Boring Waiting Room

Waiting for my car to finish undergoing regular maintenance, I'm drawing in the lounge of the Honda dealership. They have a cafe in the lounge which serves soft drinks, coffee, and snacks. They have two

flat screen TV's. They have wi fi. They have a little walled-off area for kids to play in, thankfully empty while I was there. As car waiting rooms go, this one is quite luxurious. I did a drawing in it, and then a crossword puzzle, and then my car was ready. This is exciting urban sketching!

Pitt black pen on sketchbook page, 8" x 6".

The Tree Monster

And now for something completely different. Some of my young co-workers are gamers and fantasy fans. I sometimes get into discussions of gaming and fantasy worlds with them. Over the years I've shown my fantasy art to co-workers and I have told them about my current project to re-claim my work as a professional fantasy/science fiction illustrator. Character illustration will be an important part of my illustration work. I asked the gamers whether they had any characters which I could illustrate. This is one of them.

According to the game scenario, the Tree Monster, a spirit of evil and twisted nature, was imprisoned under the earth by the faerie folk, who then felt safe living a life of sweetness and light in a purified Natural world. But the Tree Monster, after ages underground, escaped and rampaged through the Faerie world, filled with anger and revenge, attacking and killing the pretty creatures who had buried him alive. Here he is with one of his victims in his hand, her broken wings drifting away to the ground.

"Tree Monster" is Photoshop CS4, 700 x 1000 pixels, August 6, 2010.

Summer Sunset

After a long, hot, humid summer day, evening comes to the Virginia landscape. You can hear the cicadas scratching out their twilight song, and the crickets chirp quickly in the heat. Maybe later in the night there will be a thunderstorm. I wish this were the view out my window. It is the view out the window of my imagination. Though this is from memory it is a real scene that you can see just about any August evening in rural Virginia.

Photochirp, 10" x 7", about an hour's work, August 5, 2010.

Cambridge Memories

This is from my 1984 sketchbook. During that year I did on-site sketches of my urban environment in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a black book-bound sketch book. I did the original drawing in brown ink Rapidograph pen, and colored them in with watercolor pencils. Then I took them home to the studio, wet them down, and added what color was necessary in watercolor. This was on thin paper and it warped in the book but I used it anyway. Some of it has yellowed over the years as you can see from the impressions of warping and yellowing in this image. I would like to do more on-site sketches like this. Sometimes I do and you see them here.

I look back on my years in Cambridge as somewhat idyllic but the truth is that I was constantly troubled and depressed. I had more time to be troubled and depressed as for most of those years I didn't have a day job. I was working as a professional free lance illustrator but that didn't bring much money in.

I would draw anything as long as it was in my neighborhood. This is a corner about half a block from my house. The view you see has been obliterated. There is now a great big fortress-like wall built there, behind which is a massive garage and a science laboratory complex, all belonging to mighty Harvard University.

"Hammond and Gorham Street, 1984" is watercolor and ink on sketchbook paper, about 8" x 10".

Horizon in Space

In space, there is no horizon, unless you are on or near a suitably large planet. The horizon for our purposes is defined by a horizontal line which is drawn at the height of our eyes. So as long as there is an observer, you might say that a horizon exists. But in the three-dimensional swirly mix of a nebula, there isn't any structure strong enough to provide a horizon by itself.

An accretion disk around a black hole or neutron star, though, is a good equivalent of a horizon, since it forms a horizontal plane in space that is easily seen. There is also the phenomenon of the "event horizon" which is found at the junction between "ordinary" space and the highly altered space of a black hole. This may be what you see in this picture. The very bright star at the upper center may be an unstable very large star, emitting a lot of radiation and gas and just about to collapse in a supernova or even into a black hole. You can then see the beginnings of an accretion disk forming.

Should you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest that you leave the area immediately so that you will not be obliterated in a nova blast or possibly even a supernova. Your spaceship's warp drive may not be able to move that fast, but your Imaginal Drive should clear both you and your spaceship out of danger in no time at all.

"Horizon in Space" is....uh,....acrylimaginal on eventhorizon board, relativistic dimensions, November 1991.

Zoroastrian article in Gnosis Magazine

From the early 1990s until about 2000, I was seriously involved in the study of Zoroastrianism, the ancient and still-living religion of Persia. I attended many religious services, study meetings, lectures, and social gatherings all around the country, meeting Zoroastrians from both Iran and India. Zoroastrians in India are known as "Parsis." In 1993 I started writing articles about the religion for the non-Zoroastrian world.

GNOSIS magazine was a wonderful periodical devoted to mostly Western esoteric traditions. It ran from 1985 to 1999. I wrote a number of articles and book reviews for this magazine. One of the ones I wrote, for which I drew this illustration, was called "The Light of the Sacred Fire," and it was about Zoroastrianism and its influence on later religions such as Judaism and Christianity. (It has also had a lesser influence on Islam and Buddhism.) The article was published in June 1994.

I am still a student of Zoroastrianism and I still have some contacts with the community, but I'm not active as a scholar and writer any more. The Z. community now has plenty of resources of its own to educate the public, and I needed to go on and do other studies. I'm still much indebted both artistically and spiritually to this venerable faith.

"Light of the Sacred Fire" shows an Indian Parsi urn with the sacred fire burning on a dish placed on top of it. The fruits, nuts, and flowers on the table are typical of a Zoroastrian festive table. The winged disc man emblem on the wall, which was once the insignia of the Persian King, is now the symbol of the Zoroastrian faith.

Illustration is 9" x 6", ink on illustration board, November 1993.

Another Vineyard Visit

Another Saturday in the northern Virginia countryside, and I'm at the wine again. This landscape is at the Hume Vineyards, a newly opened winery in fancy estate country. A neighboring thunderstorm turned the sky grey, though no rain fell at the winery. I could hear distant thunder and the warbling songs of bluebirds. I could have drunk more wine but then I wouldn't drive well on my way home.

Here's a shed on the vineyard property. In the back you can see my sketchy rendering of young grape vines, just beginning to yield fruit.

Colored pencil and Pitt brown pen, respectively, both drawings on an 8" x 11" sketchbook page. Drawn outdoors on site, with no alterations or corrections in the studio, just the way the art academics want it.