To Green Angel Tower – cover art

Periodically I make the choice to lean in heavily on a commission, dramatically increasing the amount of labor, focus, and intent I wish to bring to a painting.  This bar is raised by myself, never by my client, as the desire is to create a portfolio piece I can leverage for broader use, benefiting my client, and hopefully my career.

This is one such instance.

When Shawn Speakman of Grim Oak Press asked if I would like to illustrate a new covers (and interiors) for Tad William’s epic trilogy, I knew I was in for a challenge.  The original series was published with covers by Michael Whelan, one of the greatest cover artists to work in the genre of Fantasy and Science Fiction and his cover for Tad’s third novel, To Green Angel Tower, stands as one of his greatest career masterpieces.

 

I knew I was going to be working in one of the largest, and strongest, cast artistic shadows in my professional career.

Dialing back time, during the 80’s and 90’s I had grown up reading scores of science fiction and fantasy novels and unknowingly purchasing many novels based upon the cover artists shown, not so much by name of the authors.

How do I know?

About fifteen years ago while at my parents home I unpacked a box of paperbacks purchased from that time period, a kind of time capsule for my buying habits. There laid out were an abundance of novel illustrations by Michael Whelan, Darrell Sweet, and Kieth Parkinson across a bounty of various authors.

Unknowingly I was buying books by the artists, for I did not have recommendations coming in from a club or other readers to point me towards specific authors or trends.  It was quite funny to reflect upon those purchases, and not too surprising to see so many covers of the art of artists I now recognize as formative in my development as a professional illustrator.

The power of marketing!

Having to create a new work for Tad William’s novel in that immense Whelan shadow means I needed to step outside of the aesthetics Whelan would use for cover art and embrace a visual language I could call my own.

What would Whelan not do?  A massive multi-figural cavalry ride.
Had I ever done one?  No.  I hate painting horses!
Should I do this?  Yes?
Am I crazy? YES!

My God, what have I done?

To top it off, Shawn made a request hoping I could compose the art so that it could be flipped, just like Whelan’s original, to work as a front cover for both published volumes of the ‘third’ book in the trilogy.

There was no getting out from under Whelan’s impressive shadow!

The final preliminary drawing alone took nearly a full week to finish after compiling all of my references, and the oil painting over two months of work (color by number!)

Thank you to Shawn, Jeff Lawson, and Grim Oak Press for providing me the opportunity to create this work, and to Tad Williams and Michael Whelan for fueling the fires of inspiration to get me through those two months of constant labor!