As I seem to be doing a lot of pen and ink work these days, I decided to do up a piece in that media. The show can be seen at this link.

This is the piece I did. They are sky pirates in a pagoda on the back of a giant insect called a gross bottle fly. It is inspired from a scene in Un Lun Dun.

A larger image click lives here.

Inside the station, it was dark and cool with a dirt floor. Towards the back, amongst the candy and oil and stuffed armadillos, was a rack of paperbacks. I wandered over to look.  My eyes were immediately drawn to an unbelievable sight. There on a paperback cover, was a thickly muscled man chained to the floor of a dungeon.  Facing him, was a snake of immense proportions. It reared up above him,  it’s body passing through the man’s legs making him appear to be almost riding on the back of the immense reptile. To boot there were nebulous things with wings and claws hanging out in the corners as if the snake was not enough of a menace to a chained man.

I picked it up and read the title. Conan the Usurper.  I did not know what a usurper was but if this book was half as good as the picture, I was ready to find out. My father bought the book for me and I was introduced to the work of two great fantasy master’s in one day. Thanks Pop!

So, Frank Frazetta’s art led me to Robert E. Howard’s writing. Howard is inextricably tied into the pulp’s and it’s history. From there, it was just a mind boggling expansion of pulp heaven. Stories to inflame the imaginations of the young and old alike. Monsters from space, hidden temples in deep jungles, spies, impossible machines, rampant dinosaurs and on and on…

I recently managed an assignment with Bad Moon Books to do a cover for a story called Wings Over Manhattan by Don D’Ammassa. I read the story and was struck by the distinct supernatural pulp noir feel of it all.  I decided, this was my chance to finally do a pulp cover! So off I went and here it is, the cover and an attending interior illustration.

The museum is located on the UConn campus and offered a display of works by many well known ‘pulp’ artists.  There was also an exhibit of sensationalist type newspapers from the late 1880′s -1900′s along with a number of examples of the well known ‘dime novels’.  It was a thrill to actually see actual examples.

The paintings were a visual treat and quite instructive. I got to see one of my favorite paintings by James Allen St. John. It is the cover art for the April 1933 issue of Weird Tales and depicts an immense spectral tiger with riders atop a mountain looking down on some men on camel back. No paper image I have ever seen of this piece prepared me for just how beautiful and vibrant the color was and the application of the paint itself is simply lost in translation. Truly beautiful! Right next to it was a smaller piece he did for the December 1936 Weird Tales Cover depicting The Fire of Ashurbanipal by Robert E. Howard and then next to it was a Virgil Finlay and next to that a Baumhofer next to a Rozen next to a Herndon ….and it just kept going like that.

The next room had several works by Frank Paul for Amazing Stories and Wonder Stories. Then there was an entire wall of Shadow and Spider original cover artwork which was followed by a wonderful piece by Laurence Herndon for the Blue Book, November 1930 issue. This depicts Tarzan against a sun drenched ancient temple protecting the hapless female behind him. Overhead he sports an evil doer native and is just getting ready to throw his foe  into a pile of his buddies. Grand adventure!

A jaw dropping show of work and imagery that I certainly won’t forget. Below are some pictures of what we saw.

The initial evaluation showed the fossilized skull and neck bones of a primitive batrachian specie. The rest of the specimen was believed to be intact but there was a fair amount of obscuring matrix that needed to be removed.  Cleaning began and eventually the bulk of the specimen began to reveal itself.  A weak solution of acetic acid was applied to help remove the more difficult limestone deposits encasing the smaller bones of the right wrist when a large flake cracked and lifted off. A dark staining of the stone was noted and cleaning proceeded to eventually reveal an elongated fifth metacarpal bordering the dark edge. The dark stain was in fact a wing membrane.  The world’s first specimen of a winged amphibian had been discovered!

As time goes on, more unusual creatures from the earths past are coming to light. This may be the first of a very strange group of prehistoric creatures that established paleontology is likely to have a bit of trouble categorizing.

I got hold of a roll of single unprimed duck, 100 yards long and 6 foot wide for a reasonable price and that should be enough for roughly 50 back drops.  What will drop first,  the backdrops or myself is a subject for debate. My money is on me going first.

The first hurdle was how to stretch a 7 x 6 foot canvas.  Canvas stretchers of that size are prohibitive, so I opted for 2 decently knot free pieces of pine, dimensions  8′x6″x”1.  I ripped them in half  lengthwise on the saw, sanded them and then after a flurry of measuring and squaring lines on the wall, screwed them directly into the horsehair plaster walls with long drywall screws. The only space in the entire house where this beast could have went was 6 foot 2 inches wide area between two windows in the living room. What a break! When I stepped back to look, I nearly tripped over my jaw. God Almighty, that is huge area. When the dancing mistress came home and saw the frame on the wall, her response was similar with a bit of sailor slang tossed in.

Stretching was much easier than anticipated. I used the basic canvas to stretcher rotational attachment method and everything went along nicely. Priming with gesso took about 1.5 hours with a six inch brush in one hand and a spray bottle of water in the other while balanced on the ladder. I then had to wait till night time to transfer the drawing via projector.

The palette, as you can see below, was several colors of whatever I found in the cellar from old house painting projects. Some of that stuff is near 20 years old but still working. Lots of wet paper towels,  a couple of plastic drop clothes, a few cheapo aluminum pans and we were off!  Some large cheap brushes were used to put the paint on and the painting went fast. I did three sessions for a total of about 17 hours. I am pretty impressed by the amount of pigment in house paint. I used a lot less paint than I thought I would or should have.

So now the piece is done. What is left now is to figure a way to get it off the wall and then trim the sides to be parallel and square respectively. After that,  I have to bind the edges and figure out a way for it to hang on and straight down from the rack we bought just for that purpose.  More on that later.

Illuxcon was Intimidating. The level of the artwork was phenomenal. There were masters there in their respective fields and some fellas I have not met but all the work was way above the bar. Talk about cream of the crop. No, Pat Wilshire is not paying me to write this.

Illuxcon was Intimate. It is such a small convention you cannot help but eventually meet everyone there. There were 55 artists with a limited amount of guests that can attend. I got to meet a long time influence, Ian Miller.  I was a little leary at first as the last famous British artist I met was total pratt however Ian was sweetheart of guy with some rather introspective questions that I suspect were disguised silly at the time but made me think later on. I also got to meet a slew of other artists and a couple of absolutely incredible sculptors. And of course the best part was saying hello to old friends and just yacking.

Check these sculptors out!

Jordu Schell at http://schellstudio.com/

Thomas Kuebler at http://www.tskuebler.com/

And lastly Illuxcon is Ingenious. Quite a concept to have a convention for artists for the artists. Kudos to Pat Wilshire and his amazing staff for making for an incredible four days for me. There were so many venues, receptions, talks and demonstrations by people who know their craft that it was hard for me to stay at my table. I was falling down tired at the end of each day but eager to get back again in the morning. I hope to return next year but we shall see what the new year brings.

Other Illuxcon stuff:  John Picacio’s , a fabulous artist from Texas (bonus points for that alone ) photostream of the event. http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnpicacio/sets/72157622693706277/

The Rubaiyat itself is a collection of quatrains written during the course of Omar Khayyam’s life – May 31, 1048 to December 4, 1131. Khayyam was a Persian poet, mathematician and scientist. The original illustration depicts Fitzgeralds translation of Khayyam’s quatrain number 26.

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the wine
To talk; one thing is certain, that life flies;
One thing is certain, and the rest is lies;
The flower that once has blown forever dies.

Overall design created for Necon’s Thirtieth Anniversary.