Darrell K. Sweet (1934-2011)

Artist Darrell K. Sweet, 77, died December 5, 2011. Sweet’s first illustrations were for Ballantine Books in 1975, and when the Del Rey imprint was formed in 1977, he produced many of their covers. Since then he has created illustrations for most of the major SF publishers, including Berkeley, Ace, and Tor. He is perhaps now best known for his illustrations of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but he also produced memorable covers for Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, and novels by Jack L. Chalker, Terry Brooks, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and many others.

Sweet was born in 1934 in New Brunswick NJ, and graduated from Syracuse University in 1956 with a degree in fine arts. He already had a reputation as a painter of animals, still lifes, and pastoral scenes when he started illustrating SF. He was nominated for a professional artist Hugo in 1983, and was a Chesley Award finalist many times.

Art director Irene Gallo has an appreciation, with illustrations, at Tor.com.