The Art and Making Payments...

Hello.

Well, the first of the month has come around. We have art from two sources and both are looking great – they are nearly finished.

The first is Jeremy Pea’s take on the Leopard gunship for the Outworlds Alliance. About the only thing I have for suggestions is (a) the guy exiting the Leopard - he looks like he’s either dropping or hovering and since the ground is presumably out of sight below, I’d bet he’s using a small jump pack. Perhaps some exhaust jets from it? Otherwise, you have done a fine job, Jeremy.

The second is the Taurian Concordat’s Cortes light tank. Lee Madison has done an excellent job and will be done with it shortly. I have no suggestions at this point, as the inking has been completed and all that remains is the crewman, who is being done separately and will be incorporated digitally into the final piece. Next up from Lee will be the Horatio Bridgelayer and the Mastodon Mine-clearing tank.

I offered the Fox art to Jim Lafferty but have not heard back from him yet. Wait for your first payment to hit the bank, Jim, before beginning on the next piece. I don’t mind.

Also up for illustration is the Argus. It is a sixty ton ‘Mech which I mentioned a few posts back, and as there are several artists who are good with ‘Mechs, anyone interested can send me an email. It comes with a miniature picture, so there are fairly solid parameters on this one.

We are on the last month of summer vacation and the editing is proceeding well. I have finally gotten my computer back from the shop – the hard drive was unrecoverable, so I will spend a few hours this evening putting files back onto it which I have on DVD. I backed most of it up about three months ago, fortunately.

I will also be sending out writeups for proofreading this evening.

Geoff, I am going to try to get you a copy of that Periphery book you asked for. Look for an email soon. Meanwhile, payments have gone out to Jim Lafferty, Mike Sullivan and David White. A payment to JP Sphagnum for his fine work on the Thug will go out when I get either his PayPal account name or his mailing address.

JP, I am still hoping for some additional surrounding detail on the Thug, if you can manage it. The ‘Mech itself looks really good. The Blackjack also looks good; fleshing out the surrounding buildings will add that hi-pro glow.

Payments to Lee and the Pea-man will go out upon finalization of their work – next Friday at the latest. As with JP, I will need either a PayPal account name or a mailing address. To all of you, please forgive me if I have misplaced your account name or mailing address, as much of it was eaten by the computer crash. Digging through back-emails is very, very time-consuming.

I have the next week off, so if you want to get some work done (especially you proofers), this would be an ideal time to do it. I will be going through the Vehicles section, checking for boners with my new eyes.

Finally, the CM-33 ammunition carrier was sketched by Daniel Cherng, but I have not heard from him for nearly a month. He has a busy schedule - if he does not reply to my emails within the next few days, I will offer that vehicle commission to another artist.

Enjoy the summer, everyone. Fall will be here sooner than some of us like.

Steve