John Jude Palencar (born February 26, 1957) is an American illustrator and fine artist who specializes in works of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

[1] He would win his first award in art in fifth grade with a three-colour block print for the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s newspaper calendar contest.

During his college years he worked for the American Greetings Card Company and freelanced, establishing a list of regional and national clients in editorial, advertising, and corporate art.

[8] Palencar's first introduction to illustrating for fantasy and speculative fiction came shortly after college when working for Time-Life Books on The Enchanted World Series.

[citation needed] His work has since appeared on hundreds of book covers for just about every major publisher in the U.S. and in over thirty countries around the world.

Hartwell used the work to initiate The Palencar Project,[13] in which five writers, L. E. Modesitt Jr., Gene Wolf, Michael Swanwick, Gregory Benford, and James Morrow all wrote short stories based on the painting.

Once an approval for an idea is in hand, the artist creates a detailed rendering in pencil with subtle shading on a plate finish board.

The final Palencar paintings are executed in acrylic, but in a watercolor fashion, in which initial thin layers are laid down as a wash first.