Sweet Art
I promised I would do a post on the artist Darrell K Sweet, who did the artwork and cover for The Elfstones of Shannara and theWishsong of Shannara.
First let me say, that if the books weren't so long I would use a magnifying glass and muddle thru them but I really don't feel like doing that so.... let me show you one of the attractions of the books in case you don't have the eye problems I have and can actually read small print comfortably. (even if it is with glasses!)
Darrell K Sweet... a darn good artist. Below are the book covers for: The Elfstones of Shannara and The Wishsong of Shannara....and a few of the drawings on the inside of each book...
I love books that allow for artwork in them.. I know it's an added expense, but it adds so much to books.
I have a good imagination... but a little help goes a long long way!
I have always liked Darrell K Sweet... so much so that back in 1996 I obtained a book of his art work..
I wanted to show you some of the work in this book but it explicitly says "no form of reproduction including electronic".. so in order to honor this I will give you his website where you can see all the pictures in this book.. "here"
I hope you take the time to check him out.. he's really good! (duh ) He's painted many book covers and some you may recognize at this site. (I took note that he did a number of covers for Piers Anthony) The art book above seems to no longer be available for purchase except in a "used" form, some of those can be found on Amazon.
As for the Shannara books they are available in mass paperback (links are above) or you can get the entire trilogy (Sword of Shannara) in a hardback form for the same price as the three paperbacks in Amazon.
posted by DesLily | 12:57 PM
7 Comments:
I love the interior illustrations that you posted for this one! They're incredible. What a great artist!
Hey, I'm having trouble finding your email address so I can send you your giftcard. Why don't you email me at boldblueadventure AT gmail DOT com? Congrats.
I love the artwork. The Shannara book covers look so familiar to me... probably from the amount of time it takes to read each book!
Those are pretty! I do recognize his handiwork from quite a few of his book covers but there are some prints I haven’t seen before too. Love the one with the guy on horseback and the beautiful Sleeping Beauty-like castle in the background.
chris: I remember thinking (way back when) that I wondered why they changed artists.. I guess I still wonder! But they are both well known, so it's not like they upgraded or downgraded any..strange, very strange.
ladytink: I looked that one up in my book.. it was a painting done for a plate collection (8 plates) of "Romantic Castles of Europe"
Is it me or does the chap on the first cover, with the bow and arrow, look like Vincent Price?
My husband's just started reading these books by Terry Brooks, funnily enough.
maybe they got the same quality of art for lower cost; It's usually about money.
Sweet is the one fantasy artist who occupies the same place John Berkey and John Harris do in my heart for science fiction...his is the work I most commonly associate with my first introductions to fantasy. The first fantasy I ever read had his cover art on it and whenever I see his work, even on just published books, I feel they have a sense of age and time (and I mean that in a good way). Thanks for sharing this, it brought up really fond memories for me.
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