The Art of Richard H. Fay

Night Star wrote:

Ooooh, Temporal Crack is really cool!!!!

Thanks!

I'm glad I got to combine two of my favourite things in one illustration.

Duelling Dragons
by Richard H. Fay

For a while now, Crystalwizard has been asking for some circular images to use on merchandise in the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store. Most of my recent drawings have been rectangular in shape, intended for use as illustrations or filler art in print or on-line. However, once I started pondering the possibilities, I thought I could do something draconic in a circular fashion.

I drew my inspiration for this piece from a legend about Merlin's youth. As a young man, Merlin used his prophetic vision to reveal to King Vortigern that two dragons, one red and one white, were responsible for the nightly destruction of the king's castle-under-construction. Thus, I coloured one dragon red, and the other white.

This design benefitted greatly from the ability to colour my drawings digitally. It took a few tries to get the colour around and inside the knotwork just right. I wouldn't really have been able to experiment with different colour placement using traditional methods.

Anyway, check out the merchandise at the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store featuring my "Duelling Dragons":
http://www.zazzle.com/abandonedtowers
I think it looks cool, if I do say so myself.

Oh I love dragons!!!!! Good job my friend! Good job!!!!

Thanks!

I rarely turn down a chance to draw dragons. I've been drawing dem dere scaly critters for a dreadful long time now.

whoa...deja vu Richard...this feels so .... deeply resonating with this particular image...very yin and yang, Celtic, earth energies...love love LOVE IT!!!!

Goth~Ink wrote:

whoa...deja vu Richard...this feels so .... deeply resonating with this particular image...very yin and yang, Celtic, earth energies...love love LOVE IT!!!!

Thanks!

There is a bit of yin and yang in the image. And the Celtic bit is obvious, and deliberate. I needed something to go in the centre, and knotwork seemed the most appropriate. The fact that this particular piece of knotwork is a continuous design adds to the cyclic energy of the work, energy already present in the circular composition of the dragons.

Decorated "S"
by Richard H. Fay

My latest art assignment (for a forthcoming Cyberwizard Productions Diminuendo Press publication) consists of composing knotwork borders and drawing decorated initials. Crystalwizard isn't quite ready to have me start work on the borders, but I have begun to see what I can come with in terms of medieval-style decorated/illuminated letters.

Being happy with the results so far, I also created a similar letter for use on a framed combo of my art and poetry, to be raffled off at a local fund raising event. I wanted something to use for the first letter in the poem's title, something medieval-looking, and yet something with a fantasy feel as well. The above letter was the result.

Question Richard - how do you choose the colours? Are they based on ones traditionally associated with the style or subject matter or do you just go with what looks good?

Nice S by the way! I love illuminated alphabets. There is so much more to writing than merely words on the page....

Oooooooh, I love decorated letters too!!!! Very nice!!

Goth~Ink wrote:

Question Richard - how do you choose the colours? Are they based on ones traditionally associated with the style or subject matter or do you just go with what looks good?

I try to go with medieval-looking colours, although I'm sure I make some choices that would make the history purists cringe. Compositional considerations do come into play as well; the manuscript I'm making the letters for is going to be printed on parchment paper, so I wouldn't outline the letters in yellow (or any pale tint). Red, blue, or green show up better against a parchment background. After considering both historical and compositional aspects of colour choice, I just go with what looks good, following my instincts.

Goth~Ink wrote:

Nice S by the way! I love illuminated alphabets. There is so much more to writing than merely words on the page....

Thanks!

There certainly was more to writing than words on the page, when writing was also a work of art, when books were artistic treasures as well as sources of information. I'm afraid we've lost some of that in this modern age of mass-production, mass-printing for mass-consumption.

Night Star wrote:

Oooooooh, I love decorated letters too!!!! Very nice!!

Thanks!

Amongst Faerie Oaks
Copyright 2009 Richard H. Fay

A while back, the editor of Abandoned Towers asked if I could compose an illustration to go along with my cinquain series "Amongst Faerie Oaks", slated to appear in Issue 4 of her zine. Although I was awfully busy due to an impending move (since completed), I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to get more of my art published, especially art featuring the Fair Folk in a forest. So, I worked on drawing something appropriate for the poem.

It took me several days to complete (drawing the scene went frustratingly slow), but I think it was pretty much worth the effort. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the figures (I hate figure drawing), but I'm quite pleased with the way the forest came out. However, I may now want a break from drawing forests (I drew another forest recently for a Robin Hood colouring page for the same issue); my eyes were crossed after drawing this one!

Enchanting!! Why do the faeries look so series? Are they having a bad day? LOL Good job richard! very nice.

Night Star wrote:

Enchanting!! Why do the faeries look so series? Are they having a bad day? LOL Good job richard! very nice.

Well, a few of the fairies are having fun, but most are seriously trying to go about their business without mortal intrusion into their affairs.

Copyright 2009 Richard H. Fay

I created the above weird and wild illustration to accompany my poem "Cosmic Journey", appearing in the on-line version of Abandoned Towers. The image already appears on merchandise in the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store, and sooner or later should be published on the Abandoned Towers site.

After drawing quite a few decorated medieval-style letters for another Cyberwizard Productions project, it was nice to take a break from the historical and draw something much more imaginative. And I had the general look of the "green ghungliders" stuck in my head for quite a while now, so I just had to draw them sooner or later. Otherwise, my head might eventually explode. And that would be messy.

RHFay wrote:

Amongst Faerie Oaks
Copyright 2009 Richard H. Fay

Love this pic RHFay !! !!

Your the BE-st

Solane Star wrote:

Love this pic RHFay !! !!

Your the BE-st

Thanks!

I wasn't sure if the fairies came out right, but fairies aren't really supposed to look entirely human, so it seems to work.

The Birth of Sentience on Aggraboth V
by Richard H. Fay

They've Come for me Again
by Richard H. Fay