Art book finished

It has been a long and exhausting journey, but my first art book The Art of Petar Meseldzija has finally been wrapped up and sent off to the printer. The release date is scheduled for August 20^th.

For the last 6 months I have been working very hard to put the book together, and I must say that I would never achieve my objectives without help I received from a few people who kindly offered their assistance and expertise. First off all, Dragan Bibin who helped me design the most important features of the book; Dragan Polovina who helped me finish the digital maquette of the book; Rian Gemei from Dark Dragon Books who did the actual job of wrapping up the book; my lithographer Marcel Salome from Re-Art who skillfully reworked all the digital files and by doing so “switched on the lights” in the paintings; and last but not least, Greg Manchess who very generously agreed to write the introduction, a very insightful and a wonderful one, which, to be honest, still makes me blush when I read it.

But of course, all this wouldn’t be possible without Amin Gemei, the publisher, who said “yes” when I asked him if he would be willing to publish my art book.

This hardcover, 160 pages book, with the text in English, will be first presented in August at the comic convention in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands. In September, I will be presenting it at the IlluxCon show in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

In case you want to know more about the book, here are a few links:

Dark Dragon Books 

Facebook The Art of Petar Meseldzija

 

More oldies

These two oldies were also painted in watercolors. The first one is from the book Peter Enkorak by Terry Jones (the original title is Jack One-Step) and it is my first illustrated book. It was published by Mladinska Knjiga from Slovenia in 1991 as a very little, thin book with only 9 illustrations. Three of them will be included in the upcoming book The Art of Petar Meseldzija.

The other illustration is in fact an unfinished piece which I did in 1994 while contemplating a story that takes place in the 17th century Holland; with a talented and brave little rabbit, his a little less brave mouse friend, and a guy by the name of Rembrandt (who was not a very talented painter) as the main characters. And although I wrote almost the entire story, I never went further than this unfinished illustration.

 

 

Another Oldie

This painting of a giant was made during my studies at the Art Academy and is one of the illustrations from a book I was busy with at that time. Although the book was never finished, it was my first serious attempt to illustrate a children’s story. I painted this piece in watercolors, and one can easily see that I was heavily inspired and influenced by Alan Lee’s art.
  

Framed paintings

During my studies at the art academy I once heard the teacher saying that a painting is considered finished only after it is framed. In the past, many artists used to frame their paintings before they applied the final layer in order to make a perfect match between the two. Beside it’s aesthetic purpose, frame’s primary function is to separate two different realities, the reality of the art work, and the reality of the surrounding space.

I must admit that I do not frame my paintings before they are finished; on a few occasions I even repainted the frame so that it worked better with the painting. But I never forgot my teacher’s lesson about the importance of a frame. However, choosing an appropriate frame for my pictures has always been a challenge and I must say I am not very good in that.

For the past few years I did many commissioned paintings. Most of these paintings were delivered unframed. And because I am always interested in how the “finished” painting looks like, I often ask the client to send me a photo of the framed painting. I also like to see where and how my “babies” hang for I know I will never see most of them again. This makes me a little sad sometimes.

 

 

In front of a small portion of their huge collection, Gregg and Yvette Spatz, with Shadow Comes behind

 

The Rescuer preliminary drawing hanging next to an original Tarzan page by Burne Hogarth

Jean and Morgan Bantly in front of a part of their collection, with Gandalf in the back

 

Little giant study

 

 

 



Few hours later and still in progress 

New face on Facebook

Well, I resisted as long as I could, but good people from Dark Dragon Books, the publisher of the upcoming The Art of Petar Meseldzija book, finally convinced me that it was time to have a Facebook page in order to keep the audience informed about the latest developments regarding the book, as well as other activities of mine (hopefully not all of them…) Dark Dragon Books was kind enough to create this Facebook page, and you are invited to visit it as often as you want. Inspite of a dubious banner, this Facebook page will be a decent one…

Anyway, here is the link, so check it out

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-art-of-Petar-Meseld%C5%BEija/383454718432091

 

Beasts

 

 

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