Admonition of the Knight - Illustration by book cover artist Duncan Long

Leonardo da Vinci once noted that “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” In the digital age, that might be modified to, “Art is never finished, only stored forever.”

Or maybe not.

At any rate, this is one of my digital paintings that seems never to have been finished. It started as an exercise in creating a suit of armor. Then I added an arch (copied from the local mall). But the face… He’s had at least three different faces and many variations of those.

First was my face – which seemed a bit contrived if not pompous (though “Duncan” does mean “Dark Warrior” so perhaps somewhere in the family linage…)

Then he had a somewhat cartoon face for a time. And now this one, which is sort of a cross between my own and that of an over-the-hill pirate. But he still doesn’t seem quite right.

But rather than leave him languishing on the hard drive, I thought I’d toss him out for consideration.

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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book cover artist. His magazine and book cover artwork has appeared on titles from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his artwork at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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