The blog SKI-FFY posted scans of John Schoenherr's pictures for The Illustrated Dune. And he quotes the back cover copy...
"I can envision no more perfect visual representation of my Dune world than John Schoenherr's careful and accurate illustrations." - FRANK HERBERTHear, hear, Mr. Herbert!
As far as I know, Dad made the full-color paintings featured here for the 1978 Dune calendar, and then the publisher decided to use them in an illustrated paperback edition of the novel and asked Dad to flesh out the book with black and white illustrations. He made these using his dry brush technique where he would load a brush with india ink, wipe much of it off on a paper towel, then apply the brush to the rough textured watercolor paper. Once the basic composition was laid in, he would work out the finer details with a steel nib dip pen.
I found your site through Jim Gurney. Thank you for posting your fathers work. He was such a great talent and a big influence on me as a young man reading Analog. I always looked forward to seeing his illustrations and they seemed a bonus to the great stories. His work for the Gordon Dickson Series of alien take over, Stanley Schmidts stories of Telzey, Randall Garrets alternate world of magic and of course the Dune series. I would love to hear more about his working processes as an artist.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Armand. It's good to know that Dad's work touched so many people. I'll try to touch on his processes more. He was always experimenting with new techniques - a lot of the time because the materials changed - especially scratchboard and watercolor paper.
ReplyDeleteIan- I visited your dad's studio a couple of times in the mid 1970s (I came with a group who largely came to worship). We were at Philly for an SF convention, and found who how to get to your house.
ReplyDeleteIn the aftermath of those visits, he was invited to come to Boston to be the artist guest of honor at the Boskone convention. I was grateful to be there when your dad finally met Frank Herbert, who also there as a guest. I think I got to pull Frank off a panel and say the words "Mr. Herbert, I would like to introduce John Schoenherr to you"
Thanks for these anecdotes. Who knows, I was probably lurking around somewhere on the property during your studio visit. And I'm pretty sure I was at the convention where Dad met Frank Herbert. I loved those events (though I was probably just as fascinated by the ice machine in the hotel hallway. I was a simple child.)
ReplyDeleteI still have my copy of the calendar and the Illustrated Dune. I could not believe that your dad could continue to come up with great illos for the stories. My comment from three years ago is credited as 'Stever' above.
ReplyDeleteThe Illustrated Dune was pretty much his SF swan song. He did a few things afterwards, but his heart wasn't in them - except for the various Frank Herbert-related odds and ends (Caedmon record covers, Man of Two Worlds, etc.). He had a real affinity for "Dune World" (as it was initially called).
ReplyDeleteIan, is there anywhere we can get prints of your father's Dune illustrations? They're so beautiful! Some of my favorites are lesser known works that were used for the record covers for Frank Herbert's recordings like Battles of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.
ReplyDeleteRob - I don't know of any legitimate Dune prints (apart from a small one Analog issued - a reprint of the January 1976 cover), but I'm hoping to rectify that. The Caedmon covers were some of his best, I think, and they might be a place to start. I'll keep you posted!
ReplyDeleteI would love to buy prints of the colour art from The Illustrated Dune if they could somehow be made available.
DeleteThat would be absolutely fantastic! I know a number of Dune fans who would gladly buy such prints if they became available. I hope the HLP cooperates with you. According to Byron Merritt, many of the original artworks are in their hands. A while back I did an internet search and found that a couple of the Caedmon covers and the cover of Chapterhouse are in the hands of one Robert Wiener. Here's a link to his collection: http://www.munchkinpress.com/cpg149/thumbnails.php?album=110&page=10
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