DESTINY'S ROAD
Cover illustration for Larry Niven
After painting 6 concepts in an effort to distill Larry Niven's novel into one image, I settled on a mountaintop perspective that gave me the chance to offer an aerial view of the road and its environs.
The publisher agreed and I went to work on the finished piece; but upon rereading the material, I realized that I had the view wrong. If I followed Niven's text to the letter, it would be impossible to view the road from the angle I had chosen. Back to the drawing board!
I labored to make a corrected color sketch that offered an analogous scene that was literally correct and sent it to the publisher. But the art director and publisher said the mistake didn't bother them—they liked the first version better. Compositionally, I did too...so here is the painting as conceived in the original concept.
The novel wasn't finished at the time I painted the cover illustration, so I worked from sample chapters, Niven's detailed notes about the story, and in particular, his commentaries on virtually every important aspect of the science and history of the planet.
When Larry saw the painting on display at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention art show, he liked it so I thought maybe it would influence him to make a change here and there so that the art would be one hundred percent true to the text after all.
Additional images from DESTINY’S ROAD
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I love all of the flying creatures, both dragons and these. Michaels, have you read Martha Wells Books of the Raksura? I know Michael Whelan is not doing any illustration, but I would love to see your take on the different Raksura. In your copious spare time, of course.
So the color sketch shows your corrections according to the text, and the completed painting doesn't? Either way, this is one of my favorites. I think I saw it in person at a World Con somewhere and stood looking at it for a long time.