I suckered yet another amazing artist to join Muddy Colors (look above!)
You can thank me later.
In the mean time, please welcome Adam Rex!
Adam Rex was one of my very first choices as a contributor of this blog. He has long been a great personal inspiration to me, and I’ve no doubt will inspire many others as well. Unfortunately, Adam was just too busy at the time to take on the commitment, and rightfully so.
In just the past few years, Adam has transitioned from being one of the best fantasy painters out there (working on projects like Magic: The Gathering), to being a NewYork Times Bestselling Author! After writing and drawing the much acclaimed Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, Adam decided to try writing a novel. That novel, The True Meaning of Smekday, is currently being turned into a film by DreamWorks Entertainment.
To me, Adam is a true iconoclast, breaking the mold of what an Illustrator can be.
So it is with great pleasure, great excitement, and great humility, I welcome Adam Rex to our blog.
Muddy Colors just keeps getting better and better!
Incredible.
Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich!! I love that book.
Great addition to the site.
Awesome!
(All the cool kids are doing it!)
Forgot about a couple of those Magic cards you posted, Dan–nice to see them again!
Wheee! Now I can stalk Adam on here AND his regular blog!
Nice addition to the lineup but if you don't mind me saying so, this blog is a sausagefest. =(
@Anonymous…good art is good art. Who cares if there's a male or female hand behind it? If you've got something to offer or have suggestions of females in the biz that would be just as good, please offer it.
“@Anonymous…good art is good art. Who cares if there's a male or female hand behind it? If you've got something to offer or have suggestions of females in the biz that would be just as good, please offer it.”
You are correct, I think: gender doesn't really matter as far as art standing on its own. Its just that its so discouraging to find so few women working capably in this particular area of illustration (scifi/fantasy). I can never tell if it has to do with discrimination and a “boys' club” mentality, if its more like attrition, or if its a general disinterest in this genre in particular. I think the last one is most likely but its difficult to tell for sure. What do you think?
Artists aside, there must be loads of women working in the publishing industry that could tell us things an illustrator might find useful. There's Irene Gallo (Tor) and Zoe Robinson (Fantasy Flight Games) that I know of off the top of my head.
I don't know if this is the right blog for it but I think it'd be interesting to hear from a marketing person (likely a woman but any gender will do!) and what they're after from illustrators, which conventions of a genre they expect should be followed, why so much T&A and do they think that really works…that sort of thing. Or maybe a graphic designer, who puts the cover and text together.
Sorry for the long post. And, looking back, I think maybe my original comment was a bit confrontational. Sorry!
-original Anonymous
Long story short…
There are not a lot of female artists in the fantasy genre.
Maybe 12 that are of the calibre we expect here on MC.
I've asked nearly all of them.
Art Directors are a different story.
I'm sorry that very few of our contributors are female.
I'm sorry that none of our contributors are black.
I'm sorry that none of our contributors are homosexual.
Those are all things I'd like to change, but not at the expense of quality.
I strive to give our readers the best of the best from what the genre currently has to offer.
That said…
There does seems to be a LOT of up and coming female artists in this genre with immense talent.
(Jana Schirmer, Tran Nguyen, Mia Arujo, etc.)
I expect the next generation will change the face of field dramatically.
2nd Anonymous here…I do gotta say that I love the illustrative works of artists such as Tran Nguyen, Ana Bagayan, Lindsey Look, Andrea Kowch, Beth Bojarski, etc. (And I apologize if my response seemed a bit confrontational as well.)
It just seems the illustration field is saturated with more male artists and whatnot. Just my personal opinion here, but I think a lot of female artists (at least many of those that I've come to know and follow through their blogs, FB profiles, etc.) have geared their careers more towards gallery work rather than illustration.
As I know many females who are consumers of scifi/fantasy, I am sympathetic to your concerns, though.