From Fat Ponies to Rocketships

I’m a brick-and-mortar type of artist; I like non-digital tools for drawing and painting.

So right now my desk is a disaster! It’s mess of pens, markers, pencils, tracing paper, and brushes. I keep knocking things to the floor when I’m working. It’s distracting!

It’s always been that way for me. Even back in the day when I was drawing a lot of ponies. I was pretty good at drawing them, too. So good that sometimes people mistook my work for Thelwell’s. (If you ask, I’ll send you links.)

A few years back I did a webcomic called Privateer Princess. After a lot of long hours I started to complain about drawing space ships, explosions, blaster rifles, and rocket cycles (which we called, jet sleds.)

I wanted to draw ponies again!

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my complaints came from a place of fear, specifically fear of failure.

In the webcomic I forced myself to stretch and I drew things that were challenging. When I review that work today, it seems awkward but I definitely grew from the experience.

Somewhere in the far past I was probably afraid to draw ponies, too. I just don’t remember it, but I bet I was. That’s always the way when we start something new.

I told a Facebook friend yesterday that I thought things were getting better in the world, not worse.

One of the reasons I think this is because of all the new technology being announced for space travel. It’s as if the lid has flown off and all this cool stuff is about to pop out into the world. What an adventure lies ahead!

That’s why I love Space Opera from the old Pulp days. The good stories made readers feel excited about adventure, specifically in space.

It’s important to me that my new novelette has a sense of grand adventure.
I want my readers to escape to worlds previously unknown.

But before we get there, I have to finish the book’s cover art. Here are some rocket tests from the past few days. These are warm-up pieces for me, exploring shape and color. They’re pretty informal and inspired by old pulp art.

They’re done in pen & ink and markers on 9” x 12” Bristol paper.

I’ve converted one to black and white to check the values. I think it looks pretty good this way so I might use it for something later on.

Well, that’s all, back to the drawing board.

Watch this space for more.

Hugs!

P.S. If you look closely, you’ll see a flying pony on one of the red tail fins in the first drawing. This is my business logo.Save

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