THE ART OF TOM BROWN

Today we welcome Tom Brown, illustrator, lunatic, singer, dreamer, Co-creator of and artist for Hopeless, to Ginger Nuts of Horror with a showcase of his artwork.  If you would like to commission him for Book cover, CD/Album cover, promotional art, Comics covers/Alternate covers, art for your kickstarter campaign, tattoo design or personal commission, please email him at Hopelessmaine @gmail.com (Removing the space) Or use this contact form.

Personal Demons first pages.

This first piece is the establishing shot for our graphic novel series: Hopeless, Maine.

I actually illustrated the first book in the series three times, and this piece was the one where I knew I had the look the series deserved and needed. I had been working in watercolour and chalk in a more indy comics style and then I ran across some manga that used pencil alone and this..just happened in my head (and then, my hand). I was also at a point where I really felt like I had something to prove, so I threw everything I had at this. It took me four days, I think. Crosshatching and softening, redefining, building tones, and making the eye move around the image in just the way I wanted.

Carcosa for Gallant Knight Games.

I really love having a wide open remit like this. I think the prompt was just “King in Yellow” and “Carcosa” I love Robert Chambers work. It is some of the most atmospheric and subtly and elegantly disturbing of the whole set of writing that has come to be labeled as the Weird Tale” My first paid illustration work was for  Cthulhu Mythos related publishing and I'm very much at home with that sort of theme and atmosphere. Past excess and decay, fallen cultures, tentacles, all of that sort of thing. When I was young, this is what my actual dreams looked like for the greater part.

Finally, here is  the cover art I did for Mr Cannyharme by Michael Shea. This was commissioned by Derrick Hussey at Hippocampus Press. This gave me an opportunity to do some urban mythos horror and to try to suggest a great deal about setting and the breaking of reality and the horrors behind the prosaic. This is also (though the cover art doesn't really suggest it) a strangely redemptive story in a lot of way. 

​I also did the cover art for Mr Shea's short fiction collection featuring The Autopsy. (Also Hippocampus Press) The Autopsy has now been adapted as episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities for Netflix. I seem to be attached to Shea's work with this publisher and I'm massively chuffed and honoured.

Tom Brown

Tom Brown was raised by books in much the same way that Tarzan was raised by apes but with much less dramatic results. He got his first professional illustration gig when he was thirteen and has been working in the field since then. (Taking time out for meals and such) He is also half of the primary creative team responsible for Hopeless, Maine.

CV includes work for Penguin/Random House, Chaosium, Archaia, Hippocampus Press, Centipede Press, Gallant Knight Games and work with individual authors, musicians and creatives. If you would like to commission him for Book cover, CD/Album cover, promotional art, Comics covers/Alternate covers, art for your kickstarter campaign, tattoo design or personal commission, please email him at Hopelessmaine @gmail.com (Removing the space) Or use this contact form.

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https://mothfestival.wordpress.com/commissioning-tom/
https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/GothicalTomB

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