1975: Year in Review
Starting out as a Professional Illustrator
Ever since I can remember, it seemed natural to draw things that interested me. I just did it. I wasn’t aware of wanting to be an artist until the concept of a career impinged on my mind, but in any case I never thought of it as a serious option until my third year in college.
I had grown to think that I had to be something professional, and since I’d always had an interest in human anatomy, I was intending to become a doctor. In college I was able to separate what I wanted to do from what I thought was expected of me, and in the latter half of my junior year I changed my major to art.
After graduating from San Jose State University, I attended The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. I enrolled hoping to acquire some mysterious quality of refinement I felt was lacking in my work.
I knew it would be a big mistake to attempt to find my first commission with anything less than professional-level work in my portfolio. If I was going to enter the illustration field, I wanted to do it with a splash.
There were some great classes at the art school, but as time went on I was getting more and more restless…and more and more in debt. The tuition costs at the Art Center were enormous.
As the summer of ‘74 wound on, I was doing more work for myself and one by one dropping out of my classes, wondering what my next move should be. Then it happened.
I was absentmindedly walking down a corridor at the Art Center when I spotted a notice for the San Diego Comic Con, calling for submissions to the convention’s art show.
I spent a week matting up some of my better pieces and went down to San Diego to put up the work. I couldn’t afford to stay for the convention; but when I went back to pick up my art, I found—to my utter astonishment—that everything had sold. (Having everything priced under fifteen dollars might have had something to do with it!)
Nevertheless, it was a vote of confidence that buoyed my spirits immensely. I also met someone there who offered to take some of my work to the World SF Convention in Washington the following month.
I got some things together and asked her to make sure to enter the work in the “Professional” category; I could think of no better way to gauge my chances for success against existing talents in the field. I was on pins and needles the whole time she was away.
When I called after a few days to find out how things had gone, I was prepared for the worst. Instead, I learned that my painting OUTBOUND had won first place for “SF Art—Professional” in the art show. I was floored. It was a great boost!
Incidentally, Thomas Schluck, a German agent who had seen my work there, also contacted me and offered to sell “foreign rights” to my art in Europe.
My instructors felt that I was ready for my first commercial assignment, but it was the success of those two exhibitions that gave me enough confidence to send slides to two New York Publishers.
Donald Wollheim of DAW Books wrote back expressing an interest in my work. Staking everything on his letter, I packed all that I could into my Volkswagen and headed east. I worked on more paintings for my portfolio and turned in my first assignment.
In early 1975, I continued working for DAW Books—as well as Marvel Comics, which is a story I’ll save for another time—before receiving my first assignment from Ace Books.
I have to admit that after dropping out of art school to pursue my professional career, my first few years as a pro were quite a learning experience. Trying to come up with better approaches to books that already had great artwork by Frank Kelly Freas, Ed Emshwiller, Davis Meltzer, and others was a tremendous challenge and gave me enormous incentive to improve.
Weekly Art Recap
Orb - cover illustration for Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony
Watchtower - gallery art painted for the second Tree’s Place exhibition
The Renegades of Pern - one of Anne McCaffrey’s favorite covers
Pursuit - a fan favorite Pip and Flinx cover for Alan Dean Foster
Flight of Discovery - inspired by chance discovery of castle ruins in Wales
Children of the Thunder - cover illustration for British SF author John Brunner
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I've got numerous photos of Michael I took over the decades at various conventions and exhibitions, including with your old Art Center professor. No to mention those shots of you taking out the garbage in Connecticut! My only regret years later is that I was never able to afford you for a Science Fiction Chronicle cover!
Hi Michael,
I wish you had quoted my dad's letter to you--he never wrote another one like it.
As you know he was not one for flattery!
xxbetsy