A selection of four Images taken from British Artist Ian Miller’s Illustrated compendium “Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories” (published by Dragons Dream 1978) a book I’m lucky enough to own.
Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories contains 5 abstract visual tales, each with a loose narrative but no written dialogue – this works splendidly, forcing you to attempt intense studies of meticulously detailed, chaotic compositions. I tend to find that with each new browsing I notice something new, and it’s hardly surprising – even though some of the illustrations are small there amazingly intricate, worlds you can totally loose yourself in.
As I’ve mentioned in the past Ian is one of my favourite artist’s I feature on the blog, mainly because as a style of illustration it’s just so out there. In fact, fairly recently on a trip to the cinema I caught Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland re-imaging which (superflous 3d aside) looked, as you might expect visually stunning – once again reminding me of certain close similarities between Miller and Burton’s work. I wonder if there paths have crossed at all ? or if Burton and his team have referenced Miller in the same way Roger Dean was obviously referenced by James Cameron and his Designers for last years SF blockbuster Avatar… Just a thought!
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Pingback by Ian Miller ILLUSTRATIONS — June 29, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
Yeah I’m a big fan of his work as well. Is ‘Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories’ hard to get hold of?
Comment by Draw — June 30, 2010 @ 12:43 am
Hi Draw,
yeah I picked my copy up via ebay for £10 or so a few years ago – I thought it was quite rare at the time, but it seems more copies have surfaced via Amazon.com – available for a reasonable price – here’s a link
http://is.gd/d9Ea1
cheers
Comment by Kie — June 30, 2010 @ 7:24 am
Ian Miller is awesome. I will never forget staring at his illustrations for Games Workshop back in the day. At the time, I stupidly opted not to buy “Ratspike” (something about being a dumb kid with no money) a book that featured his art and the work of John Blanche. Luckily, Forbidden Planet in NYC found copies of the book in their warehouse about 6 years or so ago and I was able to snag one. If you ever get to see his work in person (like, say at IlluXcon in PA in November), you should. It’s an entirely different experience. The undisputed master of using normally technical rapidograph linework to compose artful, flowing, disturbing forms. Great post.
Comment by Muttonhead — June 30, 2010 @ 7:45 pm
Hey Muttonhead…
yeap I agree 100% plus – on all points Ian miller – I know of Ratspike, and have bid on copies of it a few times via ebay… I reckon then it’s time for an Amazon purchase….
As I’ve noted many times in the blog, there’s no one quite like Ian – and never will they be – a style not beyond influence, but certainly imitation/replication
Comment by Kie — June 30, 2010 @ 8:06 pm
Hi Kie, thanks for the link and getting back to me. I was actually just curious, I scored a copy about four years ago and was wondering if it was worth anything.
Comment by Draw — July 6, 2010 @ 11:36 pm
@ Muttonhead: Man! I’d love to see some Ian Miller originals as well
Comment by Draw — July 6, 2010 @ 11:37 pm
@ Draw – Hey did you ever check out Ian Miller over on Skiffy? Jeff has some large scans of his Tolkien Work – pretty amazing stuff as you might expect!
http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com/search/label/Ian%20Miller
Comment by kie — July 6, 2010 @ 11:44 pm