Sci-fi Month: The Art of Science fiction

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I have a confession to make.

Ever since I started following Tor.com on Facebook, I've been obsessed with beautiful sci-fi and fantasy art. Tor publishes so many amazing stories, and somehow they manage to rope in amazing artists to go with them. Every time they post a new book cover, I'm starry eyed and filled with a need to get my hands on a copy of that book just so I can stare at the beautiful covers.

I did some googling, and I found out that there's a whole world of SF/F artists that not only make covers for existing stories but also create beautiful pieces from their own imagination! So here's a sampling of some of my favorites. (PS you can find more on my gorgeous book covers Pinterest board!)

Victo Ngai

Artist: Victo Ngai   
This is a cover for a short story on Tor.com. It's beautifully written, and based on Japanese folklore.
Raw art and the book cover for Vicious by VE Schwab. The symbolism and the amount of work that goes into these covers...mindblowing.

This is also for a short story on Tor.com, but one I haven't read.

Julie Dillon

kaiju_contest_sk3a
This is the cover for an anthology by Sanderson, Robinette Kowal, Wells, and Tayler. You can hardly see the monsters in the actual cover but there is so much detail to them!

tor_costbenefit_color1sm

fantasybook1_scholars_tower_webbreaking_through_by_juliedillon-d5dq2j8
Artificial_Daydream
These three are just random illustrations by Julie. All of her work is colorful, imaginative, and very detailed, so check it out here! She's probably my favorite artist right now.

Michael Whelan

What's a list of art without Michael Whelan? My favorite covers of his are for the Stormlight Archive, but that's fantasy so I can't post them here.

cover art for THE WILDING by Michael Whelan
Cover art for The Wilding.

cover for DESTINY'S ROAD (1991) by Michael Whelan
Starmaker

Les Edwards

I wasn't too familiar with this artist's work, but then I saw that he's done UK illustrations for Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series! So of course I had to go to his website and scour it for science fiction art...

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Helium

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Starmaker

Did any of these catch your eye? Which covers are your favorites?





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Comments

  1. Rinn (Rinn Reads)November 16, 2014 at 9:36 AM

    UGH SUCH BEAUTIFUL AMAZING ART AND IT MAKES ME WISH I COULD DRAW!!


    It also makes me sad that a lot of it gets covered up by titles and the like. So gorgeous...

    ReplyDelete
  2. KritikaNovember 16, 2014 at 12:47 PM

    I know! I never really paid that much attention to the art because the title and the author's names would cover a lot of it but when I see the actual artwork I'm blown away by the detail!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ms MisantropiaNovember 16, 2014 at 4:34 PM

    Such beautiful art, thank you for sharing! My favorites are Shadows Beneath and Helium, amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anya E. J.November 16, 2014 at 6:59 PM

    Wow I need all of these RIGHT NOW! I didn't realize that Tor.com published so much beautiful art! It's great to be reminded that sci-fi art can be beautiful and awesome when I've seen a few too many objectified women on covers lately

    ReplyDelete

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