Artwork for sale

Off and on over the years, I’ve looked into ways to make my artwork available as posters. After sitting on the fence for a while, I’ve finally opened a store on Zazzle and started uploading a handful of more recent paintings.

I’m still finding my way around Zazzle. The website is ... let’s be restrained and say ... not very friendly.

Sure, it all looks easy enough, but the site seems to go out of its way to make it hard to tell what you’re actually doing, and gives no confidence that you’ve managed to do what you wanted to do. It’s taking a while to figure out some of the quirks, like clicking on “My products” gives different information depending on which part of the site you just came from. And I just created a collection to group all my posters together, and clicking on “Collections” in the menu bar shows the collection I just created, but clicking the same thing from the navigator panel says I don’t have any. Contradictory and confusing as heck!

Oh well, I have started off by creating some posters, all in the region of 40cm by 50cm to 60cm depending on the width to height ratio of the original. That’s 16” by 20” to 24” if you’re still working in Imperial units.

It’s still a work in progress, but you can find my store here:

https://www.zazzle.ca/store/ian_s_bott/products

Painting again

I’ve gone for long spells before without completing a painting. In recent years, I’ve done several but they’ve all been specifically for book covers, so I’ve had a clear motivation and timetable to work to, and that felt very different from painting for pleasure.

Now, for the first time in over twenty years, I’ve taken up my paintbrush again for pure pleasure and actually crossed the finish line. I’ve started several in that time, but not completed. That’s nothing unusual ... I have many more unfinished works in my portfolio that finished.

This diversion of energy felt right, now that my first draft of the latest novel is written and working through months of critiques. Painting seemed to complement the critiquing activity.

Even so, the subject was actually inspired by a setting in Wrath of Empire. So here is Grand Duke Ivan’s retreat: Greyspire:

 

 

You can get a closer look on my website here:

https://www.iansbott.com/artwork-greyspire 

WeWriWa - The Long Dark draft blurb

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image. 

 

Following Teresa's idea last month, I'm having a go at posting the draft blurb for The Long Dark. This has been through a couple of rounds of comments with a group of critiquers, but I'm keen to give it a try with a different audience:

=====

 

Trapped in the lengthening nights of Elysium. Abandoned by the last convoy south. Alone with her son and his teacher. 

Anna never thought she would die this way. 

She won't let it come to that. She scours the darkened town for anything to help them make the long trek to rejoin their clan. But on a world starved of engineering resources it will take all her ingenuity to rig up a usable vehicle. 

With a chance of escape almost in reach, they find they are not as alone as they thought. Hopes of rescue are crushed when they realize the unexpected visitors are on a mission that they will kill to keep secret. Whatever these off-world intruders want, it can't be good for Anna's world, and a fight for personal survival becomes a battle for the future of the entire colony.

=====

While working through final edits, I've also started posting background material to my website. Click on the image to find out more.

 

And cover art is nearly complete. Since last month I've mostly been playing around with the look of the sun. That was one element I wasn't happy with, and I think it's heading the right way now.

 

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image. 

 

This snippet concludes the opening chapter from The Long Dark. Anna drives a massive surface vehicle and is aiming to retrieve a hard-to-reach navigation beacon before winter closes in. A sudden sound startles her. The last snippet ended: Home and safety, a crawler driver always looked to their rig first when danger threatened. 

 

=====

A faded echo rolled over her like distant thunder. Anna scanned the horizon. Her scalp crawled. There’d been no signs of a storm, and the landscape around her seemed placid, unmoving. Besides, that didn’t sound like it came from the depths. She squinted skywards. 

A vapor trail traced a fast-moving line across the coppery sky and cast an ethereal shadow on the skim of cirrus that muted Big Red’s shine. Anna puzzled for a moment, and released a pent-up breath. Dangerous time of year for craft to be chancing a landing. 

She sighed and shrugged, not her problem, and turned her attention back to securing the beacon.

=====

Hopefully this ties together Anna's scenes with Jennifer's. 

After three months' sporadic work, cover art is now down to finishing touches.

 

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

 

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark in Anna's point of view. Anna is driving a massive surface vehicle and is aiming to retrieve a hard-to-reach navigation beacon before winter closes in. 

 

=====

Up another hanging ladder, Anna mounted a slender catwalk suspended below the front of the cab. She selected a lightweight cable from the row of drums above her head and released the drum’s clutch. 

Once more on the ground, she fastened the dollies a few meters back from the end of the cable, then clipped herself on for safety. With the end of the line slung over one shoulder, and a sounding pole in her free hand, she tested the surface ahead as she trudged away, sinking ankle-deep with each step. 

Despite the late season wind keening around her, sweat slicked the edge of her mask by the time Anna slogged her way to the beacon. 

She slackened off the beacon’s guy lines and carefully lowered the heavy three-meter pole to the ground, slipping the axle of a dolly beneath each end. 

A sharp crack followed by a muted rumble startled her. She glanced instinctively back to the crawler, calming her heartbeat when she reassured herself it was okay. Bright yellow boxes slung between silvery mesh wheels looked like a row of old-fashioned stagecoaches, except those ancient carriages were never built four decks tall. Home and safety, a crawler driver always looked to their rig first when danger threatened.

=====

Back to cover art, and progress at last. That last unit and wheel peeping in from the edge of the page is done. From now on, progress will be less obvious as it's down to details.

 

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, on the way down to Elysium with her senior negotiating team, Jennifer receives an unwelcome message. The previous post ended with: “The merest whiff of it beyond this circle, and we all spend the rest of our lives in jail.”

=====

Jennifer pondered while the cabin windows shone with the plasma glow of their hypersonic passage across the sky. A faint tang of burnt flint hung in the air. “Are we to know the nature of this potential discovery?”

“The President chose not to commit that detail in writing.” Galloway sniffed. “Just enough information to convince you of the gravity of this order.”

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at him.

Galloway smirked. “Your job is to make sure the Company will have complete control of this discovery when it finally breaks. The colonists get nothing.”

=====

I've had a new distraction this week – our order of firewood for the winter arrived, which was a weight off our minds because it's been hard this year to track down a supplier. Now this all needs to be split down to more manageable sizes and stacked ready in the carport.

All the same, I have made progress on the cover art, just not quite as much as I'd planned.

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.




Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, on the way down to Elysium with her senior negotiating team, Jennifer receives an unwelcome message. The previous post ended with: “As you can see” - Jennifer fought to keep her voice steady and her tone matter-of-fact - “our mission has a new factor to take into account.”

=====

Galloway’s expression couldn’t be said to be smug, he was too experienced for that, but it held a quiet anticipation. He’d known exactly what the letter would say. “The President places a lot of faith in you.”

Such precise wording. Outwardly a compliment, and nothing anyone would argue with. But ‘places’ rather than ‘has’? That single word gave the barest and utterly deniable hint that faith might be misplaced.

“So,” she said, “while we are busy renegotiating the Company’s agreement with this colony, you have a mission of your own. Chasing a new drug.”

=====

And (making use of the new rules) this scene continues ...

“Confirming tantalizing reports of its existence.” Galloway’s eyes glittered. “And given the potential impact of this on the trade talks, this has to be of the utmost secrecy.”

“Withholding information like that from the negotiations ...” Jasmine Golightly, Jennifer’s legal expert, twisted her mouth. “The merest whiff of it beyond this circle, and we all spend the rest of our lives in jail.”

=====

Thankfully, in between computer upgrades and a week camping, I've been able to resume work on cover art since I last posted a progress picture:

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.


Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, Jennifer receives an unwelcome message.

=====

Wordlessly, Jennifer plucked the envelope from Galloway’s limp grasp and turned it over in her fingers. The President’s personal seal was intact, and the real deal, as she verified with a tap to her tablet. A physical missive in a pry-proof envelope, primed to destruct if anyone but her broke the seal. Guaranteed confidentiality. A shiver ran up her spine.

The seat’s cream calfskin upholstery cradled her sudden weight as the craft lit its engines and began banking and maneuvering down through thickening air. As they banked, the skyward windows darkened against the sullen glare of the red giant star in the sky.

Tuned to her biometrics, the tablet confirmed her identity and disarmed the envelope’s destruct. A hard and razor sharp thumbnail cracked the seal and slit the flap of the envelope. She read the contents, bringing all her negotiation-table training to the task of keeping her dismay from showing.

=====

And continued progress with the cover art, although to be honest, not much headway this week. It’s been an intense week at work and most days I’ve been too tired to pick up a paintbrush.

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, we are still with Jennifer’s point of view.

=====

Jennifer glanced at the three other members of the Company’s senior negotiating team before finally eyeing Simon Galloway coldly. He was no part of her team, and yet he’d invited himself onto her private shuttle, claiming to carry a message of vital importance from the President.

His green velvet jacket screamed extravagance. That, she could forgive, but worn over the top of a cream brocade waistcoat, silk cravat, with silk ruffs at the wrists it was ... over the top. Foppish.

Ice blue eyes regarded her patiently, destroying any illusion of whimsy.

“Well?” Better have this out in the open before her own simmering resentment got the better of her.

“I apologize for the unplanned intrusion.” His voice held no trace of contrition.

=====

And (making use of the new rules) this scene continues ...


“My orders were to bring this to the senior team only once we were off the longship.” He offered a slim white envelope, pinched delicately between thumb and forefinger, pinkie cocked like he was about to sup from a bone china teacup.

=====

And continued progress with the cover art

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, we leave Anna’s point of view to introduce another major character.

=====

Jennifer Steel glared at the beige-green orb of Elysium with mixed feelings. She loved the Company’s princely income from this soggy plant-covered rock, but as for the planet itself, it was hate at first sight.

“It’s going to get bumpy in sixty seconds.” The pilot’s voice held just the right blend of deference and warning. He’d suffered her presence with little sign of the simmering resentment she knew she evoked. She was well aware of the rules about passengers in the cockpit, but she’d been curious to see first hand her reluctant home for the coming weeks. She also liked toying with underlings, a privilege that came with her executive rank.

Even Jennifer, however, knew better than to argue with physics. She turned from the cockpit window and drifted, weightless, back to the luxurious confines of the cabin. She took her seat and strapped in before they hit thick enough air to light the scramjet.

=====

And continued progress with the cover art, snapped on the last two Fridays. Progress slowed down this month because I was struggling with the world news recently as I blogged about last week.

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, Anna drives a crawler across the surface of a massive plant hundreds of meters deep, and is eyeing up a beacon she needs to retrieve over dodgy terrain.

=====

She checked the chrono. Plenty of hours of daylight left. “See you for supper. Charlie Tango seven niner, out.”

A quick scan of her surroundings. Glints in the distance reflected coppery sky from a network of catchpools. Beyond, grey shadows marked a series of ridges and a few clouds darkened the horizon, too far to be threatening just yet. To one side, the ground sloped up to merge with the bleached-bone swelling of a structural rib. Safe to travel on, but leading away in the wrong direction.

Anna pursed her lips. If she was going to stow that beacon, she’d have to fetch it the hard way.

=====

And continued progress with the cover art ...

WeWriWa - The Long Dark

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

Continuing the opening from The Long Dark, Anna drives a crawler across the surface of a massive plant hundreds of meters deep.

=====

Through the wraparound windows of the cab, Anna judged the distance to her goal. The marker beacon, standing two hundred meters away, had canted at an angle, and the smooth olive ground nearby had a mottled look confirming the grim picture from the ground radar. The upper layers here had thinned dangerously. She couldn’t risk the crawler any closer to retrieve that beacon, but the town needed to salvage all the working equipment it could for next season’s harvesting operations.

Anna reached for the bank of controls alongside her seat, and the short wave radio hissing and sputtering on top of the ground radar and inertial navigation screens.

“Serendipity Control, this is Charlie Tango seven niner, respond please.”

She scrunched her face and hit the volume button at the blast of static from the radio. She fiddled with the decoding controls, tuning the software that struggled to pluck meaning from the waves of electromagnetic interference bathing the atmosphere.

“Serendipity Control, this is Charlie Tango seven niner. Anyone receiving?”

=====

And (making use of the new rules) this scene continues ...


On the third try, a distorted voice answered. “Go ahead, Charlie Tango seven niner.”

“Got eyeballs on my last beacon for this run. Nearest end of the south-west line, but approach is tricky. Will be off grid for an hour or so.”

=====

Last week, I started creating artwork for the book cover. As the weeks go by, I’ll include some snaps of progress. Here is a snapshot from Monday and Friday ...

Cover progress

Following my last post on the Ashes cover art, a few people commented on the white space in the middle. Since that post, that part of the picture has been taking shape. Hopefully things are becoming clearer ...

It’s hard to believe it’s little over a week to Christmas. We put up decorations last weekend and finally mailed off cards and newsletters to friends and family overseas. No matter how early we get started on the newsletter, it always seems to end up a last minute rush.

Hope you are all looking forward to a safe and warm holiday in good company.

Cover qualms

I still have a long way to go on the editing for The Ashes of Home, but having completed some major scene additions last month I’m taking a breather from the words to focus back on the cover art.

I haven’t touched the artwork since I last posted about it in June. The main reasons were (a) summer, and (b) all my spare time was going into critiquing and editing.

But there was a third, unspoken reason lurking in the background that kept me from my brushes.

I had misgivings about how the artwork was turning out.

Worse still, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was worrying me, or what to do about it.

The initial draft has a spaceship being destroyed by a beam of energy. In expanding it to full size I didn’t like the acres of plain black in the background. Instead I had visions inspired by spectacular Hubble images of glowing nebulae cut through by billowing dust clouds. BTW - I regularly visit the NASA website for their Astronomy Picture of the Day.

This was where I got to before sensing things were slightly off track.

There’s nothing wrong with any specific part the painting itself, in isolation. I especially liked the stark contrasts in the lower section. But the upper and lower portions just didn’t belong together, and neither was quite right for the book cover I had in mind.

So this week I bit the bullet and got back to work.

Still some tweaking to do, but I think I’m getting back on track.

Does music help you work?

Some people swear by music, to help them work, to help them write and create.

For writing, I generally find music more distracting than helpful. Maybe writing - actually stringing together coherent sentences - just doesn't come so naturally to me so I need to really focus to get anything done.

But I'd forgotten how much I used to enjoy music playing while I paint. For me, painting makes less of a mental demand but it's surprisingly physical, so the right kind of music helps keep the brush moving.

On this gorgeous spring day I've taken a spur-of-the-moment day's vacation. A "me" day. Just because.

With no particular pressure to do any of the usual weekend non-fun stuff, it's been pleasingly productive. I've almost finished the background artwork for Tiamat's Nest. I need to sharpen up a few details here and there, but it's pretty much ready to hand over to my designer.

This is intended as a full cover spread - both back and front covers for the paperback. The front cover will just be the right-hand half of the image, and there are a couple of other visual elements to be overlaid on top by the designer.

The last sections of the foreground were painted this morning to the strains of Tangerine Dream.

Do you find music helps or hinders you? A must-have or a no-no?

Sci-fi artwork

Whew! After a lot of digital camerawork, uploading, and formatting, I've finally created a gallery of paintings on my website.

I'm missing a handful of older paintings that are sitting at my parents' house back in Guernsey, but there are 25 images on view spanning almost exactly two thirds of my life.

Time for a celebratory beer.

Artwork

If you want to see where my various blog headers come from, they are all details cropped from one or other of my paintings. I've now added an art gallery to my web site, with higher resolution images and a brief bit of background to each of the paintings.

Just for fun, try comparing the Ghosts of Innocence cover with the original painting...

Check out the whole gallery here.

Artwork emerging

In the last month, I've made good progress on cover art for Ghosts of Innocence.

Here's how things looked mid-February...

And at the end of the month...

The white lines in the first picture are where I stuck masking tape to mark the cruciform shape of the hovering ship. That way I could paint the background in without faffing around trying to paint up to an outline.

The two pictures together give an idea of my painting process. A lot of people will cover the entire canvas with broad blocks of color and light and shade, then add successively finer layers of detail. I'm more of a background-to-foreground kind of a person, working on sections at a time and detailing as I go. Once I've finished a section I rarely go back over it. You can see this approach in the steady march of detail into the foreground.

And here is my painting space...

One of these days I might be able to set up a proper studio!

A daunting paint job

I can't believe it's nearly seven months since I posted about the painting I was working on, and claimed it was "getting very close to finished."

Truth is, it's been sitting there on the easel in my study ever since, defying me to pick up a paintbrush again and put my words into action.

The trouble is, I knew there was something wrong with it, and I couldn't put my finger on what exactly, or how to go about fixing it.

Then, last week, it finally hit me. The whole thing was too flat. I think I knew that already but didn't want to admit it because I knew the solution was going to be technically challenging and time-consuming to put into practice.

The paint I use (gouache) gives vibrant colours and a wonderfully precise finish, great for my style of painting, but it dries almost instantly on the paper. This makes it incredibly difficult to achieve any fading or gradation of tone, especially across a large area.

But that is exactly what I needed to do to make this planet look...well...like a planet. i.e. Round.

So I've been working at it.

Here is how I left it back in March.

And here is how it looks now.

There's still a lot of work to do, but I can finally see it moving in the right direction.

Maybe look forward to another update in, shall we say, another six months?

Spaced out!

I've been getting so excited recently planning that series of posts on writing tools, that I've been neglecting other artistic endeavours. I did manage to make a bit of progress on my latest painting, though. It's getting very close to finished.