Artwork, artwork, and more artwork
This year besides games I bought artwork; serious artwork.
The first piece I bought was a simple print by April Lee of a winged woman (a redhead: I have a genetic passion for redheads) surrounded by phoenixes (phoenii?) It was one of three she had, but this was the only one that was matted in gold, so I bought it on my first scanning pass through the dealer’s room because I thought that I would never see it again.
Unfortunately that was what happened with a Ruth Thompson pencil rough that I was looking at: it was of a faerie sprite with drooping gauzy dragonfly-like wings and a winsome expression on her face, matted and framed and everything. The prints based on the sketch were also very nice, but I like having originals. Alas, when I had returned to her table in the dealer’s room it had already been sold.
The most expensive piece I bought was an original from the White Wolf Changeling book by John Dollar: it shows a woman staring at her Fae Sidhe self in a mirror. Its a very striking piece, and I not only bought it but also a color copy in which the color balance had shifted, emphasizing the reds, which strangely enough made it very appealing. I plan to have both framed and will hang them side by side.
As I walked through the art show (much improved over last year but still not quite to quality SF convention standards) I ran into an artist whom I had commissioned at a convention earlier this year to do a picture of a gaming character I liked. He was going to mail it to me but decided to bring it to GenCon in the hopes that I would be there. Thus I was able to have some changes made to it, but I’m still not satisfied with it, although it is a good piece. {What I want a head and shoulders picture of the character, from a victim’s POV: she’s a vampire who is also a stage magician and hypnotist and I want a picture of how it would appear from her victim’s viewpoint of her mesmerizing them. I am beginning to think that this is going to take someone like Kaluta to do it properly.}
Then, just before the dealer’s room closed, I bought a pencil rough of a TSR character from Clyde Caldwell. Maybe the term “pencil rough” doesn’t do it justice, as there is considerable attention to detail and shading, especially in her long, flowing robes of seeming black velvet.
The two art books I picked up were Barclay Shaw’s Electric Dreams and Diana Harlan Stein’s Line Items. Shaw is a professional, with a considerable command of coloration and design, whereas Diana is an old friend, Fan Hugo nominee, an excellent B&W line artist, and an up and coming game card artist.
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