The Sword and Laser discussion

So I've been thinking about finally decorating the walls of my living room after many years of staring at blank walls.

I'm wondering if anyone out there knows some places to purchase either paintings and/or prints worth framing that won't look tacky, but having a SciFi or fantasy theme.

I'm not sure exactly what I want, but I tend to be more sword than laser.

Thanks!

Try art.com maybe? They aren't specialists in SFF, but sort by fantasy, then magical to start. There's a wide variety of art ranging from cutesy to classic, and it's at least a good place to start browsing, and see if it gives you more specific inspiration.

My first thought would be to go to the web site of specific artists that you like. e.g. www.michaelwhelan.com or www.jameschristensenart.com.
If there are any SF convections where you live there are usually artists set up there as well.
On the less expensive side you could get an appropriately themed calendar or art book and have some of the pictures framed. Although that might be considered tacky I've seen some that look quite good.

http://boutique.blule.fr
http://society6.com

you have to trawl through a lot of tat but try http://society6.com - definitely a lot more fanart than professional artist though

If you know the artists for book covers you like, see if they sell through their own websites or eBay - eg Paul Kidby has a lot of discworld prints on his site http://www.paulkidby.com

Another one depends on your locale, but trawling old bookshops and second-hand store can come up trumps. I've found old comics which (trigger warning)...



...I've sometimes dismembered and framed.

Inprnt has a lot of good stuff:

http://www.inprnt.com/

Jeremy Enicio is a personal favorite:
http://jenecio.com/

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far, though Phil's may end up costing me a lot more money that I was originally planning to spend.

Michael Whelan has some really nice Dark Tower stuff not to mention Stormlight Archive and Wheel of Time that I want. I wish he had cheaper/non limited prints of those like he does of some of his other artwork.

Please keep the suggestions coming! Thanks again.

Deviantart.com has a host of talented artists whose styles run the gamut. Many of the artists are professionals whose work you've seen in movies, games, on novel covers and comics.

Despite the site's name, there isn't a lot of "deviance" there, although there IS nudity and other mature content. I think you can check a box so it doesn't show up in your search.

Here are some examples from my Favorites list that offer prints. I've not used the print service but I have purchased a few t-shirts over the years with no complaints.

I'll put the link in front of the picture. You can see more of the artist's work in their gallery as well as the suggested galleries Deviantart shows on the side. I take no responsibility if you lose a week or two of your spare time browsing the site.


http://fav.me/d2xq0ww


http://fav.me/d5118nz


http://fav.me/d4ekeq7


I've added a ton of pictures, so I'll put the others behind the spoiler link in order to keep people's browsers from exploding. But you can see the sheer variety there.

I may have been overly enthusiastic, sorry.

(view spoiler)[
http://fav.me/d5cl0xq


http://fav.me/d5it590


http://fav.me/d5vb5zt


http://fav.me/d575oq3


http://fav.me/d5eqh0q


http://fav.me/d4xrtpw


http://fav.me/d4ojqar


http://fav.me/d52tv8r


http://fav.me/d5cvmle


http://fav.me/dp4fv7


http://fav.me/d3038ug


http://fav.me/d5u790g


http://fav.me/d4yi9qq


http://fav.me/d46zuwv


http://fav.me/d2tu6uv


http://fav.me/dp4zil


http://fav.me/d5xov8e


http://fav.me/d2i1rhn


http://fav.me/d335l6l


http://fav.me/d3fu7hl


http://fav.me/d1nmgmh


http://fav.me/d2ft6qg


http://fav.me/d1ae4ir


http://fav.me/d5tctrt
(hide spoiler)]

Wow, yeah there is some great stuff there. I've been to the site before, but didn't know you could buy prints.

My taste is more sf then f, but I've started getting a few things from various places.

I got some of the Firefly retro travel posters a few years back at Think Geek http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/c... I had got a Cowboy Bebop Japanese movie poster on Ebay, a few years before that. I also in the last year started getting some comic art, both "original art", (the original hand drawn pages the comic was created from), and high quality prints/ Giclee. I found the last couple things mostly from things others have tweeted. The one thing I found was that It's one thing to get the pieces, it's another to have them mounted and or framed nicely. But too me it was worth it.

One thing I did with the Firefly posters, is since it was a group of 5, was I had them all mounted, but only got 2 frames, and I'll (rarely I admit) rotate what I have hanging.

I'm not sure I'd get anything anime for the living room. Besides I have a bunch of wall scrolls down in my office.

I'll check out the think geek stuff though. I love firefly.

I should have mentioned that I didn't find those particular Firefly posters on Think Geek any more, but they were on Amazon. http://smile.amazon.com/Serenity-5-Pi...

I have a few frames about the house that I change out the images, comic covers, to match the season. Currently it's back to school with a couple of old Archies and an Animal Comics. For summer it was baseball, before that Fourth of July theme with flag covers.

I get the images from the Digital Comic Museum. It's fun and my wife doesn’t object. But she did veto a steamy romance cover I was going to use for Valentine's Day.

That's a cool idea David.

If you want really good quality prints, say on canvas instead of paper, then the artist websites are usually your best bet. Be prepared to pay quite a bit for such a high quality print though.

I have a soft spot for Dan Cortopassi's cat SF stuff. He has done a few non-kitty too. His latest, Queen of Ravens, is Fantasy style and really good. Have a look here:

http://danielcortopassi.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/Art-by-Daniel-...

Larry Elmore (who did a lot of classic Dragonlance art, among other things) sells prints on his site - http://larryelmore.com/store/color-pr...

John wrote: "I have a soft spot for Dan Cortopassi's cat SF stuff. He has done a few non-kitty too. His latest, Queen of Ravens, is Fantasy style and really good. Have a look here:

http://danielcortopassi.com/..."

And on the Sword side, here is Magnus and Loki!
http://www.clemensart.com/mlindex.htm

I have this print:

And I would like to put in a word for Adam Levermore's Firefly 'verse prints http://store.qmxonline.com/Blue-Sun-T...

Wow. Even our illustrious leaders are helping out. Thanks guys.

They sell some cool Ralph McQuarrie prints here if that's your kind of thing:

http://dreamsandvisionspress.com/artp...

I'm a big fan of Alice X Zhang (http://shop.alicexz.com/). I've got a framed picture of Sherlock (Bennedict Cumberbatch) with a violin in my front room. The style and colors are fantastic and vibrant. It's so awesome.

She's got lots from SFF TV and movies. Originals go for a lot, but the prints are reasonable.

Sarah wrote: "I tend to find rare gems and almost every print on my walls from artist alley at Emerald City Comic-con. A bonus is getting a few originals, not available online and talking with the artist."

Yeah, I guess I need to go to an SFF con. The only con I go to every year is Otakon so it tends to be mostly anime stuff, though people have original art and some video game/american comics stuff as well.

I've yet to find anything I really liked there, at least since I started looking in the last few years.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, I'm hoping to spend some time digging through them this long weekend coming up and maybe get 1 or 2 things.

Grand strategy - (Otherwise known as over planing).
Find one done by an artist in the Baltimore - DC area.
Check their schedule to see which Cons they’ll be at.
(They usually post their schedule on line-if not just email them).
Show up at that Con and get the artist to sign the art work.
Your art work just became an investment rather then an indulgence.

I don't play Magic the gathering, but I do love the art and I've got it hanging up in my apartment. Here are some prints that I've picked up at Grand Prix events that I've staffed. All signed by the artists. Mostly RK Post cause he rules.

http://instagram.com/p/ZzBo2ghwXP/
http://instagram.com/p/Zyq7OIhwSQ/
http://instagram.com/p/ZyqBPdBwQy/
http://instagram.com/p/ZymCV7hwaf/

Cool Daniel. I've played Magic casually over the years and there is definitely some nice artwork there.

I've slacked off on this. Probably because some of the stuff I want is more than I was wanting to spend so I've been debating it.

And none of the rest grabbed me right away and I need spend some time looking through.

Daniel wrote: "I don't play Magic the gathering, but I do love the art and I've got it hanging up in my apartment. Here are some prints that I've picked up at Grand Prix events that I've staffed. All signed by ..."

Lovely stuff! There's loads of beautiful magic the gathering card art.

My favourite is :

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18blu...

I know this is an old thread but I thought some of you might still be interested in this topic.

For a very long time I've been collecting images, converting them to a png file and using them as my screensaver on my jail broken kindle.

All the images are of a fantasy, sci-fi, or nostalgic cartoon/movie theme (primarily 80s, some 90s. I was born in 82).

I've collected several links that I'll share below. Basically, most all links will either tell you where you can go to purchase the images (prints) or when you click on the image you'll be taken directly to the artist website. Some links take you to specific galleries rather than the home page so look through each site.

Enjoy.

http://xombiedirge.com/tagged/Illustr...

http://abduzeedo.com/art-laurent-durieux

http://www.geek-art.net

http://www.joblo.com/tag/awesome-art-...

http://www.acidfreegallery.com/artists/

http://mondotees.com/collections/posters (check out the archive under the "about" section

http://hcgart.com/pages/exhibitions

http://hcgart.com/collections?page=1 (alternative place to begin. Same site as above link though)

http://ruizburgos.blogspot.com

http://www.cakesandcomics.com

http://paidesign.net (check out illustration and store)

http://www.planet-pulp.com/

http://www.nerdoutwithme.com/search/l...

http://xombiedirge.com/archive

http://nerdbastards.com/tag/nerd-art-...

http://comicsalliance.com/category/art/

http://thechive.com/category/art/ (little harder to find things here. Search art tag and look in the "art to hang on your walls" sections)

I am becoming a fan of Jason Deem's artwork but I'm not really sure if he's selling any of it (most of what I've seen is his R. Scott Bakker fan art and I'm sure there are copyright issues about selling that stuff). His website, http://spiralhorizonart.com/index.html has some samples of his artwork and a way to contact the artist.