Bob's ART du Jour

Hi, I'm Bob Eggleton and this is my painting and "life in general blog" but mostly paintings. Usually they're for sale. Anyway, if you like something contact me at zillabob@cox.net and ENJOY!!

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Location: New England, United States

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

John Berkey-SF Art Legend-RIP


This is quick, but John Berkey, one of the greatest masters of science fiction art, particularly from the 1970's and '8o's has passed away. He'd had lingering health issues for many years, surviving a brush with death due to a heart defect, years before. Some of my first exposure to fantastical art was from his hand. He used to do alot of movie work when posters were painted. Inparticular, his paintings for Dino DeLaurentiis' 1976 remake of KING KONG made the movie appear way better than it turned out, and added alot to the marketing hype because of their stunning look.


He produced a ton of covers too numerous to mention and had two volumes of his work done in the 90's and 2000's by Friedlander Publishing and Paper Tiger(cover, above), respectively. No one painted space hardware like he did. He often made his own paints, saying store-bought ones made the art look just that. He was unique in his vision. For some reason, SF fandom never really took his work to their hearts(generally speaking, as I do know people who love his work) and he was passed over for a much deserved Hugo Award in any of the given years he was so prolific. He did however win many prestigious Society of Illustrators Awards and was voted a Grand Master by SPECTRUM(the yearly volume of fantastic art and illustration) a few years ago.
My good friend Irene Gallo has a bit more about him and his incredible work, over at her blog:
Once again, it's a dark week for science fiction...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Moody Blues, New York City,Dinosaurs...and back!!!

My life can be a crazy headlong rush sometimes! On Sunday, we saw THE MOODY BLUES again-this is the third time in 18 months!! But I could see them twice that in half the time and never tire of their great music!! The audience, at the Providence Performing Arts Center was pretty amazing and I think even amazed the band themselves. We got back from there and, at 5am the next day, had to leave for New York City to meet good friends John Davis and his wife Kim Saxon, for some fun and tooling around the Museum of Natural History(DINOSAURS!!!) and toy stores. Staying at the vert swanky Muse Hotel on 46th Street(I highly recommend it. It's "high end" as price goes but nothing in NYC that's safe is available for under $200, and this hotel has been designed for the artist's "muse"-lots of interior decoration, art, etc. It seems to have worked as I feel very inspired!!!!)we had a great meal Monday night and, Tuesday, met with Irene Gallo-art director of TOR Books(see The Art Dept in my links) for a good lunch. Managed to pull her out of some intense and seemingly endless meetings. I also picked up some cool books and some toys and stuff. NYC is very good for that! On each side of this trip I managed to sign 1500 signatures for the sig page of Brian Lumley's book HAGGOPIAN AND OTHERS, due out in May from Subterranean.

Oh, and here's some preliminary sketches for two upcoming covers I am doing, for a Heinlein(Bottom) and an Andre Norton(top).
I'm breathing again, very slowly.



Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Art Corner...

This shocked me personally, and has devastated a number of us. The Art Corner in Salem Mass was the victim of a fire of unknown orgin last Thursday night. It's owned by Wendy Snow-Lang who I have known(and her other half, Chuck) for at least 25 years. Wendy just took over the business a couple of years ago and put a lot of hard work into it to make it into a great framing and art gallery. Wendy and Chuck are like the nicest people anyone could know, they're family in my book. In fact, I have had tons of framing done there and, painted in the front part of the store several times and been in her monthly shows. Our hearts go out to them at this time as,like family, this is a shared pain. Don't worry, it'll be back better than even within six months. More info is available at: http://www.theartcorner.blogspot.com/ Has links to stories in the local paper. Photo is courtesy The Salem News.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Two New Covers....


SOmetimes it takes time to see the covers I paint made fully into covers as a package with type and all. Here are two which are due out soon. The top -SHADOW OF THE SCOPRION-I did last year, for Night Shade Books,and I love the type treatment and way it was handled. It worked out just how I planned it. The bottom is of course, the first of my Heinlein series I'm doing for Baen. I'm really proud of both and how they all look in the end. The type on the Heinlein is as it should be, kind of a "big book" look which always helps sales. You see, in the end, my art is irrelevant unless it works with type to make a truly "in your face" cover. That's why it's commercial and, well, don't kid yourself it isn't("Things They Don't Teach You in Art School") whenever you do a painting or an image for reproduction and to sell books. Both books are available on Amazon.com for ordering!!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Volcano at Sunset...

Sunset Fire(8x10, oils, SOLD!)
I have always loved Fredic Edwin Church's enigmatic painting "Cotopaxi" and in the spirit of that, plus a nod to Lord of The Rings' "Mount Doom" I did this. I really like painting nature in action, whether it be this planet or, another. This one is a little gem and one I enjoyed immensely painting. I find landscapes work for me best because of their ability to invite one to make up one's own story around them. While busy these days, I still manage to get out a few pieces when I can, so, I will continue to do so. Enjoy.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The start of a cover....

Castle and the Harpist(8x10, oils, SOLD) This is the start of a book cover I'm working on. Basically it had to show a forboding castle tower and some "dragon clouds" and this fellow playing a Celtic harp. This presented alot of problems in creating a balance and at the same time, resisting a "stacked" look to the composition. I also wasn't sure how much I could play up the dragons...so I went with subtle(more in a minute).
It was all coming together rather nicely and then I realized that even though I wanted the castle tower to relate to the guy in the forground(it is of importance in the story, I guess), I felt like it was too simple. So I started playing up a curvy tree and the colors of the flowers, etc around it. Kind of a nice contrast, that being he's creating music that's colorful and rich yet the presence of the castle stands in the background.
Then the art director-who's terrific to work with-suggested I COULD play up the dragons more "realistically". So for the final that's just what I will do.
A note here-the sketch is for sale, but if you buy and pay for it, it will be at least a couple of weeks before I can send it out to you! Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Necroscoping.....



20 Years ago, I did the first cover to Brian Lumley's NECROSCOPE series of books. In the past two decades...the books have gone on to sell millions. Brian and I have become good friends. And still, we work together on various books and projects. Above is a sculpture, based on the skull I did for the very first Necroscope book, done by the ultra-talented Adrian Romo-a guy who works in Hollywood as a conceptual designer for a major studio. He wanted to do a limited edition pre-painted polystone cast item based on the series. Above is the result(click on the image to appreciate the detail!). It will be released April 25th, 2008 and to buy one, you can contact http://www.hauntedhouseproductions.com/ for more info, it goes for around $55 (a bargain!) and will include a signed Certificate of Authenticity(signed by Brian, Adrian and myself). It's based on the classic Necroscope cover for the book due to be re-released in June: http://us.macmillan.com/book.aspx?isbn=9780765320186 and it will be Brian's "corrected" edition-the same as the Subterranean Press edition, sans the color art and full page b/w's. It will however contain all the of page devices I did for it. Enjoy!!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

When Dinosaurs Ruled Picture Books...



Just an update on the dinosaur book. Bet you wondered what was going on. Well, it's been a slog to get it done, an art director was canned because of various reasons, and oddly it seems to be going ALOT faster and smoother with this person's departure! Lots of coordinating and logistics to do on it. However, above are some of the results of what we've done. You'll remember the T-Rex from some months ago on it's own. Here it is (top) composited via Photoshop and painted over via Corel painter with a zillion hamburgers. Keep in mind the book is made for 4-8 year olds so some artistic license was involved. Next to the T-Rex is the relative Tarbosaurus, a smaller but equally toothy Tyrannosaur relation. The bottom pic is what happens when kids go hang gliding with a Pteranodon! Originally, there was a hang-glider there and Cortney Skinner simply took it out and, composited in my Pteranodon and adjusted lighting and so on. We're all pretty happy with what we're seeing.
This is what's been taking alot of my time of late instead of smaller paintings. Fear not, I'll still be doing them but in these days, business calls and all things considered, busy is good.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sketchbooking...

This is something fun out of my sketchbook. I tend to work really fast on ideas and get the general composition nailed and then wait for a chance to paint the image. This was partly inspired by the amazing Saturn/Cassini images of being close to the ring shadows. I figured what would a ship close to some gas world's big rings see-tumbling chunks of rock and ice. Again, I'm obsessed with scale here. The small ship and the vast planet. One of the themes in my work is one of the big and the small. It's why I can say I like planets and cosmic vastness and the small spaceships, and in another way of looking at it, giant monsters and small humans.
I'll do some paintings coming up. It's been very very very busy and I'm breaking one of my own rules about not working weekends, but in this case it can't be helped much since I took roughly a week off two weeks ago.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

EEEAAARRRGH!!!!



Sometimes it what I say when I watch the news too much these days!!!!
This is a sketch, as creepy as it is for a new Brian Lumley book. It's pretty ooky and shows my dark side. With the news in the world lately, that "dark side" really can come out and these kinds of images give me a way to express that AND get PAID! But I'm not always that dark, as Jessica Rabbit from WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? once said "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way". Sometimes I get criticized for "horror" work and I think it's abit unfair, because I like doing that kind of stuff, and I have alot of fun with monsters, creatures, etc. These can be alot of fun, especially now in oils, as they lend a classic look to them.
Been very busy with several projects. Some new small paintings are coming. Just in the middle of concepting several covers and, finishing up the "dinosaur" book. And the general unease of the times coupled with Spring fever...busy is good.

Monday, April 07, 2008

A Golden Planet....

The Golden Planet(5x7 inches, oils, framed SOLD!) Did this little tiny painting, and it includes a frame! I have been on a kick lately of showing planets to be almost "Mars like" as we saw them in the 1950's...still the most amazing time of wonder for these kind of settings...

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Of Late We Think of Chuck...

Charlton Heston has left us. Despite any political leanings, I found him to be an extraordinary actor and, one I greatly admired and, sort of "grew up" with. His connections to Science Fiction are pretty solid-he was in more than a few SF films, most notably, PLANET OF THE APES which he immortalized the role of George Taylor, the misanthropic astronaut, who'll go on any mission that gets him away from the planet earth and Man, for "something better in the universe" and winds up indeed, on someplace far worse, and back on earth thousands of years in the future. I also liked him in THE OMEGA MAN(1971) which was an adaptation of the book "I Am Legend" in which the "vampires" of that book became psychotic hippies-"The Family"(styled after Charles Manson's "Family", big news at the time)-who were like, Heston's character, survivors of a biological war that (mostly) wiped out all of mankind. He'd next star in an adaptation of a Harry Harrison book, done as the film SOYLENT GREEN(1973). Both films were based on seminal works of Science Fiction and both were adapted to feature alot of 70's predictions of the years to come and they also had their share of cheesiness that most 1970's flicks had due to minimal set design coupled with flat technicolor lighting. In both films, he still played rather misanthropic characters, something he seemed to be slightly stereotyped for at the time. He also earned his place has having said two of THE most famous lines in Sci-Fi films- "Keep yer stinkin' paws off me you damn dirty apes" from, of course, PLANET OF THE APES and, from SOYLENT GREEN- "Soylent Green is people!!!" . I'd personally add from THE OMEGA MAN "Hey brother, how's your ass?" as he talks to himself in front of his closed circuit TVs in that film.

He sort of became the poster boy for disaster films starring in the spate of that genre of films in the 70's like EARTHQUAKE(1974), SKYJACKED(1972), AIRPORT 1975('75) and GRAY LADY DOWN (1979).

Heston later went on to star in a few more SFnal and horrific potboilers- THE AWAKENING(1980) which was a little seen but well done variation on the "mummy" mythos, and later in the 80's he was in a Japanese big-budget bomb called SOLAR CRISIS which was shot mostly in the US with some (at the time) state-of-the-art FX work. The film was funded by a Japanese publishing company who felt, in 1989, that Heston was big office in Japan(the film found it's way to DVD release here and then disappeared). He'd star as a publisher himself in John Carpenter's Lovecraft pastiche IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS(1995) and then one of his last big screen roles was the uncredited elder ape in Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES(2001) in which he says the same lines as from the original, just the species are reversed!

No one could orate like Charlton Heston. No one said "Oh My God" better than he. He narrated things quite well such as the opening to ARMAGEDDON(1998) and a documentary on the highly iffy "Prophecies of Nostrodamus"-utter crap but Heston made it sound real. He even played "God" in the one inventively funny bit from the otherwise incredibly awful Paul Hogan film ALMOST AN ANGEL(1990)

In the end, the ravages of Altzheimer's caught him, a tragic disease which the only release seems to be death. He'll be remembered well in cinema for all his achievements. I'll certainly treasure my DVDs of his film work, because his presence was one of the first I'd ever felt on a movie screen.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Back and...exhausted!

Well, I'm back from jetting around the south to Memphis and Texas...but extremely tired after a terrific trip. MidSouthCon 26 had to be one the THE BEST Artist Guest spots I have ever done at a con, in recent memory. Hats off to a great bunch of people who have some high energy and a spirited con and everyone was just so friendly there! Later we arrived in Dallas and did some running around South Texas with my pal John Davis and his wife Kim. Just great times with great friends. I have some pictures of all this and, soon, some new paintings to show. But that will be this week sometime as I'm pretty tired from being in too many airports! Stay tuned!