Clifford Chase

Pen and ink image of a 16th C. French lock and key; from a photograph taken at the Museum of Time in Besancon, France.

Drawing for a nightmare in my novel in progress, Sad Conquistador: A Comedy. #Stunday #EastCoastKin

#HumansofBlueSky

Pen and ink drawing of a Spanish soldier in the forest

“Perpetual back of head that knew what it knew. Perpetual longing for that head. Perpetual disgust for that longing …“ From Sad Conquistador: A Comedy, my novel in progress.

Pen and ink drawing of Jesus being taken down from the cross, with much filigree

Drawing for Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress; after a 15th C. French engraving of the letter I, the first letter of 'Jesus' in Latin. #StunDay

Pen and ink drawing of a fallen pine branch.

Drawing for Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #MacroMonday #EastCoastKin

Pen and ink drawing of corn stalks and wildflowers.

Looking down between corn rows in Huamantla, México; for Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #scape #EastCoastKin #Mexico

Pen and ink drawing after a 16th C. series of sketches attributed to Andrés de Melgar; from Metropolitan Museum of Art database.

“His dream presented a series of grotesques, sketched on a scrap of velum but also living creatures, who grimaced, crawled, leered, and ate. The page evoked a feeling, and the feeling was doom.” From Sad Conquistador: A Comedy, my novel in progress. #WackyWednesdayArt #EastCoastKin

Pen and ink drawing of gold objects flying in a semicircle through the night air. After photos of Aztec artifacts from various museum databases.

”The jester commenced juggling heavy objects from the store of Moctezuma's gifts—cup, duck, skull, gourd, frog—each fist sized, each fashioned in gold. Chuckling soldiers. Swish of objects wheeling through the spark-filled air.“ From Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #MacroMonday

Pen and ink drawing of a Spanish helmet.

Drawing for Sad Conquistador: A Comedy, my novel in progress. #MacroMonday

Pen and ink drawing of dark, roiling clouds.

Illustration for Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #BlueSkyArtShow

Pen and ink drawing of long, tangled grass.

Illustration for Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #scape

Pen and ink drawing of water.

“He turned and gazed down at the sea, hand twitching as his mind scratched the ripples. The ripples emanated from shore, as though to escape the afternoon sun.“ From Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #scape

Pen and ink drawing of an angry bird in a frieze, after a 17th C. engraving by Matthias Kager & Raphael Custos.

“‘’His own stream of lies hath joined an entire river,’ the inked fowl added, ‘and there mendacity swirls. He swirls too, a leaf in an eddy of pure duplicity’ Thus spake the beaked creature of his dream. Thus spake the bird.” From Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #Stunday

Pen and ink drawing of a grass and a grove of prickly pear cacti.

“Cleofas sat beside his wounded friend, gazing at a battalion of cacti, which appeared to march toward him from over the next hillock.” From Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #ForestFriday

Pen and ink drawing of seagulls in flight.

“A flock of seagulls flapped and squawked above the strand, seeking morsels, while the whitest one stared straight at him as it hovered, pitched into the wind, and seeming to smile at him. He turned and beheld his admirer.” From Sad Conquistador: a Comedy, my novel in progress. #WildlifeWednesday

Pen and ink drawing of a beanstalk.

“Beside Cleofas teetered one unscorched maize stalk, nearly as tall as himself, at whose apex a bean vine twirled upward, as though to escape the calamity under way.” From Sad Conquistador: A Comedy, my novel in progress. #MacroMonday

Pen and ink drawing of three conquistador figures backlit by a campfire.

“Rodrigo nodded toward three soldiers who’d appeared before the campfire, one holding a rolled-up parchment—the legal pretext for establishing a colony. ‘Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a fiddlestick,’ Cleofas called, aping cheer.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #HumansofBlueSky

Pen and ink drawing of an ornate 16th century metal lock box.

“The friar flung the slave on the ground. ‘And what should I find in thy man-servant’s thieving hand?’ Now he threw down the object in question, which rolled once and landed right side up, as if the priest had learned to juggle.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #MacroMonday

#statues

Pen and ink drawing of a small ceramic figure, photographed in the museum in Cholula, México.

“The walls of the palace courtyard were frescoed a soft pink, like the interior of a seashell. Even the statues smiled, with outstretched arms, dozens of foot-tall clay figures nes¬tled in green nooks.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #HumansofBlueSky

Medieval letter A, with bird, serpents, and some sort of dead prey.

“What had been a warmth in the cheeks now fanned across Cleofas’s neck and ears. He stared at a majuscule, whose twining serpents seemed to mock him.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #StunDay

Pen and ink drawing of a great cascade falling into a frothy pool below.

“Enthralled by spume, Cleofas let peace overtake him, the peace, that is, of inevitability. Water could only fall, downward, ever downward, splashing again and again at the bottom. Down, down. Destiny.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel-in-progress. #WaterfallWednesday

Pen and ink drawing of a line of penitents in hooded white robes.

“A line of penitents appeared. Two by two they marched, floating slowly in their long white robes and white pointed hoods, black holes for eyes. Cleofas realized it was Holy Saturday.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. Drawing is after an anonymous 16th C. engraving. #HumansofBlueSky

Pen and ink drawing of silhouetted clouds above silhouetted trees.

“The clouds slowly drifted steadily northward, reconfiguring as they went, rags falling aside, new rags collecting into new masses, all of it in some sort of slow-moving haste above the trees.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #BlueSkyMonday

Pen and ink drawing of alternating black and white ripples.

“Immediately his eyes sought refuge in the sparkling muddy ripples before him. Soldiers began half-wading, half-swimming across. Cleofas was among the last to plunge down the bank.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #alternating

Haha. Thanks.

Pen and ink drawing of a desert gully.

“Cleofas gazed up at a great rocky knoll descending into a black thicket. He hadn’t noticed the terrain growing steeper, only his steps getting harder. At last, he thought, a ravine to throw himself down. He’d die in a merkin of thorns.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #scape

Pen and ink drawing of bright cirrus clouds.

“He wondered if that makeshift gallows would be up to the task. His gaze was ineluctably drawn to the flat burnished clouds that had gathered as though to view the execution.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #Stunday

Pen and ink drawing of famous medieval tower in Seville, at night.

“A merciless pounding in his head awakened him. He stared up at the Golden Tower as though he’d never seen it before.” From Sad Conquistador, my novel in progress. #UrbanGaze

Pen and ink drawing of a mermaid hanging from a plaster scroll. after a 16th C. design attributed to Andrés de Melgar.

“Cleofas traced it with his mind’s eye, in order to delight in the contours of that fanciful demigod poised to grasp who-knew-what. Then he frowned and shook his head. ‘The curve of the back is wanting,’ he declared, reaching with his pencil to demonstrate.” From my novel in progress. #sideways