Child’s Play by Guerin Zand

Tags

Child's Play, Chris Foss, Digital art, Fantasy, Frank Frazetta, Frazetta, Guerin Zand, illustration, Jim Burns, Keith Draws, Peter A. Jones, Sci Fi, science fantasy, science Fiction, Todd Lockwood

When Gurin got in touch with me he told me:

 “I’ve seen your work for E. M. Foner’s Union Station series and I think your style is exactly what I am looking for.
I have the concept for what I want, based on an event in the book, and it does include a beautiful woman which I want to be sexy, innocent, funny but not sexual. That is why I think you’re work on Union Station is spot on.”

I liked the sound of this and after reading the book the image almost created itself in my mind. It’s an unusual book that tells the tale of a very different alien abduction. The protagonist has a lot of extraordinary experiences to deal with and uses his razor sharp, yet gentle wit, to carry  himself (and the reader) through the journey of a lifetime.
Guerin’s original idea was to have one of the main characters posed as I’ve shown her in front of the shuttle and while I liked this I was afraid it wouldn’t indicate enough  of what the reader would experience so I decide to feature some of the more spectacular scenery from the book too and after I’d worked out a layout, we both agreed this was the way to go.

I’m sure if you care to look you’ll see some of the influences there. My buddy Jim Burns (he’s so good at alien tech and aliens in general that I always have to look through his stuff  just try and get into that headspace) , Chris Foss (for the sheer massive scale he can imbue in his work), Peter A. Jones ( for the dynamism and the colour), Todd Lockwood (whose painting technique and compositional sense astounding to me) and I’m of course trying to channel a little Frank Frazetta there (and I feel like maybe I succeeded a little this time).
I have to admit to being very pleased with the end result.

You can pick the book up here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071K95PG5

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071K95PG5

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/729865

and posters are here: http://keithdraws.deviantart.com/

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.