Blast from the Past #319: Flame sword

These two drawings were very likely done back in the late 1970's or early 1980's, when part of my meager income was derived from illustrations I created for various fanzines. I am not certain that either was ever published (actually, I AM certain that the unfinished inked one wasn't).

Although I have done it a few times, I was never that into doing multiple versions of a drawing -- I guess I just got too bored. But for some reason, I did it with this one. I don't have a clear memory of why, but I suspect this was the first version, drawn in pencil and then partially inked:



For whatever reason, I declined to finish inking this piece. It's likely that as I was inking it, I saw that it might benefit from the more easily obtainable lighting effects possible with a different media, specifically the coquille board I was experimenting with around that time. So out came my trusty homemade light table, and I transferred the basic image to a piece of the coquille board and finished it thusly. -- PL