I Am A Mushroom

I mentioned to one of my co-workers that I was a mushroom, because I flourish in the darkness. I have always had a fondness for fungi (not of the psychedelic variety) and when I was younger I did a lot of mushroom identification and study. I never picked mushrooms to eat because I knew I didn't know enough to determine which ones were good and which were not. But I was delighted when rings of mushrooms grew in the back yard or when I found pristine samples growing in the nearby forest. I haven't been much of a naturalist since those days but sometimes a random encounter makes me remember that I was much closer to the world of nature when I was growing up. I would like to spend more time in that world along with my guidebooks. I always wanted to identify the plants and creatures that I saw, I wasn't a tree hugger. There are always little pockets of nature even in the big city so I am not entirely out of range. If you look at the mushroom, the mushroom may look at you too.

Mushroom is ink on sketchbook page, about 2 1/2" x 2 1/4", April 7, 2014.

Winding Window

Weather has now permitted me to go on my "Wine Saturday" visits again. Today I went to "Winding Road Cellars," one of my favorite Northern Virginia wineries. I sipped their excellent Chambourcin (a hybrid French/American red) and did two iPad drawings. It was still too cold to sit outside and draw so I chose this window with their wine chill bucket in front of it. Remember, there is no prohibition against drinking and drawing. The iPad was on the bar right next to the wine.

And here is a quick sketch of the grounds at Winding Road, drawn looking through a window. The upright dark sticks are stakes supporting young grapevines.

"ArtStudio" app on iPad, April 5, 2014.

Professor Spider

One of my gamer friends commissioned a portrait of a character of hers that was a shape-changer. He had at least two forms: a mild-mannered biology professor, and a huge alien crystalline spider. I created the character along the lines of the famous adventure/fantasy actor David McCallum. When I had finished the character (but not the spider) I realized that my version of the character looked like my idea of a figure out of the "Milieu" series by Julian May. This was Denis Remillard, a mild-mannered metaphysical psychology professor who unfortunately was possessed by a hideous collective of evil souls. So when I added the spider I also had Denis in mind. It was a good example of two-for-one illustration. Julian May's "Milieu" world had a great influence on me when I was updating my world of the Noantri. I based a lot of the psychic science on May's world-building factors. Most authors and artists borrow from other authors and artists. If they say they are totally original and made it up themselves, they're just wrong. But there are no giant crystalline alien spiders in my Noantri world, at least not yet. 

"Professor  Spider" is acrylic on illustration board, 14" x 20", April 1991.

Digital model drawing

I haven't done a digital figure sketch in a while, so here's one. I'm trying not only to depict the figure well but to work with layers and shading. The Photoshop "brush" can imitate pencil or ink, and then on another layer I add in a color "wash" and soften it up with the blend tool. My model is a photograph from the excellent "Art Models" series of picture books. I know, it is always better to draw from a live model but I just don't have that resource right now. I need to work on everything figure drawing and the photos are very helpful. They are also on a CD which comes with the book, and you can draw from the photo on your screen direct to digital with a tablet and stylus. It's not great sketching by any means but at least I'm still trying to do it.

Sketch is Photoshop, about 10" x 6 1/2", April 4, 2014.

Ayn Rand old style

Back in the old days, in the early 20th century and before, upscale books usually had illustrations. Many of them in the late 1800s through the 1930s were illustrated in a slightly sketchy pen work style which was typified in the work of Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the "Gibson Girl." Many of the literary works as well as pictures were social commentary and satire on the lives, romances, and foolishness of the upper classes. 

As an illustration experiment I decided to adapt the Gibson style to one of my favorite fantasy books, "Atlas Shrugged" by the notorious Ayn Rand. Note that I call this a fantasy, because that's what it is. And it also contains a whole lot of sarcastic social commentary that many readers miss because they are too busy being either outraged by it or treating it as True Believer gospel. 

In this little piece, we see three of the main characters, from left to right Hank Rearden the steel industrialist, Dagny Taggart the railroad executive, and Francisco D'Anconia, the mining potentate. Both men were Dagny's lovers though not at the same time. The quote is from one of Rand's tense party scenes where the various characters interact, behave badly, or lecture us about the importance of money. The quote is typical of Rand's convoluted dialog style. "I wish I could permit myself to like you as much as I do," comes in the knowledge that the other guy was Dagny's ex-lover, as well as the plot device that D'Anconia is pretending to be a worthless playboy rather than an industrial powerhouse because he is part of the plot against the System. 

I borrowed the old style to illustrate these idealized characters, putting Rand into the world of "society novel" rather than libertarianoid propaganda. This was the only time I ever tried that, until I re-worked Rand's text into a sample graphic novel chapter back in 2009.

Dip pen and ink on sketchbook page, about 7 1/2" x 4 1/2", June 1981.

This is posting number 2000 for "Art By-Products." I guess that is some sort of milestone but if I allow myself to think about all these posts and the numbers that come later I will drive myself crazy so this is all I will say.

Fantasy History Grail

In the late '80s and early '90s of the XXth century, the famous science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories" was revived in a lavish full-color glossy paper format. I got to do some interior illustrations for it and this was one of them. I can only vaguely remember the story. It was set in the dark ages after Roman rule in the British Isles had ended. This was supposed to be the "reality" behind the mythos of King Arthur and the "Holy Grail." The famous Camelot was only a rough fortress made of stones and logs, as depicted here. I added in picturesque ruins to give the atmosphere of long-lost Empire. (I REALLY LOVE picturesque ruins.) The story had something to do with a simple monk who discovers a manuscript with an alternative history…I think. Somewhere in my packed closets are all the magazines I illustrated for, including this one, but I'm not going anywhere near that area now.

Watercolor and ink on illustration board, 12" x 17", September 1991.

Angel Towers

Imagine cities full of science-fictional angelic souls, living lives connected in a cosmic Matrix, all under the absolute control of an omnipresent God who expects souls to thank Him for every favorable occasion and pray for His help in every adverse circumstance. There are millions of inhabited planets out there where material life has been subsumed into virtual worlds, which will last until the end of the Universe. Apocalyptic religion has been going on for millennia, but now we have the Internet and Photoshop to give it vivid representation. Put on your Google Glass and you, too, can link in and be an electronic angel. 

Photoshop, 7" x 10", April 1, 2014.