Too early? Nah.

I attended the Canadian premiere of the Danny Elfman symphony this weekend and went on to watch Batman Returns on loop for like 2 days. So felt a little festive and also decided to slap some watercolours around for fun.

HALLOWE'EN!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN BLOGLAND!

I mostly keep this site for purely art-related stuff but there's a part of my life that discreetly pokes out into this site now and again. Very discreetly. I am a Hallowe'en FANATIC! And me and my good friend Ben Krakowsky, who runs http://www.hauntBC.com,  are hosting a Hallowe'en party. If you live in Vancouver and love the hell out of Hallowe'en, this is the place to go my friends. We are tired of club night parties with no Monster Mash, 20 dollars in shoppers drug mart tombstones scotch-taped on the walls and no, for lack of a better term, gusto.

We have the gusto. We have cornered the market on gusto.

We will have surprise guests trick or treating at the venue throughout the night! We will have burlesque, highland dancing, magic, comedy, music and the coolest prize give-aways in all of the lower mainland. Want an autographed photograph of Jeffrey Combs? How about one of Udo Kier? A private tour of a horror televsion set? $1031.00 in cash prizes? How about some one-of-a-kind artwork made especially for the event by an artist whose work has appeared in Ripley's Believe it or Not?  And that's not even close to all of the amazing prizes we have for people who go all out for my favorite day of the year.

Remember that feeling you got on Hallowe'en night when you were a kid?

Come to this party and reclaim it!

PS we are thrilled to be hosted by the near-legendary Aleister Crane! That guy's a national treasure!

The Death of the Horned King

This movie was a huge favorite of mine as a kid. I remember seeing it in theatres and totally falling in love with it. Then there's the sense of mystique because it never got a VHS release until WAY later. Watching it that long after the fact though underlined the enormous problems with the movie. But the fact remains it is an animated movie with a WICKED badass looking villain who raises an army of the dead from an evil cauldron and in the end rots in what is probably the best Disney villain death ever.

Here's to you, Horned King.

The Hermit

It's a lazy Friday here at the mansion. The asylum walls are built, the pumpkins are carved, the props are nearly finished. Why not draw some more ghosties.

ALMOST OCTOBER!

So it's about time I start doing some cartoony skull ghosts.

Vodnik

Just back from a trip through Croatia and Prague with some friends. Been a great couple weeks! I started this illustration in the plane. It's based on a Czech bogeyman called Vodnik. Cleaned him up in flash quickly to get the idea off my mind.

ZORN!

Man I haven't drawn this guy in ages. We go back years. Like, 2001 ish. He's from a game that I was helping develop way back then. Every time I draw him he changes a bit. This time his mask has come out somewhat General Kael-ish. Which was a jumping off point for the design so I guess that's fair.

Ogre Wants Magic Fish

I wanted to draw an ogre and a guy with a katana. So that happened. And I was going to give him a lantern but I thought it was more interesting for it to be a bowl and for the light from that bowl to be cast by magic fish that the warrior has collected for the ogre. I realize this is not a thing you can see clearly in the illustration. Which is why I'm saying. Anyways...

Also I've been LOVING working with pen lately. I'm hitting a groove I haven't in years where drawings are just... working better I suppose. I think it's because I'm letting go of the drawings more freely and not imposing something external on them. Like trying to draw in a certain style or feeling compelled to make the linework a certain way.

Also included is an image from an eerie dream I had where I had rented a room in an enormous mansion where every room was the entire length of the house and there were 3 floors of them. It was profoundly unnerving.

The Slaughtered Calf

It's hot and sunny here in old Vancouver! So my mind's been drifting to Western themes.

Coloured stuff and animation!

Some coloured ink stuff in which I try a new technique. Also some animation I did while waiting for laundry to dry. An exciting week if you're into that kind of thing.

Sunny day!

So I might as well spend it indoors hung over watching bad horror movies and painting, right?!

I'm really quite fond of the drawing of the guy with the books. Also the jacket guy. Who is probably an overworked police chief sometime around 1989.

The Doctor is in.

Having re-read some Nightmare Factory shorts the other evening I believe The Doctor is me ripping off Ben Templesmith somewhat.
The other fella I did just before I went to sleep and I kinda like how skewed he is. Usually I unintentionally skew drawings because I'm drawing awkwardly in bed and the sketchbook is at an angle. But this time I'm leaving it as is.

New Meds

Trying a bunch of new stuff. Though I realize this looks a lot like old stuff. But there's a different approach I'm using... to make stuff... look the same...erm... ANYWAYS Also breaking out the good old brushpen. This is a way more fun reason to not be alseep at a reasonable time than work or insomnia.

Laaaate bellhop doodle

Playing a lot with be pens and markers lately.

The Last Temptation of Chris

Getting back on the traditional media horse.

Women again

Studying more women's fashion designs.

I like the low belts from the 20s

Clowns, wrinkles, bad drawings of girls.

trying to work out more stuff. Simplified wrinkles, complicated wrinkles. And trying to figure out why the hell whenever I draw a girl the drawing ends up HORRIBLE.

Oh and as a side note the line in my head for the fat clown doodle was "Koko has had enough of this bullshit"

The rain has returned

And so we continue with our regularly scheduled macabre programming.

As a side note there was some process behind this which I'm going to rattle on about. It started entirely digitally, just screwing around, but it wasn't coming out.

 I wanted to keep working on it though so I printed it out lightly and redrew it overtop and worked out the form. I don't know why I still find that WAY easier with a pencil than on my Cintiq.

Anyways then I went back in and was very strict about using the 3-tone shading system then I went in and did some refining work on the shading. Ultimately my goal was to remove the sketch entirely and work as though it's a painting like I've been trying to learn.

So I go on my merry way and eventually finish up, then decide it's better with a bit of the sketch in.

Just for fun I started applying bad photoshop filters to it when LO... one of them (Poster edges) looked kinda good. What I realize it did is reinforce the sketch underneath the painting and bring out some of the texture I'd lost in the process.

I do hate it when I rely on a blanket photoshop filter to fix things but I'll take it as a tool to throw into the toolbox.

I think the most frustrating thing though is that he looks so much less stiff and more realistic with the sketchlines in which was the opposite of what I was trying to accomplish.

Still I enjoy the finished result and happy to be enjoying playing again.

Yammeryammeryammerblahblahblah

Zombies and Chainsaws etc

Sometimes when you're hung over you gotta draw what you gotta draw.

Skeletons again.

 Never too long before it comes back to skeletons.  Always with the skeletons.

It was the poodle wot done it!

Gadzooks!

Spring got its hooks into me.

I'll allow it. it can be Summer any time now. Adding the original sketch because I like it better than the coloured version I think. But the colouring was very satisfying to do.

Murderered!

Had some time at work between revisions and started working on this one. Because I know Sid likes 'em ;)

Mostly Skeleton Pirates

Got me a shiny new type of pencil (Sanford Ebony) so I've been up late drawing skeleton pirates. Because we finally got some warm weather and that's what I do when it gets warm.

Murderess and Dream Spider Thing

Still mucking around with new painting techniques and trying to use more complicated colour schemes. Though I'm still basically using a one-layer (initially) greyscale then slapping colour wash after colour wash on it. I want to be able to go right to colour but I am finding on less cartoony, more atmospheric stuff I don't enter into it with a really clear idea of what colours I want. I suppose a smarter, more patient person would do quick colour studies.Also not sure which version of spider guy I like better. I happened upon the green hazier one when I decided to see what playing with the gradient map will do.

Murderered!!!

About time, eh?

Oh Waiter...

My soup has that weird skin on it.

More painting experiments

Tried to be a little more complex with this painting. Looks overworked and hooboy did the colour ever suck so the greyscale is as far as this one goes. I find it hard to add colour to the painting after the fact when there's more deliberate shapes that need defining. Also I added a texture to it that I am deeply in love with but it obfuscated the painting too much. It's the burnt bottom of my old cookie sheet and it gave the painting a real.... cracked oil feel but I couldn't find a balance where it maintained the look and feel of the cookie sheet and still allowed for any of the image to be shown without it going way too dark.

Another upbeat, lively image!

Much more successful "water" in this one than the previous one where it doesn't come across at all. And definitely a ton more than the other one which was so bad it didn't even get posted. Progress! I tried something very different with the approach to this painting since the entire greyscale (except the hair) was done on one layer. it was interesting trying to retroactively paint the vague BG elements behind her. I think that added to the more "painterly" way it looks since none of the elements are separate and they can accidentally interact with each other in interesting ways.

I'M BACK DOING STUFF!

CRIPES! What a lazy slob! No updates since WHEN? yeesh. What the heck have I been doing? Well a lot of things honestly but none of them have been drawing-related. However to commemorate getting my Cintiq back (and not being able to use the pool at the gym tonight because of the aqua-fit people) I have done the first speed painting in AGES using some fun photoshop brushes I have never played with before. I did another thing earlier this week but... ergh it was not.... good... like... AT ALL. So anyways... not breaking any new ground here just getting back into enjoying playing around in photoshop.

Welcome to 2013! The year of Reckless Abandon!