Dragoncon, keyword sketches, and rethinking black knight

A couple more days until Dragoncon. Packpackpacking. It's a little bit easier that I just had a show this past weekend, so at least all my print inventory is in order. It's just a matter of figuring out how to distribute everything into my suitcases and carry-on. Heavy bags -- augh.

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Bunch of keyword cards I've been negligent about uploading.

clockwise: beauty, siblings, journey, dragon, submission, guardian

from the left: jewel, dragon, tree, oblivion, dreams

harmony, fox, medusa, beauty

clockwise: weatherwax, butterfly, joy, monster, sweetness, roots, oak, hedgewitch

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Rethinking the black knight sketch. I think I like the other composition better. Going with this one instead.... Though who knows, after a week away from it at a convention, I might come back to change my mind again. I'm beginning to think that when I have more time to paint, paintings are just EASIER. I don't have time to question my own judgment - which can be a good and bad thing!

Black Knight Sketch

Black Knight, final piece for my "Witch's Knights" series. Had some time while listening to speakers at SFBATS to scribble some sketch ideas for this. I have in mind misty-dark woods with the moon gleaming through a gap in the central tree. Hoping to polish this sketch a little bit, and then get down to painting it when I return from Dragoncon next week. Leaving on Thursday, and still so much packing to do!

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Alternate background idea. Swirled ridges of the roots here remind me of a huge ficus in hawaii. I know, not geographically appropriate, but tickling my artistic fancy.

Tea Sprite

Tea Sprite
Size: 3x4.5 inches
Medium: Watercolor & Gel Pens

Another quick piece, while Claire was napping today. Sipping my own tea -- Milk Oolong. Burnt Umber washes, and scribbling of a gel pen into the wet paint. Interesting random blues and purples resulted as the ink dried.

Mist and Verdure

Mist and Verdure
Size: 3x5 inches
Medium: Watercolors

A mini-offering. My painting-time these days has been so limited that I hoard every bit of it and spend days brainstorming a piece, sketching it out, pondering color schemes, before finally setting brush to paper. The thing is, it's mentally exhausting doing that, and I felt the need today to just let loose and paint something without over-thinking or planning. Sketch to finish, a couple of hours. Scribbled directly onto the board and then liberally doused with green washes and Essence of Oakland.

A walk through the redwoods today helped as well. I went hunting blackberries. Finding blackberries in Joaquinn Miller reserve is not hard. Finding the ripe ones is the trick. There are parts of the paths where there are literally 6-foot walls of blackberry bramble-hedges.

It was misty this morning, a cloudy haze that softened the upper branches of the redwoods. The leaves were shiny with condensation, and the blackberries were bright exclamations of tart red and glinting ebony amongst so much grey-green. Mist and verdure, to curl through my memory into a splash of color on my page this evening.

Into the Green

Into the Green
Size: 12x16 inches
Medium: Watercolors
Sketch: -here-
Prints and original available -here-
Detail closeup -here-

Cover for the next Dreamscapes book (don't know the release date yet. My guess is either end of 2011 or else Spring 2012). Finished in time for me to start turning my attentions to packing for SF BATS, and then Dragon*con the following weekend. Somehow those just crept up on me so quickly!

Dreamscapes 3 sketch & Upcoming Conventions

Cover for the next Dreamscapes book, ready for painting!

Hoping to finish this before Dragon*con sneaks up on me. Speaking of which, here are a couple of upcoming appearances:

• SF BATS (San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium) - August 27-28, Golden Gateway Holiday Inn, SF. Booth in the bazaar from 10am-5pm.

• Dragon*con - September 2-5 - Atlanta, GA. Booth in the Exhibitor Hall.

As always, if you plan to attend this and would like me to bring along any specific books/prints/originals, let me know before the show! I don't always pack everything I have, and so I can't guarantee it'll come unless you speak up.

Red Knight of Burning Day

Red Knight of Burning Day
Size: 20x21 inches
Medium: Watercolors
Original and prints for sale -here-
Detail closeups -here-

The second in my "Witch's Knights" trio. Black knight will be coming, but before I get to him, I have to take a brief detour to work on the cover for my upcoming Dreamscapes book. Once that's done, I can come back to finishing this series. To see the earlier piece, the white knight, -click here-.

Redwoods and Poppies (and a Red Knight painting)

Nearly finished. Spent the past few days painting towering redwood trees and blood red poppies. Turns out the initial background colors have worked out as I had hoped, their definite not-red tone that I had worried about before, serving to make the red of the poppies really pop out (Popping Poppies!)

I've spent the past few days also coincidentally wandering amongst very similar environs. The poppies that surround me here in California are a bright golden color instead, but the glorious stretch of the redwoods straining up to the heavens possess the majestic tone I try to capture in a forest. The world around me sneaks into my paintings even when I am not consciously attempting it. They become these reflections of an alternate existence, with the thread of a story, idea, concept, that ties them to true reality.