My boarding pass has been printed off. At an ungodly hour tomorrow morning I'll get on a plane for Kansas City and the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live2 event.
I'll be hanging out at booth 521 with Lisa Grabenstetter, Evan Jensen, a stack of prints, a sketchbook, and a sharpie marker for if anyone wants a tattoo doodled across their flesh. Looking forward to meeting friends, catching some incredible discussion panels and the late night life drawing session is a must.
So, Haralambi Markov (aka Harry Markov) has been writing up a series about Women In Genre (you really should go peruse those posts, they are packed full WUNDERBAR.) I was astonished and delighted to discover today that I get a place in this series: Galen Dara and Visions from Beyond. Harry says the nicest things, I'll be blushing and fluttery all day. Stuff like:
"I can best describe her work with the words stylized melancholy, because
her illustrations carry an air of sadness and possess a wilting beauty
with gothic undertones."
and
"To a point, I can’t help but be reminded of Stephanie Piu-Mun Law... where Piu-Mun Law draws from nature and light, Dara seeks out the less
savory and wholesome in her work, which results in captivating scenes
where the outlandish and the bizarre intermingle to breed absurd worlds
with wicked inhabitants."
Thank you Harry! Many blessings from the dark ones upon your head.
*******
And now, just because, here's some Awesomeness I stumbled on today:
[Egg] by Junko Oki:
That gives me all sorts of shivers of delight. And Junko is amazing, just check out her pintrest boards!
Okay, now, back to work, breeding absurd and wicked things... mwuahahah!
(✧ I'll be cleaning sparkles out of my studio for a long while ✧)
Cover art and design by me :)
A little while ago Lynn M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas and John Klima asked if I might possibly be interested in doing some work for an anthology they were cooking up in partnership with Apex Publishing. My answer was OMG YES!!
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
Glitter & Mayhem
"Step
behind the velvet rope of these fabulous Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tales
of roller rinks, nightclubs, glam aliens, party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter,
and debauchery. Dance
through nightclubs, roller derby with cryptids and aliens, be seduced by
otherworldly creatures, and ingest cocktails that will alter your existence
forever.
Over 120,000 words of brand
new fiction from some of the best writers in the business are ready to
bring you the most glamorous parties in the multiverse. "
Meanwhile, here's some work-in-progress glimpses into creating the cover. This is the preliminary sketch we released as a sneak peak for the Kickstarter:
preliminary cover sketch, by Galen Dara
The nature of our cyboristic lead jammer's roller gear took some work. Simple skates just didn't seem right. Two pieces of reference I leaned heavily on were these (rather incredible) modern chariot skates and these (completely mind boggling) circa 1910 roller skates.
click for larger view
Her hair was also something I had to play around with quite a bit to get the right feel. I tried tentacles (couldn't help myself) and cable wires, but soon realized such elaborate coiffures distracted from the whole of the piece. A little experimenting revealed she had a taste for short red hair.
click for larger view
Etc etc etc, until the final painting (ta da!)
But enough about the cover. Here's a peek at the star-studded Table of Contents.
✧((zang))✧
If you need more shiny stuff while waiting for the book release, go peruse our pinterest board. To wrap it up, here's a little gold plated burlesque on roller skates. Just for you. (FYI, she does get down to pasties by the end. NSFW.)
Sweetness! Finally got the news about which art piece was accepted into the Spectrum 20 annual. Of the three pieces I sent in, my version of Cairn at Slater Woods was selected. Which is interesting, because it's a personal piece I created on a whim after coming home from the Illustration Masters Class. (More about it here.)
Makes me think I might try and use my whims more often.
Speaking of which, a friend recently shared this and it's pretty intriguing:
(source)
Two actors taking improve to a whole new level. Finding the story in the very moment they are telling it, stepping into the unknown 'without even a glimmer of an idea'. "Trust us, this is ALL MADE UP". Give it a listen, it's pretty fascinating.
Kind of a whirl-wind day: Just got the news that I made it into Spectrum 20! Aaaaand... also, I'm on the Hugo ballot for Best Fan Artist ;)
Thrilled and honored to be sharing space with an amazing line up of artists, writers, editors, creators of all types. I'll post more when I have more information myself. Meanwhile, Here's a glimpse inside the jury selection process for Spectrum and the nominating process for the Hugo.
