We Shall be Near You

Today I am sharing the graphite under-drawing for a new piece called We Shall be Near You. I borrowed the title from a poem by Yeats. In the context of this piece, the words refer to the idea of friendship and loyalty, the nearness of others. I’m playing with form and scale here, mixing birds, chrysalises, skulls, pill bugs, eyes and so on. The piece also features a blindfolded figure (a repeated trope in some of my works). In this work it is meant to convey the idea of the inner world of mind and imagination. The dragon sees the world through alternate “eyes”. The landscape is meant to evoke the idea of a sea floor, even though it is not.

We Shall be Near You will be rendered in ink, cross-hatched with tiny brushes using diluted inks to develop values. The image size is approximately 12” x 16” on 140lb Arches hot press paper. I will be posting my progress here on the blog, so be sure to check back and add your comments.

Fall always makes me want to pick up a book. Something about the cooler weather feels like an invitation. If you are looking for something different, check out my illustrated fantasy novel Tailor of Echoes. It is available from PS Publishing and many online retailers. If you’ve already read it, please consider leaving a review on GoodReads or Amazon to help spread the world. Word of mouth is everything these days, and it is much appreciated.

My current reads are An Immense World by Ed Yong, and Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin. Last week I finished What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. Earlier, in August I read Flint and Mirror by John Crowley.

Richard