Cobra

So, like, as if I hadn't driven myself nuts enough with the scales on the fish, I decided I needed to do more. I think this one actually cured me.

This winged cobra motif has actually come up for me a couple of times. The first time it appeared was on a notebook-cover doodle, along with the first incarnation of what later became my wizard Bataleur. The second was one of my very earliest efforts with acrylic paints, and no I am not going to reproduce that here. (There have to be some limits to how far I'll go to embarrass myself.)

Have never found an excuse to use this image in my fiction, but to this day I still find it strangely compelling.

original: 9"x12", ball-point pen, circa 1980-81

Actually got an interesting little compositional dividend from the medium. Seems the black ball-point ink bleeds slightly more than the blue, with the result that the paper yellowed slightly more in the wings than elsewhere. With a bit of touch-up, I was actually able use that to pleasing effect when I transfered this image to electronic form.

--25 August 1997