, PELTS, but the mag/anthology it was in (IDW's DOOMED) is difficult to find for some folks - so I'm going to put the whole thing up here. (Also, I think I'd promised Scott Edelman that I would put it up here sooner or later.)

A caution: this is certainly a story for readers in their teens and above. So, apologies to my younger fans - but this is on the gruesome side of things, involving brains, and, well.... you'll see. The best part was I got to do the classic EC line "Good Lord!....*choke!*"

Lads and Ladies, PELTS.

Stephenie Meyer & Christopher Paolini

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:48 GMT

I've written an essay about Stephenie (and done a signing with her), and I've edited a book of essays about Chris (and often feel like I owe him dinner for the boost his ERAGON movie gave to Books With Dragons On Them, at a crucial time for me).

To read an interview about my thoughts on both, please take a look here at Teen Libris.

Next up: Big Honking Art Post (for older readers).

Life is Better Than We Believe

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:11:59 GMT

I am nearing the end of a book, the deadline towers, and I meant to refrain from posting - and next week, there will be many, many art posts of work vintage and new. But I also know, by virtue of my fan mail, that many young people read this journal - and as I have said often at my school visits, there are some things in life to important not to share.

Life is Better Than We Believe.

At any given moment, Life Is Better Than We Believe.

In the last few days, I have discussed (or visited with) three men in my life who have chosen to play the cards they were dealt differently than I. And in all three instances, they, through examples good and bad, have shown me that Life Is Better Than We Believe.

The first is my childhood friend, Jeff. His mother wanted to send a copy of one of my novels to him at his current home - one of the Arizona State Prisons. We've had it sent back three times for what the prison says are administrative reasons. Basically, there is a slew of paperwork and permissions involved in sending an inmate a book. They've had too many issues with contraband. And so it's taken us six weeks to finally get the clearance to send my friend Jeff a book I can order inside of thirty seconds. He's where he is because of his own mistakes, and I hope he chooses differently when he comes home. I am still his friend. And I am glad his challenges are not mine.

The second was my friend Rick, who came to my house for an Independence Day breakfast. Rick is a decade older than I, but he grew up on the same block. He makes hand-tooled leather goods for a living - which is more impressive when you realize both hands are palsied, and at one point, did not function at all as the result of a shooting accident that happened when he was 11. He's always had to be in a motorized wheelchair, and as a result of his injuries, lost a leg years later. It took him years just to be able to nudge the control on the wheelchair, and many more to be able to make the elaborate leather gifts he does. I am honored to be his friend. And I am glad his challenges are not mine.

The last just came about today, as I got the news that the writer Thomas Disch had died. I have never read much of his work, and knew it mostly because of the influence he had on my contemporaries. I have interacted with him on occasion this last year via livejournal
tomsdisch but not to any large degree. And the reason I'm writing this now is because of the choice he made to commit suicide. I don't know enough about him to speculate on his personal circumstances. I know he was prickly but respected; and he was dealing with a lot of difficult circumstances. Those statements are also applicable to his books. I don't know that we would have ever been friends. But I am glad his challenges were not mine.

We all have our challenges. And we all have our own ways of dealing with them. How each of us chooses to do so is up to us, and us alone. We can relate, but perhaps not fully understand what challenges - or means for dealing with them - others have. So I'll just say this, one more time: if nothing else, try to remember - Life is Better Than We Believe.

BOOM

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:14:25 GMT

One of the primary reasons I moved back to the town I grew up in is that we do a wicked cool Independence Day Celebration - and the best part, of course, involves blowing things up.

The annual tradition (going back eight decades or so, with a hiccup in the early years, but steady since the 50's) is called the Firing of the Anvil.

Around 4 am, the town's elder statesmen get together at the old church (which is now the Coppervale Studio) and set an anvil in the middle of the crossroads. On top of that, a black powder charge. On top of that, another anvil, upside down. Then they light the powder with a flame on a ten-foot pole.

It goes off like a cannon, and throws the top anvil about five feet up. Then, the local Jennings Band (named for the old drum they still use, which Renz Jennings brought across the plains in 1878) start playing patriotic music while on a flatbed trailer. By 5, the whole town is awake and lining up behind the firetruck with the anvil and the flatbed, and we follow it around in a train (stopping three more places to light the anvil at each one ten more times per stop) until the whole town is awake and honking horns.

Then the usual stuff: rodeos, barbecues, fireworks. But the anvil is pretty much Our Thing. And lots of people come home just to get up and follow it around.

That's the other cool thing about coming from a small town: a guy can call out your name, and you know right away it's a friend you had at age six, whom you haven't seen in decades - but the shared memory is stronger than distance or time.

Boom. Happy Independence Week.

How To Write A Series - Part Twelve

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:21:49 GMT

Just to clarify - since I've seen people mention that the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica is a trilogy, or five books or six books, or whatever...

It's going to be seven books.

Well, seven primary novels, that is. At least. Because I'm working on Book Four, and parts intended for it worked better in Five, so I bumped them - but I'd already planned Five, Six, and Seven (and they have titles), so some of what I planned for those may get bumped into another book - or trilogy - altogether. And none of this takes into account the sort-of prequel, or the three pre-HTBD picture books, or the Imaginarium Geographica itself.

So, uh, yeah - it's a trilogy. It just has fifteen books in it.

How To Write A Novel - Part Sixty-Three

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:03:09 GMT

Apparently, at the moment it involves reading academic papers and books on The Inklings; twenty-year-old Walt Simonson interviews about THOR and THE STAR SLAMMERS; surviving a sudden allergy-attack-induced bout of anaphylactic shock (earlier today, which required some immediate medication - so now my heart rate is through the roof); Mike 'n Ike Zourz candy; and a repeating video loop of Madonna's "Borderline".

But, I'm sure there are OTHER ways.

Regarding Apprentices

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:57:12 GMT

A lot of people know that I work with Apprentices at the Coppervale Studio. We developed the system we have now after having done my own Apprenticeships when I was young - my first pro art job, a construction company logo, I did at 13 - and I believe that it functions because people learn best by doing real work.

Our rough model was the Japanese Comics Studios, where several Apprentices train under a Master Artist, before moving on to do their own thing; and some of the older comics companies, like EC, where the creative work was done by a small group of talented people.

The Studio is run by my brother Jeremy, who passed his Apprentice training long ago - but who nevertheless takes on learning how to do new things at every available opportunity. We've had a few Junior Apprentices who have become Senior Apprentices over the years. My first criteria was that they had to have a notable skill in one area or another - then we start training them in something laterally different. Lon Saline (who designed the map for the Imaginarium Geographica logo) is an airbrush painter and concept artist, and we started training him to do comics layouts and film storyboards. Mary McCray is an oil portraitist whom we hired because Lon told me she was better than he is.

Mary currently aids me in an invaluable way, as she is primarily responsible for transferring my thumbnail layouts for the illustrations in my novels onto the full-sized art boards. But we're going to be taking more opportunities to have her do other work, because while she is good at the layouts and basic need-to-do-it work, I hired her to begin with because she's capable of doing work like the piece below.

In business, it's smart to hire people who know more than you do. In art, it's smart to hire Apprentices who can learn from you - but who can also stand toe-to-toe with you in their own way. And Mary more than qualifies. That's why we keep her on.

A snippet from a Work In Progress

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:41:11 GMT

“Where there is light, there will always be shadows,” the old traveler continued, “as surely as smoke follows fire.”

“But how do we fight smoke?” exclaimed Charles. “How can we fight shadows?

”The only way to defeat a shadow,” said Bert, “is to step into the flames.”

Is it giving too much away...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:07:22 GMT

...to suggest that those of you who like my art should really, really plan on having some spare bucks in hand this October, to spend buying a copy (or two) of Realms of Fantasy magazine?

Just saying...

In the Creative Flow, or the Twilight Zone - I Forget Which

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:15:53 GMT

Charles Dickens just hit Rudyard Kipling over the head with a silver tea tray. A fight ensued, which was broken up by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm.

There's a very loud cricket under my window, but I'm pretty certain it's actually Jim Morrison.

The people who will be happiest and saddest to read my next book (2009) are the ones who haven't thought through all the implications of Time Travel.

Stormy Sunday Stuff

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:41:46 GMT

I wanted to get something artish up today, but hadn't gotten the newest pieces I've done scanned. So here's one from the archive that's appropriate to a Monsoony Sunday with an overcast sky.

I'm here at my Studio writing Book Four in the Chronicles of The Imaginarium Geographica, eating cashews, watching Smallville, and in-between I'm reading snippets of a book on The Inklings in tandem with an interview with Brad Bird.

I've got to come up with a better name for this, because 'work' so doesn't describe it.

Make Haste, Dear (Writer) Friends

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:31:10 GMT

How long is the average novel these days?

I'm asking that in ways both practical and rhetorical, because once I tried to answer the question myself, a flocking of satellite questions appeared, bringing with them assumptions and suppositions that spun off MORE questions.

So, how long is a novel? Does length have anything to do with quality? Or marketability? Or enjoyment of the work itself?

Well, the accepted definition (I believe) is that to be a novel a work must be at least 40,000 words. Fine. But when was the last time you saw, read, wrote, or bought a 40k word novel? Half of my friends on livejournal are working on novels, and I'd be hard-pressed (in a pinch) to find one working on anything smaller than 100,000 words. In the last week, I noted two with uncompleted books with wordcounts already exceeding 150,000 words. And these aren't trilogies (in progress) but single books (which may be parts of a series, now I think on it). So, based on a totally unscientific perusal of my working friends' blogs and my recent-acquisition bookshelf, there aren't many novels anywhere NEAR the low end these days - unless you look at the YA shelves.

It's been endlessly speculated upon lately why YA books are thundering all over the market these days, and I'm really wondering if it has to do with the speed of the narrative. There must still be a completed story arc in a YA novel, but we get fewer words/pages to do it in - and I'm wondering if that has a bearing on the perception of quality, if not on the aesthetic experience of reading itself.

Simon & Schuster wanted HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS to be in the 65,000 word range (for a specific pagecount and price point). It came in at around 70,000 words. THE SEARCH FOR THE RED DRAGON came in at about 80,000; and THE INDIGO KING at about 87,000. The next one will be in the same range. So, in YA terms, I do fat books (300+ pages).

One criticism of the first book (which was based on a deliberate stylistic choice, so we were ready for it) was that the characters were thin as paper. BUT... the reader didn't mind because the narrative clipped along at such a fast pace. I got similar responses to the second book - and similar praise.

Because of this, I've looked at the books with that perspective, and come to the conclusion that if I were given more pages to work with - I probably wouldn't change my particular style. I'd just have more sequences of the same kind I've already been writing. So, is wordcount in longer books a matter of adding complexity? And is that a plus or a minus?

As I said, these are mostly questions - I'm still thinking about some of my answers. But I will end this post by revealing what started the line of thought: Heinlein.

He's a Grandmaster, no doubt. Wrote more good books than so-so-books.. Wrote long ones as well as short. But I haven't read him in a while. Then, a few days ago, I was feeling wound up late at night, and took advantage of the fact that I have a set of keys to the local bookstore. I dropped in and picked up a copy of Heinlein's ORPHANS OF THE SKY, and started reading.

You get the setup inside of five pages. By page ten, you have the protagonist in peril, which sets the storyline for the whole book - in a sequence that takes two sentences. And halfway through, it has become my stress-reliever at the end of the day, because the prose is tight; no words are wasted; and he just barrels along with the story. And I love it.

The whole book is ninety pages long. And I wish there were more. (And before someone makes the Heinlein = juvenile fiction comparison, I just went and checked something else. All of Roger Zelazny's AMBER paperbacks clock in at under 200 pages. Not juvenile. Not YA. Just great fiction, with no fluff).

Matching Guest Quotes of the Day

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:43:52 GMT

One of my friends here on livejournal started my day with this quote:

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you love to do, in order to have what you want." -- Margaret Young

And then she topped it with a quote of her own:

If you want access to a part of yourself that you miss or you want to nurture something you've always wanted for yourself, take yourself out to indulge that on a regular basis. It may feel silly at first but that signifies the importance of that thing to your secret heart. It's shame talking. You don't need it in your world.

Thank you, dear V.

What's this? Free books, you say?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:44:40 GMT

Anyone out there interested in a free book? Or a free ARC of the new book? Or a free audiobook? Would you be interested in earning one by blogging about a book?

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a little while, since I've got an ARC or two of THE INDIGO KING around - but I've hesitated because I already use this journal as a promotional vehicle for all my work, and I wasn't really comfortable offering prizes to people who blog about my books.

I am, however, TOTALLY comfortable offering prizes to people who blog about OTHER people's books.

So, here are the prizes: a signed ARC of THE INDIGO KING; a signed and sketched-in paperback of HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS; a THE SEARCH FOR THE RED DRAGON cd audiobook; a SAMARANTH art print; and a CARTOGRAPHER art print.

And here are the rules: blog about one of my friends' books (either one); post a link to the entry as a comment here; then claim your prize. That's it. First come first choice on the prizes. BUT... even if you aren't among the first five bloggers to post, there's a special consolation prize for EVERYONE ELSE who DOES. Everyone after the first five gets a Serendipity Box, as described here.

It could be a book, or a print, or even a piece of art... anything's possible.

Here are the books to blog about:

http://www.amazon.com/Jessies-Mountain-Maggie-Valley-Novels/dp/0670061549

JESSIE'S MOUNTAIN, by my friend Kerry Madden. Read more about it here.

And...

http://www.amazon.com/Superpowers-Novel-David-J-Schwartz/dp/0307394409

SUPERPOWERS, by my friend David J. Schwartz. Read more about it here.

Both are well worth your time and attention. Go forth and blog, then come back and claim your prize.

Summer nights, Summer days

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:18:22 GMT

The Monsoon Season has begun in Arizona, bringing with it my favorite time of year to do creative work.

The mornings are hot and clear, midday is balmy, and by afternoon, the clouds have begun to roll in from the Southwest.

From the stage in the upstairs great room at the Studio, one can watch the clouds roll in from a hundred miles away across the mountains.

If it doesn't bring rain, the Monsoon does bring that loamy tang in the air, and cool breezes, and overcast-borne soft light, which I relish.

At night, the diffusion of clouds, accompanied by a profusion of crickets from the nearby creek, makes for a Shelleyesque atmosphere outside. Inside, I am surrounded by art I love, in a comfortable working space, and if I am not writing I am drawing or painting. Bruce Hornsby live recordings are on itunes; the fan is set to low; and I get to spend tonight drawing dragons and Reflecto. How cool is that?

War Poet Art Wednesday

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:53:26 GMT

When I met with persons of high influence on my trips to France, I assumed any interest they had in me (aside from the STARCHILD and MYTHWORLD books, which are, frankly, a hard sell there in good circumstances, much less as cultural bridges) would stem from my mother's family's ties to the Millet art legacy.

Not so. They were more interested in my father's side of the family, because we shared a name (and distant blood) with a British soldier who is revered in France: the War Poet Wilfred Owen.

He is among the first rank of those who write about the horrors of war, and one of the youngest, having been killed just the week before the Armistice after The Great War.

I was asked if I would do an illustration of him for the cover of the Wilfred Owen Association's journal, and I offer it here ( for those who like to see the offbeat stuff I work on):

Near the end of his life, Wilfred and his fellow soldiers his out in a cellar of a farmhouse in a forest near Ors, France. The mayor of Ors allowed my publisher and I to go into the cellar and walk the woods to get a feel for the place, and Wilfred. So I thought drawing him in the cellar made the most sense. I related to the place he died, and the place he's buried - but I connected to this room as one of the places he lived.

ANTICIPATION - Literally (A World SF Con post)

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:01:42 GMT

As I'd noted in a (fairly) recent post, my first convention experience was the 42nd World Science Fiction Convention, called LACon II, in Anaheim. That event (in 1984) was what to me marks the beginning of my professional career: it was the first portfolio review; the first time I discussed being published; and the first time I rubbed shoulders with the professionals I wanted to emulate.

I attended other Arizona-based conventions (Coppercon and Leprecon), became a frequent exhibitor at the San Diego Comicon, and even got in a couple of World Fantasy Conventions in the past 24 years - but somehow, I never managed to get to another Worldcon.

That changes next year, with the 67th Worldcon in Montreal: ANTICIPATION.

Neil Gaiman is the author Guest of Honor; Ralph Bakshi is the Artist Guest of Honor; and David Hartwell is the Editor Guest of Honor.

And I have been asked to take (and accepted) the post of head of the Visual Arts Programming Track. Basically, I'm going to be setting all of the arts-related panels and presentations. I was asked to do this by a writer I greatly admire (fjm), and given that it marks the 25th anniversary of the show that started me in this field, I was honored to accept.

So, if anyone reading (I'm looking at you, Frank, among others ;) ) wants to suggest topics for panels and/or presentations, please let me know. A brief description of what I'm thinking can be found here. I won't be attending the Worldcon this year because of my upcoming book tour - but next year is going to be wicked cool.

Guest Quote: Carroll quoting Wertmuller quoting Fellini on Storytelling

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:43:06 GMT

Gakked from my friend Jonathan Carroll:

"Fellini said, 'When you are trying to direct, they will tell you there are a lot of rules. Of course these rules are important, but in reality the way to tell a story is the way you would tell it to your friends in a cafe. And if you have a talent as a narrator, you will tell this story well. Otherwise all the technique in the world will never help you.'"

- Lina Wertmuller

This is a very important part of a job which requires storytelling. A lot of new and wannabe and up-and-coming writers worry a lot about the rules ( or "the Rules", if you will), and even more obsess about the "secret handshake" or whatever it is that published writers know that gets their manuscripts from typewriter to bookstore. Choice of font. Paper weight. Bottle of wine sent to the editor. Whatever. The bottom line is embodied in the quote above: if you have talent as a narrator, you will tell this story well.

That's all that editors are looking for.

If you tell a story well, then sooner or later, someone WILL take notice.

Many people don't and it seems like every week one or more of them write/call/show up at the studio with an idea that they want me to turn into a book and when it sells a majillion copies they'll split it with me. They don't understand that the idea is the easy part; conveying it well is what makes the difference between a profession and a well-intentioned hobby.

On Editing Art

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:41:46 GMT

Everyone knows that a writer's work is going to be edited to one degree or another - it's part of the package. I happen to have been lucky enough to get an editor (and assistant editors, and a managing editor, and an outside editor) with whom I mesh very, very well.

The editorial letter (Step 1) is usually five or six pages, mostly dealing with content questions. The revision edits (Step 2) include a few more of these, along with grammatical and spelling and usage corrections written on a printed copy, and about a bazillion postits attached with more continuity/story questions. Step 3 is another round of Step 2. Steps 4 and 5 are usually all of that to a lesser degree, applied to the printed advance reader copy. And there are STILL more minor tweaks and adjustments made, right up until the book goes to the printer.

This is the process a professional manuscript goes through. But what a lot of people don't realize is that the ART undergoes a similar process. It's a little less intensive; and the steps are fewer because I send thumbnails to my editors before I draw the finished piece. But every so often, I do an illustration that is perfectly lovely - and doesn't quite match the text. And changes have to be made.

In THE SEARCH FOR THE RED DRAGON, the piece that needed the most revising was the art for Chapter Six. Looked good overall - until my editors noted that 1) the woman at the spinning wheel was supposed to have her hands in her lap; and 2) there were supposed to be cobwebs all over everything. So below, I present to you the first illustration, and the corrected piece.

(Thank goodness no one mentioned that she was sitting on the WRONG SIDE of the spinning wheel. (!))

Better than a Photograph...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:48:12 GMT

...which was of the advance reviewer copy, is an actual jpeg of the cover itself:

October is going to be a lot of fun. And the national tour will start at Kepler's, because I promised Antonia.

Making The Scene with Mr. Eisner

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:07:44 GMT

Over at Publisher's Weekly's comics blog THE BEAT, Heidi MacDonald just put up my report on the Will Eisner show at Storyopolis. Go take a look here:

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/06/11/on-the-scene-storyopolis/

Debating the opacity of Eisner's ink with Sergio Aragones, Bill Morrison, Batton Lash, and Paul Levitz (not to mention the other amazing discussions going on) is about as pleasant a way to spend an evening in LA as I can imagine.

Process is the Map, not the Destination

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:18:14 GMT

My friend Rick Remender writes a fantastic comic book called FEAR AGENT, which is as close to a rip-roaring space adventure series as one can find these days. In part because of tome, in part because of texture, FA is often compared (not unfavorably) to the grea EC science fiction comics of the fifties. Jack Davis - JACK DAVIS! - even did a cover for Rick, as have many other talented artists. I was itching to do one myself, and Rick was game, so I jumped in with both feet.

I decided I wanted to do an EC-homage cover; a 'lost' cover, in tribute to the late great Wallace Wood.

That meant my task was threefold: 1) aping Wood's style as closely as possible while 2) preserving my own style, identifiably, and 3) actually making a serviceable FEAR AGENT cover.

My senior apprentice, Lon Saline, took a well-known Wood cover that could be adapted to a FA cover and laid in the rough figures and background machinery. I penciled in the FA figures, and made some FA-specific alterations to the rest of the layout. Then, I inked the whole thing (note: Wood machinery is #@%$&*& hard to draw), and my Studio Manager Jeremy then colored it to match the EC covers (and we altered the classic ship on the left to a FA ship). Rick was thrilled, and we were all pretty happy with the result.

Next time I'm going to try doing Al Williamson. Pray for me.

Regarding Process and Very Large Drawings

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:12:16 GMT

Most of the illustrations I create are smaller than 16" x 20" or so, and I don't veer much outside that size because 1) It takes time to do all those tiny little lines, and deadlines are important; 2) illos are usually reduced for publication - but with the detail I do, not as much reduction is needed to tighten up the drawings; and 3) it takes time to do all those tiny little lines.

Then again, sometimes I get it into my head to do something without a clock,and really stretch what I think I'm capable of doing, and that's where the Fool's Hollow art print series came from.

The thing is, even at the size of these originals (each of the three pieces I've done/am doing are two and a half feet high by five feet wide - the whole uncut matte board, in fact) the process is no different: I take it a piece at a time, rendering each element with the attention it deserves.

And yes, doing that takes a very, very long time.

Here's a (greatly reduced) shot of the pencils for the Gatherum piece, followed by the finished art. Prints (which are themselves a hefty 28" x 40") are available for purchase here.