Jim Fitzpatrick -- Great Fantasy Artist

[deuce]

It's Jim Fitzpatrick's birthday.  I think it's time to give him his own thread. I have probably been using the "Irish and Ireland" thread a bit too much to showcase his work. Here's a link to his website:


www.jimfitzpatrick.com/welcome-to-the-art-of-jim-fitzpatrick/

[deuce]

Jim Fitzpatrick is Ireland's greatest living artist. Here's an excellent article on Jim, Dublin, Irish culture and Thin Lizzy:


wildwestrocks.com/2017/01/09/jim-fitzpatrick-his-art-dublin-and-a-band-called-thin-lizzy/

[deuce]

Jim is a huge fan of the Marvel comics of the '60s and early '70s. The Captain America's Burger Joint opened in Grafton (Dublin) in 1971. Jim painted two Kirby-style murals for it:

comeheretome.com/2012/08/18/jim-fitzpatrick-murals-in-captain-americas/

[salant]

I love how beautifully detailed Fitzpatrick's art is & how influenced his style is by Barry Windsor-Smith's comics work. And even though it's based on Irish legend rather than REH's hero, it's cool to see Jim draw "Conan"!  From  capnscomics.blogspot.ca/2013/11/conann-with-3ns-by-jim-fitzpatrick.html 

 

[deuce]

Here's a label designed by Jim for a mead company back in 1988. It is a collage of earlier work with new elements.

[deuce]

Classic cover for Thin Lizzy's Nightlife:

[deuce]

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Jim Fitzpatrick!

[deuce]

I've always loved this painting from Jim. It really shows his Ditko influence -- Fitzpatrick was a huge fan of the '60s Marvels. Barry Windsor-Smith never really matched this type of otherworldly, gonzo stuff.

[deuce]

"Cú Chulainn" by Jim Fitzpatrick

Jim had this to say about it:


"In this drawing the boy warrior Cú Chulainn races with his wolfhound, hurley and sliothar in hand.

All Irish children are fascinated with the tales of the greatest hero of them all, Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster. When Cú Chulainn was a young boy called Setanta he was attacked by a massive wolfhound and with only a hurley to defend himself he drove the sliothar (a rock-hard ball made of layers of leather) into the skull of the hound. Little did he realize he had slain the fiercest hound in the land, a hound that was guard dog for a warrior called Chulan. Dismayed at the loss of his hound the warrior raged in anger but Setanta offered to take the place of the dog and protect Chulan, thus he became known as Cú Chulainn, meaning ‘The Hound of Chulan’."

You can buy Fitzpatrick prints here:

jimfitzpatrick.com/

[deuce]

Jim Fitzpatrick says:

This painting was originally commissioned as a book cover for The Cruitin, author Ian Adamson’s ground-breaking history of the Ulster Protestant people.

It was a very controversial book at the time, published in 1984 at the height of the ‘Troubles’, challenging the assumption that the Protestant and Loyalist people of Ulster were all descended from Scots and English settlers during the Elizabethan genocides and plantations.

It demonstrated quite clearly that the Ulster Scots were in fact an indigenous people who had occupied both parts of Ulster and Scotland from time immemorial.

[Deleted]

Ad from SSOC 123 for Jim Fitzpatrick's Erinsaga.

[deuce]

Fitzpatrick had this to say about his artwork for the iconic Thin Lizzy lp, Jailbreak:


Philip Lynott [bass player and founder of Thin Lizzy] was a massive fan, as I was myself, of H.G.Wells, author of War of the Worlds, then a fine 60s movie -and of a Marvel comic spinoff called Killraven. He asked me to create an image to go with my ‘OverLord’ graphic for the cover of JailBreak and include the tripods from the movie and the comic with Philip and the band fleeing from the blasting rays as the broke out of this futuristic jail. Together we worked on the imaginary story of ‘The Warrior’ that Philip had in his mind and I reworked the roughs to reflect this idea until it all held together. The influence of another great American comic book artist we both loved, Neal Adams, is all over this.

Philip demanded that I be allowed make a design for a gatefold cover with a cutout video screen showing the band in the TV-screen style cutout. Back then at that time his word, with the support of the ‘2 Chrises’ management team (Chris Morrisson and Chris O’Donnell), was law with the record company which worked like a dream for me in so many ways giving me a period of freedom that was unmatched previously in my career as an artist and graphic designer.

Inner gatefold sleeve.

[deuce]

"Beneath the Sea of Stars", 1989.

Fitzpatrick has this to say:


‘Beneath the Sky of Stars’ was a piece I originally designed as a black and white line drawing printed in raised print and hand-coloured for inclusion in the special hardcover limited edition signed and numbered version of The Book of Conquests in 1980.

Later in 1989 I was commissioned by an enthustiastic US buyer who loved the original image and wanted a full scale painting of the image.

This is the full colour painted version and represents the love of Nuada of the Silver Arm for his consort, the Mórrigan.

It is always a wonderful thing when someone loves your work enough to comission an original piece and this one was a joy from start to finish.



Fitzpatrick prints can be purchased here:   www.jimfitzpatrick.com/shop/

[deuce]

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of his website, Fitzpatrick is having a major sale right now.  If you've been meaning to pick up some of his work, now's the time.  His website:


www.jimfitzpatrick.com/

[deuce]

Fitzpatrick from the mid-'80s talking about his old friend, Phil Lynott. Jim is seated on the far right.