Every month or so we get a request for a cover for a German, Japanese, Italian or French title. It's fun to see where they go. There's a German Vampire series that has Cherif all over it. I have an extensive stock file of images not published yet. "The catalogue" It's fun for me to go through the stacks and find little gems. Images that didn't grab me the first time around, with a little retouching and highlighting become something special.
We are working on the re-issue of Helen Rosburg's "Ellie and The Elven King" With more advance computer skills and some new ideas, it is going to be even more fun to read and enjoy the images. It will be the third book in the Masterpiece series at Medallion Press.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wrangling new book project.
Thought I should up date my 5 loyal fans. Cherif and I are working out the contracts for the new vampire book. I hate this part. I just want to get started. We have found over the years a good contract is the basis for good working relationships so we do very little handshake projects.
The hard part of getting something published is finding the right combination of current hot topics, networking, personalities, business practices, profitability. I keep telling Cherif I'm not getting any younger, he has 30 years on me, so I have to push to accomplish what I want to in the next 10 to 15 years. This includes childrens books.
The hard part of getting something published is finding the right combination of current hot topics, networking, personalities, business practices, profitability. I keep telling Cherif I'm not getting any younger, he has 30 years on me, so I have to push to accomplish what I want to in the next 10 to 15 years. This includes childrens books.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Hello friends, I will try to write everyday but I know I will slow down when our new illustrated book gets into full production.
When you study the past, the illustrated book concept pretty much consisted of line drawings and some little paintings. With today's technologies the world of the image has exploded with rich color, variety and design. I see the romantic graphic novel concept is blossoming. Although it's style is not my taste I applaud the new directions my artist friends are taking, with their bold presentations.
For Fortin and Sanders we enjoy the romantic paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites of the 1800's. John Evert Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. William Maw Egley, Edward Burne-Jones, to mention a few. A good book to learn about the pre-raphaelites is "Pre-Raphaelite Women", by Jan Marsh
We call our presentation "stylised realism". You have to be an ism to be anybody. Cubism, impressionism, etc. Ha. The image of Lady Leanna (Above) from Passion's Blood is a good example of the style we like in our portraiture. Beth's mother Rose has a 30x40 inch painting of this image. She says guests many times compliment her on the painting and when she tells them it's her daughter they are flabbergasted. It's so classical they don't relate it to a living person until the mom tells them. She always enjoys their reaction.
When you study the past, the illustrated book concept pretty much consisted of line drawings and some little paintings. With today's technologies the world of the image has exploded with rich color, variety and design. I see the romantic graphic novel concept is blossoming. Although it's style is not my taste I applaud the new directions my artist friends are taking, with their bold presentations.
For Fortin and Sanders we enjoy the romantic paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites of the 1800's. John Evert Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. William Maw Egley, Edward Burne-Jones, to mention a few. A good book to learn about the pre-raphaelites is "Pre-Raphaelite Women", by Jan Marsh
We call our presentation "stylised realism". You have to be an ism to be anybody. Cubism, impressionism, etc. Ha. The image of Lady Leanna (Above) from Passion's Blood is a good example of the style we like in our portraiture. Beth's mother Rose has a 30x40 inch painting of this image. She says guests many times compliment her on the painting and when she tells them it's her daughter they are flabbergasted. It's so classical they don't relate it to a living person until the mom tells them. She always enjoys their reaction.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The making of Passion's Blood
Passion's Blood evolved out of a desire to show more illustrations of the hero and heroine. I wanted to see more images than just the cover or setback. Cherif and I wanted to see the action. "Let's do it," we said. To read the story from the beginning you have to start with the first post. scroll down.
We, through our various shoots, had accumulated quite a bit of raw photography for our little book project. A skeleton of a story was emerging. After hours of deliberation we chose some good candidates for illustrations and went to work. We like our work prints to be at least 16x20 inches in size. Some go as large as 30x40 inches.
Cherif was busy writing and I was busy painting. Then we switched, he painted and I wrote for awhile. We enjoy doing it that way, it keeps us fresh. The images are a combination of hand work and photography. That was 12 years ago. Now we do (Cherif does) a lot of photoshop also. We still like to finish with oil for the final piece.
The image at the top of this post is of the suffering artist from a collection entitled "After a day of working with Lynn". Very funny Cherif. Actually it's my little project that I hope to complete before I die. Working title, "The Sculptor".
Back to Passion's Blood. I got the armour for the guys from the local drama group. Cherif was surprised that it was something he would have chosen. He of little faith.
The different images for "Passion's Blood" came from about 6 different shoots. Now we have a tighter schedule. We work from a story board that describe the images we need. Of course we leave room for the inspirational moment that we can't predict. Two to three days of shooting covers our stories. With photoshop our locations are not as critical. Then the time consuming computer and hand work begins.
We, through our various shoots, had accumulated quite a bit of raw photography for our little book project. A skeleton of a story was emerging. After hours of deliberation we chose some good candidates for illustrations and went to work. We like our work prints to be at least 16x20 inches in size. Some go as large as 30x40 inches.
Cherif was busy writing and I was busy painting. Then we switched, he painted and I wrote for awhile. We enjoy doing it that way, it keeps us fresh. The images are a combination of hand work and photography. That was 12 years ago. Now we do (Cherif does) a lot of photoshop also. We still like to finish with oil for the final piece.
The image at the top of this post is of the suffering artist from a collection entitled "After a day of working with Lynn". Very funny Cherif. Actually it's my little project that I hope to complete before I die. Working title, "The Sculptor".
Back to Passion's Blood. I got the armour for the guys from the local drama group. Cherif was surprised that it was something he would have chosen. He of little faith.
The different images for "Passion's Blood" came from about 6 different shoots. Now we have a tighter schedule. We work from a story board that describe the images we need. Of course we leave room for the inspirational moment that we can't predict. Two to three days of shooting covers our stories. With photoshop our locations are not as critical. Then the time consuming computer and hand work begins.
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