The Art of Au Contraire! 2013
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 […]
The Artful Collector: REAL Questions and Answers from a Dealer’s Archive – Just One Example
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 […]
Photographs, Fantasy, Cover Design and Neil Gaiman
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 […]
Interview with Steve Jackson, author of Fighting Fantasy and the Sorcery! Series
Steve Jackson is one of the biggest names in British fantasy fiction. Along with Ian Livingstone, he was one of the founders of Games Workshop, one of the first major stores selling role-playing games in […]
New Volume Collects Jack Kirby’s Early SF Work
Talking animals and floating heads. You know you want it.
Sequential Wednesdays #15 – A Brawling Youth & His Magical Wardrobe
“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 […]
Interview: Milivoj Ćeran, Fantasy Illustrator
“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 […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 2: The Collector (or) Why I Can’t Sell Art to You
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 […]
Liftoff Scratched for SF Authors Stamps
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 […]
IAAA Gallery: Mark A. Garlick – Cataclysmically Variable
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 […]
Hits and Misses
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 […]
The Artful Collector: Vulgaris Triumphus? on Judging (SFWA) Magazines by Their Cover
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 […]
IAAA Gallery: Pat Rawlings – Wide Open for Space
“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 […]
Mechanical Men and Women
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 […]
World Underground
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 […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Ahead of the Curve
When we started framing F/SF calendar pages to hang on our walls in the 1960s (the days before commercial prints or posters were available) original Victorian “fairy paintings” by the likes of Fitzgerald, Cruikshank, Doyle […]
Sexism and the SFWA
So there’s a brouhaha brewing around the Science Fiction Writers of America and accusations of blatant sexism within that organization. (Actually it’s more like a raging storm in some corners). The controversy surrounds the 200th issue of […]
The Artful Collector: Should You Worry About Forgery in SF Art?
How important is Fraud in the SF/F art market? I could write lengthy blogs on how forgers break down and then reconstitute the same clay to fashion Mid- and South American artifacts, using original (thousand-year-old) […]
The Mucha Influence on SF & Fantasy Art
You probably don’t know his name. You may not even know that there is a name behind the distinctive design, but you have very likely seen his work or a derivative of it. You will […]
The Artful Collector: Is it All in the Image?
At the heart of this debate is a real difference between how some creators of commercial art (i.e, art produced for the purpose of persuasion/marketing) view the kind of art they are commissioned to create, […]
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Recently a documentary had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival called Jodorowsky’s Dune. The documentary by filmmaker Frank Pavich, examines a very early attempt to make a movie based on Frank Herbert’s iconic science […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions Good Places to Find Art? (Part 3)
Throughout the 1990s, while weekend antiques and craft fairs, and even Ren Faires, were drawing tens of thousands of attendees each weekend, SF cons were still deliberating the good of “one day memberships” and advertising […]
Interview – The Amazing Art of Anja Uhren
I met Anja Uhren recently at an Easter egg painting event. She was casually painting a face on an off-cut of card and I was immediately impressed by the effortlessness with which she produced a […]
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…is a freelance editor, writing consultant and story structure expert. To find out more, including hiring me to work on your writing project, read my profile or visit my website, To The Last Word.
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