Nightflight K14

I had the idea for this dark blue starry abstract for a while, but didn't set it down on media until later. When does a picture become a picture? The audience can't read my mind, so it only becomes real when I make enough imagery for the audience, even if it's only one other person, to see. This is called "Nightflight," and it's number 14 on my "K-series" of Photoshop digital abstractions. It might be worthy of going to a painted version, but that would mean a lot of difficult acrylic blending and masking. Anyway, here it is on the screen, where many wonders can take place easily.

"Nightflight K-14" is Photoshop, 8" x 10", July 31, 2014.

Varzil the Good

"Varzil the Good" was a heroic lawmaker character in Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" world. His dramatic and elaborate history is recounted in this fan encyclopedia entry, which astonishes me with its detail. In fact this whole Darkover "wiki" encyclopedia is an astonishing deed of research, and I didn't know about it until just now. This "Varzil" illustration is a piece of my vast and not-so-astonishing deposit of Darkover fan art. II always wanted to do Darkover as a graphic novel in the 1890s storybook style of illustrators like H.J. Ford of the "Colorful Fairy Books" series. But Marion Z. Bradley the author said (in a conversation with me) that she hated comic books and she would never allow anyone to do a graphic presentation of her Darkover works. She's dead now but you still have to honor her wishes.

"Varzil" is ink on illustration board, tinted in acrylic and restored in Photoshop, 3" x 6", summer 1985.

Bubble Tower

I doodled something that looked like a cross between a wedding cake and the Philadelphia city hall, then imported the black and white drawing into Photoshop and added color and pre-set patterns. I don't mind a touch of New Age glow or late 19th century holy carnival style. I don't even need feathery angels to trace the vision of lava-lamp heaven. The Bubble Tower is one of an endless number of lighthouses on the astral plane.

Technical pen ink on sketchbook page, enhanced and given a background in Photoshop, 5" x 7", July 2014. Cliquez for larger view.

Tiger Swallowtail Border

The Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is the state insect of Virginia. What, you didn't know that each state had an honorary insect? Well yes, they do! And this majestic butterfly is also the state insect of North and South Carolina, as well as Georgia and Delaware. Somehow, no state has chosen the cockroach or the fire ant as its state insect. I decided to add the Tiger Swallowtail to this full-summer border for advertising at Trader Joe's. The butterflies are real and you see them flying around in large numbers around this time. Some of them are huge, as big as birds. When they fly at you, you think they could knock you down. Fortunately they are not aggressive, at least against humans.

Ink, markers, and colored pencil on cardstock, 7" x 5", July 27, 2014.

Drooling Dragon

If a Dragon breathes fire, then it would logically drool lava as well. There's quite a lot of heat involved. The skin of this Lava Dragon resembles just-dried Hawaiian lava, a silvery black with a rough wrinkly texture. It's an interesting combination of geology and biology which has its own level in bio-fantastical taxonomy.

"Volcano Dragon" is mixed media on grey colored paper, 8 1/2" x 9 1/2", fall 1998.

Morgaine at her best

Once again, here's the main character from C.J. Cherryh's series of books about the

female time-traveler and adventurer, Morgaine. The white-haired Amazon is depicted in her black and silver armor and white bearskin cape, holding her space-warping "sword." She also has a blaster holstered at her left hip as well as a "utility belt" with ammunition and supplies, since the books are a mixture of fantasy and science fiction motifs. Morgaine has white hair and silver eyes because she is a descendant of an ancient super-race that once ruled the galaxy and left behind the space/time gateways that they built. It is her job to close as many gateways as she can while staying alive during adventures on many worlds.

This picture was bought by a fan at DarkoverCon 1981 and given to C.J. Cherryh on her birthday at Constellation, the Baltimore World Science Fiction Convention, in 1983. I'm sure C.J. has scads of fan art by people around the world and I wonder whether she still has this one or even remembers it. I consider it one of my best small pieces ever, despite its early 1981 date.

Gouache on Fabriano paper, mounted on black mat board, 4" x 8", fall 1981. Clikonthepic for a larger view.

Andrew Acosta Band Returns to Park

Summer in America, our nation goes outside in the evening for concerts and lawn furniture. Kids and dogs playing in the grass, and ice cream from the vendors under the canopies. Fireflies lighting the big trees and evening birds chirping. The dark misery of the world is put aside for just a moment. 

Andrew Acosta and his "New Old-Time String Band" plays every year somewhere in the Falls Church neighborhood and tonight was his turn at the "Concerts in the Park," held at an outdoor venue near the City Hall. As always he brought a good helping of country-musical Americana, somewhere between bluegrass and folk. The band, as seen above, is six gentlemen on various instruments and vocals, including the ninety-six year old fiddler, "Speedy" Tolliver. On the second half of the show, Acosta brought up his other group, "Acosta and Clark," a smaller band with a little bit of drumming and an electric bass. Acosta's sister appeared as vocalist on a few songs and they finished out their set as usual with a Gospel medley.

Pitt technical pen black ink on sketchbook page, about 5" x 8", while sitting on my tiny and uncomfortable folding stool.