1991
This is shamelessly copied from a magazine ad, recognizing my need to draw more men. You may not be able to read the text, but it says (in a fancy scripty attempt) 'Prefered Stock Man.'
There was a story here. I have no idea what it was.
1992
I can't remember if this was an illustration for my novel or some other story I never completed.
I got prismacolors this year - a big old, beautiful set of 92 in a metal box (which has saved them from crushing more times than I can count). Prismacolors, in case you are a doubting Thomas, are far, FAR superior to other pencils, and anything inferior will only lead to frustration. IMHO.
Look ma, another guy! And more playing with prismacolors. I was still using moderately inferior sketchpaper, so there was a limit to what I could do. It was at this point that I found a copy of People of Pern at the library, and proceeded to check it out like a serial stalker. I have about a dozen faithful copies of the portraits from it. Several of Mirrim, even - I really liked that piece. I liked the People of Pern book even more than I liked the Pern books. (Elise later bought me a copy of that book, which I still like to take out and thumb through.)
This was the 'refined' lead female character in my Great Novel. Can we say Mary Sue, boys and girls? I thought we could.
But perhaps most momentous in the whole timeline... this was the first piece I used stippling on. It didn't stick right away, but this was the start of perhaps a billion dots by now. It's also the illustration for a not-awful (but really not great) short story that I sent off to Marian Zimmer Bradley for Sword and Sorceress. It was very sweetly rejected as being good, but just not good enough to make the cut, she was sorry she couldn't include it. Handwritten, no less! In some ways, MZB is my hero. I hope to set myself up in the art world according to her example in the writing world - classy, kind, and there to give a leg up to new talents in the field.
