Sky People

[Manchess]

Hey Guys....I just finished this new science fiction cover for Irene Gallo called "The Sky People." I was feeling pretty good about the last Conan posts and she convinced me to send this one, too.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/igallo/SkyPeoplelo.jpg

[Bomba]

nice bold strokes. You make it look so simple.

[stevethomas]

Very nice work. I love the colours in this one. (Loved the Conan images too).
I'm a fan.

[Jason Snair]

Mr. Manchess.

As usual I'm always in awe of your brushstrokes. I really like the color of the light shining thru the foliage, espeically in the area directly above the men. There's also some really nice silhouettes going on here.

-jason

[James Kei]

Beautiful light man, I can't believe this is oil paint. You have such efficient brush strokes.


-JK

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Awesome Greg, you rock...

[strych9ine]

It's really great to see you around here posting your work... I'll have to echo everyone here by saying I'm floored by your brushwork. Stick around a while, eh? :)

[el coro]

fucking sick greg! beauteeful!!! yesssss!!!!!!!
-c36

[DavePalumbo]

I assume this wraps around, but I usually see the focus (which for me is the people) on the right, so the rest can wrap the back cover... I think I explained that right... anyhow, curious how this is going to be printed is what I'm trying to say

[DSillustration]

I assume this wraps around, but I usually see the focus (which for me is the people) on the right, so the rest can wrap the back cover... I think I explained that right... anyhow, curious how this is going to be printed is what I'm trying to say
actually, i believe its just a band across the front.

greg,
everyone sweats your "brush-stroke"...
but personally, its the simplicity of composition and value that gets me!
so simple, and legible,
really uncomplicated.
at least, it appears that way.

i look at this and all i can thnk is:
"why do i make this SO hard on myself?!"

[Irene Gallo]

I assume this wraps around, but I usually see the focus (which for me is the people) on the right, so the rest can wrap the back cover
Hey Dave,
Actually, this will be a thin band across the front of the book.

The book is about a Venus the way the pulps have described it -- dinos, mammals, jungles, etc -- but the author gives a "scientific" reasoning for it to be that way. Next year there will be a sequel for Mars. I'm looking forward to seeing that one in reds, crackling landscape, ancient martian runes!

[Alday.J]

So simple and so effective ! I love it ! Thank you so much for show it. :)

[iomoon]

It has been said already, much more eloquently, but that just kicks so much butt. It's all about the light for me. Really nice job.

[Irene Gallo]

"why do i make this SO hard on myself?!"
Don't let him fool you! Greg sweats each one....trust me. (Plus he's got a couple of years on you, Dan. :P )

[loomer]

Beautiful job Greg. If possible, can you tell us the dimensions of the original and if you have ANY detail shots we'd all love to see them.

I especially like the bold choice of not putting any facial features on the humans. It really keeps your eye moving all around the picture at the other design elements . I'm usually to chicken to just leave out an entire face...but perhaps I can summon the painterly courage of Manchess...perhaps :)
Please keep posting here Greg... your work is very inspirational.

[Dutton]

Don't let him fool you! Greg sweats each one....trust me. (Plus he's got a couple of years on you, Dan).

Got a great big ol' smile out of that one. I think in my fine art work I'll sit a good five minutes mixing one color, planning its stroke and practicing on another canvas before I apply it, and even then it can be a challenge not to make it look contrived.... and I think that's where Greg differs and pulls it off.... it really does look effortlessly spontaneous. Makes me want a couple more years under my belt. ;)
Glad to see you're posting more work!

[cotron]

woo! logging on and seeing more paintings from you is always a pleasant surprise. I'm also really excited to see your subject matter going the earlier sci-fi and fantasy/adventure route. I see the great stuff of Jeffrey Jones, Frazetta, and even Wyeth in the recent paintings...but obviously it's still your own thing, too. cool!

[dogfood]

Forgive a little gushing, but this just draws me in (as does most of your work). I'm with Dan on this one; such a solid compostion without being over-bearing.

Random, dogfood aside:
I came upon Giving Thanks a couple weeks ago while looking for books for my daughter. It leapt from the shelf and engulfed me; I instantly remarked to my wife how like your work it seemed. Dur!

Thanks for posting.

Thanks for making such inspirational art.

Thanks for saving my life in the war.

And Pop Tarts. Thanks for those.

[poise]

GEEEZ!!!! Color and lighting is so nice!!! :x

[bk studio]

Remarkable, Greg ... too distill an image this complex into such a deceivingly simple chunk of meaty paint kills me. It also hits that powerful -burned to memory- note ... that when I look away I can still see the image in my mind's eye ... like it was seared to the back of my retinas. A graphical punch so strong and iconic as if it were a logo ... and that's no small feat considering you are juggling spacemen, spaceship, animals, -and- a jungle ... that's worse than a dozen bowling pins and a chainsaw! ... There's nothing simple about this level of simplification.

In reference to your career: Was there ever a difficult period when you were growing professionally? Were clients afraid or backed away from your impressionistic eye? Just wondering how you found resolve to nurture true image crafting ... not about simply fulfilling an illustration brief, but forging a gemlike image that stands on its own. So much of the industry clings to a hand holding sense of execution it may be hard for those outside the field to really grasp the courage in your work. Did you at some point decide to head down this path and make a clean break from expectations or was it an ingredient you always had in the mix that you gradually dialed up as your ability evolved?

Anything on the subject of your career path would interest me ... I find myself caving to client expectations (or at least my own), and I wonder how you navigated through all of this to find the mature cadence to your voice.

Take care and thank you for posting your work.
Truly an inspiration to a long time fan.

[AmishCommy]

sweet, knew we'd get Greg addicted to CA.

[Capprotti]

I can NOT believe you're posting here. I've been a HUGE fan of your art for a long time. Damn good stuff. If you're able. You should post some details, I love your brushwork.

[seba_boi]

Bravo!... It's really amazing!... How long did this take you?...

[Hawk-3ye]

beautiful cinemetography.

wonderfull.

[MGH]

As my 7 yr old daughter would say - " Suh-weeet!"
Glad you've found this forum Greg. I was in a restaurant (Italian I think) in Chicago a couple of years ago and there was a big painting of yours on the wall. Couldn't remember what the food tasted like...

[vigostar]

i cant even fathom how to go about creating something like. In my world its genius. I would love to see your penciled sketches.. or whatever you sketch with.. if you sketch anymore... Cuz it just seems like you pick up a brush and start working!

[Iron Titan]

Whoa, dude, nice strokes, especially like the light, Rembrandt is smiling down on you:P

PLEEEZ check out my drawings, crits are also welcome
if anyone is interested here's one of them> "Lady in straps"
http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ladystraps7da.jpg

[bdfoster]

Wow... just.... Wow.

I spent 10 minutes just staring at the screen. I din't notice my jawbone on the floor until the drool started pooling over the tops of my shoes and soaking into my socks.

Elegant, simple, beautiful. I hope you continue to post more.

[lyon]

Beautiful work. The Conan images were fantastic as well. It is great to see you posting your work here. There is some brilliant work on these boards and you definately add to the mix. Keep it up brother, I look foward to seeing more of your work. We all owe Irene a debt of gratitude for being the catalyst on this one.

Howard

[Arctis]

Hi,

If, as said Iren Gallo, you sweat on each painting you make, well ... good job : it looks easy and natural !
The way you paint is an inspiration, though I discovered your work only recently.
It's cool to have another example that, in art, the older you get, the best you become. (hope my terrible english is clear ;) )
Hope you'll post more.

[Riddick]

It was a really good idea to post again dear Gregory!

I love the Frazetta ship and the colors.
The depth of this landscape is great.
Maybe a small monster at left could be great...

[Dougbot]

Once again incredible works. I love the big spikey trees, you definately captured that pulp look Irene Gallo was mentioning, but it's updated. Not sure how to put it, but it's a perfect blend.

[Mort]

good lights. insperation . show more.

[andreasrocha]

Wonderful...you can almost smell that cold jungle air.

[E.M.GIST]

Stunning, simply stunning!!!

[HEROIC]

nice bold strokes. You make it look so simple.

EXACTLY. whn i looked at it, once again, ijust notcied the details.
OMGAMAzINg:xpld:

[Atmospheria]

This is just fantastic Mr. Manchess. It's great to have you here! I hope you post more.

[theincredibleandy]

Yet another amazing piece, Greg. This makes my day. I'm curious: what DO you sweat over the most in doing an illustration like this? You make so much of it look easy that SOMETHING must be challenging (I'm sure you work hard to make it look easy though). I'm just wondering what kind of struggles you see in a painting like this that I don't.

[redehlert]

nice visual divide! composition is superb and bold color execution makes me dribble drool into my lap.
beauty!
cheers,
d

[flex mathews]

excellent. i get so excited when i see you post something.

[Will-Saunders]

Very nice! That ship reminds me so much of Vincent Di fate!

[Denart]

intense use of colors! INTENSE USE!


how long did it take my good man?

[GhostofMacbeth]

Beautiful work. I first heard of your work a few years ago in Spectrum and I have been impressed ever since.

[Chuck,mate.]

beautiful. clean, simple and very expressive.
colors and contrasts are awesome.

gotta love the space-ship there, man. ho yeah.
:)

[Irene Gallo]

I would love to see your penciled sketches.. or whatever you sketch with.. if you sketch anymore... Cuz it just seems like you pick up a brush and start working!
Hey Vigo,
There were about 6 thumbnails. This was the one we basically went with.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/igallo/Thumb.gif
The final drawing:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/igallo/Drawing.gif

[JeffZNY]

Greg, you've opened up pandora's box...now that you're posting here, we're never going to leave you alone! questions, details, process shots, etc...we are a greedy, slobbering bunch of fans/peers! I love sci-fi/fantasy and all things prehistoric (who doesn't?), so I'm pretty much drooling over this one. Many thanks to Irene for posting the thumbnails. I would also love to see the final painting about twice as large as you've posted it.

[markwagner]

Yes, nice piece, the light, dark foreground, sharp edges. I wanna see some warm colors somewhere, it's sooooo cool - a hint of warm sunlight on sparkling on the ship? The dinosaur feels like a vegitarian and lacks the danger element for me.

Sweet...

~M

[Bruce Pluto]

Manchess,

I love the way this looks.The colors, different layers of depth and the detail.Having the viewer looking out from a dark area to a lighted one is great. The jungle haze and the the thorny vegetation help to present the idea that this is somewhere totaly alien. Kinda reminds me of the stories I used to read in the ERB novels.

Fantastic work, Bruce

[Gezstar]

wow, that is totally sweet.

[dibumac]

Just amazing...

[Boom]

that is a really nice painting. Love it!

[Jonoy]

Very cool, reminds me of Frazetta in style but thats a good thing!

[rawwad]

OH MAN! THIS IS :ae: :ax: :ac: :ae: :al: :ae: :an: :at: ! I love it, style is more than fantastic. Also I like lightning and coimposition, but Most fantastic is old school design of this scene. Congratz and respect:yayca:

[zao75231]

fucking amazing, great painting.

[Manchess]

Yikes! You guys are constantly watching...hard for me to keep up! I'll try to answer the general questions.

I sent Irene quite a few thumbnails in various formats since we weren't sure what we wanted to see on the cover. I spent a long afternoon sketching the ideas, staying loose. We chose a couple out of that and I worked up some clearer ones. Then I did the final sketch you see here. I made adjustments to that, trying to work in a mammoth, but it got too busy. I did most of the painting in one long evening, about 6.5 hours. Came back the next day and painted in the Triceratops and sabertooth, about 3-4 hours. It was done then, but the next day I did touchups for 2 hours just to get it flowing. Also, about the warm colors, I have a warm under painting that comes thru the leaves and I added warmth to the cat and the men's faces. I wanted the greens to overwhelm and have just touches of warmth.

Riddick: I wanted to add so many things! I wanted to have a spiney bug on the middle tree, more mammoths, etc. But sometimes ya gotta let go of the things you love in order to save the overall piece, y'know? Hard to do!

As for 'struggling': I struggled with the composition, to get it to read quickly and easily and still have all the elements of that Burroughs, Frazetta, St. John (especially) look that Irene was going for. I also worked the ship a lot to get that silvery effect and still keep it moody. At the last, I put in the bubble cockpit...it reminded me of the Proteus from FANTASTIC VOYAGE...'member that? I loved that as a kid.

Let me know if there's more you'd like to know. I've been painting for over 30 yrs now. I should be able to paint faster at this point...as I KNOW you guys will, too. There's so much passion for the paint with you all! Don't sweat the small stuff...just keep painting. It gets better!

Thanks again for the great comments! Aw, shucks....Greg

[JeffZNY]

larger larger...

[Dutton]

Don't sweat the small stuff...just keep painting. It gets better!


I'm so encouraged by this. :)

[Tad]

Looks cool man,
only crit i have is that the creatures in the foreground seem awfully lifeless to me.. almost like statues,

I think it has to do with the fact that you cant see the eyes on any of the characters in this piece, and you probably wanted it that way, but it was just a thought I had

[mayshing]

IT's very nice to see your sketches as well as the finish piece. :) Hope to see some process work sometime.

[Irene Gallo]

larger larger...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/igallo/Detail.jpg

[nonie]

I crapped my pants when I saw this, and then I did it again when I read that this is done in oils. Fantastic! That light is gorgeous.

[schaal]

I'm great fan of your work Mr. Manchess, since early 90's when I saw your work in the Illustrators Annual.

Amazing light, spatial composition, color pallete and brush strokes as always.

Cheers from Brazil

[McNallyism]

I'll just mirror everyone else in saying that you've been a major influence on my art ever since I saw your work in spectrum 7. Its great to see you posting here!

So, what I want to know is: Do you sell your originals at all? and if so, where are they sold? (as if I could afford them...but one day! ONE DAY!!)

-Sean

[JeffZNY]

I would've liked to see the whole image larger (the better for widescreen desktops:) ), but you're my hero nontheless Irene! Thank you kindly.

[MrMojo]

I love the colors and the strokes. It really makes it look like a misty jungle. Amazing atmosphere.

[P E N Ricklund]

Wow, I'm glad I noticed this thread, I was all pumped up after the conan post. I'm glad to have you with us.
I think I'll have to start a new painting tomorrow.Thanks for posting, it meens alot to see these.

Hugs to Greg and Irene!

[blacky]

Realy amazing
incredible
and, oh, that dino at right side is not a meat eating one.....and lioncat's from a later timeperiod...and
have I mentioned how amazing this picture is?

[Victor B]

Wow! fanatastic love seeing the thumbnails and close up so thanks to Irene too!

[Nordstrand, T]

Simply fantastic. I hope you'll stay and keep inspiring us around here :)

[Joachim]

This is great, as everything you do (atleast from what I've seen :) ).
You are an artist with confidence in what you do (atleast your work conveys this feeling).
It's nice with the strong highligts from the above light, it's very easy to exaggerate that to much (atleast from my experience), so it looks just disturbing or everything ends up with a plastic look. But you pulled it off nicely!

I have aquestion about the spaceship. I can see you have some influence from frazetta, especially when it comes from your technical design (am I right) . . I always looked at frazettas work and wondered about his sci-fi design, as it has a very retro look, not "convincing" in a realistic way, but it has it's charm (but he is old and did those design a long time ago). but I've noticed that many "fantasy" painters has sort of continued bringing this design further, as you have with this spaceship from my impression. Is this intentionally (?), or something that sort of has becomes the sci-fi style for many "fantasy painters" (?) Or do you think I'm lost in my own words here ? :D

[synthetINK]

Wow this is really awesome!