Sisa of the Five Claws

Here's another character portrait commission from my days with Philadelphia fans in the late 80s. "Sisa" was a commander and adventurer in a game that my client played. She was his role-playing identity in the game. Her symbol was a severed dragon's claw in grey and red, and she wielded a fantastic (if impractical) five-pronged pole weapon. Battle-magic symbols are painted on her forehead. Her armor, while it covers her up properly rather than a steel bikini, seems a bit restrictive in the torso. As one fan on seeing this said to me, "Sisa, don't breathe." I suppose it could be like a corset. Armor is never comfortable.

The campaign went on for months, but I delayed painting the character because I was not sure how to depict that shiny armor. By the time I got the painting done, the game was finished. I hope Sisa survived.

Sisa is acrylic on Strathmore illustration board, 9" x 12", spring 1987. Click on image for larger view.

Note for By-Product viewers: I will be going away from my studio for a week, to attend my elderly parents. During that time I won't be posting to this blog, unless I might be able to do an iPad drawing or two. I'll be back on May 6, if all goes well.

Dragon Folded Wing

I haven't posted any dragon drawings in a while. I have been preoccupied with day job work and an upcoming visit to parents and relatives. This step-by-step build of a partially folded dragon's wing comes from Staple's draw-dragons book. This is only one perspective view of a wing, and in dragon action it could be anywhere from edge-on and nearly invisible to a picturesque full extension. This page also has a little dragon head, rather goat-like with a wry expression on its face.

Pencil on sketchbook page, about 8" x 10".

Noantri Wine Kegs

Mount Etna has had a lot of activity this year, some of which is visible in YouTube videos. Etna erupts spectacularly and its blasts are harmless, as long as you aren't right at the crater. For thousands of years, Etna has been a tourist destination, and the villages around it are now resorts for winter skiers and summer vacationers.

Etna's eruptions remind me of one of my Great Unfinished Projects, my graphic novel THE FLAMING RAMPARTS. Set in my imaginary Noantri world, which closely resembles the Mediterranean and Sicily especially, it's the story of an alternate Etna monitored and ultimately challenged by a "volcano wizard" who wields modern scientific psi-magic. I have 43 pages but have not done anything on it for a long while, due to time constraints. Maybe I'll be able to do something with it after my Big Painting is finished.

Here is a single panel from RAMPARTS. "Akri" is a small resort town up on the slopes of Mount Aitna, the alternate Etna. This scene shows a restaurant family bringing in extra supplies in anticipation of a tourist and guest rush for the Winter Solstice Festival as well as another showy but non-destructive eruption at Aitna's summit. They've got kegs of wine as well as a box of multi-colored peppers (seen at lower right). As you can imagine, something unforeseen will happen. You may notice a dark, cone-shaped hill in the background behind the buildings...

Scene of Akri is ink and watercolor on Fabriano board, about 6" x 5", circa 2003.

Architectural details, Cambridge, Mass.

In the 1980s I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and my neighborhood was filled with handsome old wooden buildings. They had a lot of decorative woodwork on them which I never tired of drawing, then or now. Here are two studies of architectural details, done on site free-hand. No ruler or perspective device was used. Buildings like these remain in older neighborhoods all the way through the American East and Midwest. Wherever I see them, I like to draw them. These images were rescued from copies imbedded in a plastic portfolio book. I drew them with a Rapidograph technical pen and they are about 5 inches wide. Date of making was late summer 1986.

Ailinn the Harper

This was a commission for a character portrait that one fan gave to his friend, who had created the character. The tale, which as far as I know was never finished, let alone published, was set in the 16th century somewhere in the British Isles and starred this fellow, a blind (or visually impaired, perhaps) harper. I was given very specific data so that I could do the portrait exactly as the author wanted. But I never got to read any text. I was given the character's name: Ailinn the Harper.

This figure was derived from a photograph I took of a real costumer playing the role of a harper. Occasionally I've been able to persuade costumers to pose for me wearing all sorts of outfits and using lots of props or weapons. I have an extensive library of poses that I really should find and go through, just in case someone commissions a character portrait from me again.

"Ailinn the Harper" is ink and watercolor on Arches illustration board, 7" x 10", April 1993.

Bronze Sun

I haven't done one of these Photoshop improvisations for a long time, and I had a moment, so here's one. This is in a somewhat neglected series of mine called the "K-series," digital abstractions inspired by "K" Kandinsky. I also get to figure out some visual problems on these digital pieces before I commit to acrylic solidity.

Which is more permanent, pixels or acrylic? I just saw a video of a new exhibit of David Hockney's work, in which a large room is filled with his paintings on his iPad. Some of them are projected on iPad screens mounted on the wall, but most of them are printed onto paper. Is this iPad art taken seriously as art only because a famous artist did it? Or can my Photoshop and iPad efforts be Serious Fine Art too?

You know those geometric abstractions that I crank out every so often? My educated, sophisticated fans love 'em. But they are a real pain to paint in acrylic, especially when I want a smooth blend. But if I used Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, I could produce 'em in almost no time at all. Since no one buys these, (ok, very few people) I could do what I wanted without spending weeks pushing sticky paint around and filling my cluttered space with even more unsold painting clutter. If I were David Hockney, collectors would line up to buy prints of my digital work. Instead, I get lectured on how the Collector must have a Real Painted Piece to go up on the wall, and how the Collector hates digital art anyway. I am not referring to any specific Collector here. All I have to say regarding this is, if the Collector wants a Real Painted Piece, he has to pay a whole lot more for it because I will be spending much more time on it.

Nevertheless I firmly believe that digital art is here to stay, at least until some apocalyptic event demolishes the Internet, fries all our computers, and erases every digital file.

"K-10 Bronze Sun" is Photoshop, about 10" x 7" if you printed it out, April 22, 2012.

Red Hot Darkover

Back in Darkoverland, there was an unmistakable element of romance and eroticism in that world. Marion Zimmer Bradley and her female fan base were not immune to the bodice ripping that went on under the Red Sun. This was a piece designed to appeal to that part of the Darkover mythos. If I had red paper to work on, and some fashion magazines, I would go there. Note the glowing "matrix stone" on our Darkover babe's neck. Ah, the old days, I hardly remember them. The title of this one is "Matrix Ecstasy."

Ecstasy is colored pencil and gouache on red paper, 7" x 10", October 1992.