Illustrator of the Week: John Schoenherr

Dune

John was raised in Queens where he used drawings to communicate with speakers of other languages within his polyglot neighborhood.  Later he went to Pratt University.

Schoenherr may be known best as the original illustrator of the dust jacket art of Dune,[6] a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert that inaugurated a book series and media franchise.[7] He had previously illustrated the serializations of the novel in Analog, an endeavor which secured him a 1965 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.[6][8] He later did the art for the Analog serialization of Herbert’s Children of Dune.[6] In 1978 Berkley Books published The Illustrated Dune, an edition of Dune with 33 black-and-white sketch drawings and 8 full-color paintings by Schoenherr.[6][7] Herbert wrote in 1980 that though he had not spoken to Schoenherr prior to the artist creating the paintings, the author was surprised to find that the artwork appeared exactly as he had imagined its fictional subjects, including sandwormsBaron Harkonnen and the Sardaukar.

Also he gained fame for  Dragonriders of Pern stories by Anne McCaffrey, the 1967/1968 novellas “Weyr Search” and “Dragonrider” (each featured on one Analog cover as well) that were subsequently developed as the novel Dragonflight.[14] Schoenherr’s July 1975 cover for Analog has been cited as influential in the designs for the Star Wars character Chewbacca.

Analog was a magazine in which Dune and the Dragon Riders of Pern first appeared in. Among other stories in the magazine he illustrated was Randall Garrett’s  The Eye’s Have It which is rereleased in Arkham: Tales from the Flipside Winter Edition.

Gallery:

How an Illustration is Made: Kūkaʻilimoku’s Escape

Strange Things with this Hawaiian God

 

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Before we start I will pass on our best wished to the people of Hawaii who had suffered recently in the volcano eruption and earthquake. Luckily the most our volcano has done in millions of years in Collins Cove was crack one foundation…

By the way, above is the graphite drawing of Dave Ward, a shaman from the family of Sitting Bull. The family joke is they are full of bull… Hi Dave! This image was done first then scanned into the computer.

Later the rest of the background was drawn in and arranged on the computer with Photoshop. Kūkaʻilimoku was then drawn and added. Later the dancer and the second native was added. He was drawn from the likeness of Brudha Iz the famous singer. Each was scaled and moved into the right place doing comps on the fly and only settling in on the final when satisfied. Sometimes, different comps are saved on different layers and saved for later.

The funny thing about Kūkaʻilimoku and A Walk Through Salem, the illustration depicts Kūkaʻilimoku being rescued and sent back to Hawaii. Soon after the publication of the book, he was indeed sent back home. There are three remaining statues of him; one was in England, the second in Hawaii, and the third was in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. They all were put together in Hawaii in the Bishop Museum for the first time in quite some time. After the show, Hawaii did make arrangements to have them returned for good.

The final illustration depicts a news story in the Salem Gazette where the public finds out about the Hawaiians smuggling Kūkaʻilimoku out of the museum and into the Unzipping Tree in the Salem Common back to Hawaii. I never did find out how they actually did transport him back…

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

How an Illustration is Made

The Salem Custom House and Hawkes House

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today I will share the process my illustrator Chris Dowgin uses while illustrating.

Below you will see three images of the process of his creation of the illustration of smuggling past the Customs agents on Derby Street. Chris starts the drawing in graphite and then scans it into the computer before painting. This allows him to do several versions of the painting and also gives him the ability to save the drawing if a cat knocks over the water jar on the painting…In the image below you will see the background drawn and painted.

On a separate piece of paper, he is able to draw the head at a much larger dimension and then add it to a body drawn much smaller on Photoshop. Both images get scanned in and then scaled to fit before they are added on to the background. The body does not take much detail, but faces do and seem easier to him on a larger scale.

Then helping Elias Hasket Derby, America’s first millionaire, are two other figures drawn much in the same way. The funny thing is that Tim Maguire possed for all the characters, actually looks like the real Elias Hasket Derby. These figures below were added to the cargo they are carrying and applied to the background also utilizing photoshop. After attempting several placements and scales of the figures, Chris had decided on this final composition. What do you think, tell us below?

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

 

 

P.S.~ In Salem Derby would not have smuggled so openly; in fact, he would have used one of the three miles of tunnels in Salem. To learn more about this, read Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels in the City published by Salem House Press. Available at the same places above. If you do not see it, ask your favorite bookseller to order any of the books.

He Haunts this Town

and Proud of it!

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today I will tell you about the town’s favorite ghost. Mike was the first model Chris Dowgin illustrated for his Salem Trilogy appearing in A Walk Through Salem.

Many things about Mike and A Walk Through Salem are uncanny. Soon after publication Mike died of mysterious causes and found floating in the harbor not too far from his favorite fishing spot. His death still remains a mystery but what has not is, Mike always wanted to be a ghost. In fact, on the morning of his death, he at least visited 3 friends in their dreams.

What might have been the beginning of this fascination? He used to live in his wife’s family home where there was a ghost who would haunt the tunnel leaving the house in Chelsea. An odd member at the local poker games they held in a room off the tunnel. Later in life, Mike hosted a local ghost hunter’s film series for years. Now he haunts the harbor catching the ghost of the fish he caught and ate in the past.

So what else was weird about Mike and the book A Walk Through Salem? The funeral home and the church his funeral was in appears in the same illustration near the middle of the book. Also, he is the one who informed the author of many wonders under the Visitor’s center including Romanov Crown Jewels and Blackbeard’s skull. Maybe one day he will leave the wharf and stop aggravating his wife by smoking in her bedroom in the afterlife (which she still can smell) and take the rocket to heaven.

Till then he will be just chasing the ghost fish through Pickering Wharf…

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Eclectic Locations in Salem MA!

One of the Many Whimsical Places…

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today I will highlight some of the more fanciful places in Salem Ma.

The Carousel House sits just off the corner of Pleasant Street and Washington Square North and East.  Home to many artists over the year. In fact, you might hear some piano from one of the windows. The carousel horse in the bay window on the second floor is truly magical. There is also the carriage house out of Hansel and Gretel on Bott’s Court, a small winding road that terminates at the Salem Atheneum. There is the house shaped like a riverboat down on Juniper Point. The man who invented the paddle boat was indeed from Salem… Then there is Mr.Pelinger’s House on Federal Street Court behind the Rope’s Garden; filled with wormholes and many mysteries. Also do not forget, the many locations from H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction including the Crowninshield-Bently House, The Curwin House, The Essex Institute, and the Old Burying Point. Come on down or up to Salem and see these wonders!

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Blackbeard was Never Here!

Even Though his Skull Partially Resides Here…

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today we are talking about Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

Salem did have pirates off the coast, although Blackbeard was not one. He did come to rest in Salem though; at least the top of his cranium. Edward Rowe Snow a famous writer of pirates and shipwrecks had the skull plate lined in silver used as a chalice donated to the Peabody Essex Museum, which was created by a series of pirates. Well, technically privateers; a piece of paper only separated them from true pirates.

The museum did loan it to the Nahant Museum in their library but has since returned it to the dark cellars of the Peabody Essex Museum under the location of the old armory, now the Visitor Center.

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem and learn a little more about Blackbeard.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Elenore Abbott: Illustrator of the Week

Once Upon a Tale…

Abbott, known for her book illustrations, was also a landscape and portrait painter and scenic designer,[5] including work for Hedgerow Theatre‘s production of The Emperor Jones.[4] She produced illustrations for Harper’s Magazine, the Saturday Evening Post,[4] and Scribner’s magazines.[4][6] Abbott created illustrations for books, such as Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Johann David Wyss‘s Swiss Family Robinson, Louisa May Alcott‘s Old Fashioned Girl, and the Grimm’s Fairy Tales.[4]

Gallery:

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elenore_Abbott

Extended Gallery:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/illustrators/abbottelenore.html

Biggest Collection of Illustrated Fairy Tales

Surlane Fairy Tales

Here is a treat for you. This website is filled with fairy tales from around the world with several illustrators works exhibited. You can read the European version of Cinderella and then the Japanese next. Many of the tales are annotated and come with a comprehensive list of illustrators who illuminated them. It is a gorgeous site.

 

 

So Now Go Check Them Out:
http://www.surlanefairytales.com

Cheers,
Chris

Dean Morrisey: Illustrator of the Week

I am Back…
Been a while. I just found time to commit to the 6 blogs I have.
Dean Morrisey I first encountered doing puzzles with my mother when I was a kid in the 80’s. In fact that painting of a wizard which the puzzle was based on I got to see while on a Hulton family reunion while in Annapolis at the Green Dragon art gallery.

Then Dean would pop up in my mother’s Greenwich Workshop catalogs with other fine artists. Then I got his Ship of Dreams book many years later and his Christmas Carol. Both are excellent.

Take a look at his art:

 

 

 

For his bio and more of his images check out this link!
Cheers,
Chris

Witches of Salem

Witches of Salem

Enter the magical whimsical side of Salem through the Unzipping Tree to see Witches, flying fish waiting at traffic lights, churches blast off like rockets, Vikings storming Dead Horse Beach, and tall ships drop anchor next to parking meters, with your tour guide Mr. Zac. The ‘ journey of the hero’ tale where you’re the main character. The first book in the Salem Trilogy. Available at Remember Salem, Wicked Good Books, Bewitched in Salem, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com. Or give more money to our author by paying us at www.salemhousepress.com.

Support your local artists!