I have just listed an original illustration on Ebay. This one was for Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Mythos Tales, Houses Under the Sea published by Centipede Press. This is a bit of an experiment, so we’ll see how it goes!
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Houses Under the Sea – interior illustration
Books, Fiction, Illustration
Interior Illustration for Houses Under the Sea
This is an illustration for one of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s short stories in the recently published Houses Under the Sea (Centipede Press). I’m showing the image in its original state because I like the warmth of the off white Arches paper (the file submitted to the publisher was altered for printing). The finished book is beautifully made. Below are a few snaps so you can see how the artwork was incorporated into the design.
– Richard
New Edition
Books, Drawings, Fiction, Illustration
The good folks a PS Publishing posted an announcement in this week’s newsletter for a new edition of To Charles Fort With Love by CRK. It included my cover art – Entomologist’s Daughter.
Richard.
Illustration – Houndwife
Books, Fiction, Illustration, writing
Interior illustration by Richard A. Kirk
This is a second illustration for Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Houses Under the Sea, forthcoming from Centipede Press, and the last that I can show for now. It goes with a story called Houndwife and was also done with carbon pencil.
In this post, I also want to give a shout out to my friend Steve Venright who has a new book (November 2017) called The Least You Can Do is Be Magnificent
From the Anvil Press Website –
For over thirty years, Steve Venright has devoted himself to the liberation of the imagination, documenting hallucinatory trips through Southwestern Ontario’s deliriomantic landscapes with his signature puns, portmanteaus, and spoonerisms. The Least You Can Do Is Be Magnificent: Selected & New Writings is a generous gathering of Venright’s most enduring and extraordinary poems, including the revised and expanded “Manta Ray Jack and the Crew of the Spooner”— the most outlandish and hilarious seafaring tale since Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. This volume also features an in-depth examination of Venright’s work by scholar Alessandro Porco.
Mid March Update
Drawings, Exhibitions, Fiction, Illustration, Magpie's Ladder, writing
Interior Illustration by Richard A. Kirk
I am showing you an illustration I did for the forthcoming Houses Under the Sea by Caitlin R. Kiernan (the image is shown as a crop in the link). This is the first time I have illustrated a book using carbon pencil instead of ink. It was an interesting process as the medium took the drawings in a different direction. I will definitely play with this in future projects.
I’m still working on illustrations for my own book, Magpie’s Ladder, which will be published later in the year.
In May, I will have work in a show at Copro Gallery in California. The show is Roadside Attractions III, curated by Cris Velasco.
Lots more to come.
- Richard.
Book Announcements
Books, Fiction, Illustration, Magpie's Ladder, Media, writingPS Publications will be publishing my illustrated short story collection Magpie’s Ladder in 2018! I’ll post news about that project here as details become available. In the meantime, have a look at these two forthcoming titles from PS featuring my artwork and great cover design by Michael Smith. Give the PS site a visit if you have a few minutes, the catalogue is fantastic.
- Richard
Fall to Winter
Books, Drawings, Fiction, Illustration, Uncategorized, writingFollowing a very busy autumn, I’m now finally sitting down to plan creative work for 2017.
My new novel Necessary Monsters is scheduled to be published by Resurrection House/ Arche Press in May. I thought I’d share the description from the distributor’s website.
Lumsden Moss is an escaped thief and an unrepentant bibliophile with a long-suffering desire to foist some karmic retribution on those who have wronged him. But when the opportunity to steal a rare book from the man who sentenced him to prison puts him on the wrong side of the wrong people, Moss finds himself on the run. And it’s not just the book he stole that these people want, it’s also the secrets of a long-forgotten location on Nightjar Island, a place cursed and abandoned since the Purge.
When Moss falls in with Imogen, a nimble-fingered thief who has taken a traveling bookcase filled with many secrets, he starts to realize how much of his unsavory past is indelibly tied to a frightening witch-child and her nightmarish pet monster.
In a fantastic world, still recovering from a war where magic and technology were fused together, Moss and Imogen must decipher the mystery of their mutual pasts in order to illuminate the dark heart that still lurks on Nightjar Island.
Bookending 2017, fall will see the publication of my illustrated short story collection Magpie’s Ladder. I just signed the contract for this project last week and will have more details when I am able to share them. Needless to say I’m very excited about both of these projects.
In late November I turned in 8 illustrations for Centipede Press’s edition of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Houses Under the Sea – Mythos Tales. This title will be published sometime in 2017.
Also on the art front, I’m working on some new personal work, which I plan to share here as the winter progresses. Sometime in the next few months I’ll be participating in a show with the Shadowood Collective. Shadowood shows are always incredible and this one will be no exception.
– Richard.
Mythos Tales
Books, Drawings, Fiction, Illustration, Uncategorized
Interior illustration for Houses Under the Sea, Mythos Tales
Caitlin R. Kiernan has posted this illustration to her blog, so I guess I am okay to share it here as well. This is for the forthcoming Houses Under the Sea, Mythos Tales. Caitlin has provided details about this book on her blog. The book also features amazing art by John Kenn Mortensen and Vince Locke. Houses Under the Sea, Mythos Tales will be available from Centipede in 2017.
- Richard.
A Grotesque
Books, Drawings, Illustration, Natural HistoryDictionary.com defines grotesque as
fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms,as in decorative work combining incongruous human and animal figures with scrolls,foliage,etc.
This new piece is the first of many I’m doing on a beautiful block of 140lb Arches coldpress paper. My go-to paper is their hotpress, but the texture of the coldpress is perfect for these small pieces. It looks great in a raking light. I like to hang miniatures in unexpected places in a house, where the light can find them at a certain time of day. I hope you enjoy this one. In my filing system, it is Grotesque_1 but in my mind it is the Flowerfish.
If you enjoy process shots, you can follow my work in progress snaps on Instagram. I also post interesting things related to my work that don’t necessarily require a blog entry. In the coming few weeks I’ll be posting images of new grotesques, some new personal works and some in-progress illustrations for a short story collection called Mythos Tales, by Caitlin R. Kiernan, to be published by Centipede Press. If you are looking for original art work check out my Etsy store, Radiolaria Studios
- Richard
Flowerfish, 2016, ink on paper, 7″ x 10″
A is for Alien
Books, Drawings, Illustration, Media
I just noticed that PS Publishing in the UK has listed Caitlin R. Kiernan’s A is for Alien in their Forthcoming Books section. The cover design incorporates one of my drawings.
– Richard.
Richard A. Kirk 