Chase Stone worked on this book cover late last year for Medallion Press. The Release date for The Beasts of Upton Puddle is not set for release until September but we can now share the cover of this young-adult fantasy novel by Simon West-Bulford.

The Wheel of Time book series is a legend in the fantasy genre. Author Robert Jordan has ammassed a cult following over the years of die-hard, dedicated fans. We are proud that for the new book coming out A Crown of Swords, our own Tyler Jacobson created a beautiful cover. 
Below is the blog post written by Irene Gallo, art director at Tor books, where she talks about the process is took to create this magical work of art:

I knew I had gone to the right artist as soon as I saw these sketces. What seemed to me to be a compositional nightmare was clearly not a problem for him. 

The first one got a good amount of movement in a static scene, and I like that Cadsuane is a pillar of calm and unperturbed by the crowd, but it was a bit more expected than the other two compositions.

I also really liked the third sketch, it was a great way to show Cadsuane’s strength and calm even while faced with a room full of Asha’man on guard. The trouble was, Asha’man didn’t use spears and I didn’t think the swords would work in their place. There was also a height issue between Rand and Cadsuane. 

The middle seemed just right. She enters a room full of pent-up agression with strength and poise, completely confident, as befits her status as a near-legendary Aes Sedai.

The final drawing. Note this is before we swapped the spears for swords.

And here you can follow his painting style through a number of steps. It is interesting that, although he is painting digitally, he following a very traditional technique by blocking in all the values first and then slowly introducing color.

And the final art!

In the fall of last year, Chase Stone got an interesting commission to create an illustration for a TNT series pitch. At the time we didn’t even know what the series was going to be called. We guess the pitch worked because now the new hospital drama (Monday Mornings) is out every monday at 10pm. To anyone who watches, Chase’s illustration summarizes the mood of the show quite well:

LORDS AND LADIES

Chase Stone

“If I were the blushing kind, I would blush to be called a hero.”

- Aung San Suu Kyi

Hooray for Hollywood

By: Chase Stone

“Ladies and gentlemen, this represents so much effort on the part of so many people. I’m most grateful to them, to “King Kong” and Dino for making this possible. I thank them.” - Frank Van Der Veer, accepting a 1976 Special Achievement Academy Award (Visual Effects), King Kong

SPORTS: Steer Wrestling 

By: Chase Stone

“Steer Wrestling”

Ballad in Plain D

Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me

“How good, how good does it feel to be free “?

And I answer them most mysteriously

“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway”?

By: Chase Stone

Koko the Gorilla

During the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language than any other non-human. Koko has a working vocabulary of over 1000 signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English.

By Chase Stone

Chase Stone