A Very Old Illustration of Ray Bradbury

I saw the spine of a Ray Bradbury book on my shelves this morning and I remembered this illustration. I was motivated to look on the blog to see what I had written about it. Alas, it appears I never posted it. I think this was done in 2003 or maybe 2004, and that was a few years before I started the blog. It must have slipped through the cracks.

I had a wonderful time working on it. Making art for the newspaper, every once in a while you get to do something for a story that is exactly what you've wanted to do all your life. Drawing a big illustration for a story and interview with Ray Bradbury might have been the first and most perfect intersection of dream-job and practical work I've ever had.

With a lot of effort and home-study I was beginning to have some confidence in my digital painting and used every trick I had learned up to that point. I was completely thrilled with how it came out. I don't remember who came up with the headline -- it certainly could have been me, and I hope it was! -- but doing the headline in the style of the old Amazing Stories logo almost put a tear in my eye when I finished it.

The End.

June 18th edit: 

I've just noticed that there have been more visitors to this blog entry lately and I felt I should point out that I wrote and posted this piece about three weeks before Mr. Bradbury's passing -- it might seem odd to the casual visitor that there is no mention of that. So, that's why.

I'll add that I think he was a huge, huge talent. Without question, he is one of the immortal writers of the 20th century. Thank you for all your wonderful work, Mr. Bradbury.