Scholastic Australia

 

Marc McBride

Illustrator

Marc McBride has illustrated over fifty book covers and countless magazines, as well as producing artwork for advertising campaigns. He has a solid design background in both advertising and film, and won the West Australian Film and Television Award for Best Art Director. Marc has had work exhibited with the New York Society of Illustrators.

Marc's influences for all his work range from tacky B-grade movies about giant ants from outer space through to the pop artists of the sixties such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and other illustrators such as H R Giger, who created the Alien and the set design for the movie Alien.

Marc's soaring imagination has never been more evident than in the mind-blowing fantasy jacket art he has created for the Deltora Quest series.

Marc says, ‘The medium I used for the series was acrylic paint and inks. Using an airbrush and paint brushes I created the series in quite a traditional way—that is, not digital. I feel that this more organic painting works for me in the creation of people, monsters etc. If I had been asked to create spaceships or futuristic cities perhaps I would have used a computer. Each cover took between three and five days to complete, but, like all illustrators, I always feel I would have liked to spend more time on each painting. Practical reasons, such as deadlines, other jobs, eating and sleeping, make this impossible. Nature has pattern in even the strangest of creatures and I wanted to have this in the Deltora Quest monsters, to give them some sense of reality.’



 

Awards:

 

Books by Marc McBride published by Scholastic include:

  • Deltora Quest #01: The Forests of Silence (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #02: The Lake of Tears (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #03: The City of Rats (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #04: The Shifting Sands (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #05: Dread Mountain (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #06: The Maze of the Beast (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #07: The Valley of the Lost (2000)
  • Deltora Quest #08: Return to Del (2000)
  • Deltora Quest 2 #1: Cavern of the Fear (2002)
  • Deltora Quest 2 #2: The Isle of Illusion (2002)
  • Deltora Quest 2 #3: The Shadowlands (2002)
  • Deltora Quest 3 #1: Dragon's Nest (2003)
  • Deltora Quest 3 #2: Shadowgate (2004)
  • Deltora Quest 3 #3: Isle of the Dead (2004)
  • Deltora Quest 3 #4: The Sisters of the South (2004)
  • How to Draw Monster Battles (2009)
  • How to Draw Dangerous Beasts (2010)
  • How to Draw Mythical Creatures (2010)
 

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