Torquil Is a Horny Slut

I hate to tell you this, but my protagonist is not 100 percent gay. Neither is he really straight. He just likes to fool around with all the pretty people he can find - not just humans, either. Here he is getting fresh with a tree nymph. I'll ink this one later on.

Helios the Archer

 

This once again is my interpretation of an astrological image of the Sun, one of several devised in literary form by Giordano Bruno, the great Hermetic philosopher and mage. Like several of my other Hermetic pieces, this one is in watercolor, and is 12 by 12 inches (30 by 30 centimeters). As before, the perspective is in keeping with my design for the projection of an omnidirectional image upon the panels of a geodesic dome. This image corresponds to one of 12 such panels (or 8, depending how you count it).

 

Also as mentioned before, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Inquisition for his heretical ideas. The idea that really pushed them over the edge was his declaration that the Sun is a god. I'm hoping that to depict him as a pretty boy is even more heretical. Hail Helios, Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun!

Torquil the Warrior

Torquil flies into battle on the back of his trusty gryphon. His task: to defeat the harpies and zombies that threaten the amatory delights of Cythera, isle of love.

A good warrior has to get in plenty of practice. Below are graphite sketches of our hero honing his swordsmanship. I may ink them later on, similarly to the sketch above. More finished pieces, suitable for print publication, will follow as  the project develops.

The composition above is based on a conic projection, as used by cartographers in making maps of large portions of the earth; that's why the horizon is curved. More on this topic later.

 

 

Ares Mars

This once again is the protagonist of my graphic novel "Tales of Cythera." In this particular image he also represents Ares, god of war, who in the Hermetic tradition is associated with the planet Mars. His name, as I mentioned before, is Torquil, and his gryphon is Garuda.

The composition of this image corresponds to one of the overhead panels of my geodesic environmental painting. This piece is painted in watercolor'; the dimensions are 12 by 12 inches square, or about 30 by 30 centimeters.

Youth and Satyr

These are some of the same characters, showing the same image first in graphite, then inked. Ink is applied with a fine-pointed brush. The paper and dimensions are the same as in the preceding post - not more then eleven inches vertically, in this case.

Youth and Friends

The drawing above is done from imagination using India ink over graphite on Strathmore sketch paper, 11 by 14 inches ( about 27.5 by 35 centimeters). The drawing below is in graphite only, using the same type of paper.

My work is polemical, and definitely has a political agenda.

Zac and Taylor Hanson

These drawings of Zac and Taylor Hanson are drawn in charcoal and pastel on fine Fabriano paper. The dimensions of each original are 9 by 12 inches (22.5 by 30 centimeters). As usual, I couldn't get my models to pose for me personally, so I was obliged to work from photos.

Him Again

This is to be a watercolor.

Two Lads of Cythera

These are two of the principal characters from my graphic novel Tales of Cythera, for which this blog is named. The dark-haired youth is Torquil, the protagonist of my story. He's a warrior. The blond boy is Jasper, a musician. In this scene they're in a mountain getaway belonging to a mutual friend, and having a little fun.

This is a watercolor accented with ink. The dimensions of the original are 9 by 12 inches (22.5 by 30 centimeters).

Eddie

This is another version of my serigraph portrait of Edward Furlong. It's a three-tone print, using the mid-tone color of the paper to set off both highlights and shading. As with the single-tone print that I posted a while back, the "ink" is actually oil paint mixed to a consistency that allows it to be used in the silkscreen technique.

To Villiers de l'Isle Adam

This is my illumination of a poem by Verlaine. I got it from the book "l'Amour Bleu" by Cecile Beurdeley. I believe the translation into English is by Michael Taylor. The original art work is in watercolor and colored pencil on Arches watercolor paper, 14 by 20 inches (35 by 50 centimeters). The text is written in gouache using a steel nib calligraphy pen.

El Carpeta: Graphite

I made this drawing of El Carpeta from a poster. The original photo dates from 2012. The drawing is made in graphite with a technical pencil on Strathmore sketch paper. This is a study for a watercolor that I want to do of the same image. The picture below is also of El Carpeta, drawn from a photo using graphite, charcoal and pastel on super-fine Fabriano paper. I'm not fully satisfied with either drawing, but they kind of let you in on my process, as they're studies for what I intend to be more finished pieces.

 

 

Drawing beautiful people presents one with a bit of a problem. It pretty much imposes a need to work from photos, almost always taken by other people. Very rarely does one come across someone so good looking, and when you do it's even rarer that you get a chance to draw them from life. The best solution would be to photograph them oneself, with permission, and use the resulting photos for reference. Then there's no question of originality, and no copyright problem. But I have yet to have a chance to make this arrangement; with a bit of luck, maybe sometime in future I will.

 



 

Sea Kingdom

This is another panel from the same geodesic painting as Son of Nereus. All the panels share a common lighting system, as part of the common spherical perspective system which binds them  together. The subject I just made up and painted from imagination.

The abstract panel below shows the perspective grid that guides the construction of the figurative image. The latter is painted in watercolor on a panel about 25 centimeters in diameter. The grid is painted in oil on duralar and is 96 centimeters in diameter. Despite the difference in scale, the two panels correspond to one another mathematically. Ideally, I would like to make the piece at a scale such that each circular panel is at least two meters in diameter, or with a radius of 100 cm, or bigger.

Son of Nereus

Not that Nereus the Greek sea god had any sons that I'm aware of (his daughters are the Nereids). But it sounds pretty good, so I'm going with it.

This is a watercolor that I did from imagination and is one of twelve panels of a dodecahedral painting called Globe IV. It's laid out on the same perspective plan that I've described in previous posts, involving a dodecahedrally-based "fly's eye" geodesic sphere with an immersive image projected upon it.

I'm hoping to engage in more of this madness and to create more images of similar nature, only bigger. I'm talking big enough to walk into the dome and have a nice cup of tea while worshiping the gods of love and beauty.

Endymion

This is a hand-pulled lithograph which I drew from imagination. It was originally drawn in lithographic crayon on a zinc plate, then hand printed in a small edition. The title, to speak truth, was chosen after the fact. In Greek myth, Endymion is a young mortal shepherd loved by Selene, goddess of the Moon, and cast into eternal sleep so that he might live forever. This youth is no shepherd on a mountain, but might himself be a sleeping god, emerging from a crystalline matrix. But it really can be interpreted any way you like.

The image area of the print is 9 by 12 inches, or 22.5 by 30 centimeters. It's printed on the finest paper in an edition of 10, as well as 6 artist's proofs.

I like working on a plate rather than a stone, because it's light and you can carry it around with you. I'd like to make more lithographs, but a lithographic press is costly, takes up a lot of room and weighs a ton, none of which is really practical for me at this point.

Kahlil Gibran

This drawing is based on a photo of the young Kahlil Gibran, later to become the author of “The Prophet.” The photo was taken by Frederick Holland Day, an upper crust Boston photographer who took the gifted young Lebanese immigrant under his wing, creating a number of images of him.

If you ask me, ol' Fred Day was in loooove. Young Kahlil is not only extremely handsome, but has a certain spiritual quality about him. You can see the depth and intelligence in his gaze.

This drawing is in Prismacolor pencil on heavy Strathmore drawing vellum. The dimensions are 11 by 14 inches (about 27.5 by 35 centimeters).