A titan in the field of illustration left us on Halloween day of last week.
I have been struggling to find the words on this one since as Greg Hildebrandt and his brother Tim were possibly two of the greatest artistic influences on me growing up, and throughout my art career to date. Beyond that they were also the most genuine and kindhearted “Legends” I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in person...but I am getting ahead of myself.
It is hard to talk about Greg and his art without including Tim, but the work they created together and the stories surrounding them are enough to take up their own Blog post, so I will leave that for another time. Over time, they both experienced solo chapters of their respective careers that would see them tackling (and conquering) large swaths of the illustration industry on their own as well.
For Greg that would include illustrating many of his favorite fairy tales, resulting in some of the most iconic re-imagining of the classics that made up the fabric of his (and my own) childhood. From Robin Hood to Dracula, The Wizard of OZ to Pinocchio they would all come to benefit from his artistic interpretation and zeal for visual story telling.
His Mob Rules cover for the Black Sabbath album was cause for my own personal celebration as it brought together my passion for not just this artist, but the music that a beloved band felt the piece represented so perfectly. The piece was originally a private one for Greg, kicking off his “Dream” series that represented his attempt to visually capture the stories he continued to tell in his sleep. Ultimately the piece featured on the album itself was simply a preliminary piece that wouldn’t see him tackling it in a final painting until 2022.
My own first meeting with Greg was at a show of his and Tim’s work in Los Angeles at the now sadly closed gallery “Every Picture Tells A Story”. Housed there was a jam packed retrospective featuring everything from their Tolkien work to their (at the time) most recent Marvel and Star Wars trading card illustrations.
I was in my junior year of art school and was more excited than words can say to finally be seeing the original works by two of my art heroes. I was studying up close the details in their painting of "At the Grey Havens" from the 1978 Tolkien calendar, which is undeniably my favorite single piece of Hildebrandt artwork to this day. So enamored with the piece was I, and the fact that I was actually getting the opportunity to see it in person, that I didn’t immediately turn around when a voice quite close to my right ear asked “so what do you think?” I remember shaking my head and without turning said something about the lighting and the masterful handling of each of the portraits in the piece, Gandalf's being my favorite. The voice followed with “Yeah, that Gandalf portrait in particular was a pain in the butt because I had to paint it twice…”. The whiplash turn of my head found me almost nose to nose with Greg, Tim grinning impishly over his shoulder.
I am rarely the speechless type, and I am not one who considers myself to be starstruck in these situations. In this case I was immediately both. I remember little of the conversation in those minutes that followed, other than feeling the hot rush of a blush to my face and desperately trying to string words together into at least one intelligible sentence. I needn’t have worried. Greg and Tim were incredibly gracious and pretended not to notice the 21-year-old gone mute before them. What followed was a serious, in-depth discussion about artistic technique, materials, reference photos and more than I can remember. What I do remember is the singular and focused attention that Greg and his brother gave to an art student, who having overcome his initial state of shock peppered them excitedly with questions, all of which they answered earnestly and completely.
Years later I would catch up with Greg at the San Diego Comic Convention where I was present for his face-to-face meeting with Ray Haryhausen. Turns out all our heroes have their own heroes and yes, they can be rendered as speechless and we in such moments. Watching this titan of the illustration industry become completely disarmed by the opportunity at hand and turn to me with an ear-to-ear grin repeating “It’s Ray! It’s RAY!” brought a special kind of joy all its own.
As time passed, I would find myself working with Greg directly on a handful of pieces during my time as the art director for the World of Warcraft trading card game, where he would bring that familiar and welcome Hildebrandt aesthetic to yet another beloved franchise. Years later still, fellow illustrator and good friend Randy Gallegos and I would spend an afternoon with Greg and his partner Jean in their home accompanied by a tour and lunch. This of course resulted in a deluge of original art and more stories than Randy’s and my own careers combined will ever account for. I resolved to spend that time “in the moment” and not take pictures of absolutely every wall of the house, lest they fear I was casing the joint!
This would be the last time I would see Greg and has forever solidified him in my memory as the energetic storyteller adorned in his uniform of paint covered shirt and pants, as happy to share one of his pieces of art with you as he was one of his treasured vintage toys.
If your social media consists of the same circles as my own, your feeds have been awash these last five days with stories similar to my own above. This alone is a testament to not only the reach Greg’s work has attained over the course of his expansive career, but also the kind of man he was. I have found much consolation in the stories of others, as he himself is no longer with us to share them himself. In each and every one of them I see that impish grin and those raised eyebrows that invite everyone present to hear what happens next…
Goodbye Greg. We are forever indebted to you for giving so much of yourself and your art to the storybook of life. Give Tim a hug for me...
all images: Greg Hildebrandt
