What I'm up to - Part 3

Sorry for the gap in blogging but I've been Busy.

Here are a few samples of the work I have been doing on the illustrations for George R R Martin's "A Clash of Kings" for the Subterranean Press edition.  I have cropped in on them so I don't give everything away.

A detail of the color sketch for the cover painting to Volume 1

Part of the ink drawing of Dagmer Cleftjaw.

 I drew penciled remarques on all the signature pages for the limited lettered edition.  Below are a couple of samples of the kind of drawings I did.

 Below is  an early drawing for Tyrion's chapter heading.  This one is not being used.

J C Leyendecker Rarities - Part 2

Here are a few more rare Leyendecker illustrations from my collection.

This first one, I have never seen reproduced anywhere else.  Probably instances of it have not survived because of it's fragility.  It is printed on thin tissue paper. Mine only survived because some artist back in the 1920's made a scrap file of illustrators they liked and glued it onto horrible old cardboard.

One day at a swap meet, many boxes of these collected images from his scrap files showed up and after hours of picking through I was able to purchase many obscure illustrations by several artists I collect.

 This illustration is very odd for Leyendecker, imitating as it does a Japanese Print in style.  It has a fold down the middle and staple holes so it was part of a booklet.  Probably one of the Kuppenheimer Catalogs?

This one is the Post cover he painted for the issue dealing with the great San Francisco earthquake.  It doesn't often show up in Leyendecker collections because that issue is often grabbed up for collections of the earthquake, and it does not overtly look like a typical Leyendecker image.

This one was done for an obscure local celebration in St Louis. I always point out that the artist suggests that the Mississippi River is infested with river monsters. (See lower right corner.)

Sketches and Finished Art - Part 2

As mentioned in an earlier blog, there is much to learn by studying sketches alongside the finished work.  The decisions of the artist in refining their concepts become visible and this should lead us to better and/or different thinking as we create our own works.

A sketch by Jose Segrelles for his painting "The Rhinegold".

Detail of "The Rhinegold".  Note the figure changes of the Rhine Maidens.

Herbert Draper's "The Gates of Dawn".

Otto Greiner studies for "Ulysses and the Sirens".   (Below)

John Singer Sargent's "Lady Macbeth"

Various ideas for "The Mermaid" by Andrew Loomis

The finish by Loomis

"Perseus and Andromeda" by Lord Leighton.

J C Leyendecker Rarities - part 1

From my extensive personal collection of J C Leyendecker illustrations I am sharing some of the odd and often rare bits.

Leyendecker interior illustration with Swordplay and Vultures.

A rare self portrait in the mirror of JCL at his easel, painting his models.

A Drawn illustration.  Pencil or Charcoal?

A wonderfully elegant and restrained cigarette ad.

19th Century Dragons - part 2

Here are a few more Dragon images that may be new to you to show the variations that imagination took in the 19th century artists.

"The Garden of the Hesperides" by Albert Herter.

A Heyden painting.

Don't know the artist of this image.

Thomas Gotch dragon painting.

St George and the Dragon by Briton Riviere.

An odd Dragon by Engel.

St George and the Dragon by Arthur Hoffmann.

19th Century Dragons

In studying 19th Century Fantasy Art I have noticed, (and made a recurrent theme of these blogs as well as my Facebook album) that many developments of the modern world have severely restricted and narrowed the imagination of more recent fantasy artists.  In the case of dragons I blame paleontology and the discovery of the "Brontosaurus". (Although scientific naming convention says that that name is no longer correct and it should be called an Apatosaurus, to me it will always be a Brontosaurus as mentioned in the 1933 King Kong.)

Two strange beasts by Rudolf Jettmar.

In these examples of Dragon paintings we see a wide variety of body form and details.

Franz Moser Dragon

Sydney Muschamp's "The Enchantress"

Surand Painting.

Another Franz Moser image.

An early painting by Alphonse Mucha.

A Sea Serpent by Elihu Vedder (Sort of a dragon).

A "Post" cover by J C Leyendecker with an odd take on a Dragon.

Alternate Flying Methods

Flying figures are a common feature in Fantasy Art. Usually this takes the form of winged people or simply figures floating magically. So while melding over Fantasy images from my Facebook gallery "Victorian Fantasy Paintings", I thought I would show alternate forms of flying.

A beautiful Flying carpet painting by Vasnetsov.

Jose Segrelles paints a much more free form flying carpet.

"The Flying Islands of the Night" by American illustrator Franklin Booth.

Norman Rockwell's  illustration for "The Goddess and Private Gallagher".

Edward R Hughes paints a watercolor of an anachronistic Pegasus

Willy Pogany's film advertising art of flying by Genie.

A beautifully sensitive watercolor of riding on a Genie by Segrelles

By Gustave Dore, here is a frog flying on a kite. "Between Sky and Ground".

Frantisek Kupka drawing of a Griffin mount.

Flying on the back of ?  A painting by Maximilian Pirner.

W Heath Robinson watercolor of flying on clouds.