The Silver Eye

I’m going to try to recap my trip, and this will be a long blog entry, but first, Book Announcement!

We have finished reading through The Lord of the Rings trilogy and would love to continue doing readings like this! The next book will be… Chesterton’s Gateway by Ethan Nicolle! We’ll start reading June 17th so people who want to participate have time to get a copy. It’s available directly from the author Here and also Here on Amazon. My top three favorite authors are J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton. My very favorite is one of those three, depending on which I have read most recently. Ethan Nicolle is an artist that I admire a lot. Whether you’re a die-hard Chesterton fan, or you’ve never read his work before, I think this will be a great book!

I’d also like to offer free copies of Chesterton’s Gateway to TSE readers ValiantArcher and Lady Merian, who stuck with the LotR reading all the way through! You two can shoot me an email if you would like one!

Traveling Part 1 – Virginia

I got to spend a week at my parent’s new house. My sister Alyssa flew in from the UK. We built a fire pit, and metal detected the yard (as you do). We went on many hikes and visited Great Falls. I have a future scene that takes place at a river so I had to go for research. I’d only been to the Virginia side before, but I would like to formally confirm that the Maryland side is better. Dad and I went on Billy Goat Trail which involves a lot of rock scrambling. Both our right knees started complaining and I dubbed us Left Knee Gang.

Traveling Part 2 – Pennsylvania

This was a multifaceted trip, but the core reason for the whole thing was that once upon a time Nerdarians Morgan and LePaul met each other through The Silver Eye and they got married last week and Alyssa and I were invited to their wedding!

We got to meet Morgan, LePaul, Elsabet (who claims credit for discovering The Silver Eye and putting things in motion) and Kaesy with her lovely family! It was so wonderful and surreal. It blows my mind how God has taken this personal-passion-project webcomic and used it to affect peoples’ lives in such a way.

This is a commission that one of the bridesmaids got of the Bride and Groom. I crammed in so many references that I’m not sure I can count them all, but there are at least 25.Commenters, I bid thee bring out those confetti stashes and give Morgan and LePaul a hearty congratulations!

Traveling Part 3 – Utah

Alyssa and I returned to Virginia, hitting up some caverns on our drive, because I have scenes in caverns and had to go there for research. Then we flew to Las Vegas to meet up with my mom and brother and celebrate my 30th birthday!—but of course Vegas is a weird and obnoxious place thus we hightailed it to Zion National Park as quickly as humanly possible.

I don’t know if any readers remember but around 2016 I attempted a visit to Zion and made it 2,612 miles but couldn’t make it the last 50 miles because of people who I have forgiven. Since 30 is a nice birthday number and most of my family was already traveling, I pitched the idea of going to Zion in Utah and I’m so glad it worked out! You see, there are scenes in the Deadlands and I had to go, for research.

My siblings and did most of the Narrows hike and… it was a bucket list hike. You’re basically walking in a river with 1,500 foot stone walls on both sides. That was one of the most incredible places I’ve been in the world. Zion National Park is like a smaller, tanner Yosemite. The mixture of brilliant orange sandstone and greenery make my artist heart very happy. On our last day, we drove to Bryce Canyon which was equally epic. My brother and I hiked down and back up the canyon and got some nice sunburns despite sunscreen.

In Conclusion

I had a wonderful time meeting and visiting with people and going to spectacular places. I took a ton of great reference photos and I can’t wait to apply it to art!