GALLERY

About

Hello, I'm a freelance illustrator based in the UK.

I was born in London, and started out in illustration with work for fantasy & horror RPG fanzines in the '80s, in particular the H.P. Lovecraft-devoted Dagon. My first professional commissions came from Games Workshop for their magazine White Dwarf, and this began a long relationship with the company, illustrating lots of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay publications and the very first Warhammer 40,000 book, as well as many other GW books and boardgames. I've also done game-related material for other publishers, including covers and internal illustrations for twenty-two (I think) of the Fighting Fantasy series from Puffin Books/Wizard Books, and card art for Magic: The Gathering from Wizards of the Coast.

I've also produced artwork for various publishers around the world including Scholastic, Time-Warner, HarperCollins and Oxford University Press, illustrating popular authors such as Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist and Harry Turtledove, as well as some classics including Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and The Silver Sword. I was fortunate enough to receive the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist.

I illustrated the book accompanying the album release of Misterstourworm & the Kelpie's Gift, an orchestral work based on stories and characters from Scottish legend. My artwork was used as large-scale backdrops for live performances of the work by The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, with narration by Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd.

As an author, I've written some books about digital art including Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop and Digital Horror Art, and edited Fantasy Art Now published by Collins. In addition to work in publishing, I do concept and production art for computer games, and film and television productions which have included the BAFTA-nominated The Magician of Samarkand for the BBC, and most recently Gulliver's Travels for 20th Century Fox.

Currently: I'm writing and illustrating a picture book of my own devising which is due for publication Christmas 2010 (all being well). This is with Scholastic. While I'm busy on this I might still be able to accept some illustration commissions, so get in touch!

martin@martinmckenna.net

List of Published Work
List of Clients

Giclee prints at PODgallery
McKenna's Bookshop
Prints & posters at AllPosters.com
Prints & posters at Art.co.uk
CGSociety
ConceptArt
Epilogue
Art de la Fantasy
Fantasy Gallery
Neheriel Art
Wikia
The old martinmckenna.net

News

Strip tease

03 September 2009

Here's a look at a comic strip I'd been working on, now abandoned. It was a short weird tale in vaguely Creepy or Eerie style. The plan for the final art was for it to have a very minimal palette, shades of blue/grey with warmer highlights. Anyway, most of it's just at pencil stage, and I'm sticking it up here without any lettering so the story probably won't be entirely clear, but it's just for a look-see at the unfinished artwork.

Rondo slipcase

23 August 2009

The hardback editions of the Rondo trilogy are collected together in this snazzy slipcase, with my dragon from the third book on its front. It makes for a very large, shiny object.

Battle for Rondo

23 August 2009

Just received a hardback copy of The Battle for Rondo by Emily Rodda, so it's due out in the shops very shortly. It's the third book in the Rondo trilogy, and features a dragon on it by me with another dazzling foil dustjacket likely to induce fits.

Great Explorers

16 August 2009

Just received a copy of Children's Great Explorers Encyclopedia, packaged by Tall Tree Ltd and published by Parragon. It's a rather nice large-format hardback, and I'm pleased with how my illustrations look in the spreads; here are four of 'em.

The book's available to buy here.

Planet of the McKennas

09 August 2009

Look to the skies! Minor Planet (Asteroid) 42531 McKenna is orbiting around the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid has been officially named after Martin McKenna, my astronomer namesake, who was awarded 2005 Astronomer of the Year by the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies.

(Above) Original discovery image of 42531 McKenna from the digital sky survey. The asteroid is the short trail at centre, the long trail is a passing satellite.

The asteroid is described as having 'a slightly eccentric and chaotic orbit', and over tens of millions of years the random effects could cause anything to happen, including the chance of it falling into the Sun. But the McKenna's minor planet is stable dynamically for another 30,000 years at least, with some chance of surviving for tens of millions of years. So our name will live on long after we're gone, which is a nice feeling. Congratulations to Martin on receiving this prestigious reward, I know it's a dream come true for him, and it's a vicarious delight for me to enjoy a little of the excitement through our shared name.

More about the naming of the asteroid on Martin's site