Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 July 2018

BOOK REVIEW: The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag

To say I love Simon's art is an understatement, so this book could have been all pictures and still attained 5 stars. Behind the art however is a story: it is a roadtrip across an alternative version of USA in the 90s, one filled with a mixture of analogue and digital and a curious array of science-fiction artefacts left to rust and decay after an apparent 'event'. Or are they?

The story is told using a mixture of the art and the writing, often using the writing to delve into some character backstory and history of events – the pacing is slow and allows the world to become ingrained before we learn more about the narrator and the kind of events that have lead to this point. Indeed, there is some satisfaction in the scarcity of revelation; little nuggets we are given which we are able to mesh with revelations further on. It’s not a long read so there’s no trouble remembering important little elements, and a second read through might be worth it to pick up on anything you may have missed.

The writing itself was four out of five because of some inconsistencies over style, sometimes verging into stream of consciousness without punctuation, when really the slow, meandering style it had been using, and which was sometimes elegant, would have sufficed. It could have done with another editor too as it should have been tighter, often losing impact because of a passive voice.

Overall though, it leaves you wanting more, which is always a good sign.

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Fiction into Art: Rats on the Loose

Gabriel Romero is a highly talented digital painter whose work has a distinctly retro feel to it. I was honoured to have my dailyflash piece 'Loose' turned into a piece of artwork by him.

Keep your eyes on 3dtotal for the tutorial coming this Friday.


Saturday, 15 July 2017

Fiction into Art: Wings

Coming soon to issue 5 of GRAPHITE Magazine is Eliza Ivanova's narrative tutorial for this evocative artwork created from my dailyflash fiction piece, Wings.



Artist: Eliza Ivanova
Site: www.elizaivanova.com

Text:
“Instinctively touching her back, she felt coarse feathers bristling
through her skin, like acupuncture needles she was once
compelled to touch. That had been weird, but nothing compared
to this. She pulled on one nascent shaft and felt her skin peel
towards it. It was stuck, but she got the feeling that if she pulled
a little harder, it would pop, and come out in her fingers.
In the mirror, she shrugged her shoulder blades and feathers, black
– highlighting the opalescence of her pink skin – blossomed like a
blast of sudden spring. They grew, forming wings, knocking toiletries
from shelves and slamming like a fist against the window pane.
The window. The sudden urge to open it was overwhelming.”

Thursday, 16 March 2017

Flash Fiction turned into art for GRAPHITE Magazine

As Publishing Coordinator for 3dtotal Publishing, I'm fortunate to be involved in many of our amazing publications. We've recently begun a quarterly magazine for illustrators and artists called GRAPHITE; a magazine that showcases impressive artwork using traditional mediums. It's a great resource for inspiration, plus looks amazing on the coffee table.

Not only do I proofread this publication (we're about to send issue 4 to the printers) but I also contribute flash fiction for a narrative illustration section. These are fun to write, and it's really cool to see the artist's interpretation of my words. These have inspired me to challenge myself to write a piece of flash fiction every day. I've even set up an Instagram called dailyflashfiction to try and ride that hype train. While I'm getting graphics, and my headspace in the 'write' place, I thought I'd share the three that have been included so far, and the resultant artwork.

GRAPHITE 1



Comic artist and illustrator Jerel Dye created the below image.


GRAPHITE 2



Illustrator Rob Turpin created the artwork below. Otherwise known as thisnorthernboy on Instragram.


GRAPHITE 3



Illustrator and painter Daniel Landerman created his interpretation:



If the process behind these images interest you, you can always check out the issues here. Hopefully the dailyflashes will begin next week! (I have a bit of a stag do this weekend!)

Saturday, 27 August 2016

Neon Driver cover competition

***********************************************************
Art / Graphic design competition - Neon Driver
***********************************************************

I would love to be able to afford to hire an artist to create some amazing, cool, cyberpunk-style artwork for this, but alas, I am poor. Maybe the promise of credit and 5 free hard copies of Neon Driver would be enough?

I'm opening up a competition which won't close until the final book proof has been made: design me a book cover that you think would match well with this story, or even just artwork in general that I could use to adorn a website, and I will post you 5 hard copies of the finished book. Email me submissions or questions to ajsproof@yahoo.co.uk.

Artwork and covers I love (ha-ha, I'm dreaming)