Any Fantasy/ Science Fiction illustration fans here?

[Lorien]

Last month I attended the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA. There were 70 students and our instructors were Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, Dan Dos Santos, Scott Fischer and Gregory Manchess (a.k.a "Ravenwood"). The course was a week long, with classes starting at 9am and ending at midnight, though often we worked on our projects until 3am. We got plenty of one on one time with each of the instructors. I was sitting next to Julie Bell throughout the week, and right behind Boris, so we struck up a friendship and have stayed in touch since. It's weird, because I was never much of a fan of their work (my own style is closer to Rebecca's), but I really gained an appreciation for their skills while I was there, and I learned A LOT from them. You can see my photos of their work and the class here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27980171@N03 /

Enjoy!

[Orrex]

1. Not a huge fan, but that sounds like a very cool event

Have you posted any of your work here? Links?

[Lorien]

5. I have off and on, but since I work for large corporations

that are very image conscience, I try to keep my work (which belongs to them) off any websites which aren't related directly to their companies. That'll change though as I start doing more and more of my own stuff.I've never even had my own website or business cards because I've had one client in particular over the past 20 years that supported me so well that I never looked elsewhere for work. That's changed, thanks to BushCo wrecking the economy!

[YankeyMCC]

2. That sounds very cool

I don't know that I would call myself a fan but I do enjoy good illustrations on the covers and such of the material I read, particularly the covers of the Asimov's magazine.

Do you know of Bob Eggleton? I actually bought my son a couple of his pieces for a gift becuase we read Dragonhenge, which he illustrated, together and loved it so much.

[Forkboy]

3. I love Bob Eggleton's work.

With his choice of subject matter how could I not like him? :)





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[Lorien]

6. I've heard of him, but I'll have to Google him to remember his work

I've spent most of my career in animation and illustration related to animation or children's lit. I'm just getting back into Fantasy. I was a fan as a kid and a teen, but I've been focused on other things for the past 20 years.The genre has changed a bit since I was into it!

[Forkboy]

4. Vallejo was a huge influence on my early art.

He and Frazetta both did a ton of work that was used in the Conan novels that inspired a lot of my own art. Vallejo was a little softer and fantasy-like than Frazetta's often gritty work, but both did some awesome stuff.

Sounds like a hell of a class you were in.

[Lorien]

7. I admit, I love Frazetta's work

he never relied on models as much, as Boris does, but he has such a solid grasp of anatomy that it didn't matter. All of his illustrations have a very fresh and powerful feel to them. Boris approaches everything very thoughtfully; he meticulously plans out his paintings so there's little guesswork by the time he puts brush to board (though there is still some). He did a painting during our week at the class without any reference at all, and it was just as rock solid as any painting he's ever done. Oddly enough, the Frazetta museum is only half an our from where he and Julie live, but they've never visited it! I hope to make a trip up there someday to see their studio setup, and hopefully I can get them to take a trip to the museum with me at the same time. ;-)

I've got one painting that I may post here when I finish it that was heavily influenced by their techniques. I had always been intimidated by oils (preferred acrylics instead) but they helped me get over that completely, thank goodness!

Edit: one of these days I'll get through three posts WITHOUT typos!