Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Deryni Healing My Friend


Some of my friends are, or were so devoted to the imaginary worlds of their favorite fantasy authors that they wanted to live there, or at least be depicted as living there, so they could live the adventurous life as well as meet their favorite characters in "real life." This drawing is the result of a commission by a friend who had herself placed in Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni" world so that she could encounter her much-loved Dr. Rhys Thuryn, a psychic healer. I had to depict her as ailing but of course not dying. This friend/client is often sick with colds and flu since she works in elementary school with germ-laden children, so being healed of the flu is something much to be desired. 

Psychic healing is a big theme in fantasy fandom and most stories have some variant of it. I have observed that the fantasy fan community has a lot of ill-health and chronic disorders so perhaps that's behind the strong "healing" element in fantasy. 

I did the original piece in black and white as you see it here but it was on absorbent watercolor paper so I could color it in later. Here's the color version.


Image is ink and watercolor, 10" x 7", December 1982.

2 comments:

laurnarose said...

Dear Pyracantha, I absolutely love this colorized version of Healer Rhys Thuryn. He is a favorite character of mine, also. Love your art work.
Laurna

Unknown said...

I love your drawing of healer Rhys Thuryn who has always been a favorite of mine. I especially liked the "glow" around his hands indicating his healing power in use. Lovely Derynifank