• Curse of the Mummy
  • Blue Mouse Blacksmith
  • Gnome
  • Mirabilis - Jack Ember
  • Cyborg
  • Eye of the Dragon
  • Film visualization stuff
  • Mirabilis - Big Ben
  • Blue Queen
  • Frankenstein's Legions - French Grenadier
  • Vampire Hunter
  • Film visualization stuff
  • Spellbreaker
  • Legend of Zagor
  • Bloodbones
  • Frankenstein's Legions - French Officer
  • Frankenstein's Legions - Grande Armee
  • Talisman of Death
  • Lycanthrope
  • Werewolf

GALLERY

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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 small press magazines 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 occasionally do concept and production art for computer games (following two years as an in-house artist at Eidos Interactive), 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: October 2015: My latest picture book The Crocodolly was published in hardback by Scholastic last month, and is available in Australia, New Zealand, and soon to be released throughout Asia in English, also with a translation into Chinese. The Crocodolly is something of a companion to my earlier picture book The Octopuppy which has been doing pretty well internationally -- more info at www.theoctopuppy.com  Right now I'm working on my next picture book; so most of my energies have been directed towards my books for children. But I've also just finished another album cover for Axel Rudi Pell, which is the fifth sleeve I've done for his records.  I've also been doing a little bit of work on the Game of Thrones computer game.

martin@martinmckenna.net 

  • List of Published Work
  • List of Clients
  • Merchandise at Wardrobe Of Terror
  • The old martinmckenna.net
  • The Octopuppy
  • Prints at ArtPal
  • Artwork Archive at Flickr
  • News

    A Danish wizard


    My covers continue to appear around the world on new print editions of Emily Rodda's Rondo series. Look at this pile of 'em. The latest to arrive is a Danish language edition published by ABC Forlag, Denmark.



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    Into the Storm


    The new album from Axel Rudi Pell, with a cover by me, released in Germany on Jan 17th; the rest of Europe on the 20th; and the USA and Canada on the 21st. More info on Axel's official site.





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    In for me


    Recent posts have made this more of a blog thing for 'Olds' rather than for News, but here are some new doings. The latest steampunk-type model from Infamy Miniatures based on one of my sketches. It's fat man, The Toad. Various improvements have been made to the design by the clever sculptor, mostly to the machine bits that I'm generally not much cop at. More about this new model on the Infamy site.





    Previously:

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    /article.asp?article=121
    /article.asp?article=114
    /article.asp?article=95
    /article.asp?article=94
    /article.asp?article=88
    /article.asp?article=86


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    Stephen Jones


    Something that combines elements from recent posts... Shadows Over Innsmouth... pen & ink portraiture... Doctor Who. Here's Steve Jones, editor of Shadows Over Innsmouth (as well as one or two other books), in a portrait I did of him to accompany a magazine interview in 1995, I think. Rolled-up jacket sleeves just out of view. Steve wanted to be shown with a few of his Favourite Things, so, clockwise from the left, there's a Dalek (Power or Evil of the Daleks vintage, I'd say); the spaceship from the Hammer version of Quatermass and the Pit (Five Million Years to Earth) with Julian Glover and his stethoscope; King Kong (the 1933, naturally -- but why did I choose to draw such an uninspiring view of him?); Steve Zodiac from Fireball XL5; and Daffy Duck.



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    Doctor Who


    In case you've not had enough Whovian goings-on this week what with the 50th anniversary, here's a drawing I did back in the mid-'90s featuring all the telly Doctors up to that time. I did it on illustration board using pens to do the facial stippling (lots of wee dots), with the background airbrushed, in an attempt to replicate the '70s Target book covers of Chris Achilleos (who was in turn emulating the style of the great Frank Bellamy). I never became adept with the airbrush, and quickly embraced the digital equivalent as soon as I was able to ditch the real thing. The stars were flicked on with a toothbrush. I haven't yet switched to a digital one of those. I've taken photos and made scans from a fuzzy colour photocopy, the only record I have of the original, which measured approx.
    18 x 13 in.





    Billy Hartnell



    Patrick, bless 'im



    Glittering lightbulb Pertwee



    ol' Tom



    Tristan



    Colin Baker



    Saliva Mucky


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    Vintage Warhammer


    Following a number of requests to feature some of the old artwork I did for Games Workshop many moons ago, here are four images from the archives. These were among the seemingly endless piles of drawings of goblins and space marines and whatnot that I did for the company in the late '80s and early '90s. This first one features an Ork robot and I've no idea if it ever saw print in a GW product. Possibly not. Below that, some Orkish bikers - I think this appeared in White Dwarf at least.





    Here's a picture, below, that I did for a game that at the time was called Confrontation. What became of all that I've no idea.





    And finally, for now, a picture labelled 'Ork Teeth Trading'. I can't remember what this was done for (apart from for the money). All of these were done with pencil, pen & ink on cartridge paper.

    There's been a lot of interest recently from collectors of these vintage Warhammer originals of mine. Quite a few 'classic' Games Workshop originals still lurk in the art drawers; feel free to email me if you're interested in owning an original bit of GW history.


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