Freelance on the Galactic Tunnel Network

Tags

art, Chris Achilleos, Chris Foss, Fantasy illustration, Frank Frazetta, illustration, Jim Burns, Jim Burns sci fi, Keith Draws, Michael Raymond Whelan, Peter A. Jones, Peter Elson, Rodney Mathews, Roger Dean, Sci Fi, Science, science fantasy, science Fiction, Todd Lockwood

E.M. Foner always presents me with a challenge and this time was no different.

He offers an amazing universe filled with human, alien and A.I. interaction in his books and manages to achieve a great balance between the serious and humorous. Working with him on this helped me achieve that same goal.

I’m also finding my inspiration coming from a wide variety of artists. Lately I’ve been looking a lot at the mythical beasts and aliens created by Peter Andrew Jones, Jim Burns, Todd Lockwood and Michael Raymond Whelan (all of whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the past few years ) and so when serendipity presented me with the opportunity to do something on that theme with these covers I was very happy to get stuck in.

Of course I’m also feeling the influences of Chris Foss, Chris Archilleos, Peter Elson, Roger Dean, Rodney Mathews and even the great Frank Frazetta, but hopefully I ended up with something that is essentially “me”

Check the book out here:
https://www.amazon.com/Freelance-Galactic-Tunnel-Network-Foner-ebook/dp/B083HLFY1F/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=e.+m.+foner&qid=1593566553&s=books&sr=1-1
It’s well worth the read!

Posters: Here: https://www.deviantart.com/keithdraws/art/Freelance-on-the-Galactic-Tunnel-Network-847344956

New series by Richard Tongue

Tags

art, Chris Achilleos, Chris Foss, Fantasy illustration, Frank Frazetta, Jim Burns, Jim Burns sci fi, Peter A. Jones, Peter Elson, Rodney Mathews, Roger Dean, Sci Fi, Science, science fantasy, science Fiction, Todd Lockwood

Richard always presents me with a challenge and this time it’s no different.
3 covers for his new series featuring a ship that is inspired by the NASA warp ship. Of course, he gave me a bit more guidance. I love this stuff I really do. It’s what I dreamt of as a teen, making images that look like this.

Now I will repeat myself because it bears repeating: I do my utmost to infect the viewer with these feelings too just as my favorite artists did to me. People like : (in no particular order )  and I have to thank them: Todd Lockwood, Jim Burns, Chris Foss, Chris Archilleos, Peter Elson, Roger Dean, Rodney Mathews, Frank Frazetta, Peter A Jones and many more, without whom I would be painting landscapes.

.

Check out his Author page on Amazon: https://goo.gl/Q1TCCZ

And his personal Blog: http://richardtongue.blogspot.com/

Posters and prints here: https://goo.gl/cxbA2d

Strong and Dangerous Women

Tags

Alan Lee, Battle, Bryan Choi, dangerous woman, Digital art, Erica Carson, Fantasy, Fantasy illustration, fantasy woman, Frank Frazetta, Frazetta, illustration, KeithDraws, Peter A. Jones, post apocalyptic, science fantasy, science Fiction, strong woman, strong women, Todd Lockwood

Bryan Choi and Erica Carson write these kinds of women incredibly well.

Women with complex backgrounds and motivations, who are determined to achieve their goals. Set in an utterly convincing world engaged in wars and power struggles, magical powers and weaponry salvaged from a bygone higher tech age, the tension and excitement of these books is incredible.

Once again you can probably see the influence of Frank Frazetta and Todd Lockwood, as well as Alan Lee and Peter A. Jones.

You can read about the Authors and see more of their work here: http://storygamers.com/about/
Poster and Prints are available here: https://keithdraws.deviantart.com/gallery/

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:

A Gathering Of Dwarfs cover art © Keith Draws

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.