Rome Restored

Most of my Roman photos from 1971 have deteriorated severely and this one was the most faded. Only the murky purple of dead Kodachrome is visible. But here is Photoshop to the rescue, resurrecting old colors and bright contrast. Then what do you do when Photoshop is not enough? The details on the big  archway, as you can see from photo 1, are faded out almost completely, and there is nothing left to show from the sky, which as I remember was clear and blue that day. What do you do? You improvise and digitally paint in what you  remember, since I was there at the time of the shot. Photoshop offers many options in transparent color which I used like watercolors. I re-painted the tree green and edited out the ugly purple with a "color replacement" feature that turned it a more natural cool grey. And since the original detail on the arch was gone, I painted in not only the sunlit brick colors but all the details of the brick and stone archway, on my Cintiq's stylus screen. Remember that ancient Romans used tablets and styli to write with, just like my Cintiq, except that there was more stuff inside the modern computer tablet.

So is this a painting or is it a photograph? It's both I guess. I wonder whether my digital file will last as long as these buildings and the relics of Rome found by antiquarians and archaeologists. When I was a young kid living in Rome I wanted to  be an archaeologist when I grew up. Well I'm not digging in Roman dirt but at least I can restore the ancient images.

Photoshop on 1971 digitized image, March 14, 2017.

Amber Coronation

I sure did a lot of fan art during the 1980s. This one is part of a set that I did for a fanzine devoted to the "Amber" stories and characters by Roger Zelazny. The story is about a large group of brothers and sisters, all sired by the same King but with different mothers. They can travel between dimensions and they all fight for the right to rule the universe through their dimensional powers. It's more Renaissance intrigue and swashbuckling than medieval "Game of Thrones" style storytelling. In this fan-written story, one of the Amber siblings (here, in black) invites a mundane friend of his (man in suit and tie on left) to be his guest in the world of Amber, where they witness the coronation of the new King.

Black ink on illustration board, 8" x 5", spring 1983. Click for larger view of characters.

The Catman's Tail

Here we are again with one of my title pages for a Darkover zine. As I have pointed out, Darkover planet had a number of indigenous humanoid species which human colonizers had to contend with. The "cat-men" were one of them, a felinoid species which was intent on  retaining its territory despite being well-outnumbered and out-weaponed by the human colonists. I used 17th-century Renaissance engravings as an inspiration for this story which I have mostly forgotten.

Ink on illustration board, 8" x 10", October 1986.

Geometrikon "Ruby Towers"

Here's a Photoshop doodle with a Geometrikon. I'm experimenting with color layers, "cutting out" the red image from its background, and using the smooshy-pixel "Smudge" tool. There are lots of colors to play with, as in chartreuse clouds and red spires. Soon it will be time to do more cloud studies. But wintry days are not over just yet. 

Black tech pen ink, colored in Photoshop, 5" x 9", March 11, 2017.

Big Picker

I found this in the Whole Foods parking lot, where some sort of service was being done. This is a very new and modern "cherry-picker," designed to do work at treetop level in urban environments. An interesting feature of this is that the operator will stand in the "gondola" cage at the end of the lever, but there is no second operator down below in the engine capsule area. I had not noticed that feature of a cherry-picker. The controls for the whole thing are in the cage.

This was done in the parking lot while I was sitting on the tailgate of my car, my usual place for urban on-site art. But it is still only March despite the unusually warm weather, and it got too cold and dark for me to draw more details on this craft.

Black technical pen on sketchbook page, 4 1/2" x 5 1/2",  March 8, 2017.

Before and After in the Eternal City

I continue to transcribe and restore my images of Rome and other places, taken from 1969 through 1976. These are from a photo shoot I did in Rome on July 16, 1971. I am able to date it so accurately because it was documented in my journal which I have kept every day since 1968. The buildings here are on the quiet and un-crowded area known from ancient times as the Caelian Hill, one of the original Seven Hills of Rome. The place is "Saint Andrew's Oratory," and nearby is the church and old monastery of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, one of Rome's leaders during the "dark ages" of the barbarian invasions.

This photo took a lot of restoration, including colorization where the original color had completely faded away. To me it almost looks like a painting, perhaps in watercolor. At that time I was indeed painting watercolors on site in the city. You can read about my experience in this place at this entry from last year. I wish there were such a quiet, sunlit, and reverent place nearer to me. I'll be posting more restorations (in other online venues) as I work on the photo archive.

Restored from half-35 mm color slide, probably Kodachrome.

Observatory Geometrikon re-colored

This is a Geometrikon from February which I re-colored in markers and colored pencil, then added on the starry background in Photoshop. With digital/hybrid art, there is no one "original" which poses a problem for both artists and collectors.  Do you want to sell these creations? If so, which version? And in what medium? The colored version on paper may not look like the version from digital, and the only way to get a collectible item out of the digital version is to print it. Commercial users are fine with buying a computer file, but collectors want a more  personal, hand done piece which is unique. It isn't solved yet. Probably in the future this question will be irrelevant.

Inks, colored pencils, markers, and Photoshop, about 3" x 3", February 2017.