This version of the Ghost Pirates was inked and toned all in Photoshop. If I remember correctly the reason Epilogue.net rejected it was because it was too blurry. Since the point of the image was to approximate the pirates walking out of the fog my first reaction was, “Duh! It’s supposed to be blurry!” It’s years later now. My reaction to getting rejected at Epilogue these days is usually just to shrug.
The Ghost Pirates – Before
This sketch was inspired by William Hope Hodgson‘s The Ghost Pirates. Hodgson is one of those frustrating authors who has great ideas but is hard to recommend to anyone because he’s not a lot of fun to read. His best work is in short stories. The longer the story the more needlessly dense and repetitive the prose. If you’ve seen Attack of the Mushroom People you’ve seen an adaptation of one of Hodgson’s best short stories The Voice in the Night.
I finished a version of this in Photoshop that was then rejected by Epilogue.net. I’ll post that tomorrow.
Ghost Pirates – Even More Before
I found this earlier version of the Ghost Pirates while I was looking for the completed version. I don’t see any reason to hang onto it so I’m posting it today.
Crinoids
We resume our journey through the 2002 section of the sketchbook.
In the Sentient 39 “universe”, there are 71 sentients. This is according to the Blair, a species of space faring invertebrate that also claims to one of the oldest of said sentients. I haven’t actually figured out who all those sentients are. (A sentient, at least in Blairish terms, designates the life that has evolved on a specific planet. If that life then went into space and seeded 49 other planets and an intelligent lifeform evolved on all those planets the Blair would still say it was one sentient. No one has been able to get a good explanation from them as to why that is.)
I’ve adopted H.P. Lovecraft’s alien races as sentients. They are public domain creatures. But really, I find them fascinating. Lovecraft invented aliens that were weird and strange and not human. No bumpy foreheaded humans for him. This unfinished sketch is my attempt at showing what an active crinoid culture would look like.
Weirdsmith After
It took me longer to find this image than I expected. Turns out I’d burned it to CD way back before I got an external backup drive. This version of the image appeared in my 2003 Calendar. It’s also probably the only color version I’ve got of this image. I seem to remember that I flattened, saved and then closed the original Photoshop image. Normally I save two versions of an image – one as a layered Photoshop document that I can make changes to if needed in the future, one as a flattened tif that can be easily moved around.
I should be back posting on a daily basis. I’m now using the “new” version of Blogger. It shouldn’t make much difference to your experience.
Back In March
I’m taking February off from posting.
I still love you.
I’ll be back with the finished Weirdsmith image on March 1st.
Current Projects
While we wait for me to find the finished Weirdsmith piece let me update you on current projects –
Oz Squad – In progress. Really. 48 pages of layouts. 11 pages of completed pencils.
Oziana 2006 – At the printer presumably. I contributed illustrations to a story and a poem.
Baum Bugle – In progress. I’ve been asked to rewrite the Oz Comics webpage for print in the next issue. I need to flesh out the plot summaries of the different comics and get some good scans of the covers. The trickiest series looks like it will be Peter Pan and the Warlords of Oz. I’ve found very little about it online either as commentary or as issues for sale.
The Black Seal – In progress. Both the 4th issue and Viet Nam number are mostly done. I’m waiting on some specs to finish the illustrations for the 4th issue and I’ve still got a short comic to do for the Viet Nam number.
Worlds of Cthulhu – Finished illustrations for an article in the 5th issue.
Mansions of Madness – Finished illustrations for a reissue of this Chaosium book. To be published sometime this year I believe.
The Spiraling Worm – In progress. I’m providing the cover illustration for this collection of Mythos fiction by David Conyers and John Sunseri. My layouts have been approved and I’m in the process of painting/coloring it.
There’s other things here and there. Possibly a large illustration job for Labor of Love Creative. No deadline on that yet.
Weirdsmith On Hold
No post today and maybe not tomorrow. I want the next one to be the finished version of the Weirdsmith but I’ve run into a snag in getting it off my backup.
Weirdsmith – Before
There isn’t a finished version of this anywhere on the net. I submitted the finished version to Epilogue.net and it was rejected. I don’t remember the reason now. I’ll locate the final, color version and post it tomorrow.
Weirdness
Glenn tagged me with this meme last year. I didn’t respond right away and the more time passed the harder it got to respond. Now Schuyler has tagged me. It looks like the rules have changed a bit in the months since Glenn first sent it my way.
Here are the details: Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you’re tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here goes.
1. I take great comfort in the idea that the universe is bigger than I can imagine, that the Earth is a tiny little speck in the midst of it and that a thousand years after I’m dead no one will remember or care that I was ever here.
2. I see things. Dinosaurs walking down the street. Squid climbing trees. The skeleton beneath your skin and the writhing demon in your skull. These aren’t hallucinations. I don’t mistake them for reality.
3. I used to do dangerous things when no one was looking. Explore abandoned buildings. Walk off into the woods at night. Walk through bad neighborhoods. I’ve never needed peer pressure to be stupid. I’m really more likely to be stupid by myself. I do it less now mostly because I just don’t have as much time as I used to.
4. I have a guardian angel. It’s got multiple wings and claws and teeth and just because it love me that doesn’t mean it’s going to make my life easy. Yes, I’m an agnostic. No, I don’t see any contradiction.
5. When I was a kid I noticed that old people had a lot of wrinkles. Old people who frowned a lot and didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves had less attractive wrinkles than those who smiled and had a good time with life. So I’ve spent a lot of time smiling and being cheerful for vanity’s sake. I want good looking wrinkles.
6. It usually takes me forever to decide someone is a friend. Well, not forever, years. I used have a hard time talking to strangers or new acquaintances because I figured they wouldn’t be around long enough to be friends so it didn’t make sense to spend the time with them. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself when some stranger talked to me. It always amazed me that my dad would strike up a conversation with people standing next to him in line.
I’ve tagged Leif, Jenn, Kip, Mad Dog, Nick (though I couldn’t seem to add a comment to any of his entries so he’ll have to find out about it here) and, because maybe having two people pointing at her will make her jump – Ninnah.
