An Interview with Jim Burns
Conducted by Sandra Scholes
Jim
Burns started painting back in the 70's and has a career so far that
spans forty years. He has worked with some of the most famous writers to
illustrate their novel covers; George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett,
Neil Gaiman, Peter F. Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg and
Joe Haldeman. For an artist who has such a rich career, The Art of Jim
Burns: Hyperluminal is one book of many released to show what a
captivating artist he is.
Jim Burns has had various
art books published over the years; Transluminal: The Art and Thought of
Jim Burns (1999), Lightship (2000), and Imago: The Fantasy Art of Jim
Burns (2005). He has also recently done a collaborative work called
Planet Story commissioned by Philip Dunn and written by Harry Harrison.
I interviewed Jim Burns by email in October 2014, focussing my questions on his new art book The Art of Jim Burns: Hyperluminal.
What
was the inspiration behind your beautiful painting "Children of
Forgotten Gods"? The background is just as enchanting as the lady and
her dragon.
This was one of several paintings privately commissioned
by a collector in the U.K. Others for the same collector include 'Planet
of Peril' and 'Days of Gloriana'. He is a singular fellow with some
very specific ideas of his own when it comes to commissioning paintings!
You may notice a similarity in these three paintings. In particular he
has a penchant for elfin ladies with pointy ears! I basically interpret
his ideas in my own way. The lady is based on a particular model I
employed (the same model appears in both the other paintings mentioned
above) but I obviously layer lots of my own ideas and re-interpretations
on to her. But she's good 'basic material'. I decided to interpret his
requisite dragon in my own way. Essentially as a 'wyvern' rather than a
true dragon as I do have some issues with the skeletal implausibility of
dragons! Wyverns follow a basic body form that does actually exist in
bats and the extinct pterodactyls -- but true dragons have no equivalent
in evolution. The wing/forelimb articulation is pretty much
impossibility. Though I may have another shot at one someday.The
background is entirely invented...essentially made up as I go along.....
Still on "Children of Forgotten Gods", the background
is just as enchanting as the lady and her dragon. Tell me, is the place
real too?
No, it's not real -- I invented it -- but elements such as
the waterfall are obviously influenced subliminally by imagery I have
seen.
In "Hatchling," the 'Wyvern Mistress' is modelled by
your local barmaid. Have you had any unexpected models in your career
who you have worked with? Perhaps someone famous?
Well the model for
"Children of Forgotten Gods" did appear once in Britain has Talent - as
an assistant to an escapologist style act. Other than that -- no-one
famous. These days I'm employing models, both professional and amateur
far more than in the past. In the more remote past I would perform what I
call my 'Frankenstein act' on variously sourced material and have also
employed my family over the years.(cheap that way!). My wife, Sue
appears in a few early pieces but not usually as a particularly central
figure. Except in some of the historical romance covers I produced
before my science fiction career took off. The painting 'Homuncularium'
features a verbatim interpretation of my youngest daughter, Gwendolen
whilst 'Tertiary Node' features middle daughter, Megan.
One
of my personal favourite paintings in "The Naked God" -- Book 3 of the
Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. The detail is amazing. Just
how large is the painting so readers can get an idea of the size you
actually work in?
That one..like all the panoramic Hamilton paintings
was 4 ft wide.
You worked with Ridley Scott on the iconic
movies Blade Runner and Dune. Which director would you like to work with
these days?
To be accurate. Only Blade Runner. He'd initially wanted
me for Dune but he didn't get to make that movie at all. Blade Runner
replaced it. I'm not that drawn to film work to be honest. I'm happy to
beaver away at my canvases in my studio. Much has been made of my film
work but the truth is I'm not really cut out for that kind of thing. I
did work with Irv Kersher of The Empire Strikes Back fame on a projected
remake of Forbidden Planet and did in fact produce a lot more work for
that than I did for Blade Runner. But the project fell apart in a
screaming mess of litigation over in the U.S. -- so that was that. I
also produced quite a lot of work for David Twohy's Chronicles of
Riddick -- but I don't perceive much of my early concept work realised
in the movie. Concept art has a slightly spurious glamour about it...and
it is well paid -- but I find it a frustrating business and would
prefer these days to try and explore my own imagination more than
cock-eyed SF film scripts. My agent once told me of the possibility of
some design work on a movie but I was so caught up in a piece of work
with an urgent deadline that I had to turn it down. I asked her what it
was called and she said 'Oh...can't remember... Raiders of the Lost
something or other'. Win some, lose some! It might be nice to come up
with something nice and creepy for say, David Cronenberg!
Did
you ever get chance to work with George R.R. Martin on his book covers
for Game of Thrones, and have you had a chance to take a look at the TV
series based on it?
Well I did create all four of the covers for the
very first editions of the series A Song of Ice and Fire of which A Game
of Thrones is Volume 1. This was in the U.K. in the late 90s. They were
heavily worked pieces with lots of bonkers detail and real wood
veneers. I almost had a nervous breakdown over those! I didn't work
directly with George on these. Although I did know him slightly.
Apparently he did like the covers. I met him again recently at Loncon,
The World Science Fiction Convention in London and he said some nice
things about Hyperluminal. I was so heavily immersed in those GoT novels
at the time that to be honest I couldn't bear to watch the series on
TV..brilliant though I hear it is. It's also 'high fantasy' -- which I'm
not hugely interested in. I've never read any Tolkien!
You
say in your book Hyperluminal that you have had some strong working
relationships with the authors you have done book covers for. Who was
the craziest and most humorous you have worked with so far?
It might
be supposed that the weird and wonderful imaginations of science fiction
authors suggests crazy people behind the pen...but the truth is -- most
are reasonably sober professionals of pleasant and approachable
demeanor! But The work I did with Harry Harrison back in the late 70s
was memorable for me...meeting I think my first pro-writer and finding
him ...well a bit of both those things you mention. A little crazy, very
funny -- the man who delivered words at an extraordinary machine gun
rate and who had been in his own time a comics artist. He was also a
very keen promoter of the language of Esperanto.
Hyperluminal
is a huge collection of your work. Are there a few pieces you wanted to
include but didn't?
Inevitably a book like this is a massive job of
editing one's own archive. There are many pieces I would love to have
put in and some that initially I wouldn't but which did make it in when I
was persuaded as to their merits by the people at Titan...and on the
whole they were right!
When you have painted book covers,
you have had to read the novels to get an idea of what scenes to create,
but when you like to relax, what kind of novels do you like to get
into?
These days I'm trying to read more mainstream novels. A lifetime
of reading nothing but science fiction is guaranteed to rot the brain
-- but there was a prolonged period of my life when I read hardly
anything but. My wife belongs to a book club and I sometimes take up her
recommendations. I think it's safe to say that these days I get more
enjoyment from mainstream novels than SF -- and I NEVER pick up a
fantasy novel by choice. I'm also reading some Dickens again..the
greatest novelist of all maybe? Recent reads would include Stefan
Zweig's The Post Office Girl and Beware of Pity, The Road by Cormac
McCarthy, struggling a bit with Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Eric Ambler's
Journey into Fear ....also reading some horror! My first Stephen King
recently (Salem's Lot), Peter Straub's Ghost Story and all of Adam
Nevill's books. And lots more!
What made you want to change
from your acrylic artwork to working exclusively in digital?
I
didn't. I did take up digital art in part as what seemed to be something
of a necessity back in the late 90s -- if I wanted to stay in the
business of book jacket commissions. That was the way the world was
going. And I still produce the occasional digital book jacket
illustration. The 'bottom line' dictated this...Publishers were no
longer prepared to pay large fees to 'traditional' artists when a new
method arrived in digital production which could produce very rapid
output at inexpensive prices. But I do very few book jackets now..I much
prefer to be working to private commission and also producing my own
personal work...and this is all done in traditional media..acrylics
mostly but with likely diversions into oils and watercolour in the
future.Which isn't to say that I don't find sitting in front of the Mac
and turning out something in Photoshop (that's the only program I ever
use) both satisfying and interesting and a nice occasional diversion
from the physically hard work of painting on canvas or board.
You
already have forty years' worth of work behind you as a successful
artist, what does the next ten years have in store for you?
My best
work for a start! I'm convinced I have my best work in me particularly
as I'm exploring my own imagination more now. You'll still see science
fiction subjects -- but I'm very drawn to the old mythologies and am
working currently on several paintings based on various mythologies.
Also one big one about to be commenced based on a Keats dark romantic
poem and some Poe subject matter also. Darker territory of the
imagination I like to think.
Originally published on SF Site.
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