I’m lumping professional and fan artists into one post. Why? Because I can, muahahaha! It’s more of a “I don’t know much about art” thing, really. As usual, five each. You can see each artist in the links below. I’ve had a pretty hard time with this, mostly due to the knowing what I like versus knowing anything at all about what makes art good.
I have one quibble in the choices presented: in my opinion, xkcd doesn’t belong here. I love it, I read it regularly, but it isn’t fan art. It isn’t really professional art either, since no one pays Randall to draw his comics. Maybe it should have been in Best Related Work? But it isn’t. It’s here. Hard.
I’ve included links to the artists home pages, if extant. The voting packet contained specific pieces of art, but I’m not sharing those, because I agree with this (found in the packet’s readme file):
The works in these packages are presented without Digital Rights Management because the authors and publishers trust that you will use this Hugo Voters Packet as it was intended — for yourself, to aid you in your voting for the Hugos and Campbells. Please do not share this Packet with others outside of your household. Your willingness to do this makes a difference in convincing authors and publishers to participate in this packet, both now and in the future. Thank you.
Best Professional Artist
Best Fan Artist
- Maurine Starkey (NB: I can’t find a Mo Starkey webpage. This is a link to DrinkTank, to which she contributes often)
- Randall Munroe
- Brad W. Foster
- Steve Stiles
- Taral Wayne