Frazetta

I host Story Tellers, a book cover oriented bi-weekly art competition over on CGHub.com. The idea is to take existing, and sometimes non existing books and illustrate a cover for them. It's a lot of fun to see the different takes on the same theme.

Last week we started Story Tellers 9, Conan the Cimmerian.

Little did I know that when I chose the subject, Frank Frazetta, the man whose artistic style defined Conan visually for generations, would pass away a week later to the day.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/05/10/frank-frazetta-rip/

Frazetta influenced me, and thousands of other artists - I have fond, fond memories of spending hours pouring over his art books marveling at the primal strength of images. NO ONE has ever done a Conan image that can compare as far as I am concerned.

So, I'm extending STS 9 an extra week, and invite anyone and everyone to take part. Spread the word, come and share with us.

Story Tellers 009 :: CONAN THE CIMMMERIAN / FRAZETTA TRIBUTE ROUND.

Let's make this something special.

SCBWI WWA Master Class Assignment from Tim Gillner

So, the other day, I received in my email a pdf and assignment from Tim Gillner for the SCBWI Illustrator's Master Class - our mission, should we choose to accept it (like we'd refuse) was to select one of the five stories included in the pdf to design and illustrate a cover for. What fun!

I ended up choosing It Feels Like Snow by Nancy Cote because I related to the main character, Alice, who feels the impending snows in various places on her body - her big toe, her nose, her elbow. Having what I call "barometer back" I felt a certain sympathy for her ;)

So, this is the first stage - sketch out the characters and cover, and ship it off for crits. Will post whatever feedback I receive when it comes in!


Also, if you have not had a chance, or didn't know about it, stop over at CGHUB.com and check out the bi-weekly activities they have there. Creature Planet(s), an activity centered on creature design, hosted by Mike Corriero is a lot of fun, and so is Story Tellers, an activity for cover art of various types hosted by yours' truly. This round we're doing a mock cover for the Hobbit!