Roman Abstraction

These are the colors of Rome - orange stucco and the almost opal-like colors of carved and fitted stonework. In the last month of my Roman stay in 1976, I did as many drawings and paintings as I could of the Roman environment. Many times my sketches turned into abstractions of line and color, rather than just portraits of buildings. I would draw the pencil sketch on site and then paint it in my room later on. I used a ruler to get the watercolor lines but at this point so much later on I don't remember exactly how. I wonder if I could do this kind of drawing again. Maybe on the iPad? The iPad doesn't have the ability to automatically draw straight lines, but the much heavier Cintiq does. I still rely on the old standby: pencil, pen, and paper. Unfortunately I don't have plans to return to Rome any time soon. The world is a more difficult place for me and for everyone than it was in 1976.

Watercolor on Canson watercolor paper, 8" x 6", summer 1976.

Stasheff "M'Lady Witch" cover art

My e-book "cover" for the re-release of Christopher Stasheff's "M'Lady Witch" has been done for some time but I finally got approval from my clients on the picture. This gives me permission to show it on this Blog. It's really an Art, not a By-Product but so there. The story is a romantic comedy set in a magical medieval kingdom. A pretty but socially inept Prince loves a beautiful young Witch, and she loves him too but in a rather arrogant and possessive way. In the book, each of them is tempted by other lovers and obstacles appear in the way of their love, and they must work hard and grow in insight to deserve True Love. In the picture the Witch rejects the love-offering of roses from the dorky Prince, because he has proposed to her in a rude and insulting way. In the background is the Tudor Palace seen earlier here, and the Kinkadian Gazebo symbolizing a wedding. The spring flowers are from the real world as this picture was done in April and May. And as always with the characters of this magical family, the black robot horse "Fess" keeps watch to make sure things turn out right.

Note the resemblance of the yellow-clad Prince to the Archangel Raphael in the Buard Diptych honoring my departed friend, in the posting before this one.

Photoshop on Cintiq, May 2017. Click for larger view.

R.I.P. Patricia Buard

 

Patricia Buard, my good friend of over thirty years, a founding member of my prayer group the "Order of St. Michael," passed away yesterday. She was a mainstay of my life, and I could always count on her for hospitality and administration help in our Order. She was also a master costumer and had a background in theater and theology. A few years ago she asked me to paint her portrait as a medieval donor, kneeling before the Holy Beings of our Catholic faith. It was an elaborate commission based on a late medieval royal diptych icon. I worked a long time on it but was finally able to present it to her in mid-2015. I am so glad that she was able to see a longtime dream of hers, to become an artwork among the painted angels. Behind her stands Saint Michael, the warrior angel, as well as Saint Anne with the young Mary.

Here is the complete diptych. The figures are the Sword of Saint Michael, the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, and three of the Four Archangels, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. In back of Patricia is a window through which you can see the skyline of Philadelphia, near where she lived. She requested the city view as part of the whole concept. Her craftsman husband, Michael, built a gilded folding frame for the art. This is one way we can hope to keep Patricia's memory alive here among us.

Acrylic on hardboard, 20" x 15", summer 2015. Click on image for a larger view. This has been posted before here but I think it's appropriate anyway.

Dr Who number 10 Marco Polo

This adaptation is from a series where Dr. Who and his companions land on Earth again and find themselves following the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo. As usual they get involved with dangerous politics, this time in the court of Kublai Khan. Marco is on the left while the Mongol bad guy is in the center. The finished TV live action recordings of the series have been lost, so all that remains of it are still pictures, the script, and the spoken audio tracks. The episode dates from early 1964. Many of the audio tracks survived because fans recorded them with tape recorders from the TV. I remember doing the same thing with my favorite TV shows back then but Dr. Who didn't come to the USA until the 70's.

Original art is ink on illustration board, 5 1/2" x 5", spring 1981. 

Baby Me Art 3: "A Bible Man"

This epic drawing was among the papers I took home from the old parents' house. On the back is the title: "A Bible Man." You can see the figure at the top, a bearded man with a triangular shield divided into two areas, his other arm uplifted in a battle fist. The Bible character is not identified. On the lower level is another, less humanoid figure with a boxy body and flipper feet. This one also has the upraised arm, adorned with a big bicep muscle. This muscle motif shows obvious influence from Popeye cartoons, which I loved to watch on TV. I must have been around 3 or 4 when I drew this.

Pencil on red paper, about 6" x 9", c. 1956.

Disruption of studio

My air conditioner failed during a heat wave recently so the apartment management is replacing it. I have lived in the same apartment for an amazing 25 years, in a place where most residents leave after one year or less, all of them immigrants who either do well and buy their own house, or do not do well and have to go. This is the second replacement of the air conditioner in those years. I love hot weather and heat but even I have limits to my tolerance so this is good. Unfortunately I built my studio with all its paints and storage and books and computers near the AC unit's wall cabinet so they need to move it all to get space for the bulky module to be brought in and installed. This is a drawing of some of my art stuff and storage boxes stacked in the living room while the installation happens. Massive amounts of dust have been liberated.

Sepia brown tech pen ink on sketchbook page, 5" x 5", May 26, 2017.

Dr. Who Fan Art 9: The Keys of Marinus

Doctor Who played by William Hartnell stands in front of a dodecahedronal computer that has directed the lives of its humanoid subjects for 2000 years, but has failed due to a violent attack. The machine can only be revived by finding five keys scattered over the primitive planet, and  uniting them to re-start the machine. (This was 1964, long before the age of floppy discs and lost operating systems.) The Doctor and his companions travel around the planet by a teleportation device from some lost technology, and in each of five episodes they retrieve one key, until they can escape while the computer falls into the hands of invaders and is destroyed by a false key. 

There must be some meaning to all this storytelling, but I just don't have the sacred calling to memorize it all. I used an old-fashioned inking style to do this illustration, a style I would later use in sequential art.

Original drawing is black ink on illustration board, 5 1/2" x 4", spring 1981.

I have FINALLY finished my book cover for the Stasheffs and once it is approved by the clients I can publish it here.