Who is or was the best science fiction book illustrator/artist?

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Best? I dunno. But I've always been quite fond of Michael Whelan's work.

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I've always liked Michael Whelan and Vincent di Fate. Kelly Freas, too, for sentimental reasons.

Best Skin: Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Rowena Merril (3-way-tie)

Most Heroic: Frank Frazetta (Da Master)

Best Characters: Vincent DeFate, Frank Kelley Freas (tie)

Best Tie-ins to Actual Story: Rick Sternbach

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Best Fantasy Character (Conan): Ken Kelly's painting Roaring Fury of Conan, which appeared as the cover art for Howard's book Red Nails.

WARNING: The following picture might be considered gruesome by some.

http://www.kenkellyart.com/items/roa...aringfury.html

And if allowed to stretch a bit, I have to include Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth.

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Thanks for your recomendations folks!

Here are a few of my favourites......

Melvyn Grant, Jim Burns, Peter Jones, Chris Foss, David Bergen, Bruce Pennington, Angus McKie and Tim White. Because they featured on the cover of many of the paper back sci-fi books I started reading 30+ years ago.

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I like Chris Moore's stuff.

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<---- Big fan of Michael Whelan.

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Not sure on book cover illustrations, but the two scifi/fantasy artists I like best are

Roger Dean and Rodney Mathews..

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I like Jon Lomberg's art.

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In the U.S. back in the '70s, it seemed most paperbacks had abstract or extremely simplistic art that didn't make much of an impression. I paid more attention to Analog magazine, which sometimes did some interesting stuff. Frank Kelley Freas and Vincent Di Fate are the only artists that immediately come to mind.

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I second mike alexander's selections.

I liked the way Frank Kelley Freas was always able to work rather unearthly green tones into the shadows and details of his illustrations.

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Stretching the parameters out even further, I'd have to give a nod to one of the first in the field of Space Art: Chesley Bonestell.

http://www.bonestell.org/spaceart.html

The following painting was used in the 1949 book Conquest of Space.

http://www.novaspace.com/GICLEE/Bone...Bonestell.html

It's also hard to forget his wonderful painting that was used as a back-drop in the critically-acclaimed 1950 sci-fi movie Destination Moon.

Hi Tucson Tim,
Now those are the kind of paintings I find absolutely fascinating!
I remember seeing a while back, paintings of various views from the surface of hypothetical planets, where the evening sky was filled with the Pleiades star cluster, or the Andromeda nebula, and many other various views.

I have never been able to find those same painting since and never knew who the artist was!

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Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

I was first introduced to Bonestell's art at the university I attended (many years ago). In the Physics building there were framed prints of his in the hallways.

Here's a short bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Bonestell

That. Is. Beautiful.

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I don't remember him doing covers for books, but yes, his space art was great. He's definitely one of the (rather few) space artists I remember well.

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I'm not sure if he did the covers of any of these books but here is a list of books that he illustrated (from wiki):

That makes sense. These seem to be mostly popular science or space futurism (not quite science fiction). I certainly did see some of his illustrations, but I didn't associate him with science fiction book covers. Some of these books would have been a little early for me too, unless I found them in the library.

Wiki does say that he did some science fiction magazine covers in the '50s, but I'm also pretty unfamiliar with that except for Astounding (I collect those).

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On the OP, Chris Foss has always been a favouritee. he is an artist of considerable range.

On Chesley, does anyone know if there is a complete list of his space art anywhere?

Jon

I have a book of illustrations by David Hardy, who is in a similar category to Bonestell; he has illustrated a number of books since the Fifties, many of which were written by Sir Patrick Moore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Hardy

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I am the proud owner of an original Chris Foss. Here's the story...
When I was 14/15, my Dad worked for Granada, which not only produced TV programmes but also published. I was lucky enough to get a summer job there two years in a row and at that time, Chris Foss was one of the in-house artists. He was, I recall, a particularly nice guy and had just recently completed his covers for Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, amongst others. Anyway, one day I was in his office/studio and was admiring all the cool work around me. I especially admired one cover for a novel called "Cold War In A Country Garden" and, to my astonishment and delight, he asked "would you like it?". Obviously I stammered out a "YES PLEASE!" and it's still one of my prized possessions.

It's a bit tricky to photograph, since it's behind glass, but here it is.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Chris Acilleos is good. His 'Raven' covers are great, Kate Bush wore a Raven costume in the Babushka video.
He did a load of Dr Who covers as well and a bunch of Michael Moorcock books The Corum books I think

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I am impressed. I remember the book too. Not as good as the cover

You have to admire the skill of an artist famous for not only SF art but also for high quality technical illustrations of military hardware, especially AFVs. he also illustrated "Joy of Sex" too.

Jon

Ralph McQuarrie

I was digging around to see if I could find an image of a cover I used to like and I came across this: http://www.scifi-az.com/astronomy/astrobk1.pdf

I have no use for it, but I thought someone here might.

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I forgot to mention Virgil Finlay. His drypoint ink interior illustrations are marvelous, but he did pulp cover work as well. His illustration for Cordwainer Smith's story "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" on the cover of the Oct 1962 Galaxy magazine is a valued posession of mine.

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I've always been a Frazetta fan.

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Seconded.

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek