Spaceships, aliens and guns! +more

[Mon]

Here's a rather ambitious painting I've been working on. The software is Painter 7...

http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/spaceopera.jpg

here's the sketch:

http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/spaceopera_sketch.gif

here's another sketch of the girl in the back. I ended up using parts of this one instead of the original.

http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/spacebrud.gif

the head of the alien went through a lot of changes during the process, here are two incarnations:
http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/space_head1.jpg and http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/space_head2.jpg

Finally, like this wasn't enough, here are a couple of studies I did of Anders Zorn's paintings (sorry sijuners, old stuff):

Zorn 1 (http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/zorn_copy3.jpg)
Zorn 2 (http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/zorn_spcopy2.jpg)
Zorn 3 (http://w1.320.telia.com/~u32008465/forum/zorn_iateljen.jpg)

So... If you've got a novel waiting to get published about a boy, a girl, and an ugly alien hero flying around in a 50's spaceship, and you're desperately looking for a cover, drop me a line ok?

I'm also interested in hearing about who else might be interested in this kind of work.. All you pros out there, where do I send this stuff?

Like always, comments are greatly appreciated! :)

[makotierra]

I think it came pretty well. The green of the leaves adds a lot to the image.

[Joeslucher]

I think you made a good decision on the final design of the alien.

[viag]

nice pics, i really like the studies

[Scubasteve]

Really well done. Looks alot like Jar Jar Binx though...

[Joey-b]

ow wow.. this really is my thing!.. this has gotta be the best thing i've seen on this site so far.. (imo that is .. every body sgotta a different tast o cource )

i really like how u play with ur drawing.. with the different heads and all .. i think u chose the best one.. i like the colors u used.. .. nothing more to say.. this is just great!

[Summer Pudding]

Great stuff Mon,

as usual. Have a look at his site, it excellent.

[AmadorL]

i like the painting it looks very Fosterish Great work.

-A

[zantergog]

I really like the image, I prefer the alien with out the jar-jar eye stalks, however its a great style and use of light, almost a composite, very nice

zant:beer:

[Loga4]

Great jop,Mon!
Like the characters!

[artistanbul]

uh! this... is.. great..


wow.. I think I'll keep it..

[fukifino]

Fungi linked this image in chat and without knowing who it was my first thought was that it was a very "fosteresque" composition of the characters. I see someone else mentioned it too. This is not a bad thing, just something I noticed. Then again, I'm sure Jon Foster isn't the first person to use that particular compositional style.

Anyways, this is a lovely painting. I could definately see this as a book cover. Great paintjob on that boy, although I'm kind of wondering where the rest of him is. Looking at the figures, then at the ground...it kind of looks like they have no lower torsos.

[stevethomas]

Hey Mon, I'm no pro, but I did send some writings to various publishers and in my travels trying to find submission guidelines I ran across art submissions as well. So, if you are looking to send it to book publishers, they usually have guidelines for such things on their websites. Tor, Del Rey, White Wolf, etc. Plus magazines like Asimov's Sci-Fi.
Hope that helps.

[artistanbul]

Originally posted by fukifino
..my first thought was that it was a very "fosteresque" composition of the characters...

that was also my first thought.

[Teknoholic]

that IS Jar-Jar, without the ears, and after a few months of pumping iron... :(

[sea minus]

I wish I could pick my colors/values like you can.

I got a book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dblended%26field-keywords%3Dgraphic%252520artist%252520market/102-1289868-3976127) at the library listing "all" the book publishers. Then I found I bunch more searching the web. Good luck. ;)

[Arwar]

wow, amazing job on the painting mon. I love the transition from the foreground to the background. Nicely executed. Those leaves are killer too :D

[EvilChristoph]

did lucas give you permission to use his character?

[Summer Pudding]

Mon: post your dog tutorial. That should silence the critics.

[sparth]

mon i dunno where you should send it, as it is pretty much different from one person to another. you slowly build links with editors, it's a question of time too, i suppose.
in my case, i only work with french book editors, so i wouldn't be very helpful.
if you wanted to have this piece edited, you shouldn't encounter much difficulties whatsoever.

sweet stuff for sure.

sparth

[Mon]

Thanks for all the comments folks!

Yes I have to admit to some Foster influence regarding the placement of the figures. He is the man.

Sorry about the Jar-jar design on the alien... I didn't think about that really, it just came out that way. I like the design from a strictly esthetic point of view, but that damn movie ruined most designs in this vein :)

stevethomas and sea minus> thanks for the info, I'll look it up!

Pud> hehe well I already did that and it doesn't seem to be working! ;)

sparth> thanks a lot! I guess that's what it all boils down to; who you know in this business.. buliding relationships and trust and whatnot. Hopefully I'll have some success in that department!

cheers!

[AmadorL]

what dog tutorial?
what's the link to it?

-A

[liquidwerx]

Nice cover art Mon. Send some samples and a cover letter to Wizards of the Coast. I think they'd eat your stuff up. :)


~Malachi

[Chris Beatrice]

Hey, I really like this. I especially like the foliage in the foreground.

One comment or question: is this supposed to be like a collage, or are all the figures supposed to be in the same scene? I can't figure out the lighting. It looks very inconsistent to me. The alien looks like he's lit from the upper right, but the girl more from the upper left. Compare their chests - they're both oriented almost identically, but the light is falling across their chests very differently. The hills in the background look like the light is behind them. Then the man seems to be receiving a fair amount of light on his hand and face, which it seems like should be more in deep shadow to be consistent with the other figures. It's a really compelling piece, but seems disjointed to me, like the figures were painted from disparate reference images or something.

If it is supposed to be a montage thing, then it's actually too consistent for that (big figure in foreground, medium sized figure in middle ground, similar colors throughout, etc.).

Explain

[Mon]

AmadorL> I posted it a while back, here it is: tutorial (http://www.mattiassnygg.com/tutorials/tut1.htm)

liquidwerx> Done! :) and thanks

Chris Beatrice> I didn't think of it in terms of collage or scene, it's a painting first and foremost. I see what you mean with the lightsource, and there are differences in how the characters are treated... In my eyes that's not a bad thing, as long as it gets the painting where it's supposed to go.

thanks for your comments!

[Chris Beatrice]

Well, I respectfully disagree. I don't think you get anywhere just saying, "it's a painting first and foremost." That's a bit simplistic.

Forget the words "collage" and "scene." Are you intending that the figures and environment all look consistent, or not? Either is ok, but ambiguity (for commercial art, which is very much about communication) is usually the worst thing.

If you took a cell type cartoon figure and stuck him in a photorealistic scene, the viewer would know that was intentional, and would be getting some strong message from that. But if the figure were just a bit more cell-like than the scene, but not enough for the viewer to know it was intentional, he would be confused and think maybe you didn't know what you were doing. Do you understand what I mean?