News from Green Man Press

My big, fat art book: Drawing Down the Moon, The Art of Charles Vess has taken a
loooooooong while to wind its way from the completion of my initial layouts to actually
seeing print this December. And along the way there have been multiple false alarms as to its publication date.

The folks at Dark Horse and I want to apologize for any confusion that these solicitations may have caused.

So, in an effort to make certain that you know that the book will indeed be available this December we are providing you with a sneak preview of the entire 200 pages.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/eComics/1101/Drawing-Down-the-Moon-The-Art-of-Charles-Vess

“Within it’s pages you’ll journey through my high school and college age adventures in art and then follow me as I struggle throughout the years to put on paper what’s inside my head, up to the present day.

See what springs off of my drawing board as I move to NYC and try to geta job, any job at all, as long as it’s by drawing…

See me slide in through the back door at Marvel Comics and draw The
Warriors Three and Spider-man. Then watch as I skip across town to DC
and draw Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, Sandman and Stardust.

See me strike out on my own and self-publish an odd ball collection of
graphic narratives based on old English and Scottish ballads with a bunch of my all-time favorite writers. Then collaborate with Jeff Smith of Cartoon Books on the prequel to his splendid series Bone with our own 130-page adventure called Rose.

Along the way, see me bestowed with multiple Will Eisner, World Fantasy and Chesley awards!

Peruse the perceptive things that award-winning and international
bestselling author Susanna Clarke has to say about my art. I’ve  also commented prolifically on the art and process.

Above all, there’s the unique opportunity to view all the projects that you’d never have a chance to see except in a book like this: a 16′ bronze sculpture, event posters for local organizations, private commissions and previously unpublished paintings done just for the pure pleasure of doing them.

Here’s the link to my previous, image heavy, post on this blog about the book which includes various methods of ordering it:

http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/415#comments

Enjoy,
Charles

In the previous post I was replying to friend and fellow BoG brother, Shane Odom, “I’m sad to say that there are no acorns in my ‘Instructions’ illustrations.” But just yesterday I was walking to my ‘other’ studio and picked up a nice little acorn, slipped it into my pocket and then, promptly forgot about it. Today I was reaching for some change and there it was, then inspiration hit!

This ‘other’ studio is a space dedicated to producing a new piece of art, made possible by a promise that I made when I  finished ‘Instructions’ on schedule. I gave myself the time to work on anything that I wanted. And THAT ANYTHING, happened to be a scene that I’d had in mind since the Spring, set amongst standing stones, lit by a crescent moon with the King and Queen of Faerie surrounded by a horde of cavorting fairy folk all of which is now being drawn and then painted onto a sheet of 4 x 8ft watercolor paper!

As you can see at the top of this post, the King  now wears a bracelet made of small acorns wound about his wrist. and he and his Queen are surrounded by a circle dance of their many and varied subjects.

You’ll have to forgive the odd quality of these scans as this temporary studio doesn’t have much in the way of proper lighting.

And yes, I couldn’t help myself, I placed a Totoro figure amidst the swooping figures.

This is the blurriest of the lot, but it does give you the scope of the piece. I just started applying color this week and continue to have a ball working on this.

I hope to have it ready for display come FaerieCon time. Wish me luck!!

Best,

Charles