2011 Chesley Awards Finalist x 3!

Wow! I'm a 2011 Chesley Awards finalist! Just landed home from BayCon 2011. Thanks to Dani Kollin, I just discovered that I'm a finalist in three Chesley categories this year. Wow, wow, wow. Thanks to all ASFA voters for these noms. I'm very grateful to be amongst this year's stellar list of works. Here are my three nominated works, followed by this year's complete list of nominees.

Finalist for Best Paperback Cover Illustration:


John Picacio
Elric: Swords and Roses
by Michael Moorcock
Del Rey
December 2010

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Finalist for Best Hardcover Illustration:


John Picacio
The Waters Rising
by Sheri S. Tepper
Harper Voyager
August 2010

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Finalist for Best Interior Illustration:


John Picacio
Elric: Swords and Roses
by Michael Moorcock
Del Rey, December 2010

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Big thanks to my art directors on the above works -- David Stevenson (Del Rey), Richard Aquan (HarperCollins), and Betsy Mitchell (Ballantine/Del Rey).

Here's the complete list of 2011 Chesley Awards nominees. Congrats to all! Very honored and grateful to be in your company!

***Paperback

Volkan Baga, for The Zombies of Oz by Christian Endres; Atlantis, November 2010

Jason Chan, for Geist by Phillipa Ballantine; Ace, November 2010

Jon Foster, for Dreadnought by Cherie Priest; Tor, September 2010

Todd Lockwood, for The Ragged Man by Tom Lloyd; Pyr, August 2010

Stephan Martiniere, for Ares Express by Ian McDonald; Pyr, August 2010

Anthony Palumbo, for Yarn by Jon Armstrong; Night Shade Books, 12/2010

John Picacio, for Elric: Swords and Roses by Michael Moorcock; Del Rey, December 2010

Dan Dos Santos, for Alien Tango by Gini Koch; DAW, December 2010


***Hardcover

Kinuko Y. Craft, for Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington; Tor, November 2010

Don Maitz, for Blasphemy by Mike Resnick Golden Gryphon Press, 08/2010

Gregory Manchess, for Spectrum 17 edited by Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner;Underwood Books, Nov. 2010

John Picacio, for The Waters Risingby Sheri S. Tepper; Harper Voyager, August 2010

Michael Whelan, for The Way of the Kings by Brandon Sanderson; Tor, August 2010


***Magazine

Julie Dillon, for Clarkesworld #48; September 2010

Nick Greenwood, for Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show #17; June 2010

David A. Hardy, forAnalog; April 2010

Audrey Lazarev, forClarkesworld #50; November 2010

Sergio Rebolledo, forClarkesworld #40; January 2010

James Ryman, for Heavy Metal; January 2010


***Three-Dimensional

Thomas S. Kuebler, Scream Queen; mixed media

David Meng, Amphibiana; mixed media

Mark Newman, Eel Walker; bronze

Michael Parkes, The Letter; bronze

Jordu Schell, Ixana; mixed media

Vincent Villafranca, The Dogs of War; bronze


***Interior Illustration

Jason Chan, Vilcabamba by Harry Turtledove; Tor.com, 2010

Jon Foster, Four Horsemen, at Their Leisure by Richard Parks; Tor.com, April 2010

Donato Giancola, Middle Earth: Visions of a Modern Myth by Donato Giancola; Underwood Books, 10/2010

John Picacio, Elric: Swords and Roses by Michael Moorcock; Del Rey, December 2010

Keith Thompson, Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld; Simon Pulse, October 2010


***Unpublished Color

Daren Bader, Isis; oil

Julie Dillon, Planetary Alignment; digital

David A. Hardy, Portals to Infinity; acrylic

Omar Rayyan, The Favorite; oil

Matthew Stewart, Waterfall Dragons; oil

Raoul Vitale, Torin's Quest; oil


***Unpublished Monochrome

Eric Braddock, Highborne; graphite & white charcoal on toned paper

Anthony Francisco, Tikbalang; digital

Ed Ko, Drawing for Beautiful Grim; pencil

Petar Meseldžija, UNK!; pencil

Ian Miller, Triptych; ink

David Palumbo, Zombie Girl; acrylic


***Product

Bob Eggleton, Dragon's Domain: The Ultimate Dragon Painting Workshop; Impact, September 2010

Donato Giancola, St. George and the Dragon, promo art for Dragon*Con 2010

Lars Grant-West, Pact of the Blind, promo art for IlluXCon 3

David Palumbo, Transcend (aka Judgment), Heavy Metal tarot card; 2010

Sam Weber, Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, promo art for Tor ebook; January 2010


***Gaming

Daarken, Harbor Serpent (Magic card, Magic 2011 core set); WotC, July 2010

Lucas Graciano, Amorphous Drake (Legends of Norrath); Sony Online Entertainment, 2010

Kekai Kotaki, Gaea's Revenge (Magic card, Magic 2011 core set); WotC, July 2010

Howard Lyon, Eel Umbra (Magic card, “Rise of the Eldrazi” set); WotC, April 2010

Matthew Stewart, Bloodshot Trainee (Magic card, “Scars of Mirrodin” set); WotC, October 2010

L. A. Williams, Maritime Guard (Magic card, Magic 2011 core set); WotC, July 2010


***Art Director

Lou Anders — Pyr Books

Irene Gallo — Tor

William Schafer — Subterranean Press

Jon Schindehette — Wizards of the Coast

David Stevenson — Ballantine / Del Rey


***Lifetime Artistic Acheivement

Brom

Jeffrey / Catherine Jones

Ian Miller

Moebius/Jean Giraud

Darrell K. Sweet

Boris Vallejo

ASFA has full galleries of all of the nominated works! Check 'em out!

On to Baycon

I'm Artist Guest of Honor at BayCon this weekend, along with Author GoH & 2011 Hugo Award finalist Mary Robinette Kowal as well as Fan GoH Bobbie DuFault & Toastmaster Martin Young. Highlights of my schedule include:

**** Saturday 2:30p: Artist GoH Interview

As acquiring editor for Golden Gryphon Press from 1999 through 2007, Marty Halpern acquired eleven book covers from artist John Picacio. Some of these covers were for books by such well-known authors as Jeffrey Ford, George Alec Effinger, and Lucius Shepard. This talk will be about the process of developing covers for books from the perspective of an artist working with an editor.
Marty Halpern, John Picacio

**** Saturday 4:00p: The Worlds of George R. R. Martin

Artist John Picacio, who has done the artwork for the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, speaks about his work in that universe, and Kevin Andrew Murphy talks about writing in the Wild Card universe.
Kevin Andrew Murphy, John Picacio (M)

(Note to GRRM / Game of Thrones / 2012 Calendar fans -- I highly recommend you show up at this panel. You'll be glad you did. That's all I'm sayin'...:))

**** Sunday 4:00p: The Art of John Picacio

Artist Guest of Honor John Picacio presents a slideshow and question-&-answer session discussing recent artworks from his Hugo Award-nominated body of book cover and institutional work, and the process and ideas behind their making.
John Picacio

(Again, GRRM & ASOIAF fans -- same note as above. :))

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I'll be on several other panels as well, plus I'll have plenty of work hanging in the Art Show. Don't be a stranger!

2012 ASOIAF Calendar / Bran Stark Preview

This is for all of you good and persistent folks who have been emailing and messaging me to show you something... ANYTHING... from inside the 2012 A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE Calendar.

Ask and ye shall receive. Give thanks to Bantam's Anne Groell (GRRM's editor) and George himself for giving the nod on this as well.

Presenting, a cropped sneak peek of my artwork for Bran Stark. He's January of the 2012 Calendar. There's more to this image than what you're seeing here, but hey -- that's why they call 'em sneak peeks, rather than the whole enchilada. :)



Most of you have already seen the cover featuring Ned Stark, but if not, here you go. Again, the calendar will debut at San Diego Comic Con this July. You can already preorder it right now (which still amazes me considering we're not even halfway to 2012 yet).

Multiple choice question for you. Of the following, if Bantam greenlights more sneak peeks like this, who would you most want to see next?

A. Arya Stark
B. Melisandre
C. Sandor Clegane, The Hound

Winter Is Coming...

Hard to believe because it's May in South Texas, but I think Winter isn't just coming but in fact, has arrived. Behold the advance copies of the 2012 George R. R. Martin / A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, featuring Ned Stark on the cover.

I flipped through the whole, beautiful, finished printed thing last night for the first time. Whew. Still processing it all, but needless to say, I'm extremely proud of it. I hope you folks out there dig it too. I'll have MUCH, MUCH more on this in the coming days and weeks, including (I hope) some sneak peeks.

The calendar will first go on sale at San Diego Comic Con this July where George and I will be signing them at the Bantam booth. I'll also have calendars available at my own booth too (#4600, I believe?). And then shortly thereafter, I expect the calendars will be available in bookstores everywhere. If you can't make it to SDCC, Amazon will have it in your hands as soon as it releases in July.