[Radthorne]

By popular request... another picture! :D

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Elven Soul.jpg

[Radthorne]

The very original title of this one is... Blue Armor...

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Blue Armor.jpg

[JRMurdock]

You should have done pictures for inside your books. Or do a comic. :)

[Radthorne]

Which kind of goes back, though, to one of the original questions for this thread (before I started filling it with pictures). ;) Which was how much people feel about pictures (specifically covers in the original question) depicting things in the books. The more you illustrate (in a novel, of course, not a comic), then the more you are "imposing" in a way a particular image of the characters, settings, etc upon the reader. I find that some of the most vivid imagery that readers walk away with in my books are scenes where I have intentionally not described everything within a gnat's eyelash but left enough white space for their own imaginations to fill in the blanks. So from that perspective, as much as I would get a kick out of illustrating the books, I think I would rather have the words stand on their own.

A comic is another whole cup of tea, of course; as is a graphic novel. I would probably prefer to do the latter, but then again I really don't know a thing about that market.

[KatG]

Well, you have fans who gobbled down an illustrated guide to Jordan's "Wheel of Time" by the cover artist and others. Then you have fans like Gary who feel that such art is keeping fantasy fiction from getting the proper respect it deserves and should be banned from the covers. And you have other people who adore manga works, where the art is the main thing, as in comics.

I love the art, always have. I certainly wouldn't mind a fantasy work having some inner illustrations, especially if the author did them. But that does kind of make things expensive. The printing costs for a 4-color spread can add a lot to a book's price, especially a paperback. Line illustrations are cheaper, and sometimes considered more "arty."

I think a lot of fans might be into it. The connection with comics certainly hasn't hurt Neil Gaiman. It just brings a whole other audience to the table.

[Radthorne]

Well, you have fans who gobbled down an illustrated guide to Jordan's "Wheel of Time" by the cover artist and others. Then you have fans like Gary who feel that such art is keeping fantasy fiction from getting the proper respect it deserves and should be banned from the covers. And you have other people who adore manga works, where the art is the main thing, as in comics.

I love the art, always have. I certainly wouldn't mind a fantasy work having some inner illustrations, especially if the author did them. But that does kind of make things expensive. The printing costs for a 4-color spread can add a lot to a book's price, especially a paperback. Line illustrations are cheaper, and sometimes considered more "arty."

I think a lot of fans might be into it. The connection with comics certainly hasn't hurt Neil Gaiman. It just brings a whole other audience to the table.
I think it quite possible, in the current day and age with technology and what not, that some quality small press out there already dealing with graphic novels or manga would be willing to experiment with an "illustrated" novel. It would be expensive and have limited distribution (but then that's what small presses do, right? ;) ), but someone might do it either out of creative desire, as a flagship "prestige" thing rather than an outright money maker, or simply because they believed, with their particular market, that they could actually make money on it in a limited run. One early example for this sort of thing of course is Ushurak, the book done with artwork by the Brothers Hildebrandt back in the 70's. That of course was a vehicle for their art primarily, but it could serve as one potential model. I think it would certainly be fun to do, but it would require just the right chemistry between author/illustrator and publisher to make it actually happen.

[Radthorne]

More shadow practice... In particular, subtle things like how the shadows fall gradually on her right shoulder help increase the apparent depth of the scene.

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Cyber Arm.jpg

[Radthorne]

Time for another picture, now that the holidays are done... :)

This one is called "The Challenge"

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Dragon Fight.jpg

[Radthorne]

To match the earlier picture of the Priestess, which I sold at the Foolscap art show, here is one to pair with it, imaginatively called "Priestess 2".

http://www.sff.net/people/radthorne/Graphics/Priestess 2.jpg

[Rocket Sheep]

She's pretty with her lovely Laotian (Laosian?) eyes.

Pop on over to the Funzone and check out the link that I left in the Information Superhighway thread. It might interest you because it is a cgi cartoon strip... of course it is modern science fiction so it may not. Has a long download time and it is basically a fictional futuristic vid blog. Quite interesting for us sf lovers and an interesting use of cg images. Maybe you could borrow the concept for your fantasy cgi. Well the layout design anyway... who ever heard of vid blogs in historical fantasy...