io9: illustrations

Artists' Portraits of Science Fiction's Greatest Writers

Lauren Davis — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Steven Gettis' website Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!!! collects artists' portraits of great writers from a variety of genres, creating diverse images of authors from William Gibson and Arthur C. Clarke to Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.

In addition to these author portraits, Hey Oscar Wilde! includes renderings of science fiction characters, including Barbarella, Paul Atreides, Robert Neville, and Big Brother.

[Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!!! via Neatorama]

Isaac Asimov by Jason Armstrong
Mike Mignola by Scott Mills
Cormac McCarthy by Jamie Tolagson
William Gibson by Pia Guerra
Arthur C. Clark by Jeff Lemire
Douglas Adams by Tom Fowler
Michael Moorcock and J.R.R.Tolkien by Walt Simonson
Rod Serling by Scott Campbell
Neil Gaiman by Leigh Gallagher
HP Lovecraft by Bruce Timm
Samuel R. Delany by Mark Badger
Margaret Atwood by Andi Watson
Ray Bradbury by Val Mayerik
JK Rowling by Terry Moore
Kurt Vonnegut by D'Israeli
Aldous Huxley by Brian Ashmore
Alan Moore by Frazer Irving
HP Lovecraft by Saverio Tenuta
Edward Gorey by Troy Nixey
HG Wells by Charlie Adlard
Neal Stephenson by Matthew Clark
Jules Verne by Ted McKeever
Robert A. Heinlein by John K. Snyder III
Anne Rice by Craig Hamilton

The Art That Lives Inside of Us

Lauren Davis — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:30:00 PDT

Vesna Jovanovic's illustrations are inspired by the natural world and the tools science uses to explore it, creating often surreal images of human innards, often combined with twisting lab equipment and machinery.

Jovanovic was inspired to create her current series Pareidolia, when she spilled ink across a piece of paper and began tracing human organs, glassware, and tubes across the pattern of the ink. The series, she says is meant to evoke "the curiosity and fear that are often associated with scientific research." Her other work tends to be science focused as well, such as the first two images below, her "Hybrids," which meld human bodies with parts from other animals and machines.

Pareidolia is currently on display at the International Museum of Surgical Science.

[Vesna Jovanovic]
Interview with Jovanovic on Pareidolia [Seed Magazine]

Reattachment
Timekeeper
Ventricles Apart from Pareidolia
Cordiform from Pareidolia
Radiating Duodenum from Pareidolia
Metalhead Photophore from Pareidolia
Temporal Nexus from Pareidolia
Vital Choice from Pareidolia
Femur Strife from Pareidolia
New Mitosis from Pareidolia

Visit an Alien Zoo with Edd Cartier’s Illustrations

Lauren Davis — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:07:57 PST

Pulp artist Edd Cartier illustrated dozens of novels and magazine covers. But his most unusual work may come from Travelers of Space, a 1951 anthology of short science fiction. In addition to illustrating the book’s cover, Cartier collaborated with writer David Kyle on “The Interstellar Zoo,” creating a menagerie of bizarre, detailed, and strangely compelling beings from other worlds.

Cartier contributed his own essay to the anthology, “Life on Other Worlds,” and it’s clear from these drawings that he and Kyle both have an eye for unusual physiology. They take familiar anatomical structures – flippers, tentacles, antennae, gills – and combines them in novel yet plausible ways so that we can almost imagine how these alien creatures move when not in two-dimensional captivity.

[Golden Age Comic Book Stories via Biology in Science Fiction]

Revenge Of The Giant Space Tentacle

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:30:00 PDT

I've found myself admiring John Picacio's art a bunch of times without knowing his name. His images have appeared on the cover of a bunch of books from Pyr, Tachyon and several other publishers, including this wrap-around cover illustration for Son Of Man by Robert Silverberg. His work has a grand kinetic sweep that helps put the "opera" in "space opera." There's a gallery of some of his covers, including his newly completed cover for Dan Simmon's Muse Of Fire, below.

We were thrilled to get to hang out with Picacio at WorldCon, and see his work up close in the artists' exhibition room. We asked him what his philosophy of SF illustration was, and he said:

I’ve never thought about my work with any driving philosophy behind it, really. I just react to the things I see in my head, our chaotic world that seems to be more chaotic every day, and to the genre manuscripts that I’m fortunate to illustrate on a daily basis. But hopefully my images connect on their own without me!

His cover illustrations for The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper and Time's Child by Rebecca Ore were both named as finalists for the Chesley Awards recently. His website is here and you can keep up with his work on his blog.