Words Create Worlds

I just love the way this picture illustrates the power of words:

How to Make an Origami Book

As you're relaxing today, why not try your hand at making this really cool origami mini-book:

Geoff Hunt, Master Painter and O'Brian Cover Artist

This week's cover artist is Geoff Hunt, the master painter behind Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin nautical series. Take a look at the following two covers for a good example of how much impact a cover can make. The image on the left is from the first edition of Master and Commander, and the second image is Geoff Hunt's painting for the same book: To me there is no comparison. I'm no art critic, but I know what I like. And I love Geoff Hunt's covers. Hunt painted the covers of all twenty-one books in the series, and I think they capture the flavor of the books perfectly. I was in a bookstore one day when I stumbled across a stack of Geoff Hunt calendars. I immediately snatched up two of them; one I kept in its cellophane wrapper, the other I cut up and put into picture frames. If you've watched any of my video book reviews you may have caught a glimpse of them on the wall behind me. Here are a couple of pictures of the framed calendar images: Someday I hope to afford actual prints, but for now these framed calendar pages do just fine. If you're interested in learning more about Hunt's work, the following links may be helpful: Many of his paintings are collected in The Marine Art of Geoff Hunt. There is also a dvd of his life and works called Geoff Hunt: Portrait of a Marine Artist Geoff Hunt prints at Amazon.com

Cover Artist Feature - Michael Whelan

Yesterday I wrote about how important book covers are to me, and this week's featured artist is Michael Whelan. If you've read with any depth in the science fiction/fantasy genre then you probably already know his work. From Anne McCaffrey's Pern series to Michael Moorcock's Elric series, Michael Whelan has been illustrating fantasy novels for over twenty-four years. He has won the Hugo award an amazing fourteen times. The biography on his official website includes Whelan's artistic statement which, interestingly enough, is a quote by renowned Catholic author G.K. Chesterton: "The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world." Michael Whelan certainly lives up to that statement. I love his attention to detail and use of rich colors. My favorite of his covers are from Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy: The Dragonbone Chair Stone of Farewell To Green Angel Tower You can see more of his work in the book The Art of Michael Whelan.

Book Covers and the Imagination

While you can't judge a book by its cover, a beautiful cover makes a book all the more enjoyable. During the next few weeks I am going to be featuring some great book cover artists. I don't know about you, but when I try to picture what I'm reading, I find that the cover of a book often provides the color palette that my imagination uses to form the pictures. For instance, I have a very hard time reading science fiction paperbacks from the 1960s with those washed-out, almost abstract cover images. It's like watching a grainy, dirty film. I almost always try to find a reprint with more bold colors. When I first tried reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov, I just couldn't get into it--it seemed so dingy. But when I came across a newer edition of the book with a brighter cover I gave it another try and I ended up loving it. . Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me? Sometimes it bothers me to think that a book cover has that much sway over my reaction to a book, but I've always had difficulty in picturing things in my mind. I would make a horrible interior decorator. Over the years I've gotten better at ignorning "bad" book covers, but it takes quite a bit of mental effort. That's why cover artists are so important to me. I'll begin tomorrow with one of the acknowledged masters of cover art, Michael Whelan. Who else would you like to see featured? Leave a comment and let me know.