Diminisher of Peace
Always Becoming
A Corner Not Dipped In Styx
Nanowhere Chapt. 1
This is turning out to be the most difficult thing I've ever painted. I've always meant to do this, a character painting with all three sisters from SEABORN, Jillian (left), Kassandra (center), Nicole (right). I've cut each of them out and posted them below. A piece of the painting with all three sisters at the bottom. I'm not even close to complete, and I've spent a good four hours painting so far.
Click for the larger view.
Kassandra:
Jillian:
Nicole Garcia:
Olivia's an old character of mine, the youngest of five sisters--all Naiads. She has sharp teeth, a matching temper, and...let's just say that her idea of fun in the water isn't going to be yours.
"Come on in. The water's great!" (I wouldn't if I were you)
I spent around 2 hours painting. Here's the full piece, which I'm still tweaking.
Click the pics for the full views
Here's a detail crop of Olivia:
Spent a couple hours painting this afternoon, this one for Illustration Friday topic: fierce. (Yeah, I'm a little late). This is Kassandra dragging some unfortunate Seaborn troublemaker to the surface by the hair. Click for the larger view.
And I'm certain this will not be the last. I've posted at least three times on making maps for created worlds (see links below), one on the different kinds of maps I like to make, and two focused on how I make maps with watercolors and pencils. The map on the left is one that I've been adding to over five years. I had this idea for a roughly pentagon-walled city on the Atlantic's floor in 2003, and tonight I scanned--in two sections--my original 11x17 pencil drawing of the Nine-cities, Enneapolis, the Great City of the Seaborn--actually made up of nine cities inside massive walls, gates, protective shields, and a bunch of other stuff.
I love maps, love making them. Click the pic for the large view.
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0phrastus/2007/07/fictional-maps-.html
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0phrastus/2005/10/fictional_maps.html
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0phrastus/2006/06/fictional_map_m.html
This is an old one--one of the first sketches and paintings I did of Kassandra.
Click to see the full view.
Here's a page from one my many attempts to put some of my writing into something more visual. The first scene of Saltwater Witch, with Kassandra falling into Red Bear Lake in Nebraska. She was pushed. I saw the whole thing. Click for a larger view--or click over to my deviantArt page to get even more. (http://the0phrastus.deviantart.com/art/Getting-graphical-89733965).
Painted this for Illustration Friday topic: punchline. Digital, about 40 minutes. Knock knock...
Quick painting of a pond surface. Click the pic to see the large view.
No, he's not going to attack--that's her pet.
Speed paint, about 45 minutes. Click to see the full view.
Sketched this for Illustration Friday topic: forgotten. A character study for something new I'm writing. Click to see the larger view.
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Spent a few hours painting tonight. This is in progress, so I'll be updating--really like the way this is going, though. (Click the pic for the large view).
Apollo (Aπόλλων), the son of Zeus and Leto, brother of the huntress Artemis (they're paternal twins). (I took this in the museum at Delphi). Click the pic for the large view.
Painted this one for Illustration topic: seed (Click for full view).
Corina Lairsey, one of the main characters in SEABORN. Painted this one this morning, about 3 hours of work. If you've read the first ten chapters of the "samplers" that have been handed out at RT Con and elsewhrere, you probably won't recognize her. She will become this.
Click the pick to view it larger:
A quick painting of Kassandra--still looking good after all these years, digital, about 45 minutes.
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Will you still be sending me a valentine,
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
Here's an update to my earlier "primitive god" painting. (See the earlier post here).
I painted this tonight for Illustration Friday, topic: primitive. Believe it or not, he's teaching his worshipers and a few fellow eldritch gods the Fox Trot. Go ahead, make fun of him. I'm telling you the guy can dance.
What's he saying? Look, Cthulhu...well, I'm going to be blunt. You're just not that good on your feet. Line up over here with the beginners.
Click the pic to see it larger. (I have updated this painting here).
Live by the sword... Painted this one tonight for Illustration Friday--click to see it larger.
Here's a quick look at one of the frames for the graphic version of my short story The Gatherer, which picks up the Seaborn story 200 years before it starts, sets some of the background (not necessary for the plot of SEABORN), but I think neat stuff nonetheless. I'll be giving the complete graphic and text version away when Seaborn hits store shelves in July.
Click the pic to see the larger view:
What's sort of weird is how much that skeletal chap in the background looks like Jack Nicholson. What's up with that?
Watercolor, 18x24 original size (cropped below) - Syren Tears wiegh more than normal tears. I was more or less goofing with big brushes and sponges to paint this one. Click the image below to view it larger.
Sonnet 119:
What potions have I drunk of Syren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!
What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted
In the distraction of this madding fever!
O benefit of ill! now I find true
That better is by evil still made better;
And ruin'd love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuked to my content
And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
From the amazing Francis Tsai, a lobster-ish creature coming out of the sea. Beautiful. We'll need a vat of drawn butter for this dude. http://francistsai.blogspot.com/2008/01/ripper-of-legend.html
francis tsai's blog: Ripper of Legend
I started out wanting to do something a bit different, intending to work in the idea of "stitch" (this week's Illustration Friday topic). I wanted to stitch together two worlds, the ocean and the surface worlds, weave them together, and everything was heading in that direction, when this tentacled thing rose out of the depths and took over the world. It's crazy how things don't go as planned.
Click the pic to see the large view.
Here's a quick one I painted tonight, watercolor pencils and watercolors, very plain...flood plain. (Did this on a scrap of Hahnemuhle, Albrecht Durer, 210gsm paper that has a very cool weave).
Click the pic to see the large view.
Okay, spent a few hours painting this one, a scene from Chapter 15, Nikasia getting the ride of her life on a dragon. Here's my first sketch and what I completed along with a detail.
Click the pics to view the large versions.
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Sketched this seadragon this morning, the start of something big (I hope). I'll post an update when I'm finished.
Click the pic to see the large view.
I spent some time adding to the orca painting I did a few days ago, some seashell-ish influences to his armor, an archer in the background with crossbow, a few other little mods.
Click the pic to see the larger view.
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I set up a store at Etsy.com this afternoon to sell very limited editions of some art prints. Check it out. I already have my first order!
http://SaltwaterWitch.etsy.com
| Etsy Buy Handmade SaltwaterWitch |
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I painted a few pieces over the holiday, and now that it's about over, thought I'd better update the various sites, portfolios, etc. where I post my art. Here you go:
deviantArt: http://the0phrastus.deviantart.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9087491@N08/sets/72157603278483368/
Typepad: http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/photos/portfolio/index.html
Sketching category here on the blog:
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0phrastus/sketching/index.html
Here's a new one of Kassandra, 100% percent bad-ass.
Just so you know, normally yelling at something nasty like this doesn't work at all--you'll just get eaten. So, here's Kassandra from a scene in chapter 25 of my current work in progress, taking on something I'm calling a Basilikalchainos, (basil-, king; kalchaino, make purple, dark, troublous like the sea). This is about 4 hours of work. I'm still tweaking, but I thought I'd post what I've painted so far. Detail of Kassandra below.
Selling a limited edition of 20 signed prints of this one on Etsy.com for $32. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8681638
Please click the images for a larger view.
Painted this afternoon. Here's where my main character is right now...
Here's an update...with tentacles.
To people living at the bottom of the sea, up is bad, down is good, and our world is backward. I was up late last night--couldn't sleep--and painted this scene and character, the next ruler of the Seaborn, a few years after she's settled in, after the current king is removed from the throne. Click the pic to view it larger.
I was only vaguely aware of the interesting ideas and work being done over at the IAF--how unfortunate for me. Thanks to an invite from Ellen Kushner (via Facebook) to check out the Interstitial Online Salon, I've set out to find more about "art made in the interstices between genres and categories," and I encourage you too. I've been pulled in by everything I've read so far, essays by the amazing Delia Sherman, Theodora Goss, Holly Black, Jeff VanderMeer, Terri Windling, and some of the messages going at the second Interstitial Online Salon.
Find out more, join, participate.
http://www.interstitialarts.org
http://p081.ezboard.com/finterstitialartsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=323.topic
Gail's post at Fiction Beyond The Ordinary few days back got me thinking about motivation and writing...and drawing.
I'm a visual sort of person--maybe we all are. In writing, I always "see" what's happening to my characters, I picture scenes, see the tension in the room through the posture, the space between two characters, the expressions on their faces. I see characters in action and I write what I see. Pretty much the way it works for me.
I have sketched scenes and characters for years, and it helps me in several ways:
Drawing scenes helps anchor the future plot, keeps the plot from straying. Drawing also helps keep the characters fresh. Characters grow during the story. They're rarely--or perhaps shouldn't be--unchanged when you reach the final chapter. An early character sketch can show characters smiling, untroubled by all the bad stuff your plot's going to hand them a moment later. It's good--it works for me anyway--to have character studies at key points in the story.
I also use character studies to keep them fresh in my mind. There's the old writing rule: don't go back and read or edit everything you write. Move forward or you may stall and never complete the book. For the most part I do write forward, but I do look back--mainly for motivation. I go back and re-read my work. A lot. I may read the first 3, 5, 10 chapters a hundred times before I've completed the book's first pass. When those chapters become unbearably dull through over-reading, I usually move on to the middle of the book. And this is where those early character studies help me. They're the inspiration to keep going without having to re-read anything. I don't have to read anything to get a fresh picture of the characters and how far they've come. I just browse the sketches.
I've been drawing and painting for years. I have no formal training. It's mainly just me goofing with a pencil or pen or brush. For a novel, I'll typically draw or paint fifty or sixty pieces, some not much more than quick character outlines in pen or pencil. Others just seem to require more effort, and need to be completed. Here's an example. Click the pic to see the detail view.
At last year's Boskone (Great F&SF convention in Boston every year), Wen Spencer led a room full of us through her sketches--which weren't much more than stick figures--but she didn't need more to show us swords swinging, blood flowing, characters falling, parrying desperately, biting, going in for the kill. With a few pages, she choreographed an entire fight scene. I thought this was brilliant, and reinforced my own views about all the good things a writer can get out of drawing.
It really works for me. What about you? Do you have good (or bad) experiences drawing your characters or scenes? Do you find them helpful?
Here's a quick sketch from a chapter at the end of my current work. It's sloppy, but that doesn't matter. I treat sketches like this as visual counterparts to the stuff in my writing journal. I write notes on them, names, what's going on, where the scene's taking place. It helps keep the scene in mind--even seven chapters away, because it's that scene--that sketch--that's leading me. In this form, the sketch is like a map. It shows me where I need to go.
Click the pic to see the detail view.
Earth is an ocean world--and worlds come in all sizes...depending on who or what you are.
...to post about how impressed I have been with the print services of deviantArt (www.deviantart.com). I just received my second order, this one's an 8 x 10 of Tim Lantz's Seaborn (the cover art for my novel--coming out next summer from Juno Books), and I can't be happier with Tim's work, the quality of the prints, and the care that went into the packaging. I've ordered prints from several online services, and for the most part they've all delivered what I expected. The prints from deviantArt have set my expectations higher. Click the pic to view it full-sized.
Selling prints of this one over at deviantArt, my first shot at this. Click the pic below to go there and order.
Posedonis by *the0phrastus on deviantART
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This is a character study for King Tharsaleos, a manipulative bastard working many angles behind the scenes in Saltwater Witch and Seaborn. Comeuppance coming in the next one. I promise. IF: excess
Click the pic to see it larger.
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Just set this up. I'll be adding more when I get some time.
See the slideshow here.
Flickr users: I ran up against the three photo set limit and Flickr asked if I want to pay $24 a year to have unlimited sets. Now I'm wondering who is paying for Flickr? Anyone? $24 isn't bad for unlimited sets. I'm just wondering.
Click the pic to view the larger version.
I spent most of the morning and another couple hours tonight painting Poseidonis, the daughter of Kassandra. She'll inherit everything from her mother at some point. Kassandra would be in her early forties at this point.
Killing a seagull is bad luck--and this probably works with other seabirds, certainly albatrosses. I didn't know about other seagull superstitions. "If you see three seagulls flying directly overhead, it is a warning that someone you know may soon die." (Read more on bird superstitions here: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/bird_superstition ).
I brought my sketch book down and did a couple things in pencil while talking with my dad. Here's a quick sketch of King Demetrios, one of the characters from my short story, The Gatherer. He's mentioned briefly in Seaborn.
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Click the pic to see it larger. I painted Eupheron this morning, one of the kings inside Kassandra's head. Actually, I'm not sure if this is Eupheron or Kassander, Kassandra's namesake--both were total badass sorcerers. I started last night with some sketching and ideas for an overhead--almost back--light. (These are characters from my novel, Seaborn --Juno Books, 2008).
http://illustrationfriday.com/
Did I mention that Seaborn's already listed at Amazon.com? There, I mentioned it. Now please go pre-order it. http://www.amazon.com/Seaborn-Chris-Howard/dp/0809572818
I usually get on the Illustration Friday topic early, work on something Friday night, have something ready that night or the next day. This week's topic is "hats." Hats totally threw me. I don't wear hats except when I have to ward off frostbitten ears--and even then it's usually just a hood. I have an idea that I'm going to explore this week with hats, but it may take me a few days. I did spend a few minutes doing a survey of the headgear I have drawn or painted, and there's only one genuine hat among them. (I'm not counting the Santa hat as genuine). If there's anything on anyone's head in anything I've done, it's usually a crown or helmet--and even that's pretty rare. I actually didn't expect to find as many as I did among my work. Here are a few. Click the pic to see it larger.
Then there's this guy:
