Thursday, July 3, 2014

Space Desert Ninjas


Well, that ought to cover it. This pic from the C.J. Cherryh "mri" series hits on all the cultural points that the fans of that day loved: Japanese masked ninjas, desert warriors, caste systems, single combat, and lovable telepathic companion animals. To her credit, Cherryh was able to come up with intelligent readable stories rather than sword-and-raygun fan friendly fiction.

I tried to put in the details of cloaked mri looking on in the distance, their four-footed dusei, and the desert environment and architecture, but I regard this image both now and then as a failure. If you look closely at the composition of the piece, you see that my perspective is a mess and I have placed the warriors and the background in two completely different perspective layouts. The background doesn't match the foreground. Also, the photo is bad. Blah, I say…the 1980s were a long time ago.

"Mri Combat" is gouache on illustration board, 10" xx 8", April 1982.
Some apologies perhaps needed for the excess of vintage art rather than fresh by-product here, due to extra work at the day job and also ergonomic problems at the home studio. I'll try to iPad my way into some newer stuff soon.

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