Light During the Darkest Days

The Chieu Hoi Saloon, ready to hit the shelves

In this blog post I get giddy about a second illustration going to print, and then get very prosaic about life, illustration and the nature of things coming to pass.

Currently my primary blog is through my website, so if you'd like to update your RSS feed to go there, this is the URL: http://studiobowesart.com/feed/

Best Wishes,
Brian Bowes

Steampunk: Made The Old Fashioned Way

Pen and ink illustration for Steampunk Magazine.
{ click on the image for a closer look }

Getting back to my old love, Drawing, I set to making the final for this piece in pen and ink. I may have discovered something in the process that is unexpected, and it has to do with time. Basically because the technique of working this way requires long streches of time and concentrated focus, the mind tends get kind of "free." I found that there were unique thoughts surfacing through out the project while I was deep in the process, things that surprised me. I managed to capture one that goes like this:

"'CONCEPT' can be a guiding light during the process of creation. Each choice may not be apparent in the end result, and it doesn't need to be. In this way artistic intent can be infused in the work."

Now, those who know me will know that I am prone to a "loose" thought process, but this kind of thing even gives me pause for a moment.

I don't know if it's true or not, I don't know if it's universal. I do know that it seemed true in the moment, and that it feels like the real art work is being done, ever so gently washing over and through my thoughts.

The nuts and bolts scoop on the image itself is that it is for an article about Steampunks in today's society, at least that's part of a brief synopsis that I received. I decided to use nib pens and ink to work towards an old fashioned feel. It works with the subject matter, as well as being something that can't be done on the computer. { however it is not clear how well pen and ink 'reads' on the computer screen... good thing this is for print! } Much like a Steampunk Atlas, our craftsman has the weight of the world on his mind, but focuses his attention on the work at hand.

Much thanks goes out to the folks at Steampunk Magazine for including me in their publication. We're all looking forward to seeing issue #7 hit the stands!

Prints of this image are available upon request, please email me here.
Link to more pen and ink work from me here, here, and here.
Link to Steampunk Magazine

Book Cover: Pike

This is the second of the two book covers that I was asked to do for PM Press. Amazingly this piece was a great sounding board for the other piece The Chieu Hoi Saloon. Both pieces were a lot of fun to work on, and they provided a great point and counterpoint to work between. For instance this piece for Pike called for a cold harsh feeling, where as The Chieu Hoi Saloon required something warmer, although still gritty.

It was that "gritty" aspect that was one of the major challenges that I had to work with. Considering that often times watercolor, as a medium, tends to be softer and smoother. So, to build in some good ol' Noir Grit was a challenge. With this piece in particular you'll notice that I've spattered a lot of paint about, some to be the falling snow, and some to just be noisy on the picture plane.

Here is the progression from one of the initial concepts to final sketch. I was initially drawn to this concept for it's graphic quality. I liked the stark tree as an emblem of this character's family tree, that it would be desolate, broken, and dark, it's seen dormant during the wintertime. While the story's main character is actually Pike { for whom the book is named }, the character of the estranged grand-daughter, Wendy, is actually the epicenter of the story. She provides the touch stone between the main character and the mystery of his daughter's death. You can read more about my initial thoughts from the first blog post here.

Here is the expanded final sketch which shows both the front and back panels for the book. I had some fun putting that little wispy weed at the bottom of the spine. That's totally just for fun, I like books that have a tiny picture on the spine. Given the chance to do more book covers, I can see really pushing that tiny spine illustration.

When moving from here to the finish, I knew that one aspect that I wanted to show in both this and the other cover, was that the piece should be something that couldn't be created on the computer. I wanted it to be expressly "a painting." There just seems to be so many great up and coming artists working digitally that I don't even want to compete with them, so my answer is to create a something that is wholly original and difficult to do digitally. So, in this piece that is evident in the sky. The washes, upon washes are ripe with accidents and recoveries { I'll leave it to you to find those! } I found myself thinking a lot about the skies in pieces that I've seen by Sir Russel William Flint. While I wasn't directly looking at his work, it is strange to me that it would just emerge that way.

As with any piece of work, in hindsight I look back and see areas that could be stronger, but that is what the next piece is for! Stay Tuned, and thanks for reading along.

Book Cover: The Chieu Hoi Saloon

January has been a very good month, 2 book covers ~ DONE!

The past few weeks have been quite eventful. there was the Holidays, followed by New Year's eve, sprinkle in t he social events, and you've got a busy month. Some where in all that, I made time to paint 2 cover paintings for the "Switchblade Series," from PM Press. As I mentioned in my previous post , Santa brought me a great gig doing 2 book covers. I am happy to say that both covers are done and on time.

The books are stories that were outside the scope my personal work, and so I was challenged to come up with images that would be appropriate for the stories. The cover shown here is for The Chieu Hoi Saloon. The other image will be posted separately.

The folks at PM Press were very nice to work with, and they allowed me full reign on these pieces. In turn I did my best to deliver work that would be conceptually strong and technically well done. I feel good about both those aspects, but as always, there's room to grow.

Here you can begin to see the genesis of the work. I submitted a couple of concepts that were generated off of the initial brief that was sent to me. The thumbnail I chose to use has strong graphic appeal, and speaks to the story with in. As I look at other cover artists whom I admire, I am often really attracted to work that, while based in the literature, resists being literal. This is not the contradiction that it may seem to be. My endeavor is to allow room in the image for mood and tone to creep in. Bearing all this in mind, I felt that this image would work the best.

Next was to expand the image from just a cover image to a wrap-around cover.
I struggled with a few things in this image. One was the gun in the shadow. For a long time I wanted to put something in the character's hand that would possibly cast a "gun-ish" shadow. Then at some point, I remembered that this is an illustration, and not a photograph! It's funny that I should have to give my self permission to do that, but hey that's life. Another area that I worked on was the perspective, you'll notice in the sketch that the street light in the upper left corner moves from the sketch to the final. I realized that if the guy is walking and casting his shadow that way that everything else in the image should be the same. In that way the internal logic of the image wouldn't be broken.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to do these book covers and hope that it will lead to many, many more such wonderful gigs!

Check out the companion image: "Pike"