It was waiting for him, quivering, in the badlands at dawn.

He feared it--feared that unspeakable yolk, that glistening white--but he had learned to conquer the fear. He was a monk. He had recited the seven mantras and performed the eighteen meditations, and he was as ready as one could hope to be.

He searched his heart and found only the emptiness of enlightenment, and so he faced it boldly, this lightly fried horror, this sunny-side-up invader from beyond the stars.

Soon, one of them would have breakfast.

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....uh, yeah. Another technical experiment, plain and simple. This time, I used illustration board, did my acrylic and colored pencil technique over it, then sealed it with three layers of fluid matte medium and applied oil over that. (Three layers was probably overkill, but I'm paranoid--if you apply oil to illo board without sealing it, the oil will eat the board and in ten years, you have a sloggy dissolving mess.)

It came out, but I'd need to do more experiments to see whether it's worth the time over the long run. I do like how the monk's robe came out, though. The oils don't scan well--the color is not so blue and not so light in the original, but the light reflects differently off the two surfaces, so I suspect I'll need to go to photography for any serious oil paintings.

Anyway! Original 10 x 15 is for sale, prints available, send a note or visit [link]