In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings, by S. M. Stirling

Gregory Manchess

This is the companion book to The Sky People that I showed earlier on Muddy Colors. Irene Gallo at Tor Books art directed. We had established a format with the first book, so we kept to the same banding across the bottom of the hardback cover.

Both books offered a chance to paint nostalgic realism. Counter to a very steamy, pulp-like image of Venus for the other book, In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings takes place on Mars. After discussing what was needed, with Irene, I started as always, with a load of thumbnails, freely sketching from my head.

Thumbnails seem to be the bane of many artist’s process, mine included. Early on in my career, I hated the way mine looked so I focused on becoming better at it. I spent many years working on them for each job.

A better thumbnail can drive a much clearer painting to finish. I discovered that the answers are always in the prep time, and the thumbnails are key. Once I know where the image is going, the painting becomes just a necessary step to complete.

I was torn between the very first sketch above and this last one. The last one seemed lonely and desperate, and just right for a shadowed foreground with a hot background.

The landscape was made up from a bunch of rock reference and shots I’ve taken over the years. I followed the thumbnail to the letter on this one. In fact, I projected the drawing directly to my canvas and went from there.

You have read this article with the title In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings, by S. M. Stirling. You can bookmark this page URL http://teamcolors.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-courts-of-crimson-kings-by-s-m.html. Thanks!

Write by: RC - Wednesday, March 9, 2011