Oz Notes covers

Here are some pictures I created to use as covers for the Oz Notes, a very small and now defunct newsletter. The Oz Notes was the newsletter for the Web of Oz, a Pagan/Wiccan group in the Lawrence, Kansas area. The group still exists, but no longer publishes a newsletter. For more images, try one of the history links at the bottom of this page.

Samhain 1995ce

I used Illustrator and Photoshop. I got the Pleiades background from somewhere on the internet several years ago. I'm pretty sure it was free. The apple came from one of the tutorial images on the Photoshop CDs. I drew the caduceus, the rune, candle, and the lemniscate in illustrator and then imported them into Photoshop and diddled with them. I found it easier to get the shading right in Photoshop using gradients, rather than using Illustrator. Of course, I was using version 4.0 then….

Mabon 1996ce

The Oz Notes is xeroxed, so I grayscaled this before printing it. I used trueSpace and Poser. This was my first attempt at clothing in trueSpace. It was a horrible experience at the time. I couldn't get a decent looking fire in trueSpace, so I drew it in Photoshop.

I re-did this in Bryce, calling it Harvest Moon, should you wish to see it. The clothing is still awful.

The theme was canning Summer's bounty.

Mabon 1997ce

This one converted to grayscale pretty well. I used Poser for the figures, TrueSpace for the boots, and Bryce for the rest. I cleaned up a few spots that weren't covered by the clothes in Photoshop. The three round “craters” on the moon seem to be artifacts of Bryce's rendering process. I don't know how they got there . . .

I didn't have any 3D horses when I made this, so I cast the pursuit of Rhiannon by Pwyll a bit differently from the original.

I re-did this image with horses, should you wish to see a more traditional rendition of the pursuit of Rhiannon by Pwyll.

Yule 1997ce

To my mind, this was a quickie cover. The figures are non-descript and there's virtually no scenery or detail anywhere else.

Samhain 1998ce

I think this one turned out pretty well. It's of Myrddin and the Lady of the Lake.

I used Poser 2 for the figures, 3D Studio MAX for the clothing, and Bryce 3D for the rest. I used NURBS in MAX to model the clothing.

Litha 1999ce

This one took surprisingly little time to do. It's a side view of the Rider/Waite "Sun" tarot card. Some kids are playing marbles. Basically, they're enjoying themselves in the high summer.

I used Poser 3 for the figures, including the horse, 3D Studio MAX for the banner the boy is carrying, for the clothing, and Bryce 3D for the rest. The face on the Sun is a variation on Pamela Colman Smith's drawing for the Rider/Waite Sun. The sunflowers are also based on her drawing.