Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Great Pieces (Whelan)

While poking around looking for the cover artist for the Del Rey version of the John Carter books I found this piece on pinterest. Michael Whelan was a master of color and composition, capturing the epic like few others.


Every time I see this next piece I want to read the Dragon Riders of Pern!


And of course there is John Carter

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Those John Carter books with Whelan covers were also my introduction to his amazing sense of color and composition. Back then I associated Frazetta with Conan, Whelan with Barsoom and Robert Gould with all things Melnibone (although Whelan also did some rip-snorters for Moorcock's books.
Book covers today are lousy by comparison. All photoshop and no artistry.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Troll Lord said...

I think your on to something, the digital medium has really hampered style and composition. It looses something, though I'm not sure what (not being an artist), but when you look at these old covers, they are alive and fire the imagination.

Unknown said...

The wife is a printmaker, and she says the problem with a lot of digital artists is that they've never drawn from life. They build stuff in programs that looks like a picture of what they want, but it doesn't look real. Some of 'em learn to draw, and learn anatomy and then can construct bodies and structures digitally that have the proper weight and heft. Many of them just go right to the computer, though.
Guys like Whelan and Frazetta and your pal Peter Bradley know what they're doing, and it shows in the final product.

Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds: An Introduction

For several weeks now, we’ve been hyping up the Gygaxian Fantasy World series on various platforms, Facebook, X, Instagram, and Twitch. It ...