FOOTFALL
Cover illustration for Larry Niven
This is the only cover painting done for Del Rey Books in which I was “art-directed” into doing something I did not want to do.
On the odd occasion that Don Munson, the del Reys, and I had a detailed discussion about a cover, I came away feeling that they had pulled out of me not only the best image for selling the book, but also an image that I was happy to do because it communicated something that I felt was important.
This one went against my grain: it gave away the mystery of what the aliens looked like; there was no indication that the creature was an alien (it looked more like a mutant elephant on a rampage); although much was made in the story of the aliens being herdbeasts, this creature was alone.
Nevertheless, the characterizations of the aliens were engaging enough to interest me in doing a virtual portrait of one of them. In fact, the most enjoyable thing about doing this painting was detailing the texture of the alien's skin.
Though I was satisfied with the resulting painting as a book cover, I had planned to “finish” it when it was returned to me, adding mushroom clouds, contrails, brilliant though tiny specks in the sky, and burning buildings in the far distance.
Additional images from FOOTFALL
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I remember this cover because it was one of a few meetups of two of my favorite SFF luminaries: Niven and you!
I’m fascinated by the idea of “finishing” a painting after delivering to a client. I’m sure it’s not something you ever want to do (you want to be satisfied enough with the delivery) but how often have you revisited a painting for your personal satisfaction? (Recently I had a painting I enjoyed enough to revise after delivery so that the layout was more balanced without the title design - a “directors cut” of sorts 😂)
I was actually glad for this illustration, because I couldn't picture the way the alien's trunk split into hand-like appendages. I kept having to go look at the cover.