A View from Low Town

I normally don't draw or paint anything outside of the things I'm writing, and since almost everything I write nowadays has an ocean theme, that's pretty much what you see.  I'll do something different if the mood takes me, like the bandstand in Hampton NH, the power poles along a hill by our house, but it's rare. 

Skott (textipication.com) and I are in an SF workshop led by Craig Shaw Gardner and Jeffrey A. Carver, and since I've been critiquing Skott's novel (along with others' short and long fiction) I had this great idea of the main character looking up through the "teeth" of a gate at the royal palace--as I picture it.  I'm not sure if Skott sees it this way.

Title: A View from Low Town  (click the pic to see the larger version).  Love to hear what you think.  I'm thinking of putting a wanted "Dead or Alive" poster on the blank wall on the left.

Comments

[Skott Klebe]

Incredible. Just incredible. I'm honored.
And I'm stealing it.
SK

[Gabriele]

I like it. Looks like some of the trellis gates I've walked through. Though they never appeared so scary. :)

[Chris Howard]

Hey, Skott. Thanks! I did this in several passes of watercolor and digital, and I'll bring in a copy for you in the morning.

Hi, Gabriele! This gate's based on one I saw recently in Switzerland, but, you're right, in realtiy I didn't even think of relating teeth with the gate--and then looking through them as if it was a monstrous mouth.

All in all, you can't wrong with the western gunfighter view--although that's his left hand, and he'd be pulling the sword with his right.

I made the walls very green and sort of mossy because I'm thinking this a pier entrance to the city. This is a port, ships dock, but you can't just let anyone unload cargo anywhere--and you need to be able to keep out invaders from sea.