ConceptArt launches Female Form Course

This coming Sunday, ace illustrators web site ConceptArt.Org, who kindly helped promote my original appeal for artists for SciFi Art Now, will begin a new round of live streaming classes with a very beautiful program on the art of the feminine form.

With three beautiful demonstrations by Massive Black Shanghai artist Zhanglu, and an in depth presentation by Jason Manley, you will hear and see the information you need to understand when painting the female figure.

"We are going to be exploring one of the most inspiring topics in art and that is the female figure, say the organisers. "With art demonstrations from the gifted ZhangLu and images ready to discuss and learn from by famous photographer Jaime Ibarra, this is not a class to miss. This is the good stuff. Join us. It is time for a great class from TAD here on ConceptArt."

When: Sunday May 2 2010 12PM - 4PM Central Daylight Time (Austin TX time). Four hours of beauty, instruction, and art are yours. An assignment will be included.
Where: Right here on ConceptArt.Org Live and On Demand (forums link to come!)
How: Just have an ok connection and we are good to go. We will be using TAD's technology which is stable, light on bandwidth, and extremely reliable. The login information will come with the email after tuition is covered.
How much: 50.00 USD.
How do I get it? Click the link for the store here (please note: semi-nude art): http://www.conceptartstore.com/femalefigure.html

IlluXcon Artists Line Up gathers pace

The third annual IlluXCon symposium whose guests include SciFi Art Now contributors Bob Eggleton and Patrick Jones, will take place in Altoona, Pennsylvania in the United States on November 11-14, 2010.

As the only convention exclusively dedicated to fantastic art, IlluXCon welcomes artists, students, collectors, and fans to a four-day celebration of the field.

IlluXCon features the largest gathering of fantastic art and artists in the world and this year's event will feature nearly 60 artists in the main exhibition, with many more included in the IlluXCon Showcase. These include Greg Hildebrandt, John Jude Palencar, Boris Vallejo, and SciFi Art Now contributors Scott Altmann, Bob Eggleton and Patrick Jones.

Several hundred original paintings and drawings will be on display at the show, along with demonstrations, lectures, round tables, art director portfolio reviews, and a live bronze pour.

IlluXCon 3 will also feature a special exhibition culled from the forthcoming Vanguard book A Century of Dragons. Dragons will feature the 100 best contemporary dragon paintings and artists, and roughly a quarter of those original works will be on display at the show.

• For the latest information on the show, visit: www.illuxcon.com

Visual treats included in latest Writers of the Future collection

The 25th anniversary coffee table edition for the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future (www.writersofthefuture.com) will feature a year by year pictorial overview of its winners with sidebars highlighting those whose careers continued to blossom.

Publishers say the book features some of the best new science fiction and fantasy stories and illustrations of the year, discovered by the judges of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future Contests — a veritable who's who in the field of speculative fiction writing and illustrating.

Illustrators featured include Oleksandra Barysheva, Aaron Anderson, Joshua J. Stewart, Evan Jensen and Brianne Hills.

"This has been an amazing evolution," stated Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author, Writers of the Future contest judge and senior editor for this volume at the Hollywood offices of Galaxy Press, where the book is being assembled and where thousands of photos over the 25 years of the Contest are being reviewed. "So many good shots of 25 years of all of these awards," he continued, "just narrowing them down to the best moments, and even still we're going to fill up more than 200 pages in this book."

And in the evolution of assembling this book, another bonus has come to light — a section devoted to over 30 of science fiction & fantasy's top writers who also came on board to pay it forward as the Contest's elite cadre of judges.

The volume will feature photographs, biographies and testimonials from the Contest's past and current judges and includes: Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, Algis Budrys, Ramsey Campbell, Orson Scott Card, Hal Clement, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Williamson and Roger Zelazny - to name just a few.

Routine video updates are being posted at www.youtube.com/writersofthefuture as well as the contest blog (wotfblog.blogspot.com) documenting the creation of this volume.

Considered the premiere writing contest of its kind, the Writers of the Future Contest was created in 1983 by best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard as a means for aspiring writers to have their works seen and acknowledged. The success of the original writer's competition gave rise to the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest. As it has always been, there are no entry fees for the contests.

• For more information, go to www.youtube.com/writersofthefuture or wotfblog.blogspot.com


• Order Writers of the Future 25 from amazon.com


• Order Writers of the Future 25 from amazon.co.uk

What is Sci-Fi Art Now?

SciFi Art Now is a book I've edited under the direction of UK publishers ILEX. It will be published in October and features a wide range of art from both established and new artists from across the globe.

Top science fiction artist Chris Foss - whose work influenced my SF book buying back in the 1970s - has very kindly provided the foreword.

Check back here for the latest news about the book, which is scheduled for publication in October 2010 and related articles. I'm hoping to 'spotlight' artists whose work features in the book on this blog, and feature news about them and their work.

ILEX have published a number of "Art Now" books and they've been very well received, including  Fantasy Art Now by Martin McKenna which included fantasy art by the likes of Clint Langley, Greg Staples, Glenn Fabry, James Rayman, Linda Bergkvist, Liam Sharp, Jason Chan, Aly Fell, Aaron Sng and Robert Chang. They followed that up with a recently-released second volume compiled by Ally Fell & Duddlebug, showcasing the latest, cutting-edge fantasy artwork and design.

The Ilex Press has achieved an international reputation as a publisher of high quality illustrated reference books which cover all aspects of creativity and popular culture. The company was formed in January 2000 as a collaborative venture between the directors of The Ivy Press and Alastair Campbell.

Ilex Press books are published under its own imprint, ILEX, throughout the world in the English language (excluding North America), and are distributed in these markets by Thames and Hudson.

In North America, Ilex Press books are sold under various imprints by well-known publishers such as The Reader's Digest, Chronicle Books, Abrams, Harper Collins, Watson Guptill, St Martin's Press, Running Press, and O'Reilly. They're translated into many languages including French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, etc.

I'm really excited about this project: although I've worked in publishing for over 20 years - mainly in comics - this is my first book, and I hope it's a success, and helps the artists featured get work.

• Pre-order Sci-Fi Art Now from amazon.com

• Pre-order Sci-Fi Art Now from amazon.co.uk

• More about ILEX at: www.ilex-press.com