Monday, March 9, 2015

Puckish Elf


I'm working on an illustration commission for a book by Christopher Stasheff, who in the 1980s and 1990s produced many entertaining and humorous fantasy tales based in the magical world of "Gramarye." This land, which resembles late medieval  England, is populated by a wide variety of humanoids and intelligent animals. There are elves, fairies, giants, dwarfs, and plenty of magic using wizards and witches, some bad and some good.

The hero is an Earthman who is magically transported to this land and is involved in political and magical intrigues. The Earthman marries a lady witch of Gramarye and they have four children, all magic users. The book I am illustrating features this whole family of wizards who help each other out of all sorts of would-be-deadly encounters.

"Puck" is inspired by the Shakespearian character from "Midsummer Night's Dream" but he isn't at all like the Bard's Puck. Though he's a miniature humanoid no more than two feet tall, he protects the four children with his own powers and the help of many other little forest creatures.

"Puck" is sepia technical pen ink on sketchbook page, 3" x 5", March 9, 2015.

2 comments:

Mike (Altus) said...
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Mike (Altus) said...

I like the fact he's a little guy, yet the way he stands there says "don't f**k with me." :)