skull

unfinished stuff

I really have been working.  Life has been trying to get me so as always, I'm drawing/painting my way out of the hole.  Lost a few weeks along the way, but that's to be expected.  So.

All of these are in-progress, btw.  Top is a a straight copy of a pulp cover for practice (and to decipher that style of painting), then a bit for some fake advertising, then yet another Monster Women piece.

Sketchbookin' 2

That's right, it's another mummy. And an octopus. For someone who loves the work of HPL as much as I do, it's rather ironic that I find tentacles extremely difficult to draw. But mummies - mummies are easy. I tried to split the difference by drawing from a photo of a dead, formaldehyde-preserved octopus. Meh, coulda been worse.

1 done(?), 1 started

Finished (sort of) the one, started on another. Found this rad old photo of a very odd collection of people. Made me think of some top-secret 1920's adventurers' society. Complete with mad scientist, resourceful socialite, and brawny manservant. Awesome.

Jesus, I'm nerdy.

I love old photos

Specifically, old crime scene photos. I'm talking 1920's & '30s. I'm not sure what it is, but old b&w has always held a fascination for me. When that fascination is then paired with a love of the morbid, well, game over.

I've wanted to draw/paint something from an old crime scene shot for years. Just came across a great one recently and dove in. All done digital, still have no real idea what I'm doing with the tablet, so it's all over the place. That's what experimentation's all about I suppose. Putzing about until things start to fall into place.

So the top shot is the whole piece in-progress - tons of layers, scribbling, etc. 2nd shot is detail of the figures, and 3rd shot is detail without the base colors - I have long been obsessed with focus points of an illo being very clearly defined but the background/surroundings much more loosely marked. Still trying to find some kind of balance that makes me happy.

Warning!: Obviously Fake Severed Heads

I made two severed heads (and a miscellaneous hand)for Gamut Theatre's production of Titus Andronicus a couple years ago. Massively stressful (I was working with materials and techniques that I had read about but never actually used before).

The basic method was taking lifecasts of the actors' faces, building up the back of the head & the ears with clay, making a two-part Ultracal mold of the complete head, pouring in casting latex, letting the latex cure a bit, then filling the hollow casting with an expanding foam before pulling the cast heads out of the mold.

All this made more hilarious by a truly terrible application of (almost) blood-colored paint, and the fact that the expanding foam that was used was really squishy and flexible after curing. In essence, Nerf-Heads.

But I will say this: seen from a darkened stage, they were creepy. And recognizable as the characters. Good times!