Camões

It's been a busy month. For some time I've been working on a cover for a book on Camões. Again, it is too soon to give out details; those will wait a bit more. Meanwhile, however, here is a nice miniature Camões in ballpoint pen (the original is about the size of a large stamp),

and a preliminary version of the actual cover illustration - not the one that was actually chosen, but one of my personal favorite preliminary versions (we finally went out with a less "busy" one, with fewer heads per square inch)

Game theory once more

This, believe it or not, is a detail from an illustration for an upcoming scientific paper on game theory, that should be appearing soon in the journal of theoretical biology. I made it for the same guys for whom I had made the "atlas" illustration a few posts below.

I'll post the full image and more details once it is out. It is fully digital, drawn directly on my old and trusty HP tc1100 tablet.

Pirate Catfish gets a prize in Noodler's art competition

It was with great delight that I received a nice letter stating that my entry for Noodler's Art Competition got one of the main prizes! Meaning: I got some new Noodler's toys in the mail :) - a bottle of Rome Burning ink, a Konrad pen, and a new pen that I will not name since it is not officially out yet - but I can say that if you like them big then this one's for you! :)

(If you are unlucky enough to know me personally then you have probably been subjected to my ramblings about the general awesomeness of Noodler's flex pens. Since Noodler's came up with the first flexible nib pens I've been purchasing every new flex model that comes out and drooling over their performance (and, very crucially for me, their price)). 

Regarding the picture: it was fully drawn using Noodler's flex pens (standard and Ahab) and inks (Black Eel and Bernanke Black). The Pirate is a catfish because that fish is the symbol of the company. The pen depicted in its fin is an Ahab, which, at the time of the drawing's conception, was the bigger and fatter member of the flex family.

BTW, this illustration went through a lot to get there! On the first try it got lost somewhere around Memphis (looking for the King?) and got returned to Portugal. The package came back all bruised and wet, but the drawing was still untouched inside the protective boards, thankfully. On the second try, Captain Catfish decided to navigate according to the expectations of his profession, and got there without further drama or delay. It is nice to know he finally found his treasure - X did mark the spot, after all.

It was a real pleasure to take part in a competition for a company whose owner (Nathan Tardif) is someone I admire for both his personal craftsmanship and business practices (it is so rare that you can utter those words these days). And I'll stop here or I'll be going into my usual drooling rant about the hand-carved feeds on the first models of the flex pen, and you really don't want to hear that over and over again! :)