In March of 2013 I posted a book cover I painted for a "space opera" adventure story by a historian and writer named Linda Grant dePauw. My essay for that was quite long and rather than having me repeat it, you can view it here. DePauw imagined a spacefaring future in which spaceships were made out of some kind of (magical) wood, and the culture and warfare was based on 18th century models. But unlike those days, dePauw's society was completely gender-equal and women served in all ranks, from servant to Captain.
This young lady, whose name is Maggie Steele, was an officer aboard one of these ships when an alien attack killed off all the higher-ranking officers, leaving her in charge of the entire ship. DePauw commissioned not only a book cover but lots of concept and character art. Maggie looks good enough but I have always thought that her pants are too tight and must be quite uncomfortable.
Watercolor and ink on illustration board, 8" x 10", spring 1990.
Sharp-nosed readers may notice that I missed a day blogging here (September 1). Eventually I will run out of vintage art to post after all these years, and I can't always turn out a new sketch every day. I'll have to make a decision about whether to keep it up every day or go to a different schedule. If I don't post every day, I run the risk of getting lazy and not posting at all. If any one of you has an opinion on this highly important and critical matter, you're welcome to comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment