I was visiting my family a couple of weeks ago and discovered this in our local bookshop.
Like a lot of people, I assume, I know Paul Kidby mainly as the cover artist who took over the Terry Pratchett books after the death of Josh Kirby. I’ve loved his work ever since, but in all honesty, I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of it outside of his association with Pratchett. In actual fact, his style has become so entwined with the Discworld books that it took a little while to get used to seeing his art in a world other than that of Pratchett’s work.
But that feel quickly faded. Kidby is such an amazing artist. There is such passion and attention to detail in every one of his creations. He’s the sort of artist that makes you a little sick with the perfection in his work.
And, annoyingly, he was at an event I went to this weekend. If I’d known I would have brought it along to get it signed.
I really need to start looking out for more of the work. Let me know if you know of any collections or books he has worked on I might not know about.
I will shamefully confess that I am a Pratchett ignoramus, having never read any of his books (it’s on my list, I swear to god. Please don’t burn my house down!) and so I’ve never heard of Paul Kidby either (my shame just keeps on going, right?) but I just looked him up… Oh wow. His bronzes are amazing. And his drawings are so beautifully detailed. Please keep us updated on anything of his you discover. In the meantime, I’m going to try and convince my boyfriend that we need a badass bronze dragon in our home.
I’m glad I managed to introduce you to such beautiful things. I’ll forgive your not having read any Pratchett for now, but you need to get on that 🙂
I will, I will! Thank you for the forgiveness 🙂 I promise it’ll be my next book 🙂
Assuming your family is still living where they used to live, Kidby is a local artist, and lives just outside the town. My sister-in-law got to know him through working on the Pratchett books at Random House, and visited him a couple of Christmases ago. Chances are good that you’ll get another chance to meet him.