A newcomer to the Space Art community, Christopher Doll is combining his life-long love of Astronomy and Space Travel with the skills he learned as an Industrial Designer. “I’ve always been a compulsive sketch artist, […]
A collector asked me last year: Watching Heritage and other auctions for the past couple of years, it seems that the artwork and books that are selling best and at the highest prices are those […]
A couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure to attend Au Contraire!, the New Zealand national Science Fiction, Fantasy and Geekery convention here in Wellington. It was the second Au Contraire! I attended: three […]
Customer’s query [verbatim question and answer, by email 2008]: Do you feel the piece that I just purchased was well worth the price? I am asking because I am getting this for a gift […]
Let’s take a break from looking at artwork. Let’s look at some photos instead. Most people like looking at photographs. Usually these are family photographs, sometimes in an album, sometimes projected on a screen with […]
Julie Rodríguez Jones is an independent artist both physically and stylistically. Julie’s space art usually falls into the impressionistic category (colloquially we call ourselves “swirlies” in the IAAA) —though not always and she will often […]
In the past two posts I’ve written about collectors and artists “From Hell” – the ways they can be high maintenance people . . . to the point where I lose patience and don’t want […]
The library of Alexandria was the largest and most comprehensive repository of knowledge in the ancient world. In 46 AD (according to some sources) it burned. Countless scrolls went up in flames, in some cases […]
Weeaboos? Weeaboos? If you don’t know what a weeaboo is, you probably aren’t one. If you’d rather be quite sure, visit this link and play weeaboo bingo with yourself! The checklist to the right is […]
When I was young I purchased most books and magazines in the science fiction field based on their covers. Nowadays that still applies, though much less so since I now know what to look for […]
“Read the book. Help the people. You already know what to do…slay the monsters.” Paul Pope is a comic creator who has essentially calcified the notion of first-look recognition. His art of splashing squalor threatens […]
“Hello, My name is Milivoj Ćeran, I live in Zagreb, Croatia. I’m a professional illustrator specialized in fanastic art.” Q: What made you want to be a fantasy illustrator? A: “That idea was in my […]
Do you think artists have a monopoly on “crazy”? Heh. You ain’t seen nothin, till you’ve had to handle the people who buy SF/F art. Not for nothin’ do corporations send employees for special training […]
So it’s now summer where I am and it’s hot as… well, it’s hot. In conjunction with the sudden heat after two weeks of rain and thunderstorms I find that I cannot string two thoughts […]
The countdown has been halted for issuing U.S. stamps honoring science fiction authors, which initially was set for July. According to Linn’s Stamp News, a weekly publication devoted to all things philatelic, the U.S. Postal […]
One of the first things you learn as a traditionally published author is that you have very little control over a great many things about your books. Cover design, format (hard cover, trade paperback, or […]
Louisville, Kentucky has grown by leaps and bounds when it comes to conventions. Just a few years ago, the only Con I was aware of in the area was Wonderfest– a great model-making convention/flea market […]
If you had asked me at the age of fourteen if I considered myself an otaku, I would have raised one snarky eyebrow at you and said, “Obviously.” And it was pretty obvious, too, what […]
Cataclysmic Binary stars (cataclysmic variables) are star systems in which a white dwarf star and a companion star are locked in a dance of death; matter drawn from the companion can eventually cause the white […]
Let’s say, for the sake of this posting, that our corner of the collecting world consists of two groups: The Creators and The Collectors. Which group, do you think, has the monopoly on “crazy”? I’ll […]
Here are two web comics that feature world-building on a grand scale.
Before the unthinkable happens and I miss my deadline for this blog post, why not do a meditation on – deadlines. There is art for every occasion. There truly is. Obviously, I am not the […]
Judge books by their cover? Everyone does it. That’s why – and despite the mis-marketing, agenting “horror stories” (both artist and author) and egregious lack of talent (cover-wise) – books and yes, magazines, still get […]
Zombies are strange characters. Their current popularity is a bit of a mystery to me. I guess I’m one of the few who doesn’t “get” the attraction of the re-animated corpse. As an artist they […]
Comic strips were the only game in town in the 1930s but these strips were eventually collected into omnibuses that lead to the standard comic book. Heroic Fantasy was slow to appear in the “four-color […]
“Creativity exists well within structure. I thrive by having limitations to work within.” Pat Rawlings concluded his TEDxNASA presentation with those words. It is hard to imagine a better definition of the process of creating […]
How many times have we read negative reviews by (mainly) newspaper- employed critics about books or films in the science fiction/fantasy genre that either were completely off base, once we read the book, or which […]
It’s one of Science Fiction’s classic tropes and has been responsible for some of the most beloved characters in the genre — robots. Robots are almost pure design personified. The whole concept of a robot […]
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I recently signed myself up for a Horticulture Certificate with the Open Polytech, and have been assiduously studying the physical and chemical properties of soils […]
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