Now Available!

The 1st assortment of Alien Menagerie Collector Cards debuted at IlluXcon V. They can be ordered from my online store for $4.50 a pack (that includes the shipping).  Originals can also be purchased here. 

Coming Soon!

While my blog here has been quiet, I've been busy working on several different projects and I'm exited to announce one of those today with this promo video. 

The 1st 5 card set will debut at Illuxcon 2012 in just a few days, November 8-11th. Online sales will follow shortly thereafter.

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V

x.27

I'm not entirely sure if this is a really big alien, or if that's a really tiny planet.

acrylic on Arches 300 watercolor paper 8" x 10"

alien menagerie extract #26

acrylic on Arches 300 watercolor paper 8" x 10"

Initially these 'extracts' were meant to give me a chance to paint some of my aliens without the full commitment (and time) that the oil pieces take, and painting these has really become an immensely fun project all of it's own. I completed the twenty-fifth extract back in June.

Uchujin x.26 feels like the start of chapter two in this series of paintings.

I'm using Arches 300 cold press watercolor paper now. As I was painting, I went through a bit of a panic and started another version on Rives BFK, but realized it was unnecessary. Much as I like the softness of Rives, switching to a tougher watercolor paper has definite advantages.

onward to x.50!

Paul Lehr

How has your summer been? 

I've been working on some new alien menagerie pieces, but I thought I'd share some artwork from one of my illustration heroes, Paul Lehr. 

I haven't had the luxury of collecting many pieces of original art, yet his is one of the few that I own. It's the cover for the paperback anthology BEST SF STORIES FROM NEW WORLDS 4.  

This is the way science fiction looks to me, moody, and suggestive. It's also a mixture of narrative and surreal. His use of color is masterful, creating a rich, strange atmosphere. I learned the power of analogous color palettes looking at his work.  The covers I've selected to show are all scanned from books I read when I first discovered the genre.

Perhaps he was a better artist than illustrator, but looking back at these covers, I'm reminded of how much easier it is for me to hang on to a striking cover image, long after the details of the story has left me. 

Paul Lehr was a student of Stanley Meltzoff at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He began painting covers in 1957 working in oils on top of casein, but in the early 60's switched to Designer's colors, and later acrylics. His work evolved as well, away from the influence of Meltzoff, developing his own unique and powerful voice. He was most prolific in the late 60's and early 70's having a commanding share of book covers within the genre.

Paul Lehr passed away in 1998, and it's one of my regrets, that I never met him.

Here's a Tumblr link for more of Paul Lehr's work:

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/paul+lehr

Lehr is one of the six artists featured in the VISIONS OF NEVER by Patrick and Jeannie Wilshire. You can find it here at amazon.com

x.25 • Auction in Support of Cyril van der Haegen

I just recently finish alien menagerie x.25 and it's going to be part of an auction in support of my friend, Cyril van der Haegen. 

He's dealing with not one, but two life threatening illnesses. More information on that, and on the auction itself at www.daveseeley.com/auction-in-support-of-cyril-van-der-haegen. The auction will be running from July 4th - July 14th on ebay, in conjunction with the San Diego Comic Con, where all the work donated will be on display. Artists contributing are: Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Stephan Martiniere, Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, Greg Manchess, Jon Foster, Rebecca Guay, Lars Grant West, Todd Lockwood, Scott Fischer, Sam Burley, Dave Seeley, and myself. It's quite a line-up of fantasy/sci-fi illustrators! Many thanks to Dave Seeley for organizing this.

ebay auction link

acrylic on Rives BFK paper 8" x 10"

 

digital vs: traditional

I could get a lot more alien menagerie paintings finished if I made them in photoshop.

I'm not that tempted though, because this is a project where it's very important to me to have a piece of original art at the end of the process. 

Even though most of my illustrations painted before 2000 were executed in acrylics, I've adopted digital media for most of my commercial work since then. Until I did these digital pieces in 2006, "alien menagerie" had been a stack of pencil sketches made over several years which I hoped to paint someday. I made these to build up my confidence in the project after not having painted much. Each of these were done pretty rapidly: concept, sketch and paint in less than a week, and therefore some are more finished than others. I held back the shadow box treatment, focusing on the aliens themselves, and posted them in an art forum on the internet. It was a valuable transitional step to go through.