DESCENT

Cover illustration for Ray Bradbury's THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES

Oct 07, 2024

DESCENT (1989), Acrylic on Canvas - 28" x 48"

When I was asked to do a new cover for Ray Bradbury's classic The Martian Chronicles, I reread it and found I was deeply moved by the sense of inevitable tragedy that permeates the first half of the book.

Preliminary concept for THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES featuring a solitary figure wearing an ornate mask with hands resting on their lap as they sit cross-legged on a raised dune. A contrail arcs overhead toward two towers. In the immediate background a plain is marked with paths of intersecting arcs. On the horizon, a futuristic city rises in elegant towers. A large moon is mostly obscured while a smaller circle hovers in the nearby sky. — Preliminary concept for *The Martian Chronicles*

I was also struck by the weirdness of the Martian culture and noted that the cities were said to be like bones. I liked the metaphor enough to use bone and coral-like forms for the architecture.

LEFT: Preliminary concepts for THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES featuring a man in spacesuit holding a rifle in one hand and an alien mask in another. A tall rectangular arch rises in the background followed by a range of mountains that partially obscure the sun. RIGHT: ARRIVAL (1989), Acrylics on Watercolor Board. Preliminary concept for THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES featuring a solitary figure wearing an ornate mask holding a scepter as they sit cross-legged in the foreground right. The hint of a contrail descends above. — Preliminary concepts for The Martian Chronicles

Harkening back to legends of comets being harbingers of doom, the trail of the descending craft from Earth became the chief symbolic element in the painting.