Saint Peter's Lantern

I love hanging lanterns. I have a number of them in my house, one of which I furnished with an artificial flame. These items derive from the imperial decor of ancient Rome and have been part of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches since the beginning of the religion, since they belonged to the non-Christian world before it. Saint Peter's in Rome is filled with them, mostly made of gilded bronze with an artificial flame at the top. I did this pencil study of a particularly ornate one on my Saint Peter's sketching expedition. After all, for a believer, the Lord is your light. It must have been quite a job keeping all these oil or wax lamps lit in pre-electricity days.

Original sketch is pencil on sketchbook page, 3 1/2" x 8", July 11, 1975.

Renovation Roomscape

The management of my apartment building is renovating my kitchen after almost 30 years of occupancy, 25 of them my years. To do this, I and a friend had to take everything, every little dust-covered jar of spices, out of the kitchen. I did this and now everything from the kitchen is everywhere, not counting living room things they had to move to get the heavy bulky stuff across the floor. They replaced the counters, all the appliances (!), the floor, and the cabinets. My oh my what an uproar of hammering and sawing and drilling. The cabinets are not done. Some of them are late in arriving, so more noise is coming. What do you do when your familiar environment is so radically disrupted? Draw a picture of course. That's what I always do. You can see the four circular symbols on the Whole Foods paper bags. Can you find the Ziploc bags? Everything will look lovely soon.

Black tech pen ink on sketchbook page, 4" x 7 1/2", June 28, 2017. 

Saint Augustine in Saint Peter's

During my 1975-76 stay in Rome, I made countless sketches and drawings, usually in ink.  This time I used plain old pencil. On July 11, 1975, I was in the ultimate grandiose environment of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, drawing the sculptures and ornamentation of the Popes' little cottage. (Yes, one of the biggest churches in the entire world.) This guy here is Saint Augustine, one of the founding fathers of the Catholic church and teachings, hence his book. He lived in the fifth century A.D. but this statue depicts him as a 17th century or later Archbishop, when he was carved. This is called "Baroque" style, like the music. When I was studying to be a Catholic St. Augustine was my favorite sacred writer.

Pencil on sketchbook paper, 4" x 7", July 11, 1975.

Leaves Study 2017

I do one of these every year, attempting to capture the bright green of June tree foliage before it fades to brown in the heat of summer. 2014 was done in markers. This is done in a mixture of media. The lush foliage is the view out my window. Over the years I see more and more foliage. I didn't know that mature trees keep growing. It is hard for me to get to my workstation since it is blocked by bulky components removed during the current renovation of my kitchen.

Markers, ink, and colored pencil, 3 1/2" x 4", June 27, 2017.

Gathering in the Crystal Chamber

In neo-medieval fantasy fiction there is almost always a big scene taking place in an aristocratic or royal council chamber. This is where the leaders of the many Houses, Clans, and factions gather to get some business done. It invites the illustrator to depict lavish architecture, heraldic banners, and a costumed crowd. This version of the Council Chamber scene is from a collection of Darkover fan art that I did in my early days as the unofficial artist of Zimmer Bradleyworld. Usually after too many disagreements a deadly fight breaks out in the chamber but I don't remember whether that happened here. I didn't intend on showing a specific event anyway. I miss Darkover, you hardly see it at all these days or perhaps I am just not looking.

Original artwork was brown ink on illustration board, 8 1/2" x 11", fall 1981. Klik for a larger view.

Cubist Space Station

This piece was excerpted from a Darkover fan zine where I was a regular contributor. It is the cover art but it doesn't illustrate anything in any particular story. Darkover mixed scenarios from science fiction as well as the more common swashbuckling neo-Renaissance material. I did this cubistic space station, orbiting over Darkover, before the "Borg" showed up on the TV screen. 

Ink on illustration board, about 8 1/2" x 8 3/4", May 1984. Click on image for a larger view.

Geometrikon Patriotic Remix

Here we are back with the re-mix of the "Election Geometrikon" of June 19. This is done on paper with the original drawing, using markers and colored pencils. It looks a bit like stained glass, which is OK by me. I wonder whether any modern American politician has won an election while using graphics, stickers, and billboards in a non-red-white-and-blue color scheme. What about another country whose flag is different colors. Let's observe some German political graphics from their upcoming election to see whether they use black, red, and yellow. As a graphic designer I tend to see things through that filter.

Marker ink, colored pencil, and election sticker on sketchbook page, 4" x 5 1/2", June 2017.