I drew this Paffooney back in 1980 after my favorite Shakespeare play, the Tempest. The truth is, by rereading that particular play, the Bard’s last, I have come to the conclusion that the actor known as Will Shakespeare did not write the plays that bear his name. It was in fact, in all likelihood, Edward DeVere, the Earl of Oxford who did. I will write about this further in the future. It is the magic of conspiracy theory that draws me like a sprite to the theatre.
Not all my Paffoonies are completely sane. The never-ending struggle of darkness and light can color things funny in a world of swiftly swirling imaginings. Lyrical joy opposed to malignant menace, devouring worlds in the palm of my hand.
I was always the one on the outside looking in. The sad fact is, all of us who are too creative and sensitive for our own good feel that way. We wish we had what see in there, but miss the beauty inherent in being on the outside. Stalker… peeping faun… magical wishes… and dreams in the dark blue of the night.
I am fascinated by the tragic-romantic monster-heroes of the silver screen. The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy… Christopher Lee, Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff… so much visual monstrosity and wild fantasy of the most terrifying sort. I love it.
Much of my colored pencil ability came from drawing Dungeons and Dragons characters. I created this as a logo for my sister’s archery club, but it owes more to D & D and LOTR than to any commercial art. The tricky part was getting the bow and the elf’s form right. Movie elves are for the most part not real archers. So I tried very hard to get this elf to shoot the bow correctly in front of a green moon.
I believe a very important part of my art training is illustrating some of the books that I love. That being said, there is probably no writer that I love more than Charles Dickens. Here I tried to capture the sweet-sad relationship between David and Little Emily when Peggotty took him to Yarmouth. I used red, yellow, and blue, the primary colors to show fullness, completeness and the lovely warmth of family love that he captured there.
There is great beauty in the land of the imagination. I enjoy visiting places that exist only in my mind… Places like Narnia, Middle Earth, Pellucidar, Arrakis called Dune… There are more places in the realm of imagination than in all of reality. Yes, I know… crazy, crazy, crazy….
It’s true… 24 years of my life was spent in the Jungles of Junior High fighting for my life against predatory seventh graders, monkey people, lizard people, and general craziness. If my pictures are loony, and my stories are insane, it is because I have endured where no sane man should ever venture. The pink raptor, by the way… one of my best students.
The list of my favorite artists includes in a very large way the illustrator Maxfield Parrish. I love the style he created with under-colors of cobalt blue and black. He has a very dreamy way of portraying fairy-tale things. This colored pencil Paffooney was created to practice some very Parrish-like images and color composition. The unicorn is entirely mine, but the other figures are modeled on Maxfield Parrish paintings. Consider this a tribute to the master, an homage to the things he did that I have learned from and truly love.
This is me learning colored-pencil technique in the 1970’s. Does it show promise? Have I improved? Or gotten worse? Fear not, I don’t expect you to answer the questions. Just help me figure out… Is the house about to fall down? Why are the kid’s feet in the goldfish pond? And what sort of silly little fairy is that, anyway?
Catch a Falling Star 