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'Miss London' graphic novel
A recently completed urban odyssey.
27th March 2007

'Drawing and Painting Fantasy Worlds'
A new book published by David and Charles.
27th March 2007

New Books Due in Autumn 2007 and Spring 2008
The Fantasy Artist's Pocket Reference Volumes I and II.
27th March 2007

Diary: Secret Passages
The Chronicles of a Myth Hunter
Regular updates direct from Finlay on MySpace.
27th March 2007

Diversions

Links to things mentioned on this page.

David & Charles
Publisher.

Bob Hobbs
Fantasy artist and contributor to Finlay's books.

Jeff Jones
Legendary painter and recent contributor.

Saya Urabe
Manga artist, author of 'Central City' and recent contributor.

News

New book: 'Fantasy Artist's Pocket Reference Incredible Characters'

Your second book came out in June 2006 - and you are just about to complete the third... what's it going to be called?
Its title is 'FANTASY ARTIST'S POCKET REFERENCE INCREDIBLE CHARACTERS Draw, paint and create 100 beings of myth and imagination'.

How does it differ from your previous books?
Well... it's a pocket book, smaller format, and it's much more about character - I've chosen a selection of fantasy characters from around the world and illustrated them together with a description of the character.

What sort of characters can we expect to find?
All the classic archetypes; there are heroes such as Beowulf, Hercules, Siegfried and Gilgamesh... Wizards, Queens, Witches, Vampires, Fairies, Trolls and Elves... we've tried to cover everything... then it branches out into lots of obscure characters from folklore... water sprites from Sweden, Snow Dwarves from France... dark sky women from Hungary... we've covered pretty much everything we can think of.

That sounds like a lot more than 100 characters...
Each page has a main character then there are sketches of variations describing how we came to visualise them, what inspired us and what the thinking was behind the development of each character.

Who is 'we'?
I'm working with Bob Hobbs... he's doing all the computer generated characters... he's great, he also got in touch with the legendary Jeffrey Catherine Jones who has been a big influence on me since childhood... and Jeffrey has contributed ten paintings to the book... needless to say we are honoured. We've also got ten characters in the Manga style by my old friend Saya Urabe which are exquisite.

Your books always have a strong practical approach... what's the aim with this one?
When I was growing up people use to say "Use your imagination". I used to hate hearing this because it sounded simple but the truth was - I didn't know how to use my imagination. The thing is, you have to feed your imagination; when you are trying to think of a hairstyle for your drawing of a fairy you need to have twenty ideas for hairstyles in your head just to get one good one down on paper. And that's what this book is about. Using your imagination isn't easy - you have to feed your head!

It sounds like its been a big research project too
Yes, its been extremely immersive... I've been totally lost in the world of folklore for a few months now... the more you read, the more connections you find between the fantasy characters of different cultures... I'm particularly interested in the 'white women' that turn up all over the place in different roles. Its a fascinating process, sifting through all the different types, learning their stories, then deciding how to portray them. It would be impossible to portray them all... but I'm going to try. Ha!

So when can we expect to see it?
It's due to be published in Autumn 2007 but there are sneak previews in the diary and a lot of material that I can't fit into the book will be going in there too... just to expand the whole mission, so to speak. The diary will become an ongoing registry of the shadow tribes.

Shadow Tribes?
Any supernatural being or creature of non human origin that, nevertheless, exist along side us, real or imagined - the entire civilisation of fairies, witches, angels, demons... the lot.

And after this one?
We're aiming for a series so I'm due to deliver the next one at the beginning of summer 2007 for publication in spring 2008.

What will it be about?
That one is going to cover beasts; dragons, demons and monsters.

After which you will be taking a rest no doubt?
I'm planning research trips to Estonia or Russia hopefully, maybe Transylvania... but I want to get my second graphic novel done next year - I'm going to work with a lot of the characters I've discovered doing these books.

In what way?
I've written a story about a guy who crosses over into the world of the shadow tribes... he becomes a kind of adventurer detective between the human world and the world of faery - that way I'll get to portray a lot of these wonderful characters from folklore and look at their stories.

Interview by Natasha Grey.