"The Odyssey Of Captain Limphook."

Well, you know, when things are crappy in our lives, I like to remember the story of Captain "Big Bad" Limphook, who, for eighteen years during the late 1700's, was the Seven Seas most deadly pirate.

Badder than Bluebeard, more rascally then Rottenbreath Mackenzie, and a bigger fibber than "Tall Tales" Long John Silver, Captain "Big Bad" Limphook died from an unfortunate accident in 1797 while shaving in rough seas somewhere south of Tasmania.

He was so famous for being really, really bad that, on the day of his death Lord Byron Macintosh OBE, wrote an ode to him. It was, I believe, called "The Ode To Captain Big Bad Limphook."

Unfortunately it had a few ribald lines, and as there are children present, I cannot present it in it's entirety. In fact, I can only give you the title (which, as you see, I already have.)

I do have, however, some pictures of Captain Limphook himself - with his best mate, Brian the cabin boy. (Brian was a champion boxer from an early age - luckily.)

Thankyou for looking, and be careful of getting sand in your ears if you click for big.

(Thanks for the suggestion on the closeups Justin Segal  Check out Justin's work. He rocks,)

Illustration Friday: "Dip".

Hmm, well I was working on some pirates for this topic (you know, walk the plank, take a big dip, arrgh me hearties, say no more ... etc) and, while I was having a well deserved tea-break in the library, I came across an old book that once belonged to my Great Aunt Zelda - who we kids used to call Gaz, for short.

Anyways, it was a sort of diary come well wishing book where people wrote ditty's like "The grass is green and spring is sprung, but when do all the little birdies come?".... And right at the back of this diary, on the very last page in fact, scribbled in old fading ink, was this recipe for "Angel Fish Soup'.

So, being quite a culinarist as well as a maker-upper-of-words, I decided to adapt the recipe to my own evil means. As you can tell, I have used an old hand coloured photograph of Gaz when she was a little girl to get the message across.

And the fish? Well that's Brian.

More about Brian later....

                             

For this work I used a new kind of illumination (for me at least). I've been passively studying Maxfield Parrish for a few years and am finally discovering how to emulate that patchy lighting which he evoked with his glazes and stencil brushes. So hopefully you can see a smidgin of it it in the skin of Gaz (above pic).

And lastly..... Hmm, walk the plank, feed the fishes? I've used the same patchy light in the pirate picture below which was a lead up illustration for this topic.  More on Brian's Adventures with The Yellow Pirates later.

Thanks for looking. By the way, my nose is stable after the operation so you can click the pictures safely if you like. Back soon to give some elocution lessons. :)