SuperCub Psycho!

This is the latest assignment I've done for Chris Thornock's Illustration class. We were to pick from a list of visual cliches ( I picked the skeleton) and create something using tired material. What I came up with was sort of a self portrait/homage to Ed Newton and Robert Williams' art for Roth Studios. I remember reading a quote once from Williams talking about how all that old Ratfink decal and t-shirt art has become a big part of the hotrod world today, when at the time, it's main patrons were 12 year old boys, not the hotrod drivers and motorcycle riders portrayed in the in the decals. Then it occurred to me that even Newt and Wms.' Death-Dealing Angels from Hell had to have been punk kids who couldn't afford custom Triumphs at some point. The colored version is done in Acrylic and Prismacolor marker with the seafoam green border created in Photoshop. 

Recent Sketchbook Stuff

Here are two goofy recent things out of my sketchbook. This is what I do instead of taking notes during my GE classes. You'll note that one of the devils has hooves and the other has a poorly drawn foot. Colored in Photoshop (after class)

Sunday Head Paintings #3 Rondo

This week's Sunday Head Painting is of everybody's favorite Creeper, Rondo Hatton. He acted in a few suspense movies for Universal in the 30's, but most of you looking at this would probably recognize his likeness from the Rocketeer. When Dave Stevens drew the Rocketeer comic, he made one of the villains Rondo, just like he made himself the Rocketeer  and Betty Page his girlfriend. When the movie was made in the early 90's, the character was recreated by making up another actor to look like the long-dead Rondo. So if you remember the "Where is the rockeht?!" scene from the Rocketeer film, you've sort of seen Rondo Hatton. Acromegaly, the same disorder that made Andre the Giant giant, is what gave the originally smooth featured Rondo his garish looks. Anyway, here's the painting. It's the smallest of the three Sunday Heads so far, which was a mistake, because it used the largest and by far most craggy and detail-laden of the three heads as reference. The actual size of the painting is about that of a HotWheels car. I'm still pretty happy with it as an hour acrylic sketch. Tune in next week for the next exciting installment.

Day 17- Jack Torrance

Day 17 is from one of, in my opinion, the most terrifying moments in horror cinema. This comes, of course, from Jack Nicholson's character Jack Torrance in the Shining. Go watch the movie if you haven't, and get as scared as I did!

Day 10

Today was Peter Cushing. I wanted to do the colors in the same way that they might have been done had there been a Peter Cushing beach towel in the 70's.

Day 7- Vincent Price

Day 7, Vincent Price. Just playing around with the color.

Day 4

           Here's day four. The full color version is what made it to Facebook. Prints of any of these can be had, just get in touch with me. My Wolfman action figure served as the model for the zombie.

Day 3 of the Halloween thing I'm doing on Facebook

         So, I wasn't really planning on doing a horror drawing every day in October until I posted the Headless Horseman sketch on the first and my brother asked if I was. I don't really want to create pages of blog posts based on 31 days of single drawings, especially since I won't have time every day to pound out a lot beyond quick monster doodles. That being said, if I do something especially cool or fun, I'll put it up here. In this case, I did a quick color version of the Karloff drawing above, so I thought I'd post it. Check my Facebook page for drawings every day, or keep yer eyes on the Pad for the greatest hits. Keep creepin! 

A Bunch of Recent Sketches

These are just pages out of my sketchbook, all done roughly in the month of September. The monsters are all concepts for Ghouls-in-the-Dark, though not all will become such. The top image shows my slowly developing understanding of coloring in photoshop. I finally figured out how to even make a layer, so it's still a little primitive. 

P.S. After looking this post over, I feel it is necessary to mention that I'm very much against violence in the real world.

Ott Mit Uns Finished!

Here is the final product of the Gott Mit Uns/Otto Dix mashup I started about a year ago. The border rope was touched up, and an inner circle was added, as well as the sunburst lines inside the leaves and lettering. The first post can be found by clicking on the "german" label link at the bottom of this post, which explains the background of the drawing. I have transparencies made to expose a screen and start making shirts, but I threw on a little too much emulsion on the first go around, so I'll have to strip the screen and try again. Until then, you all can enjoy the digital version.

3D Cadavro!

Some of you may remember my Cadavro (King of Western Terror) art from the end of last year. This is a maquette that was done for the same class. I've had it about 98% finished since the end of the class last semester, but it needed a few final touches before baking. The sculpey was pretty brittle after sitting unbaked for so long, but I was able to get a few things right. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. I want to do some more little monster busts. He's about 5" tall.

Linocut Bookplates

         

I've recently learned linocut, and I couldn't be more stoked. The first thing I did was the skull/candle bookplate for my buddy Shaky for his recent birthday. Last week I did the inverted "ASE" bookplate for my personal library. I haven't got any printing ink yet, so I've been using oil paint (on the advice of a fellow illustrator), and it's working really well.  More projects will follow. 

Night of the Hunter

Here is the finished version of the Night of the Hunter painting I hinted at in the last post, along with the process images. As you can see, I toyed with using a different head at first. Night of the Hunter has been a favorite film of mine since high school, and the scene with the burlesque dancer always stuck out to me as being particularly strong. I've been wanting to do a painting inspired by that scene for a while. I'm happy with how it turned out. My hands served as stand in models for Robert Mitchum's. 

Sneak Peak at the latest Work in Progress

Here's a glimpse at a painting I'm working on right now, trying to finish up in time for the Society of Illustrators student competition deadline. I should be done soon, and I'll post the whole thing when it's finished.

20 Minute Skull study

This was a really quick light study I did last night while watching "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with my girlfriend Angela. I did it over an old color comp, 8"x10" on masonite. I'd been wanting to paint the neat little ceramic skulls Ang bought for me last Halloween, so I covered my desk lamp with yellow felt and gave it a shot. This most likely will not be the last color sketch I put up with these little guys.Though the light side of the skull looks like a cold yellow green, I used only Cadmium yellow and white. The old painting underneath was a mostly green composition, and my thin painting allowed the colors underneath to show through, creating the glowing green effect. It was also quite an adventure trying to mix correct colors in a relatively dark room, my main light being bright yellow. Good practice, though SPpOOooooooooOOKKY!

Final Inks for Cadavro

Here's what I'll be turning in for the Cadavro cover project. I'm thinking of doing a wash to get some value separation on it as well. I'm also thinking of trying a few color palettes. I'll post whatever happens.

Behold CADAVRO!

Cadavro is a character I've been kicking around for a couple of years, and a recent character development assignment we've been doing in my narrative class has given me the opportunity to refine some of my ideas on him. What you see here are the original thumbnail, finished pencils and primary inks for our assignment to place our character in a background (most of the other students created characters which would be suited to a picture book, but I opted to do a comic cover for the assignment as Cadavro is a comic). I've also done a design spec sheet, emotions chart and sculpey bust of America's favorite reluctant undead protector of the Navajo, but those will have to be posted later. The finished inks should be up in a day or two, when I get them done.