Color Me Happy

Walking the halls of TSR/West, following Steven Grant to his office, I see a poster on the wall. Wowser! That is one sweet piece of work. I can't take my eyes off of it. Closer I get, the better it looks. I gotta' know. Who the heck did this? Comic geek that I am, I scan the lower right corner and find… MY signature?

What the… Naaaaaaaaahhhhh! That ain't me. I never did… did I do that? That is me. What the heck happened?

I'll tell you what happened. Richard Ory happened! He found a piece of junk lying in a ditch and made art out of it. He completely transformed the work into something new, something I never foresaw.

This is an example of the blue line method of coloring. Line art is printed in light blue on watercolor paper, then painted with any number of methods; Here with airbrush and colored pencil.

I actually missed it with the first scan but, with a little help from photoshop, it would seem I had planned on some sort of BG. We can see indications of the space ships, some sort of tube transport, even a tower or two but, nothing like what Richard turned in.

The main structure is based on a piece of LA architecture that no longer exists and whose name I've forgotten. This makes Smitty a sad Panda...

Neither of us knew then but, this was Richard's audition for the Golden Age.

Happy Trails,
Smitty