Kinuko Craft
This is the cover artist for the McKillip novels The Book of Atrix Wolfe, Winter Rose, Song For The Basilisk, and The Tower at Stony Wood and more. I've added this extra page of information on her because I find her art quite extraordinary, and additionally she seems to be a very nice and friendly person. First, this bit:
This page is not officially affiliated with Kinuko Craft in any way.
I am not Kinuko Craft, nor can I pass your question on to Kinuko Craft.
Also note that all illustrations remain the copyright of the Kinuko Craft (or whoever
has them).
Please visit Kinuko Craft's official home page!
I was introduced to Kinuko Craft's work through McKillip's covers. That seems to be a bit of work on the part of Kinuko Craft's agent and McKillip's art director, as neither Craft or McKillip knew of each other. However, McKillip has told me that she is very pleased with Craft's covers, and Craft says that she found McKillip's books wonderful to illustrate because they are so full of inspiring imagery.
"For most of my work, including the paintings for McKillip's books, I first create a thin under painting in watercolor, seal the surface, then over paint it with conventional oil paints. I paint almost exclusively on heavyweight 100% rag Strathmore illustration board. I love it because it has a surface almost as smooth as glass.
The originals vary in size, but for instance The Tower at Stoney Wood is about 20" X 14", that is only the image size, the board is about 3" larger all around."
I asked her if I could have a picture for this site, and got an interesting response, which I thought was worthy of quoting as well. She said it better than I could paraphrase it.
"I have hesitated to put up a photo of myself. Being not wasp has some disadvantages. In the beginning, people tried to pigeonhole me into doing "Japanese style" art - what ever they thought it meant. My interests have always lain in western art, in much the same way as Seiji Ozawa or Yoyo Ma. No one expects them to play music designed for koto, shamisen or the Chinese opera, yet people always wonder why I don't paint something that looks like a Japanese woodblock print which is art of 200 years ago. I love that art too, but it's not what drives me. My grandfather also loved Western art. When I was a child, his art books were my fantasies, although I also loved the work of classic illustrators like Parish and Wyeth."
Kinuko Craft has available several lavishly illustrated books that I think are definitely worth checking out. I've linked into Amazon so that you can take a look and decide for yourself. Click the book covers to go to the proper Amazon page.
 The Twelve Dancing Princesses 1989 |
 Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave 1994 |
 Cupid and Psyche 1996 |
 Pegasus 1998 |
 King Midas and the Golden Touch 1999 |
 Cinderella 2000 |
The Adventures of Tom Thumb |
Links
Her agent has a really nice page.
You can purchase some prints and so forth from DreamStone. I've purchased from them and was quite pleased with the service and products.