Happy Hallowe'en!

I was planning on digging up some old drawing I had done for a Hallowe'en card or some such, but while scanning some old photographs for my mother today, I came upon one of my favorite photos of Emily when she was tiny, and thought it appropriate for the occasion.



Jeannine made the little pumpkin "belly" part, and the hat/cap was a store-bought item. It all came together quite nicely for her first Hallowe'en. (And I still call her "Pumpkin" from time to time.) -- PL

"Arngrim entrapped by Gorilon's monster" (early fanzine drawing)

This is another one of those fantasy fanzine drawings I did back in the late 1970's and early 1980's -- some of the actual FUN stuff I did as a freelancer. I can't remember which fanzine this was done for, but a penciled note at the bottom of this art refers to it as an image of "Arngrim entrapped by Gorilon's monster". I vaguely remember some Conan-like barbarian character named Arngrim in a story I was hired to illustrate. I like the lighting effect in this drawing. -- PL

A morning visitor

I had just finished my second waffle this morning when our dog Parker jumped up, paws on the window sill to my left, and started barking. I looked out the window and saw at the edge of our lawn... a coyote.



Although I have seen these critters a few times on our property or in the neighborhood, usually briefly as they slip into the trees and brush, this was the first time I'd seen one that close to the house. I guess this means I have to keep a closer eye on little Louis when I let him out. -- PL

Fall colors

Taking a break from thinking and writing about the sale of the TMNT property, I thought I'd share this image from a bicycle ride I took with friends yesterday. It was a gorgeous, color-drenched sunny New England autumn day, about as perfect weather-wise as one could hope for.

There were a lot of trees exhibiting spectacular color, but I was particularly taken with this large one in Look Park. As usual, a mere photograph does not do justice to the glorious, almost incandescent glow of a specimen like this in the bright sunlight.



By the way, to answer one of the questions recently posed in the comments sections of my last two posts -- yes, I intend to continue doing this blog. -- PL

Ask PL #4

I haven't done one of these in a while, and it seems like an appropriate moment to do so. -- PL

Blast from the Past #243: "John Morrell's Meats" goodbye card

Sometimes, when you are a struggling freelance illustrator, you get some odd gigs. You have to pay the rent and put food on the table, so you take these jobs and try to do your best.

This was one of those, done in 1980. I can't recall much about how I got this job, but I do remember that it was meant to be a custom "goodbye" card for an employee of John Morrell's Meats.



The words in the word balloons here were written by the person who commissioned the card, and as I recall they supposedly reflected the different personalities of people working at this company at that time. I believe I was specifically directed to depict all of the people as pigs (I guess because the company did a lot of business in pig meat).

It was a weird gig, but actually kind of fun. I've always like this drawing -- it's probably my best "anthropomorphic pigs sitting around a table" illustration ever. -- PL

Blast from the Past #241: Videogame controller illustration, two versions

I believe these were done in the early 1980's, but I'm not sure if I did them for fun or for a job. It was probably the former.

Another example of adaptive reuse, I first used the basic drawing as an experiment with my airbrush, in gray tones.



Later on, I thought it might be fun to try doing a color version of the piece. It's possible that I intended these to be portfolio samples. -- PL

Blast from the Past #240: "Proliferation"

This is another piece of art from the flipchart I illustrated for the Nuclear Freeze group I worked with in the early 1980's. The glare on this art at the top and bottom comes from the fact that some of the lettering was done on an acetate overlay, and that reflected the lights I was using to take the photo of this art.



The text on this piece is a little dated, as I'm pretty sure several of these countries now have nukes.

I always liked this one -- especially the pose of the sower of the nuclear seeds. -- PL

Blast from the Past #239: Dragon's Dentist (two versions)

(Once again, I have the feeling that I have posted an image before, but a quick search of my blog indicates that I am mistaken.)

This is a drawing I did back in 1983. I was inspired to write a children's book story based on this, but never did anything with it.

Here are two versions of the drawing. I probably have a third or fourth somewhere, but these are the only ones I could find right now.

This first one is all black and white inking, using a variety of hatching, cross-hatching and stippling techniques to achieve the desired texture and lighting effects.



The second one is one of my early experiments with airbrushing, and not a very successful one. (That, sadly, was typical of most of my attempts at airbrushing.)



You may note that I must have made copies of the basic inked version prior to doing all of the hatching, cross-hatching ad stippling, so that I would have an "open" version of the drawing on which to try airbrushing. I believe that there is a color variation done over the same "open" inked art. Maybe I'll come across that at some point and add it to this post. -- PL

Blast from the Past #238: Fantasy castle

There is no date on this piece, but I think it's probably from the late 1970's, and done just for fun. It was one of those rare times when I played around with watercolor. -- PL

Blast from the Past #237: sample comic book page

This one puzzles me. I don't think it is one of the pages I did as samples to try to get work doing comics. I do have a vague memory of drawing it as the first page to a story which I never finished, but that's about all I remember.



In any event, I kind of like it. -- PL

Blast from the Past #234: Sample comic pages

I have the feeling that I've posted these before, but I can't find them when I search my blog, so what the heck...

These two pages were done by me back in 1979, when I was trying to break into comics. These were samples that I planned to show to publishers to demonstrate what I could do. I designed these two pages as if they were part of a continuing sequence. -- PL