Page Created: 09/16/10. Last Updated: 11/01/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 12/06/08.
KEN KELLY
Books:
The Art of Ken Kelly
The artist's official website is: http://www.kenkellyart.com/
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: October 11, 2008.
Meeting Site: Yeager Domicile, Paramus, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 19.
Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Illustrator.
Notes:
Mr Kelly also spoke at the October 8, 2005 Meeting of the Association.
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2008 Philip J De Parto:
The October 11, 2008 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at the home of Robert Yeager in Paramus, New Jersey. Turnout was surprisingly low given the dual attraction of the meeting site and our speaker, artist Ken Kelly. This was Mr Kelly's second appearance before the group.
Robert Yeager once again was generous to a fault in providing platters of food for those who came. His provisions could easily have sated a crowd four times the size of ours. Leftovers were brought to a needy friend of Irene Evans the following day.
Ken Kelly's talk focused primarily on how he got started in the business and the new direction he is exploring with his art.
Warren Magazines publisher Jim Warren and art director Bill De Bay were pivotal figures in the artist's early career. Warren got the ball rolling by assigning Mr Kelly 13 covers on the strength of his portfolio. After that initial agreement, De Bay was the artist's handler. At the time, Mr Kelly was working an insane schedule, making ends meet by working three other jobs and working on his art in his few odd hours of spare time. Mr De Bay promised that if Ken would quit the other jobs and devote his full attention to art, he would make sure that Ken would receive enough work to make a living.
The artist was less than complementary regarding publisher Jim Warren. He once broke down Warren's door and threatened to kill him if he did not pay up what he owed the artist. Later Warren began selling the cover artwork of his artists (which he had no right to do). De Lay learned of this and helped Mr Kelly retrieve his paintings before they disappeared.
The next major milestone was the artist's album covers for Kiss. The group had actually wanted Frank Frazetta (who is Mr Kelly's uncle), but when talks broke down, the group's manager noticed the covers Kelly had done for Warren. They soon cut a deal. The artist was offered a choice, he could take cash or points. Knowing that this group of egomaniac rock and rollers was going nowhere, Ken Kelly took the cash. I mean really, rockers who played at being superheroes.
Kiss rejected the original cover for Destroyer. They said it was terrible. He would have to do it over. When Mr Kelly informed them that they would have to pay him again to do a new cover, the group suddenly saw how wonderful the cover was.
The Kiss albums provided lots of funny stories, like hunting though leather stores in Greenwich Village for suitable props. People still commission the artist to paint them in variant album poses, with lots of back alley streets sluts cheering for them.
The artist works exclusively in oil, believing that they are easier to work with and exhibit more natural colors. He took us through the steps in making a painting, from rough sketch to finished product. He bangs out rough sketches very quickly. Speed is of the essence. The faster the rough is approved by the client, the more time the artist has to hone the end product.
George Lucas owns some original Ken Kelly artwork. Kelly was doing covers for the STAR WARS comic books published by Dark Horse. Lucas films contract stipulates that George Lucas has the first shot at purchasing any artwork from the series. Ken Kelly did 24 covers, put outrageous price tags on the originals, and watched Lucas take 18 of them.
Ken Kelly's latest project is learning to sculpt. He works on his paintings until 8:00 PM, then cleans his brushes and starts to sculpt. The plan is to eventually produce 3 D versions of Conan and other characters. Once again, Ken Kelly was a terrific speaker for the evening.