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Edd Cartier (1914 - 2008) Edd Cartier was an American pulp magazine illustrator with over 800 illustrations of The Shadow, dozens of illustrations for L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction and fantasy stories during the 1940s and countless illustrations for the remaining writers of the Golden Age, making him one of the leading artists of his time. He illustrated for, Astounding Science Fiction, Doc Savage Magazine, Unknown, Planet Stories and Fantastic Adventures. He worked for major pulp fiction publishing houses including Street and Smith Publications, Gnome Press and Fantasy Press. Cartier won the 1992 World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1996 and 2001, he was nominated for Retro Hugo Awards.
Edd became a judge of the Illustrators of the Future Contest in its inaugural year (1990) and remained so his entire life. “Being able to be a judge of the illustrators was a tremendous honor. I myself knew what it was to get into the field being a young artist.”
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Robert Castillo is a Storyboard Artist who lives in Jersey City and works in New York City. He is represented by Frameworks LLC.
Robert graduated with honors from The Art Institute of Boston and has a Masters Degree in Computer Arts from The School of Visual Arts. As a storyboard artist Robert has created boards for films including Lee Daniel's "Precious", the Christopher Reeve’s directed animation Everyone’s Hero, Queen Latifahs "The Cookout" and "Perfect Holiday" and the award winning cable television program The Sopranos. He has also done music videos for Alicia Keys, Ja Rule, Kid Rock, Lauren Hill and Don Omar, commercials for Phat Farm, Adidas, And 1, as well as promo work and music videos for MTV, Nickelodeon's Ironman, Fuse, VH1, Court TV and ESPN. Robert has done Concept Boards for shows like Lopez Tonight, Skins and Chopped.
Robert’s talent has been recognized with various awards, and honors including L. Ron Hubbard's Illustrators of the Future and The Student Academy Awards in 2004 for his short film S.P.I.C. The Storyboard of My Life which has Screened in 14 festivals including Cannes and The Museum of Modern Art. In 2005 S.P.I.C. had a special screening at TIME Magazine in NY and at Walt Disney Studios. Robert is an adjunct professor at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ. Robert has also Lectured on The Art of Storyboards at NYU Tisch and Jersey City University.
Robert has given back by auctioning his artwork for The John Starks Foundation as well as Project Sunshine and The Tony Darrow foundation. He also volunteers his time with Ghetto Film School in the Bronx, NY, Mount Sinai Hospital and The Automotive High School of Brooklyn, NY. He is married to Karen Latney and has 4 dogs BooBoo, Xena, Missy & Mugwei. |
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Vincent Di Fate has been cited by People Magazine as “One of the top illustrators of science fiction.” The many awards he has received for his paintings would attest to that including the Frank R. Paul Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction Illustration, the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist and the Chesley Award from the Association of Science Fiction/Fantasy Artists for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. He was also Guest of Honor at the 50th World Science Fiction Convention in 1992. His work has been exhibited at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C and the Kennedy Space Center.In addition to providing us with his own art, he has written numerous articles on the topic and published two major books: Di Fate’s Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware and the award winning Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art, in which he collects works from many of the modern masters and discusses the significance of each artist. He continues to lecture extensively about the methods, meaning and history of his craft and has been a consultant for MCA/Universal, 20th Century Fox and MGM/United Artists. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (State University of New York). He has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 1996.
“By being the public dreamers for our species . . . we keep a vision of a better world and life acute in the universal consciousness. We point to the infinite potentials that lie within us and to the limitless frontiers that lie among the stars, and all the while we remind ourselves that as good as it gets, it could always be better.” —Vincent Di Fate, Illustrators of the Future Contest Judge
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Leo and Diane Dillon are legends in the world of illustration and the graphic arts. They met in 1954 at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, married in 1957 and have collaborated in an artistic partnership ever since. Their inspired and beautiful work has adorned thousands of venues including many science fiction and fantasy publications as well as children’s books they have written themselves.They are known far and wide for their line, draftsmanship and unique color sense. They have earned numerous awards including a Hugo for Best Professional Science Fiction Artists. They have been Illustrators of the Future judges since 1998.
“Dream the dream, aim for the best you can do, and make the next job better than your last.” —Leo and Diane Dillon, Illustrator of the Future Contest Judges |
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H. R. Van Dongen has been one of the premiere science fiction illustrators from the early 1950s through the 1970s, creating more art for Astounding Science Fiction than any other artist. His superb artistry led to at least one Hugo Award nomination for best professional artist. In addition to his work in science fiction, he has also illustrated numerous magazines and book covers over the years. He is widely recognized for his ability to read a story, extract the precise meaning of the author’s intent, and convey it through pictures. Mr. Van Dongen has been a judge of the Illustrators of the Future Contest since its inception and he demonstrates his own precise artistic insight and conscientiousness while performing his judging duties. He has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 1988. “I only wish that there had been an Illustrators of the Future competition forty-five years ago. What a blessing it would have been to a young artist with a little bit of talent, a Dutch name and a heart full of desire.”
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Although he has produced art based on such characters as Indiana Jones, Batman, and Superman, he became most well-known for his Star Wars artwork. The Star Wars Art of Dave Dorman was published in 1996 by Random House/FPG. Dorman won a poll of the readers of The Official Best of Star Wars magazine in 1998, as "Best Star Wars Artist".
Dorman won an Eisner Award in 1993 for his paintings in the book Aliens: Tribes. In 2010 he won the prestigious Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic-Con, where he was a featured guest that year. During that show, he also launched his new career retrospective book, ROLLING THUNDER: The Art of Dave Dorman, which is published by IDW Publishing and Desperado Publishing.
Dorman began his roleplaying game (RPG) work beginning with Pacesetter Ltd in 1985, and began freelancing for TSR in 1987, producing cover art for Dungeons & Dragons books as Gargoyle and the original Draconomicon, among others. Dorman also did artwork for the games Shadowrun (FASA), Torg (West End Games, or WEG), Champions (Hero Games), Mayfair Games' "Role Aids", Rifts (Palladium Books), and Blood of Heroes. Dorman also produced all the art for some of WEG's Star Wars roleplaying game supplements in the 1990s.
Dorman is also renowned for his toy design work for G.I. Joe, Micronauts and the action figures for Alien. Dorman has been known for more than 20 years because of his photo-realistic style of oil painting. Star Wars creator George Lucas is a fan of Dorman's work and has purchased more than 80 of Dorman's original oil paintings, many of which are displayed at Skywalker Ranch. Dorman held a license with Lucasfilm for many years to do limited edition prints. |
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Bob Eggleton was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1960 and became interested in science fiction art at an early age. Today he is a successful science fiction, fantasy and landscape artist. Winner of 7 Hugo Awards and 11 Chesley Awards, his art can be seen on covers of numerous magazines, professional publications and books in the world of SF, Fantasy and Horror across the world including several volumes of his own work. He also has worked as a conceptual illustrator for movies and thrill rides. Of late, Bob has been doing more private commissions and self commissioned work. He is an elected Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical artists and is a Fellow of The New England Science Fiction Association. He has been an Illustrators of the Future judge since 1988.
“L. Ron Hubbard ignited the spark of imagination, which in the minds of these new artists has become a blaze.” —Bob Eggleton, Illustrators of the Future Contest Judge |
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Will Eisner (1917 - 2005) Will Eisner was a comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studios he founded and for his influential series The Spirit and for his leading role in establishing the graphic novel as a form of literature with his book A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. He was also known for his educational work about the medium as exemplified by his book Comics and Sequential Art.
The comics community paid tribute to Eisner by creating the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which recognizes achievements each year in the comic book world. He was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Will became a judge of the Illustrators of the Future Contest in its inaugural year (1990) and remained so his entire life. “Today young illustrators are at the threshold of an enormously promising era. We are in a ‘visual age.’ The modern conduct of communication is employing imagery at a greater ratio than ever in the history of human intercourse. For the illustrator it is the best of times.”
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(1928-2010) Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of eight, at the insistence of his school teachers, Frazetta's parents enrolled him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michele Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. At 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books that varied in themes: westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other contemporary themes. Some of his earliest work was in funny animal comics, which he signed as "Fritz". During this period he turned down job offers from comic giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature "Shining Knight"), Avon and several other comic book companies. Much of his work in comic books was done in collaboration with friends Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel. Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular comics. Having emulated Capp's style for so long, Frazetta's own work during this period looked a bit awkward as his own style struggled to reemerge. Work in comics for Frazetta was hard to find, however. Comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style was deemed antiquated. Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine. By 1964, one of Frazetta's magazine ads caught the eye of United Artists studios. He was approached to do the movie poster for What's New Pussycat and earned his yearly salary in one afternoon. He did several other movie posters (see notable works). Frazetta also started producing paintings for paperback editions of adventure books. His cover for the sword-and-sorcery collection Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp (Lancer 1966) caused a sensation-numerous people bought the book for its cover alone. From this point on, Frazetta's work was in great demand. During this period he also did covers for other paperback editions of classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as those from the Tarzan and Barsoom (John Carter of Mars) series. He also did several pen and ink illustrations for many of these books. Since this time, most of Frazetta's work has been commercial in nature, providing paintings and illustrations from things such as movie posters to book jackets to calendars. Many of his paintings are uncommissioned but have nonetheless become highly sought after commercially. Frank Frazetta was an Illustrators of the Future Contest judge since its inception, until he passed away. "The Illustrators of the Future Contest is one of the best opportunities a young artist will ever get. You have nothing to lose and a lot to win." —Frank Frazetta |
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Laura Brodian Freas, is a Doctor of Music and a professional artist whose first nationally illustrations appeared in Weird Tales, Analog, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and in special editions of Easton Press. She has been nominated for the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artist’s highest award four times. She and husband, Frank Kelly Freas, shared the Chesley Award for the joint painting Scribe. If you listen to classical music on National Public Radio, you have heard her hosting Music Through the Night and other classical segments. She became a judge of the Illustrators of the Future Contest in 1996.
“Many of our winners go on to have very successful careers. . . . I’ve had a successful career as an illustrator and now I want to see others do the same.”—Laura Brodian Freas, Illustrators of the Future Contest Judge |