When Boston-based artist Dave Seeley first saw the Imperial Star Destroyer fly across the theater screen in
A New Hope as a teenager, little did he know that he would later be creating elaborate, lush illustrations for the same
Star Wars galaxy.
"I was absolutely blown away at this new thing," Seeley recalls. "I was doing theater set design and building at the time, and considered going to work in Hollywood. I think if there had been a clear path for a high school kid from Massachusetts, I might well have gone that way. That first memory fuels an enthusiasm for any new
Star Wars project that lands on my plate."
Double-majoring in architecture and fine art, Seeley went on to work as a successful architect for 10 years before deciding to make the shift to illustration in 1995.
"I got sucked in to this line of work by fanboy art collecting, where I tracked down artists Rick Berry and Phil Hale, who had an exhibit at a local comics shop," Seeley explains. "Those two were and are great influences on my art, and my ongoing career choices. I'm more influenced by sci-fi movies than by the backlog of illustration. I like the art on old pulp novels better than old sci-fi novels. Robert McGinnis is a favorite book cover illustrator. Fine art is a constant inspiration. My favorite fine artists include Caravaggio, John Singer Sargent, Manet, Egon Schiele, Robert Graham, and Odd Nerdrum."
Seeley's first professional illustration job had him creating art for the Last Unicorn Games collectible card game series --Heresy. From there he did work for such clients as Wizards of the Coast for Magic: The Gathering, NetRunner, VTES Sabbat, and Battletech as well as interior work for TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) roleplaying game books. White Wolf Publishing's roleplaying game book for Trinity marked his first jump to book cover work.
"I had been barking up Dave Stevenson's tree for years," Seeley remembers. "He's an über-art-director at Del Rey. I nudged my agent to set up a meeting with him when I felt I had a strong enough folio, and he gave me my first assignments for the New Jedi Order novels Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand by Aaron Allston."
Seeley then went on to create memorable covers for the Clone Wars Medstar novels by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Most recently, Seeley painted the art for the wrap-around cover for Timothy Zahn's upcoming novel
Outbound Flight which features the young officer that will go on to become Grand Admiral Thrawn.
"I'd say that the Medstar Duology was my favorite, and that is probably because of the two pieces that grew out of it," Seeley confesses. "I have a hard time remembering the particulars of the back and forth process after a while. It all seems to merge into an ongoing dialogue with my art directors in retrospect, and Dave Stevenson gives me a lot of latitude and has been great to work with."
