For the Great Gaslamp Webpage Revival I’ve started drawing steampunk portraits of the crew of the good ship Gaslamp Games.

(click to view full size)

From left to right: Nicholas, deranged technologist/bootlegger; David (myself), foppish art-lord; Derek, internet-tube engineer; and Daniel, merchant of ludology and man of science.

I’ll probably make them more overtly steampunk to fit the theme of the Gaslamp site, maybe with a sepia-tone photograph and vignette effect. Yeah, I stole my pose from a picture of Oscar Wilde; the rest I just winged. It’s hard to draw people you haven’t hung out with much in person (Derek in this case) or who are mysterious and don’t put pictures of themself on Facebook (Daniel the engima); Nicholas is probably the easiest to draw because he’s got crazy mathematician hair and is just … a real character. And for myself, it’s very hard to try to be objective with a portrait; It feels narcissistic. Not that I’m against narcissism as-such, it just feels like it could be very crass, indulgent, and cheap if done poorly. Rembrandt got away with self portraits, of course; And there’s Albrecht Durher and Egon Schiele, clearly narcissistic, but they’re allowed because they’re that good. But I digress. The website will be fun.