News from Green Man Press

I thought that you might get a kick out of seeing this piece. ‘True Thomas’ was a private commission from a ballad enthusiast who’s had very few stipulations except that I select my image from out of one of those same ballads. I choose a favorite scene out of a favorite Scottish border ballad, ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ wherein our hero first meets The Queen of Fair Elfand . She will then take him across the river of all the blood shed on earth into her fae kingdom and there Thomas will live for seven years. When he, at last, returns to this earth The Queen will have gifted him with a tongue that can only speak the truth, for good or ill.  With Robin Williamson’s lovely version of the ballad playing on my CD I happily sat down at the drawing board and this image just flowed off my fingertips. Not something that happens very often but you wont catch me ever objecting when it does. A gift from The Kindly Ones as it were. Here’s my initial pencil drawing:

And then my inks. Here I tried out a dry brush technique using a hand made mixture of brown and black FW inks and a sable brush. At first I was only going to use this technique for Thomas’ cloak but it was  working so well that I just kept on going over the whole surface. I liked how it came out quite a bit.

As I do with all my painted work ,I then I overlaid that with many, many layers  of FW ink, diluted so that the colors were fairly  transparent. This allows me to continually adjust the hue and saturation of my color pallet  over the entire surface of the piece. These adjustments are completely instinctual, learned from many years of slapping paint down onto paper, as I have absolutely no knowledge of institutional color theory. Here is the completed image:

I choose to set the scene in  that most magical and  liminal time between sunset and dark. If you look hard enough, between the horse’s legs, the road they are about to take to fair Elfland can be seen, glimmering in the dusk.

Enjoy,

Charles

I’ve had my head buried in two very different projects for the last several months. The first, which I’ll be blogging about a bit later is the design, sculpting and installation of a massive sculptural fountain based on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The second is the design of various set pieces for a theatrical production of Peter Pan at the Barter Theater in Abingdon VA. Years ago I worked with the same theater on designs for the same play that, unfortunately, I never felt were entirely successful, so this time around the director and I came up with a very different approach. In this production most of the scenery in Neverland are large, flat reproductions of my paintings, each layered, one over the other, to create a sort of multi-plane depth of field. The play opens next Tuesday (Feb. 5) and will run intermittently over the next three months. Come on down and have a seat, then tell me what you think, okay?

http://www.bartertheater.com/shows/

These next two images are for painted backdrops (18 x 30 ft) that will start to reveal the technicolor wonders of Neverland.

These two were made into separate hard drops (18 ft high), that will enter stage left and right. And yes, there ARE faeries scampering about amongst those leaves!

And finally, the NeverTree and the Home Under the Ground that will be reveled through progressive scenes during the length of the play. The tree itself is a painted backdrop, approximately 24 wide by 18 ft high. The large Sun and clouds drop and the two smaller trees above will be positioned behind it. Then the space inside the Home Under the Ground is actually cut out (8 x 14 ft) allowing room for Peter, the Lost Boys and Wendy to interact.

It was, of course, a lot of work, but also really fun to re-imagine one of my favorite plays.

Before I go, I want to thank Katie Brown, Ben Nicholson, Derek, D.R, Kyle, Mark, Cheri and all the other hard working folks at the Barter Scene shop for turning my scribbles into hard cold ‘reality’ and finally Rick Rose for asking in the first place.

Enjoy!

Charles

Pretty isn’t it?

But the orders are in on, The Fairy Princess, produced by Dark Horse and they are to be frank, exceptionally lousy. Perhaps because those orders were, for the most part, solicited through the Diamond Previews catalog I’m not totally surprised, as the big sellers there tend to always be big muscles, big breasts or big guns and this piece certainly has none of those elements. David Scroogy and Gentle Giant have done an exceptional job of seeing my vision through a lengthy pre-production process but now, with these orders, we’re faced with either canceling the piece or coming to my fans with hat in hand. I, quite frankly, love this piece and want to see it actualized. So if you follow the link here:

http://www.greenmanpress.com/princess.html

you can see many more views of the piece and check out all the ordering details. Please be aware that none of these orders will be processed until we manage to break even or its determined that we are forced to cancel the project. You will then be notified of either when the sculpture can be expected to ship or that your charge has been canceled.

Hope you can help out!

Cheers,
Charles

Deadlines, deadlines. Charles certainly has ‘em. He’s at the drawing board now, so here is The Wife typing a post. The website has been down and there is a month of news to summarize and post, but that will have to wait another day (sorry).

TODAY is the release of the “Stardust” DVD so we wanted to let you know. It’s yet another wonderful gift item for friends and family! Some friends of ours are having a special Stardust Release Party for us, with food, drink and a state-of-the-art entertainment center - we are quite excited.

Also, if you are lucky enough to live in a town that has a Borders Bookstore, you can get an exclusive version that includes a booklet of Charles’ art with the DVD. Only at Borders, though. Otherwise any Target, Walmart, B&N, or movie store worth their salt should have it.

Cheers!
Karen

I spent last weekend at FaerieCon, three splendid days, filled to the brim with lovely people, lively conversations and art of the fantastic in every size, shape and kind. I was hosted, wined and dined by Kim and Mary (and Mike too, of course!), two living and very real Queens of the May who produce Faerie Magazine and introduced to the lovely Be and Drew of ‘I Do Believe’ in the UK, all of them passionate advocates of the practical benefits of art and magic in all of our lives. As the days ran too quickly forward I discovered a large and ever-growing population of similarly passionate people who dance under the fairy hills every day of their lives. I felt very much at home amongst a tribe of people that shared so many of the aesthetic sensibilities that I myself value. Brian and Wendy Froud made for excellent hosts of the event and the gathering of other artists, performers and writers was amazing to say the least: Linda Ravenscroft, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Michael Hague, Holly Black, John and Caitlin Matthews, Ari Berk, Josephine Wall, Jessica Galbreth and my new extended family just goes on and on.

A very big thank you goes out to Robert, Emilio and Kelly for putting in all the enormous amount of hard work that it takes to organize an event like this. I will be there next year for sure.

That’s me with Jo Wall and Linda Ravenscroft (Hello sweetie!) just in front of the Faerie Magazine booth.

All that fae energy certainly helped to make the four-square gray convention walls that surrounded us disappear from time to time. Least you think that events like this only happen once a year they don’t. All over the country and the the UK they are springing up more and more often. The Faerieworld Festivals in Portland are going very strong and I’m planning to sit down at the May Day Faerie festival held each spring (for the last 15 years) at the Spoutwood Farm in Glenn Rock PA over the May day weekend next year.
www.fairiefestival.net
See you all there,

Charles