From the archives: two different versions of the cover art for my modest 2003 vampire novella, Peculia And The Groon Grove Vampires. The first version was misguided, really. I wanted to do kind of an amoeba-shaped portal through which you could see a scene from the story. Well, it looked good as a sketch anyway! The real mistake was doing such a hard-edged shape (which is not the best solution with watercolor, which favors softer edges) and then
making the background a solid black. I often get inspired by cool hard-edged designs on book covers and subsequently make an attempt to duplicate it with watercolor. In never works... And what made it worse was that now the "view" through the portal needed to be lighter, to stand out from the black. So -- that's right, I made it a daytime scene. I have vampires strolling along during daytime. Oops...
Even though I kind of dashed off the second version, it still made a better cover than the first. Neither one has much to do with any actual scene from the story. I just wanted kind of dynamic image to convey a certain mood. I don't know. Like many of my paintings, I wish I had just one more shot to make it better. But you have to let go of these things once they're out there in the world...
Here is a scene from the book...
Presented for your inspection -- Three more pictures from the vault... 
Uncut silkscreen of black cat image, 14" x 18", 1994.
Uncut silkscreen of Jack-O-Lantern image, 14" x 18", 1994
Original Jack-O-Lantern line art. Pen & Ink, 14" x 18", 1994.
Front and back views of the package of "Halloween Hang-ups" made for the 1994 show. We only made around 65 of these packages, containing the hand-cut silkscreens. There were three different designs in each package, each with a stapled photocopied red cardstock header. It was all very "crafty" & low-tech & home-made. They were just intended to add a bit more fun to the show -- affordable souvenirs to be sold during the reception. When I had the opportunity to do a set of Halloween cards several years later, I decided to reuse these designs, since I was always kind of fond of them and was sorry we hadn't done a larger edition (the original group sold out within a week, although I set aside some for myself, most of which have since been sold). Below is the poster for the show:
The DELPHINE series was always intended to be printed in sepia tones. However, I created the original art using blue washes, which, for some reason I found allowed me to "see" the values - from light to black - more clearly than when I was working with brown washes (yes, there was some early hit and miss experimenting). Working with blue washes seemed easier on the eye and each panel appeared more spacious and atmospheric in shades of blue. As one of my art teachers pointed out many years ago, "blue is the color of infinity". Perhaps it is this quality that made it easier for me to see the range of values as I painted. 
