W is for the Wonderful Work of Simon 'Pye' Parr

Simon (or as he's known to his friends 'Pye') Parr has collaborated with me on my Pax Britannia novels right from the start. To begin with he was the designer, arranging the text over Mark Harrison's artwork, and creating the various logos and crest motifs for the series. More recently he has started adding internal illustrations until now, with my eighth steampunk novel Time's Arrow he's become fully-fledged cover artist.

Pye has very kindly taken the time to answer my questions whilst in the middle of a house move (kudos there, sir!) which I have pleasure in presenting for you now.

1. Which came first – artist or designer?

Chronologically, artist. It's something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember, but professionally I've been a graphic designer for much longer, and it's still what makes up over half of my work. 

2. What was your big break that led to you doing what you’re doing now?

In 2002 I was recruited by Rebellion as a graphic designer for 2000AD and the Megazine, which was brilliant. Since I've worked there the publishing department has expanded to include all the 2000AD graphic novels and both Solaris and Abaddon Books, plus various projects for the computer games side of things, so the amount work and experience I get has expanded with it, leading me to where I'm at now doing both art and design work. To me it's kind of felt like more of a slow build up than a big break, and I've only started getting projects beyond the stuff I do in-house for Rebellion over the last few years.

3. What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

Erm... I have no idea! I try something for a bit then leave it and try something different. I reckon the best stuff I do is in as many mediums as possible really, all mixed together. Generally I start with something 'real' no matter what I'm doing though, so even for a picture that I'll paint digitally I start with a half-decent pencil drawing or painting or something before scanning it in and going to town on it in Photoshop or Illustrator. I find it much quicker and easier to get ideas down for artwork with a pencil and paper, even though I spend 90% of my time sat at a computer.

4. Having worked on numerous book covers, advertisements and comic strips, which do you prefer and why? Is there anything you’d particularly like to do more of?

Creating any kind of artwork is a satisfying process (eventually), so I try to do as much of that as possible, but one the things I like most about my work is that I have to switch between loads of different jobs, so I never have a chance to get bored of anything. I think for example if I spent all month sat at my drawing board on my own I'd go mental, so it’s nice to break it up each week with graphic design work in the office, which I find a bit more calming to work on. 

5. How much do you work with an author when it comes to designing a cover for their book?

It varies. Obviously I'll always try as hard as I can to do something the author can be proud of, but they've all had differing levels of input. For design-led covers I generally have more free reign than with the illustrative ones. This is mainly because the final images are more suggestive and they don’t really need to show actual things in the story, more convey a mood or feeling that will suit the book. I'll come up with loads of options (I think I ended up with almost 20 different concepts for Lou Morgan's Blood and Feathers cover for example) after reading the rough synopsis, then together with the author and editor we choose one (or part of one) that works. After that I'll do whatever I think is best to get the effect I want.

A lot the time the books aren't finished when I start the cover art, so for more illustrative covers I rely heavily on the author to give me ideas or scenes from the story as a starting point for a sketch and we go from there.

6. What is it about the Pax Britannia setting that appeals to you creatively?

I just love old stuff. The way it looks and sounds and smells. Big rivets, pistons, chrome dials, brass, etc. There's something very appealing to me about nicely machined parts, and there's plenty of stuff like that in any steampunk setting. Plus Pax Britannia is full of genetic monstrosities, cars, freaky old weirdoes and all sorts of other things that are fun to play about with.

7. Of which piece of work are you most proud?

If it went well, whatever I finished last! I tend to go off my own art very quickly, and the more I look at stuff the more problems I can see with it. I have maybe a 1-2 week grace period when I'm happy with something, then the doubting starts... That said, I'm still quite happy with the cover I did for DEATH PLANET! that went in the Megazine recently and the cover for Regicide by Nicholas Royle.

8. Is there anything you haven’t illustrated yet that you would still like to?

I'd like to try some sequential comics stuff really, but they're just so time-consuming to do!

9. You are also a fan of Warhammer 40,000 and a skilled miniature painter. What is it about this dystopian far future medieval universe that appeals to you?

All the amazing art and design that goes into their stuff. When I was about 12 Warhammer (along with 2000AD) was my first exposure to all these weird stories and unique artwork that I'd never seen anything like before, and I still love both today. Painting Warhammer models requires this strange mixture of creativity and obsessive organisational behaviour which I find particularly satisfying for some reason.

10. What are you working on at the moment?

Absolutely nothing! Last Friday I finished the last three 2000 AD 'They are coming' teaser posters for CBR. You can see all 12 here:http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38316 

I went right up to the wire on that one, which was a bit of a stress as I had to get them all done before I take 2 weeks off to move house (this laptop is one of the few things not in a box!). When I start up again I've got to get the third eBook cover for Time's Arrow to do – you might have heard something about that? – and the design work for the rest of the Blood and Feathers book (like the spine and back cover layout, etc, plus the actual guts of the book). After that I really need to get on with the cover for the third volume of No Man's World; The Alleyman which I started bloody ages ago but had to ditch halfway through to get more urgent stuff finished (this happens a lot).

11. What advice would you give to any aspiring artists wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Don't give up. Even when you hear nothing back from every one of 3 million portfolios you send out. Just keep going and going and you'll get better and better with time. It’s taken me years and years of this and I still feel like I'm only just starting to make some progress.

12. Last question – do you have a favourite font for your design work? ;-)

Ha! There are plenty of fonts I hate – that'd be a bit easier to tell you about. There's every designers favourite moans like Comic Sans and Papyrus, but currently I'm filled with utter loathing for Nedian, which I've been forced into using so something can match an old series' cover designs (that I didn’t do). I'm also sick of seeing Trajan used absolutely bloody everywhere. I drive my wife mental by sitting watching TV adverts and barking out the names of fonts they use like some kind of typographic rain man.

On a slight tangent I've been badgering work to get me copy of Fontographer for ages so I can try and make some of my own, which if I ever get round to I'll put up as freeware somewhere.

You can see more examples of Pye's painting and design work (some of which is private or unpublished) over on his blog here, as well as weekly in the pages of 2000AD.

V is for Vincent Shaw-Morton

I met Vincent at last year's Weekend at the Asylum during the course of which his painting of a certain Miss R R Hood won the Ruskin Award 2011. We soon became firm friends and have followed each other's progress closely since.

As well as being a highly talented fine artist (just check out the oil paintings interspersed below) he is also an illustrator and budding writer. So, over to Vincent...

1. How did you start out as a professional artist?

Not sure how to answer this one, as regarding illustration I haven't yet earned anything. With regard to portrait painting, I taught myself over a couple of years by getting up at 5.00am and painting for three hours.

2. What was it that gave you the big break that led to what you’re doing now?

I am still waiting for that 'big' break as it hasn't happened yet. Although I have had interest from publishers, nobody has commissioned any illustration from me.

3. What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

All my illustration work is now done within the realm of digital painting. I start off with a pencil drawing, which is then scanned, and 'digitally' painted using Corel Painter and Photoshop.

4. What is the appeal of the steampunk aesthetic?

Steampunk is a rich source of visual inspiration for me, not least because I find it very romantic. You have the adventure from an age when much of the world was yet to be discovered, and when there was still a possibility of life on other planets within our solar system; yet design and aesthetic had still not become completely functional and utilitarian. A machine could be practical, and still look beautiful, and of course a gentleman (and lady) still dressed for dinner, or donned a nice tweed space suit for hunting Venusian Moon Men. Steampunk; tomorrow as it might have been.

5. Would you ever be tempted to paint something from the Pax Britannia universe?

I would definitely be tempted to paint something from the Pax Britannia universe. It is on my ‘must do’ list, but like most lists it is continually growing!

6. How long does it take you to complete a painting?

A real ‘How long is a piece of string?’ question. Depending on complexity and number of figures in the composition, a completed piece takes between one to four weeks, with two being average.

7. Of which piece of work are you most proud?

My cover design for Frankenstein. I wanted to get away from ‘Hollywood bolts’ and try and get closer to Shelley’s original description. The creature was created to be beautiful, and had striking white teeth and dark glossy black hair. It is these elements that make the hideous construction of the creature’s face all the more disturbing. Also I wanted the viewer to have some sympathy with the creature; after all, it is Victor Frankenstein that is the real villain of the book.

8. Is there anything you haven’t illustrated that you would still like to?

I have always had a hankering to illustrate faeries. Not the winged children sitting on flowers that Cicely Barker brilliantly created, but the darker more elusive type that Arthur Rackham; and in more recent years Alan Lee and Brian Froud have illustrated.

9. You are also an aspiring writer. How are your plans progressing with regard to getting published?

Writing has been pretty much put on a permanent hold with regard to novels and the illustrated story The Adventures of Stanley Steamwinch. After attending Get Writing 2012 I got some really positive feedback on the first chapter of Stanley Steamwinch and was told that I could very definitely write, which is great. However as I am unpublished I will have to invest a huge amount of time in creating all the stories and illustrations, and even then there will be no guarantee of publication, so I have decided to focus more on illustration. However I have been working on a short run parody style magazine, and have created some test articles and illustrations for it. These have been well received by my test audience and I will be self-publishing this in the not too distant future. 

 10. What are you working on at the moment?

Currently I am working on my parody magazine above, and some Arthurian myth illustrations very much inspired by Watt’s Chapel, a memorial chapel in Compton, Surrey.

11. What advice would you give to any aspiring artists wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Be ruthlessly honest and self-critical in terms of subject matter, technique and ability. By doing this you will discover your strengths and weakness, and ultimately discover your own voice and style within your work.

If you'd like to see more of Vincent's art you can do so at his website here, and you can follow his forays into writing here.

U is for the Unbelievable Art of Mr Karl Richardson

I first became aware of Karl Richardson's art when he started working for Black Library when they were still producing the Warhammer Monthly comic. His work then started to crop up regularly within the pages of 2000AD, and now, several years later, he and I have worked together for the first time.

You see Karl has illustrated my first Warhammer 40,000 Path to Victory gamebook, Herald of Oblivion. (You heard it here first, 40K fans!) So, over to Karl...

1. How did you start out as a professional artist? What was it that gave you your big break and led to what you are doing now?

I got a studio job, straight from 6th form when I was about 18. During my brief stay (it was the recession in the early nineties and I was let go after just under a year) I was mainly doing cartoons for greetings cards and posters. It was nothing too exciting and badly paid, but was a good insight into how the commercial art world worked. I decided to go freelance and continued to do the same kind of work as I was more assured of work. It worked out pretty well; I was earning more money, doing better work and felt more in control of things. After about 7 or 8 years I was starting to get the feeling I was underachieving with my work and just doing enough to get the job approved, principally because I was bored and badly needed a change in direction. During quieter times work-wise I started to sketch fantasy and comic book characters with the vague idea I might send off to 2000AD or Marvel! But sometime in the late nineties I was made aware of Games Workshop and the fact they were venturing into comics with Warhammer Monthly. I started to send off black and white inked posters of their characters and after about six months I got an internal drawing to do for an issue of inferno. It was definitely a turning point for me. I’d worked really hard on it and I can remember feeling different while I was working on it, in that this was what I really wanted to do! A cover for Warhammer came shortly after and eventually this led to getting the gig on Daemonifuge 2 and then Lone Wolves! After that there was no turning back.

2. What is your preferred method of working? Which medium suits your style best?

I still start all my work with pencil and paper, but finish everything on the computer whether its comic pages or fully rendered. I fall in and out of love with the computer depending on how many times it crashes on me, but at the end of the day it’s a fantastic tool to have at your disposal. Having said that, I’m currently thinking of returning to acrylic painting just to mix things up a little.

3. Which setting do you prefer – Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000?

I definitely prefer 40K - I think it retains most of the sensibilities of fantasy whilst letting you draw bolters spitting great gouts of fire lead at someone!

4. How did you enjoy creating illustrating Herald of Oblivion, drawing everything from Tyranids to Necrons?

Illustrating Herald of Oblivion was fun. I got to do a few new characters like the Necrons, the Painbringer being my favourite, and a return to Tyranids is always a joy. It also gave me the opportunity to work in full colour as I got the chance to do the cover!

7. How does working for 2000AD compare to working for Black Library?

I think there’s a little more creative freedom with 2000AD. As long as you retain the fundamental look of their characters there is room for interpretation. The Warhammer worlds on the other hand have to be adhered to very diligently. But I enjoy the bold and striking imagery inherent with the Warhammer worlds and love working in the future war theatre though, so I don’t mind!

Thanks to Karl for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to answer my questions and don't forget, you can see more of his artwork for Herald of Oblivion when my first Path to Victory gamebook is published later this year.