Inferno's Rest

Sometimes I paint things that are not for Magic:the Gathering. This is one of those times.

Regular readers of the blog may recall the piece I did for Microvisions last year that was quite similar to this one. I was pretty proud of how that piece turned out and I was fortunate enough to receive a good deal of encouragement from various folks who got a chance to see it. One person in particular who gave me a big old ego boost was Greg Manchess, who aside from dumping a heaping pile of kind words over my head suggested that I might want to explore the subject a bit further and see where it takes me. So, I went ahead and did just that.

While the original Microvision has inspired a much more ambitious piece, progress is slow. In fact, I haven't really begun. This is due to the sheer amount of research required to get it right, not to mention the challenge of finding time to get any of said research done between assignments and various life events. However, one of the largest time sucks of my personal life—the search for a permanent abode—has recently come to an end and so I will be digging into things more deeply as soon as my assignments permit. Once the remaining dust settles, I'll be taking some more time off in an attempt to pull this bigger piece together (and hopefully a couple others in the process).

Big deal. Talking about something that doesn't yet exist is basically wasting your time, so I guess it would be prudent to shift focus to the piece that actually is done.

In the early stages of contemplating the upcoming piece, I went ahead and took another crack at the birds in a larger, slightly more ambitious way. This time around, there is one bird of each sex for a grand total of two (not to mention the various others sprinkled in the background). While one or both of the birds may still evolve a bit as I continue to explore them, I think they're pretty close to their finished design. At the very least, I doubt that their plumage will get much more decorative as it turns out that I'm rather fond of the juxtaposition between the mundane looking birds and the flames they emit. But you never know.

Anyway, here's the painting:

The finished piece is oil on gessoed hardboard and measures eighteen inches wide by ten inches tall. It's title is Inferno's Rest.