HIGH FLIER

2018 Leftovers & Palette Gremlins #1

May 10, 2025

A young girl with hair tied back in blonde pigtails holds on for dear life as she clings to a white star-shaped balloon. Sweeping rock formations set against cloudless pale skies reach out as she narrowly escapes their sharp feathered tips. The girl is wearing a white tank top and pink shorts. Her feet are bare, floating unsupported and at the mercy of momentum like the long kite tail that trails the pillowy balloon in its exit off panel to the upper left. The far horizon, rendered hazily, tilts at an extreme angle adding to the sense of disorientation, perpendicular to the movement of the rocks and path of the balloon. — HIGH FLIER (2018), Acrylic on Illustration Board - 16" x 12"

On a whim, I added the figure to a study for EMPIRE OF GRASS, a Tad Williams cover recently completed at the time. This was the first installment in the 2018 Leftovers & Palette Gremlins gallery.

Leftovers are spur-of-the-moment doodles or sketches created from paint left over from a work in progress. In this case, both the paint and the background painting were leftovers.

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