Last week Black Library posted the cover of Bloodforged, the sequel to my first Ulrika the Vampire novel, Bloodborn, so I guess that means I can post it now too. Beautiful, isn’t it? I think Winona Nelson did an even better job on this one than she did on the first one, and the first one is fantastic. I can’t wait to see what she does for Bloodsworn, the third in the series.

Click on the picture to visit Winona’s portfolio site and see all her other work!

Check out the cover art for my pal Christa Faust’s forthcoming Angel Dare novel, Choke Hold. Glen Orbik is a fantastic painter – a real throwback to the golden age of pulp cover artists. Click on the cover to visit Christa’s blog and learn more.

Here’s the cover Glen did for Christa’s first Angel Dare novel, Money Shot. Click on it to go to his site and see more of his work.

This is pretty cool – at least I think it is. Lisa Morton, at the Iliad Bookshop sent word to me through my pal Christa Faust that a guy had come in with leather-bound copies of my Warhammer books. Apparently he had done it himself, and they looked pretty good.

Never one to resist appeals to my vanity, I popped over there to see for myself and they did look pretty good – so I bought ‘em. And here they are!

Pretty damn cool, huh? They are, the Blackhearts Omnibus, and the Gotrek and Felix Omnibus Vol I, II and III. Whoever he was, the bookbinder didn’t just do bindings for the G+F and Blackhearts series. There were at least ten other Warhammer books in the collection, all neatly done up in black pleather.

Let me just say right here that this is the sort of thing I highly encourage. If anyone out there wants to make bound, embossed, gold-leafed, gem-encrusted or otherwise custom-crafted bindings for my books, or illustrations of their characters, or miniatures perhaps, I’m all for it, and I would love to see a snapshot or two of the finished product – which I would of course feature prominently on this blog.

Finally, to the anonymous bookbinder, let me just say, thanks! I love ‘em! Keep up the good work!

I don’t know much about Min, not even if he or she is male of female. I do know that Min is from Sydney, Australia, and works as a concept artist, and than all Min’s work is as beautiful as this. So click on the picture to see more!

Jake Powning has made a new sword, and as always, it’s a beauty. Unfortunately, this one isn’t for sale. It was a private commission, but it doesn’t cost to look, and there are others available on his site. Click on the picture to see a cool step-by-step pictorial of how he made it.

While prepping my next writing projects, I’ve also been doing some graphics work for friends who have clubs and bands. Here is some of what I’ve been working on. Click on the pics to go to the RSVP page for each.

I also did another logo for Club Romper Stomper.

I don’t normally post to an artist unless they have a personal portfolio site I can link through to, but in this case I liked the art so much I thought I’m make an exception. This is by someone named Mr. Jack, who seems, from various clues, to be a concept artist at Blizzard, but that’s about all I know. If you click on the picture it’ll take you to his Deviant Art page, which is better than nothing, but, dude. With talent like yours, you should get your own site!

Discovering the work of Jason Chan led me to ConceptArt.org, which led me to almost all the other artists I have featured on this site, so it’s about time I featured him too, don’t you think? Jason is amazingly talented, not just as a technician, but as a visual storyteller. All his paintings tell a story, or reveal the character of the person who is the subject.

This, for instance, is not a generic creepy girl with a dagger, but a specific creepy girl with a dagger. Not that I know her name or anything….

Click on the pic to go to Jason’s gallery and check out the rest of his work. You won’t regret it!

And better than ever.

I delivered my first draft of Zombieslayer yesterday and have finally come up for air. I always get a little, uh, focused toward the end of a draft, and I really haven’t paid much attention to anything other than writing, so things like buying groceries, cleaning the house, bathing and updating this blog have sort of gone by the wayside. But now I’m done (at least with this draft) and I have a little time to breathe, so… let’s get back to the art and noise, shall we?

Then I’ll go take a bath…

Here is Maciej Kuciara painting of one of the classic fantasy tropes – the half naked barbarian woman. A lot of times this kind of subject matter gets a bit cheesy and dull, but I like what he’s done with it. Click on the pic to go to his site, which is filled with amazing stuff. He is a top-notch landscape and matte painting guy too.

A cool blog I check out from time to time is The Art Department, which is the personal blog of Irene Gallo, who is an art director for Tor. She posts art for upcoming books, as well as the art of her friends and artists she admires – and the occasion post about her dogs. Here’s a recent pic from a Cthulu contest she sponsored.

Click on the picture to go to her site and look at all the goodies.