Monday, March 28, 2016

Darkover Theatrical Villain


One of the most popular characters in the Darkover fan community was Lord Dyan Ardais, who was a villain dressed in black from a decadent aristocratic family known for their sneaky ways and subterfuges. He was a bad gay man who abused the hero and manipulated anyone in his path. He was part alien, too, as shown by his 6-fingered hands which you can see if you look closely. But he was interesting, unlike the rather bland, pretty, and victimized good boys. Author Marion Zimmer Bradley was well aware of the "good bad guy" character as well as the dashing villains of stage and film. This illustration of Lord Ardais, which was fan art for a Darkover magazine, is based on a publicity photo of Tom Savini, an actor, special effects and 3-D designer, and stuntman who made presentations at a Baltimore science fiction convention, where I met him and bought his photo. Some fans criticized me for copying the character's face too literally, but this was never meant for anything but fan use.

Black ink on illustration board, 8" x 10 1/2", November 1998.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

I thought he looked familiar, love the detailing on the black outfit!