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

Exhibition in Denmark

15 July 2009

My artwork has been featured in an exhibition at the Kroppedal Museum in Taastrup, Denmark. The exhibition Moon included my Howl of the Werewolf image as part of the display.

L'univers des Dragons

15 July 2009

Bit of artwork of mine appears in the second volume of L'univers des Dragons published by Galerie Daniel Maghen. Both books are really attractive productions, and are packed with lovely pics from all sorts of talented bods including Paul Bonner, Aleksi Briclot, and Angus McBride. Very tasty.

Fantasy Art Magazine tutorial in China

15 July 2009

Old news! China's Fantasy Art magazine featured a four-page tutorial on the creation of my Talisman of Death pic. The same issue, whichever one it was, features stuff from Jim Murray, Kerem Beyit, and lots of others. Anyway here's a picture.

Fighting Fantasy Relaunch

15 July 2009

In September the Fighting Fantasy books are due for another relaunchfrom Wizard Books, repackaged with new cover designs across the series.

Here's a mock-up for the first release The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, with artwork cobbled from my Return to Firetop Mountain cover. I've just finished the actual artwork to go on this cover, which I'll whack up here shortly.

Monster Mash

14 July 2009

Hello Pals. Time for a new web site, and what better way to get this blog business started than with a picture of some smashing sossies and mash. Drool!