World Con

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I'm fresh back from World Con (The World Science Fiction Convention) so I thought I'd go through the archives and pull out something appropriately "spacey" to post.

Some highlights of the Con were:

• Lunch with Irene Gallo (Art director, Tor Books), Gregory Manchess and Jon Schindehette (Art director, Wizards of the Coast).
• A panel discussion by the Killer B's, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford and David Brin. All three delightfully opinionated and 3 of the best living SF authors.
• Meeting Michael Flynn, author of the stunning "Eifelheim"
  
• The Hugo Awards Ceremony where Alastair Reynolds didn't win but should have.
• Catching a glimpse of Larry Niven handsomely attired in an electric pink shirt.

And on a related note, I've contributed a few pieces to "Project Icarus", A serious study of technologies and designs to get us to a nearby star in the next century or 2. They are currently looking for a volunteer graphic designer interested in contributing a few logo ideas to the project. They're at http://www.icarusinterstellar.org
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Watercolor demo

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I'm posting early this week because I'm heading off to the World Science Fiction Convention! Hope you enjoy this demo.




















Watercolor and gouache on Arches paper. 15"x 20"

This is transparent watercolor except for 3 or 4 opaque gouache strokes needed in the highlights. Keep in mind that transparent does not mean it has to be applied that way, I do like luminous pastel feeling watercolors but I don't want to always be limited to that. I've laid the darks on pretty thick so that they are in fact no longer transparent. I only buy watercolor in tubes because the hard cakes just don't release enough pigment to paint in a full value range. My favorite brands are Winsor and Newton and Holbein.

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These are color roughs from "The Return" sequence of "The Prince of Egypt" 1998. The cool temperatures were an important color statement for this part of the story. Acrylic on illustration board.
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Photoshop sketch.
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