Centaurian Planet

More space art! This was quite a nice picture, too, but my photograph of it just wasn't that good and no amount of Photoshoppage can make it look right. The title, "Centaurian Planet" does not refer to the "Centauri" of "Babylon 5" but to the star system of Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our own. This group of stars has two sunlike members and one smaller, bright red star called "Proxima" Centauri. This is the red star you see in the sky here, while the exoplanet and its moon are illuminated by the other, brighter stars. There is no technological life on this planet, as the dark side is unadorned by bright artificially lighted urban areas.

"Centaurian Planet" is acrylic on illustration board, 11" x 14" , January 1991.

Hydrogen Alpha Garden

This is a nice one, if I say so myself. It looks just like the "real thing," at least the real thing as presented by scientists turning up the colors. But I am told that the red glow in nebulae is emitted by hydrogen atoms under radiation, or "hydrogen alpha red." The purple and bluish bits are reflections from the bright new stars glowing in this nebula, like flowers in a cosmic garden.

"Hydrogen Alpha Garden" is acrylic on illustration board, 7" x 10", January 1991.

Parabolika

I'm using my acrylic chisel pointed markers to create this painting, over a spray paint background. I used to use this set of media to create signs at Trader Joe's. In this painting I have added orange and yellow over the backgrounds, first with acrylic markers and then with Matisse Derivain "Background Color" paint. This Matisse paint is a colored gesso which can be painted on as an opaque solid color, even yellow over black. In Photoshop there would be at least three different layers on the painting, and you could change each one as you see fit without disturbing the others. In the "traditional" world, it's all on one panel surface and you can't change it without making a mess overpainting it. The name "Parabolika" comes from "parabola" and you can see the mathematical parabolic curves in the design here. This piece and similar ones will go to Balticon for my convention art show at the end of this month.

"Parabolika" is mixed media and acrylic on illustration board, 11" x 14", May 2010.

Seascape with Oil Spill

I'm experimenting with Photoshop at the expense of the environment. The oil spilling into the ocean south of Louisiana is a bright orange, usually my favorite color but not a good thing for the world right here. Just another train wreck for us to watch this year, from Haiti to Chile to Nashville to Louisiana. And my own imaginary city of Eridu.

More Gas

It is well-known, at least among people who know me well, that I hate vegetables. Vegetables are good for you, but they all taste like dirt to me, or at least they are bitter and unpleasantly chewy and, uh, plant-like. However, I must eat them. I have found that if I roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour, vegetables get all shriveled up and taste at least acceptable to me. They will still cause my biosystem to produce gaseous carbon compounds. Similarly in the Universe, there is lots of gas and some nebulae are properly roasted by radiation, forming nutritious vegetable material for young stars to consume. Thus it is proven that the carbon cycle continues outside the protected environs of Earth. Seasoning is provided by culinary compounds with heavier elements in them. Bon appetit!

"Reflection and Emission Nebulae" is acrylic on illustration board, 7" x 10", January 1991.

Ominous Dome

I have indeed returned from overgrown, pollen-dusted, turkey-infested Massachusetts. I did my part to help the neighborhood celebrate my father's 90th birthday. I am not kidding about the turkeys. These birds have returned to their ancient range and you can hear them gobbling in suburban woods. Nothing that a shotgun and a dinner table won't take care of. There was plenty of food at my dad's parties, one for musicians on Saturday night and one for the neighborhood and more musicians on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, I was holding out in the Hampton Inn poking away at night on my little Mac iBook, "SoyMac," trying to make something in Photoshop. I worked for hours

creating architectural detail patterns for my next modest digital opus. And I wrote more about the techno-mages helping the poor earthquake-stricken city of Eridu. There's more to be said about that, including the aftermath of what could still become a nuclear disaster in NoantriWorld. Hence this ominous dome picture, made with some of my architectural pattern pixel-printers. The blue glow represents radiation. I am very glad to be back home in Virginia.

Massachusetts Downtown Window

Greetings from Natick, Massachusetts. I have been here almost a week, tending my aged parents and celebrating my father's 90th birthday. On April 30 I was able to go to my mother's art studio in downtown Natick. It is in a nineteenth century office building overlooking Main Street. This is the view from one of the studio windows. You can see part of a red-brick church across the street, and spring foliage. The branches are from a street tree that is just sprouting new leaves.

This study was done on my Mac laptop, using Photoshop CS2 and a Wacom "Bamboo" tablet. It is the first "on-site" sketch I have done using a computer and art program. Many artists use this equipment for on-site reality sketching, and I hope I get to use it again.

I hope to be home in Virginia by Tuesday of next week, and back posting regularly here.