Painting by Charles Vess.

Charles Dana Vess (born June 10, 1951) is a premier American fantasy illustrator and comics artist who began his career in 1976, after moving to New York City. His visual storytelling of myths and fairy tales has won him several awards. In past interviews, he cited the following — among others — as influences: Arthur Rackham, Hal Foster, Winsor McCay, Walt Kelly, John Bauer, Alfred Bestall, Alphonse Mucha, and W. H. Robinson. Vess was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and now lives in Abingdon, Virginia, with his wife. I’ve been enjoying his work since 1984.

He uses coloured inks for his paintings, black India ink for his black and white illustrations, and graphite and (recently) black coloured pencil for his grayscale artwork. Somewhat recently, he’s also worked with coloured pencils in combination with coloured inks.

Vess paints beautiful pastoral scenes and is a master at rendering and painting fantastic trees. The skies and cloud formations he draws and paints have such beautiful and delicate atmospheres and moods. There is a great feeling of movement as well, present in all his work.

In addition to a deep well of wonderful imagination, I love his delicate line work and amazing, lively use of colour. His compositions are well thought out and remarkable, as are his depictions of forests and trees. Because his work is so whimsical and charged with emotion, it’s the perfect match for fantasy book illustration.

Charles Vess’ latest major project is The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, written by Ursula K. Le Guin. Sadly, she passed away on January 22nd, 2018, at the age of 88, very shortly before its publication. Vess created 56 illustrations over a span of 4 years for this massive volume, which was released in bookstores on October 30th, 2018.

Among many of my treasured books by him are Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess and Walking Through the Landscape of Faerie.​

Second to my faith in God, Charles Vess was the only artist whose work saw me through a great trial in my younger years — a great escape indeed!

Artwork by Mark Schultz.
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A quick note to let you all know that I've added another artist to my "INSPIRATIONS" page. His name is Mark Schultz and he's also a writer. Click here to get there.

Folks, some of you are wishing me congratulations. My apologies for not being clear enough. I'm not participating in the 57th TORONTO OUTDOOR ART FAIR; I did not apply for this exhibit—I'm still very busy illustrating my books. However, I do plan on attending it as a visitor. I shared the info about this fair because a lot of you would really enjoy it. Very best!

Photo from blogto.com
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Next weekend: July 6-8 (Fri., Sat., Sun.)
57th TORONTO OUTDOOR ART FAIR
at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto
​This is an awesome annual exhibit (rain or shine) and admission is FREE every year.
There are a plethora of beautiful paintings, photography, and other artwork. If you can make it to the fair, I'm sure you'll enjoy it a great deal, as I always do at these massive exhibits and fairs. ENJOY the summer and God bless!

When I was selling my work at St. Lawrence Market, a lot of viewers asked me who and what inspires me and my artwork. This question is also asked of me at opening receptions of my exhibits. And so, I created an "Inspirations" page in my website, listing a sampling of sources of inspiration which have served me well. I really do believe a lot of you will be interested in this topic and information about myself. To get to the "Inspirations" page quickly, please click here. Enjoy and God bless!

A little bit late, but oh well. May 1st was my very first day sketching outside in the balcony this year. Here, I was sketching illustration ideas for my second children's book. Aaahhh...it's so good to be back in the balcony. Humble and simple yes. But not mundane. More like comfortable and enjoyable and very cozy. There is beauty and joy in simple things.

My love of music and an old crush is revealed in this sketch, Moonlight Melodies. This is another sketch I did while on vacation in northern mainland Portugal. It will make a beautiful painting. Click here for more info.

My love for the seashore and fantasy is somewhat expressed in this sketch, Out in the Sun. This idea came as a result of someone's advice; that I should do a painting of a mermaid. My art director and editor just saw this sketch and loved it so much that he wants to purchase a print of the painted version. Unfortunately, this image will have to wait until I finish all the paintings for my first children's book.