Commissions List Closed Again

I promised we’d only take the amount of commissions I could finish and ship out by the end of November, which is fast approaching. This is in case any of the pieces of art were intended as Christmas presents, and so I would have December relatively free of obligations, for my own Christmas plans, and to rest up a bit for the big (Hell, let’s call it giant) art project beginning with the new year.

Not to blow my own horn, but we timed it pretty well. Everything will be done and out the door by the end of November. Thank our pal Brad Thomte for most of that, as he does all of the shipping, handling, and collection of money, so that I can concentrate on drawing.

Would you like to see the commissions I’ve done this time? Sure you would, so here they are, more or less in the order the commissions came in and in which I completed them:

First: The client asked for a full-sized, 11” by 17” picture of Chrysalis, from the super-villain group The Destroyers, which appeared in many issues of my Elementals comic series. Since I always want to tell (or at least imply) a story with my commissions, I thought we’d show the aftermath of a battle between Chrysalis and Morningstar. Although this scene never took place in the published comics, it could have (while Morningstar and her teammates were prisoners of the villains for about a year).

Second: The client asked for (and paid for) a single 11” by 17” portrait of the villain Shapeshifter, also a member of the Destroyers. I was glad to do it, but I couldn’t get the image out of my head of the rest of the scene, so I went ahead and drew it too, ending up with a tryptic of three illustrated panels. I didn’t get his permission to do a little more than was commissioned, but so far he hasn’t complained.

Third: The client wanted a picture of Fathom, from the Elementals. I was happy to oblige. The scene is taken (with a grain of poetic license) from the second and third issues of Elementals, wherein our heroes battled The Destroyers, along with the air forces of Nacht Island.

Fourth: The client asked for a portrait of Rosemary Teatherwall, a character appearing in many of my recent prose novels, including Hammer of the Gods, and Superteam. I decided to give him a preview of the opening scene in the sequel to Superteam, which is not yet finished, or titled. I hope to finish the novel soon. In the meantime, both Hammer and Superteam are available (and you can get them signed, at no extra cost, if you buy them through my store.

Fifth: The client asked for (not quite) a recreation of my back-cover painting for one of the old D&D modules, from way back. The adventure was called White Plume Mountain. The unnamed character was not the last prince of a dying race named Elric, and his soul-stealing black sword was definitely not called Stormbringer. Trust me, I asked Lawrence who wrote the adventure. This sword even had its own name, which was Black Razor. I added the field of stars to the sword, to make it more like one of the big items from my own D&D campaign, and a bit less like that other sword mentioned above. In any case, in the original painting it was just a static shot of a fellow holding the sword. I decided to add a bit of action in this rendition. Here’s the original:

Sixth: Alas, all five of the full-sized illustrations were done, and I wasn’t going to add more and still be sure of making my self-imposed deadline. But there were other commission sizes, including full-color sketch cards, for much less money than the full-sized commissions. Here are the three that made the cut:

As you can see, they included: one minotaur, another not-quite-recreation of one of my earlier D&D illustrations; a portrait of beloved old stage and screen star Adolphe Menjou; and the Swamp Thing (which you should sing to the tune of Wild Thing — Swamp Thing! You make my heart sing! Or, if you’re of a more mellow frame of mind, you can sing his anthem to the tune of an old Beatles song — Swamp Thing in the way he moves…)

Seventh: Between the full-sized commissions and the sketch cards, there was one middle size available. Two clients took me up on the offer and I’m nearly done with both of them. I would have finished yesterday, if not for the pesky bout of food poisoning that hit me a few days ago and knocked me out of whack for a couple of days, just in time to interrupt a really terrific work flow. In any case, here are the two of what Brad and I call our Cameo sizes, in progress and soon to be completed:

The client wanted a picture of DC Comic’s version of the war god Ares, as mostly seen in various Wonder Woman issues. He’s nearly ready for his interview with the golem princess of Paradise Island. As you can see by Ares’ retainers, I wanted to play a bit with perspective in the shot (since gods can more or less assume any size they like). I wonder if their conversation will be civil, or if a fight might break out.

And finally, the client requested the villainous Thulsa Doom, as played in the first Conan movie by His Eminence, James Earl Jones. I agreed to do it because of the challenge. As you can see, I was lucky enough to get in to see Thulsa Doom just as he was posing for his official Head-of-State portrait. He insisted on including his best friend Gary (from Invoicing and Accounts Receivable) in the picture.

And that’s it for this year’s commissions. I’d like to thank each client (who I haven’t named, because it would seem to be something I should get their permission for, and I haven’t) who ponied up their hard-earned cash to participate in this event. Thank you, truly. Your patronage is both welcome and appreciated.

I’ll likely do it again next year, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you’re hungry for some of my art, I’m doing a Black Friday sale, for one day only, from midnight to midnight, in my store. Dozens of pieces of art will be impressively (wickedly?) marked down for the sale. Look for the following Substack posting today with the gory details.