(Art Heart. All images copyright Greg Spalenka)
Category Archives: Friday Favorites
Friday Favorites: Chris Appelhans
(Cover to Flight Volume 2)
This second Friday of June finds me celebrating my continued post-6/6/06 existence with the art of Chris Appelhans. And seeing how today is the opening day for Pixar’s latest offering, Cars, it seems oddly apropos to feature the art of a Pixar employee. And believe me folks, it wasn’t planned this way…I picked Chris as today’s artist and then found out about the Pixar connection. That’s just the kind of serendipitous cowinkiedink you’ve come to expect here at Stainless Steel Droppings!
(Leaf Box)
Chris Appelhans did character design for the upcoming movie Monster House and word has it that he has done some of the same for Neil Gaiman’s story Coraline that is being brought to the big screen by director Henry Selick.
(Trent)
Friday Favorites: Kevin Dart
(Bikini Girls of Shark Island, copyright Kevin Dart)
Mood…it has a great deal to do the perception of art. I had prepared a couple of different artists for Friday Favorites this week and I just was not feeling it, you know what I mean? It just wasn’t clicking. And then I headed over to the Drawn website to see that artist Kevin Dart and another artist I featured recently, Chris Turnham, had finally opened an online store and BAM! there it was: inspiration…mooooooood! I was really craving something fun and the work of Kevin Dart satisfies that craving.
I am not certain what label to affix to the art style of Kevin Dart. There is an animated quality to it similar to artists like Shane Glines and Bruce Timm layered with an illustration vibe that really makes it stand out. In addition, like Turnham’s art, there is a 60’s flair that I really enjoy. It wasn’t surprising to me then that one of Kevin Dart’s inspirations is 60’s and 70’s paperback fantasy and science fiction books. Dart is an artist whose work makes retro cool.
Friday Favorites: John Jude Palencar
(Cover to Eragon by Christopher Paolini)
A favorite artist of Jeff and mine, John Jude Palencar, is also a source of frustration. Palencar isn’t a true “Friday Favorite” in that he doesn’t have a website, nor are there any current art books with his work in them.
(Cover to Eldest by Christopher Paolini)
John Jude Palencar is an illustrator whose works have graced hundreds of book covers over the years and yet examples of his artwork are hard to come by even on something as grand as the internet. The reason why is a complete mystery to me. Thus, in honor of Jeff’s birthday yesterday, I am bringing you the work of John Jude Palencar in mostly book cover form.
Friday Favorites: Jon Foster
(Crowbot…cover to Progressions: The Art of Jon Foster)
Jon Foster is an amazing artist who first came to my attention with the above image because, let’s say it together now, “I like robots!”. In fact this is still one of my favorite robot images…I like crows too, big creepy birds that they are. I decided to feature Jon Foster today because a portion of his work fits in real nicely with one of the subjects of the last post: Star Wars.
(Cover to Star Wars comic #33)
Jon Foster has done a number of covers for Star Wars books as well as the Dark Horse line of Star Wars comics. His comic imagery has been very dark, focusing on storylines of characters who fall into the evil category.
(Cover to Star Wars comic #30)
(Cover to Star Wars comic #35)
Foster utilizes models, most notably his wife Melissa Ferreira as well as friend Lars Grant-West. In this article you can see how he used them both to form the reference for the image of bounty hunter Aurra Sing:
(Cover for Star Wars #28, The Hunt for Aurra Sing)
Jon Foster then uses the photo reference as a basis for his oil painting. After a painting is finished he occasionally uses digital media to tweak the colors. I suggest going to the above linked article to see some more dark jedi art and to read more about Jon Foster. One of the pictures in that article is of a Star Wars roleplaying book featuring Mara Jade…I love the way he paints her.
Jon Foster paints some excellent Star Wars art but in addition to that he has illustrations gracing book covers all over the local bookstore. One of my favorites is for the Young Adult Fiction book Orvis. It is a wonderful story that I was drawn to because of the cover (wonder why?):
(Cover to Orvis by H.M. Hoover)
If you look here you can better see how Foster altered the picture to make it fit the story.
(Cover to Books of Magic comic)
Jon Foster’s art is extremely kinetic. His characters are often long and lean and have such severe, abrupt movement to them. At time it feels as if the characters are being ripped off of the image.
(Cover to Conrad’s Fate by Diana Wynne Jones)
It is as if he captures the action in a moment in time and can paint that energy of movement into each piece. Another cover that I really like is this one from Timothy Zahn’s Dragonback series:
(Cover to Dragon and Soldier by Timothy Zahn)
In fact all the covers from this series are excellent Foster works and I am tempted to buy the books just for the covers. Timothy Zahn is of course famous for his trilogy of novels set after the events of Return of the Jedi. These were some of the first post-trilogy novels to come out…see how this all comes together!
Whether he is painting gritty urban science fiction images like this
(Cover to The Earthborn by Paul Collins)
or the James Jean-esque images seen in the following two illustrations, his work is rich and vibrant and the colors practically glow.
(Cover to Snake Agent by Liz Williams)
(Cover to the forthcoming Demon and the City by Liz Williams)
Jon Foster is one of the first artists I gravitated to when I started buying the Spectrum art books and it should be easy to see why. His active illustrations draw the eye immediately when walking down the book aisle and they practically call out to one to purchase said book, regardless of the contents. Lucky for us it appears that Jon Foster has done the covers for some incredible authors on a number of books that I intend to pick up.
The combination of the subject matter, the rich oils, and the frenetic movement of Jon Foster’s illustrations will keep me coming back to his site to get more. I wish you a happy, wonderful Friday and a terrific weekend. I will be with the family in St. Louis checking out the sites and look forward to sharing thoughts and pictures upon my return. Talk it up out there this weekend as I won’t be around to keep the conversation going. As I go I’ll leave you with the obligatory robot picture. You know you want it.
