Science Fiction and Fantasy Dreaming.

Tags

book cover, Boris, Bruce Pennington, Chris Achilleos, Chris Foss, Cover Art, Cover design, Digital art, Dream, Fantasy Art, Frank Frazetta, illustration, Jim Burns, Julie Bell, Keith Draws, Peter A. Jones, Peter Elson, pursue your dreams, Richard Tongue, Sci Fi, science Fiction, Science fiction art, Todd Lockwood

And How Those Dreams Came True.

As a youth I spent hours in bookshops, looking for scifi and fantasy art on book covers. I’d find a few I liked, buy them and when I got home, I’d study the art and try to learn how to do it. I dreamed about doing that kind of art for a living.

Jim Burns, Todd Lockwood, Peter A. Jones,  Chris Foss, Chris Achilleos,  Frank Frazetta, Boris and Julie Bell, Bruce Pennington and Peter Elson (to name but a few) were major influences. In the past few years I’ve even been lucky enough to get to know a few of these people.

Even more amazing I actually now get paid to do work in that genre. I produce a lot of Sci fi images for the Great and Prolific Author Richard Tongue. In fact I’ve done more than twenty illustrations for him to date, and they just get more challenging every time.

Always pursue your dreams. It’s worth it.

Here are a few of the more recent covers I’ve done for Richard:

 

Great advice for writers. Day 84 of 90: A part of your soul

I saw a post on the board recently that made me think. This author says he spent years lovingly crafting his story, only to feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment at the lack of a response. W…

Source: Day 84 of 90: A part of your soul #ASMSG #IARTG #IAN1 #SupportIndieAuthors #Inspiration

The Secret War Illustration

Tags

battle armour, Cover Art, Fantasy Art, illustration, Keith Draws, Sci Fi, science Fiction, Secret War, shade, Shades of Vengence

One more illustration from “The Secret War” from the amazing game “Era: The Consortium.”
Depicting a “Shade” in “stealth armour”, this image is my favorite from the series and ,of much of the work I have done, this has probably come closest to the image I had in my mind before I started work.

The game itself has received some amazing reviews  such as this one: 
http://rpgknights.com/era-the-consortium-a-review/
and the kickstarter for “The Secret War” Module is getting great reviews too:
http://www.gamingcypher.com/era-the-consortium-the-secret-war-kickstarter-launches-today/

The kickstarter itself is here :
https://goo.gl/AE9hou
All images are copyright Shades of Vengeance.

The Secret War.

Tags

alien, alien planet, alien world, dome, Era: The Consortium, jupitor, Keith Draws, phantom, science Fiction, science fiction illustration, scifi illustration, shade, Shades of Venegence, spaceship, starship

Era :The Consortium –  New Illustrations

I’ve been working with Shades of Vengeance  on a new module for the RPG Era the Consortium. As well as the graphics and layout, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some of the illustration which you can see here.
The game itself has received some amazing reviews  such as this one: 
http://rpgknights.com/era-the-consortium-a-review/
and the kickstarter for “The Secret War” Module is getting great reviews too:
http://www.gamingcypher.com/era-the-consortium-the-secret-war-kickstarter-launches-today/

The kickstarter itself is here :
https://goo.gl/AE9hou
All images are copyright Shades of Vengeance.

Holiday Season Specials

Great Offers Just In Time For The Holidays.

Custom Cover Art Starting from as low as: $165
Character art from only: $15
Photo Manip Cover Art from only: $130

 

And I’m launching the New Sci Fi ready made cover dept  with Jason Archer which you can see here: 
Where the covers are launching at the special low price of :$135

All details here

all offers subject to terms and conditions

Magic Times

Tags

book cover, Fantasy Art, Harvey Click, illustration, Keith Draws, Magic, typography

This was something of a challenge

…and getting all the key element’s in place turned out to be a lot of fun.
Harvey Click always manages to overheat my brain cells in the best possible way!

I’m even thinking it might be cool to make a complete set of Tarot cards.. If only I had the time.

Dragons and Dwarfs-the puzzle.

Tags

A Gathering of Dwarfs, Ben Hammott, book cover, Dwarf, Fantasy, Fantasy Art, Fantasy illustration, golden ratio, Keith Draws, typography

Here is the solution and below is a description of how I came to it:

When I read Ben Hammott’s “Dead Dragon’s Gold Book 1, A Gathering of Dwarfs” I realized I was going to have to take a slightly different approach. The Book begins where the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs left off. The Dwarfs have separated to find their way in the world but other forces are at work to bring them back together; to take on an epic quest.

In this Book we get a deep insight into their individual character and the powers at their disposal, as well as some hints of the powers that have begun to pull their strings; and this was what I decided to show by taking a similar approach to that of the great ‘Drew Struzan’ when he produces movie posters – such as those he created for Blade runner and  Star Wars.

I decided to paint a scene from each of the Dwarf’s stories and tie them all together using images representing the forces that manipulate them in the story (sorry this sounds vague but I don’t want to give spoilers). If you want to know more the book is right here.

For the composition I opted for sacred geometry. Each illustration was designed using Golden Ratio’s and the final composition was laid out using the same method, which though it looks complex actually simplified things for me since I had very specific areas where I could place the images and, because they were designed using sacred geometry, balance was much easier to achieve, and when positioning the images all I really had to consider was the color balance (The object being to draw the eye into the focus and then lead it on into the details,) since the positions and sizes were dictated by the grid.
Here is the image with some of the geometry laid over it (I’ve simplified it somewhat to make it clearer, but hopefully you’ll get the idea).

I feel it turned out well and Ben is very happy so overall it was a good result.

Demon Mania rocked it

Demon Mania rocked it. a post from John L. Monk

I never really grew up.

Dog Fight

As a small boy I was fascinated by the Battle of Britain and spent a lot of time drawing “Dog Fights”.  Working with Richard Tongue has meant I get to revisit that theme; but in space! A dream come true because, like me, he loves the retro look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to check out my latest Summer special offers here: https://goo.gl/2zpxwS
Covers starting at under $130, Character Designs $45 

Amazing Cover art from under $130

Tags

book cover, Cover Art, Cover design, illustration, Keith Draws, Photo compositiing, Special Offer, typography

Summer Specials!

To say thanks for all your support I’ve created these Summer specials:
Check it these great deals: https://goo.gl/2zpxwS before all the slots are booked.
I’ve also added character design for only $45 a character, front action view,  back and side all in full color.

Illustration by Keith Draws: All rights belong to Shades of Vengeance