Article on Children's Picture Book Illustrations

The 2014 Caldecott Medal winner was announced today. The award went to the book Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Floca.

The cover of Locomotive.

Yesterday, in anticipation of the announcement, npr posted an article praising some of the picture books published in 2013: Eight Picture Books That Make Us Wish We Were Kids Again. Two of the books on npr's list were chosen as Honor Books by the Caldecott Medal Committee.

You don't have to be a kid to appreciate the wonderful illustrations from these books!

More on the Caldecott Medal here

Dwarves II

I hear dwarves are popular these days. Good thing, because I happen to have art of that!

The second character I designed for Unrestrained Games is an intimidating and capable fighter who leads his elite dwarven warriors into battle. To contrast from Hogoren who was heavy on the bottom, I made Downammar slightly top-heavy. His clothing and armor is fit for a king and formidable in battle.

A few of the costume details changed between this design sketch and the final.
It's mostly hidden in the final drawing and painting, but his necklace is made from a dragon's claw.

His additional weapons and accessories come from battles fought in distant lands.

Unrestrained Games website

Lands and Legends Kickstarter: Final Week!

Lands and Legends, a fantasy art book project.

It's the home stretch for the Lands and Legends fantasy illustration book Kickstarter, and there is a loooong way to go to reach the goal! For more information about the project, please see my earlier post here.

While I compared the book to Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art to describe the subject matter one might expect to see in Lands and Legends, Lands and Legends will be different as a collection of work. Rather than a compendium of art put together through a juried competition, this book is a collaborative project comprised of fantasy art that many of the artists are creating specifically for this project. As such, in order to fairly compensate the artists, the cover price of the book is higher than an art annual like Spectrum, the production of which is paid for by entry fees.

If you choose to support the Lands and Legends Kickstarter campaign, you will be supporting over a hundred working artists as they create an image of a subject they love. And of course art always turns out better when you love what you're working on!

Easy access related links:
Lands and Legends Kickstarter
Lands and Legends Website