NEW PICTURES —

HERE YOU SEE SOME PICTURES I’ve finished since the end of my studies. The newest are on top.

Greeting Card St. Michel am Felsen

Computer based work, 1,241 ∙ 874 square pixels (DIN A 6 at 300 dpi), 2015. — A greeting card from St. Michel am Felsen. The shot was taken in front of the Mühltor (“Mill Gate”) in the east of the city.

Stadtplan St. Michel am Felsen

 

Tower Guards

Watercolour, 20.5 ∙ 28.5 cm², 2014. — From a Gothic steeple high above the city of St. Michel am Felsen a brass band is musically proclaiming the Gospel. (For a detailed description see my below preliminary scrap for this picture.) Real and fictitious examples have been
Mühlhausen in Thuringia (travertine architecture),
Wetzlar (half-timber architecture, hillside with church on top),
Herborn (half-timber architecture, hillside, wall towers),
Friedberg in Hesse (Adolf’s Tower),
Freyburg on Unstrut (St. Mary’s Church),
Mont St. Michel (stone architecture, cone form with church on top)
and not least—as the painting resumes my series of tolkienesque pictures
Minas Tirith (construction from white stone and in several rings with separate walls, cone form with with basilica on top).

Turmbläser in St. Michel am Felsen

 

City Plan of St. Michel am Felsen

Computer based work, 3,500 ∙ 2,500 square pixels, 2014. — A plan of my fictitious city St. Michel am Felsen (“St Michael at the Rock”), being subject of my watercolour painting “Tower Guards” as well as my below ordnance survey map. Stylistically it is leaned on a very common German type of town map. Here you can find the plan as a pdf file.

Stadtplan St. Michel am Felsen

 

Ordnance Survey Map of St. Michel am Felsen

Computer based work, 2,150 ∙ 4,250 square pixels, 2013. — A map in the style of German ordnance survey of the late 20th century, depicting my fictitious city St. Michel am Felsen (“St Michael at the Rock”) and its setting, location of my above watercolour painting “Tower Guards” (see preliminary scrap below). The field of view visible in that painting is marked with pencil here.

Messtischblatt St. Michel am Felsen


Detail view with the city of St. Michel:

Messtischblatt-Detail

 

Inhabited Initial

Computer based work, 518 ∙ 487 square pixels, 2012. — Initials with manikins therein are called “inhabited initials”. This illustration here is a previous version of that miniature decorating a text example for my font Pfeffer Simpelgotisch. Alas, it was somewhat to filigree for its small size. The depicted man with the laptop is the one who normally uses to play backgammon with Mr Goeli.

Bewohnter Initial

 

Ex Libris Robert Pfeffer

Computer based work, 49 ∙ 71 mm², 2011. — An Exlibris for my books. In principle, a self portrait as well. This, by the way, is my concept of a nice library. The vanishing points are calculated as described here. Perspectival illusion is perfect when the eye is held about thrice the image’s width before that spot where the gown’s end meets the calf.

The fonts used in this picture are Georgia, Verdana and Wilhelm Klingspor Gotisch.

Ex Libris Robert Pfeffer

 

Winner Shields of Ataulf’s Contest

Watercolour, 21 ∙ 12 cm², 2011. — An essay on Gothic shield figures and ornamentation, including the subject of my computer based picture “Shield and Spear of the Ancient Goths”. Antetypes were among others these pictures, and with the tent I’ve had this film scene in mind (making the image continue my series of ‘tolkienesque pictures’). The crosses’ special shape is documented by Migration Period fibulas or gold crosses, and the rotating eagle motif by fibulas like this one. The spangenhelm is typical for late antiquity. The long lance with pennant​—​the ‘contus’​—​is described in Herwig WOLFRAM’s History of the Goths.

Wiljariþ sa Skeirjands

 

Cave Hounds on Winterstein 1911

Computer based work, 15 ∙ 22 cm², 2011. — Apparently, already hundred years before my drawing ‘Cave Hounds on Winterstein’ somebody depicted the cave hounds of mount Winterstein in the same manner as I’ve done. And Georg MEISENBACH, inventor of the glass engraving halftone print, (or rather his company, see the lettering at the bottom right) made the plate for it​—​or at least that’s the way it seems. The TV tower on the Steinkopf hadn’t yet been built then, of course.

Höhlenhunde am Winterstein 1911

 

Cave Hounds on Winterstein

Pencil, 17 ∙ 26 cm², finished in 2011. — Another picture of mount Winterstein near Ober-Mörlen, in addition to my previous painting “Mörlis”. To the left you see one of the entries to that subterraneous city; in these entries now live cave hounds. These are nasty and always hungry creatures, feeding on any prey they can seize with their “jaws that bite”, their “claws that catch”. When they aren’t chasing lone wanderers, they also like to catch children from promenading families. Besides the Hound of the Baskervilles (which I only know from hearsay) a scene from the game Tomb Raider I (which I also almost only know from hearsay) served me as inspiration, namely that scene at the very beginning in Peru.

Höhlenhunde am Winterstein

 

Shield and Spear of the Ancient Goths

Computer based work, 14 ∙ 18 cm², 2011. — A book illustration in the style of a copperplate print which I’ve made ‘in reserve’ for later use. The rest of the page is just to put the copper engraving in perspective. The text is taken from the German Wikipedia; its rest shimmers from the paper’s backside. Anachronistic at this picture is above all the depiction of the spangenhelm​—​in 1910, from when the print seems to be, the sight of the Germani was still dominated by winged helmets and fur aprons with metal braces. For a more detailed description of the displayed content see my above watercolour “Winner Shields from Ataulf’s Contest”.

This image serves for illustration of my Gotica page.

Die Goten

 

Preview: Tower Guards

Pencil, DIN A 4, 2010. — This rough scrap provides a preview of a planned watercolour painting. From a gothic steeple high above a terraced city on the slope of a hill, a corps of trumpeters is tunefully proclaiming the Gospel. It’s thaw on a moist and dull day at the beginning or the end of winter. The sun is shimmering softly from the upper right unto the trumpeters, making the cross on top of the banner gleam, while in the background some light beams hit the ground. Patches of snow remain in the streets and the landscape in the background, but no fresh snow will stay. The houses are built from travertine and mostly slate tiled (as are the churches and fortifications of Mühlhausen in Thüringen); sporadically, you also see timber framing. The angel statue at the steeple (being not really typical for for German Gothic style, rather to be encountered in French and Italian Gothic) is modelled after August Schreitmüller’s sculpture “Die Güte” (‘Gratiousness’) at the city hall tower of Dresden. The tree is a brumally bleak walnut tree. The city shall still become somewhat farther and wider. Towers like the “Witch’s Tower” in Idstein or the “Plump Tower” in Friedberg shall have a counterpart here.

This image is to continue my series of ‘tolkienesque pictures’. Inspiration came from this depiction of the city of Minas Tirith as well as from this one by John Howe.

Turmbläser

 

Wiljariþ sa Skeirjands

Watercolour, 21 ∙ 12 cm², 2010. — “Wilred the Explicator”, a Gothic priest explaining the gospels to his fellow Goths. For a long time the Goths adhered to Arianism, i. e. a Christian denomination deeming the nature of Christ not alike, but only akin to God Father’s nature (and differing from Catholicism in some other points, too). The name “Wiljariþ” I took from the Naples deed, while the attribution ‘sa Skeirjands’ is leaned on the Skeireins Aiwaggeljons þairh Iohannen, a Gothic commentary on the gospel of St. John. The picture’s title doesn’t necessarily mean that the displayed scene had to take place in northern Italy​—​in fact, it could have befallen anywhere from the Iberian Peninsula to Illyria.

This image serves as an illustration for my Gothic Readings. It’s the first of my planned series of ‘tolkienesque pictures’​—​for example, I’ve reduced the architecture’s style a lot so as to make it impossible to recognise at first sight whether it’s about mediterranean Pre-Romanesque or JACKSON’s Gondorian Style. Moreover, this picture is the first whose preparatory drawing I’ve solely made by computer and then printed in fine lines to the paper. This saves a lot of rubbing and fuzzing the paper.

Wiljariþ sa Skeirjands

 

Charlemagne

Computer based work, 200 ∙ 500 square pixels, 2010. — Modelled after the sandstone sculpture of Charlemagne in front of the historic museum in Frankfurt am Main. Aim was to make it look like the bronze statue of Wulfila which I use (together with this one) for illustration of my website’s font section.

Karl der Große

 

Mörlis

Watercolour, 37 ∙ 27 cm², finished in 2010. — Mount Winterstein near my hometown Ober-Mörlen, displayed in cross section and highly simplified. Beneath lies an ancient, subterraneous city. It was built by Hyperboreans towards the end of the last ice age. The lava ducts seem to be part of an experimental lava-hydraulic energy system the purpose of which isn’t fully explained yet. Apparently, the experiment failed and all were killed. The city has been discovered in the course of mining activities at the end of the 19th century (see top right). Obviously, the discoverers were so impressed by their find that they remained silent about it all their life. This is the full truth, I’ve invented it all by myself! Source of inspiration was the old computer game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, which I used to play enthusiastically during my early youth. In nearby analogy, my wife has named the city “Mörlis”.

Mörlis

 

Western Front in Wold War One

Computer based work, 135 ∙ 180 cm², 2006. — An overview map of the western front in Wold War One. I designed it for the players’ community of the online flight simulator “Richthofen’s Skies” then and provided it in four versions (coloured and monochrome, English and German).

Mörlis

 

Mörlis

 

Germany in Autumn

Watercolour, 29 ∙ 22 cm², 2001. — Germany, not as beautiful as it is but as it ought to be. Antetype for the bridge to the right was the Göltzschtal viaduct in Saxony. For the rest I’ve had the landscape around the Lahn river between Weilburg and Runkel in mind.

Deutschland im Herbst