Fantasy Archive - Sci-Fi-O-Rama

Kelly Freas - Rhapsody In Black

Kelly_Freas_The_Lion_Game

Frank Kelly Freas - Our Childrens Children

Kelly Freas - Mayenne

Kelly_Freas_Mirror_Image

Kelly_Freas_On_the_Symb-Socket_Circuit

Happy New Year! here’s the first post of 2011 on Sci-Fi-O-Rama. Before I start regular readers may notice some minor aesthetic changes, I’ve altered the design slightly to make use of a header menu as to optimize space. I’ve also added (fixed) a google ad to the bottom of the sidebar – I hope this isn’t too obtrusive – it’s there just to help cover the cost of the bandwidth. So then on with the post and here’s a selection of psychedelic edged female portraiture from the late American artist Frank Kelly Freas (Aug 1922 – Jan 2005).

Frank Kelly Freas (also just Kelly Freas) enjoyed a career over 50 years working at the pinnacle of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Art, including providing countless covers for the magazines and books, such as Astounding Science Fiction/Analog, Mad, DAW, Signet, Ballantine Books . It’s also worth noting that early in his artistic career Freas painted pin-up girls onto the nose cones of bombers for the US Military, and it’s an echo of that inspiration I’ve chosen to focus on, here’s the notes on the selected images:

Top: “Rhapsody in Black” – This sultry beauty I featured in a book jacket context back in August, via research mining I’ve since discovered this larger version of the original painting, I have to say one of my favourite pieces posted in 2010 hence it’s appears again. What I also find most interesting here are some of the shared character traits with the other Illustrations: luscious lips, graceful swooping eyelashes and perfectly formed “Ski Jump” noses.

2nd top: “The Lion Game” – This 1973 DAW Paperback book covers serves a great demonstration of Freas’s super confident brush stroke work…

3rd top: “Our Children’s Children” – Cover art for an edition of the 1974 Clifford D. Simak SF Novel, the plot concerns refugees from 500 years in the future arrive through time tunnels – and hard behind them come ravening monsters… I like the sound of that I have to say!

4th top: “Mayenne” another gorgeous DAW cover with those trademark eyelashes, this one from 1973. Via Flickr user Bmaginnity

5th top: “Mirror Image” This Daw Cover dates from 1972, again via Bmaginnity. The plot of this book sounds good, a neat SF spin on American cold war paranoia of the time focusing on alien impostors and secret invaders; in this case the “amorphs”, who are indistinguishable from us, are themselves convinced that they are human…. Read more on Michael G. Coney at Wiki

Bottom: “On the Symb-Socket Circuit” – This flame haired impish enchanter takes the focus of another classic DAW cover, again dating from 1972. Love this one, close in tone to the work of Leo & Diane Dillon. Via Flickr user Bmaginnity

For Further Reading: Check out the official Kelly Freas Site http://www.kellyfreas.com/ or the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Kelly_Freas

More Images: a Flickr Search http://bit.ly/gTuygR

Bibliodyssey: Knight Attire

Knight Attire

Two reasons for posting here, firstly I wanted to share this wonderful selection of ink renderings detailing some extremely elaborate – and therefore gorgeous – medieval armor. Secondly I wanted to point readers towards the original source of this material: Bibliodyssey a superb blog that features a raft of historic Illustration and draftsmanship. in a similar vein to A Journey Round My Skull Bibliodyssey, with its ever expanding archive of ultra rare imagery, is absolutely essential reading…

Follow Bibliodyssey on twitter http://twitter.com/BibliOdyssey or on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/

The Illustrations are taken from Volumes of ‘Dictionnaire Raisonné du Mobilier Français de L’Époque Carlovingienne à la Renaissance’ (Dictionary of French Furniture from the Carolingian era to the Renaissance) Dating from the 18th Century.

See more Knight Attire at the original source: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/03/knight-attire.html

FFFOUND Collection (1) Nov 10

Vania Zouravliov - The Head

Unknown Artist - Please Post if you know

unknown photograph - please post comment if you have info :)

Moebius

Autumn Whitehurst - Sugar Genomics

clifford_d_simaks_city

Whilst I prep some new feature post’s I’m going to follow on from my recent Flickr Round with a collection of images I’ve bookmarked and backtracked via the excellent FFFFound.com – lazy? yes I know!

I actually still have FFFFound set as my Firefox home page and although I don’t spend quite as much time browsing as I used too, I still think it’s an excellent resource. In fact I’ve even saved off hundreds of bookmarked images too form offline inspiration scrapbook- It was a boring chore, but has since proved to be very handy!

Ok so here’s the notes on this somewhat arbitrary selection:

Top: Stunning Gothic, fantasy tinged fashion Illustration from Russian Artist Vania Zouravliov, this piece is entitled “The Head”. Really beautiful work, I think you’ll agree and someone I’ll definitely be looking to run a full feature on in the near(ish) future – in the meantime check this post at Jeff Hamada’s superb Booooooom.com or maybe just a general Google image search on Vania Zouravliov http://bit.ly/gwiMLU

2nd Top: I’m not sure on who the artist is here, only that I very much like the piece! As is often the problem with backtracking from FFFFound the link ends http://supersonicelectronic.com but not on the exact page – If you know who it is and have more info, please post a comment.

3rd Top: Now I really like this photograph, but again I’m lost for any more info on it – is it real? or a composite? The link ends here: www.ryanduenas.com – please help!

4th Top: Here’s one that’s easy to spot, it is of course the work of SF French illustrator extraordinaire Moebius this Image is via the fantastic butdoesitfloat.com – check out much more here: http://butdoesitfloat.com/filter/moebius

5th Top: This haunting portrait is the work of another illustrator I’ll be featuring again soon, Autumn Whitehurst – see more from her gorgeous portfolio here.

Bottom: Again this is another piece I’m not entirely sure on, though it looks somewhat similar to the work Cartoonist Spain Rodriguez whom I featured earlier in the year http://bit.ly/bm2l8q

** Proper posts coming soon! please give us a shout if you can help out at all identifying any of the unknown pieces…

Zines – French SF Illustration

Enki Bilal

Unknown French Sci-Fi Illustration

Philippe Caza

Wojciech Siudmak

A Halloween special here, consisting of zero Halloween related material! Instead what we do have is an excellent selection of obscure(ish) French SF Illustration…

These images come via bxzzines.blogspot.com a blogger site maintained by “Clifford Brown” (an anonymous pseudonym) The focus is mainly on vintage soft erotic magazines and related material; however Clifford also blends the occasional SF & Fantasy Scan into the mix, and that’s where this set has come from…

Here’s a link to the full post with 30 or so large scans: http://bit.ly/aPjHlO there is some mild nudity on the site, hence the warning. Merci beaucoup à Pierre for originally pointing me in the right direction!

Top: I think this is a Moebius Illustration (or is it Enki Bilal?) as I’m unsure of the source I can’t confirm – If you do know the origin please post a comment…

2nd Top: No real info on this piece I’m afraid, I’m guessing it’s from the 60′s? – The creatures great anyway…

3rd Top: This is definitely the work of Philippe Caza, again I’m not sure of the exact source though it’s dated 1973. Caza really does possess a knack when it comes to Illustrating freaky looking monsters – out there! Check more of Philippe Caza here

Bottom: A slice of Psychedelic Sci-Fi and Surrealism dating from 1970, these paintings are part of a set composed by polish born but French based artist: Wojciech Siudmak – more of him here: http://www.siudmak.com/

Once again the link to the source: http://bit.ly/aPjHlO

Barnaby Ward (4)

Barnaby Ward - Illustration

Barnaby Ward Illustration

Barnaby Ward - Leavetakings

A very welcome to return to Sci-Fi-O-Rama for contemporary Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fashion Illustrator Barnaby Ward definitely one of my favourite featured artists. As is clearly demonstrated here, Barnaby’s capable of drawing extremely beautiful female characters whom he vivaciously mixes with the surreal and bizarre, such a cool inspiring style that always makes me want to grab a pen and start scribbling… In fact I’d go as far to say that’s there’s really only one other contemporary Illustrator capable of drawing quite such gorgeous, stylised characters and that’s Britain’s Jason Brooks.

Ok so to the notes on the Images, the top four here I’ve cropped into from a series of large Illustration intended as desktop backgrounds, there’s a full set of 9 available via Banarby’s expertly presented portfolio site: somefield.com, the final Illustration is a teaser illustration for his next major Illustrative project “Leavetaking” – all very much under wraps at the moment!.

Finally If you’ve not had a look before I also highly recommended checking Barnaby’s past Graphic Novel Work and the superb “Sixteen Miles to Merricks“.

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