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Well, it’s been a while since I updated with anything a bit more saucy, so I guess it’s time to take a trip to Mars.
I’ve added a color version of my Accurate Barsoom pen and ink to the Savage Worlds gallery in the more “adult” section (Warning: NSFW).
Since I won’t be posting it here on the blog, (other than the preview above), I guess I’ll talk a little about the piece: Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars is one of my all time favorite pulp sci-fi fantasy series. The first book was a ground-breaking adventure that’s gone on to inspire over a hundred years of action and adventure, from Flash Gordon to Star Wars to Avatar. I absolutely love the world building Burroughs does in the debut, A Princess of Mars, from the green Martian Tharks, decaying civilizations, flying battleships, strange creatures, and elegant weapons.
Plus, there’s always the beautiful Barsoomian princesses to boot.
Burroughs described the Martians (both men and women) as essentially naked. They wear only decorative accoutrements meant to enhance the human form, rather than cover it, plus slight harnesses to hold weapons and tools. And somehow, the book never leers, never focuses on this aspect, never veers into the sordid. It’s just kinda mentioned and then lives in the background of the reader’s imagination.
Accurate Barsoom was a pen and ink drawing I did back in 2011 just to try my hand at bringing what I imagined to life. This version was a hand-colored print I did a few years later when I was itching to try out my new Copic markers. (For those keeping score at home, a hand-colored print is when you take a black and white print and color it by hand to create a one of a kind piece).
For this color version, I also wanted more accurate skin tones to the books as well. Burroughs describes the Barsoomian skin as a “light reddish copper color.” Some illustrators take that literally for some reason and make them cartoonishly red, but even more just seem to gloss over that and make them pale / white. Hopefully, I got something more in line with the books!