Platypus of Truth

Drawing Virgil's Fields of Asphodel put me more than a little in mind of Ursula K. Le Guin. Along those lines, I began thinking of a similar scene in the Earthsea Cycle that I could draw using the same techniques. Here we have Ged in the Otherworld trapped between the Land of the Dead and the Shadow. I'm most happy with the Shadow and Ged's cape. These are the pastel pencils again (Conte) on black paper. There's a little computer editing on the midtones to bring the scan closer to the original.

Working with chalk pastels on black paper again today. There's some editing on the color balance in an attempt to get the scan to match the original drawing (just a little fiddling with the midtones). This is a scene inspired by the song Sacrimony from Kamelot's Silverthorne album. As a fan of Victorian Gothic, I appreciated the Fall of the House of Usher meets Phantom of the Opera quality of the story. Here we have the Good Brother receive a vision of his dead sister as The Angel of Afterlife descended from Heaven to judge his case. I wish I had enough skill to do this dark theophany credit -but oh well...

Take two on yesterday's drawing of Aeneas visiting his father on the fields of asphodel. I've switched the medium from oil pastels to chalk pastels. This is that nice French set some friends sent me for Christmas. The chalk is easier to blend, but far easier to blow away or smudge and doesn't adhere to the paper as readily. The overall effect is finer than the oil pastels but, at this low technical level, I don't think the difference is too great.

The difference between Virgil and Homer is the difference between written poetry and oral poetry: Virgil is finer, but Homer is truer. I've preferred Homer since my student days, but I have had to teach Virgil on occasion and each time I give it my level best. When all else fails, I can fall back on the sheer beauty of Virgil's imagery. Here we have a scene from Book VII where Aeneas meets his father's ghost on the fields of Elysium. The asphodel shines in the twilight of the Dead Realm as Anchises shows his son the spirits of famous Julio-Claudians yet to be.

Here's one from my non-existent rebel days. I call it "Triumph of the Middle Class".

Two more characters from my study hall's t.v. show pitch. Here, we have the novice companion of our title character and the good old Irish priest from the church down the way from the convent. I'm envisioning a Northern, urban setting for the show, though I defer to the creative genius of the others. Now all we need is the Mother Superior and a few Italians to round the thing out.

Brush-tip marker drawing of the final scene from my study hall's t.v. show.

Pulled from the Whiteboard: Promo for my study hall student's t.v. show pitch featuring a promo poster and sketches of the final scene.