Punk Elric

Michael Moorcock's doomed sorceror-knight Elric was a creation of the psychedelic 1960s but he could easily be adapted to the styles of other eras. I re-imaged him as a punk rocker in the early 1980s, and it worked fine. My model for this little portrait was "Sting," who achieved stardom in his career with a punk - ish group, "The Police." I collected magazine pictures of rock performers so that I could use them as models for fantasy characters. 

Elric was an albino but neither Moorcock nor other illustrators portrayed him as a true albino. In the books the author describes his skin as "bone-white" but real albinos have very light bright pink skin since they have no dark pigment to make it less transparent. And although Elric's eyes are famously described as scarlet red, the albinos I've seen have pink or purplish eyes which is weird enough for me. They do have pure white hair as I've depicted here: Sting as an albino.

I designed the quillons and hilt work of the sword to reflect its horrific soul-drinking nature. The quillons are formed figures of men and women entwined together, with a screaming face in the center and a glowing eye.

"Punk Elric" is acrylic on illustration board, 5" x 8", fall 1982. Click for larger view.