Liquid

They were pretty sure they knew what the strange liquid dripping through the lower apartment's ceiling was now...

 They just weren't too sure about Detective Sergeant Moretti !

Fireman !

A quick sketch of Mark Gatiss as "Mickey" from the league of gentlemen.

 For those that are interested in process and technique, for this piece I digitally licked the pixels into place using Wacom's new cintiq tongue interface, so that I could turn my innate window-licking skills into something resembling an illustration. I then swallowed a handful of stray pixels and spat them at the screen. The image was then "finessed" by gently rocking backwards and forwards in my chair, looking at the computer screen while repeatedly muttering the word "art" over and over and over again, in the hope that it would then make a picture for me. I may use this process some more as it seemed to work for this one.

Illustration Friday. (Future)

    Chuck realised that in future, as far as his lunch was concerned...
 pigeons were to be the least of his problems!

The distended, greedy,  floating black labrador drifted silently closer, transfixed by the aroma of the pastrami sandwich; its legs twitched ineffectually as it tried running in the air to reach the food quicker.

Illustration Friday (Tribute 2)

Another piece I was inspired to do by this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Tribute" was a piece based on the kinds of comics, and more specifically the annuals and/or summer specials, I used to enjoy as a child. These would frequently be published by Fleetway or IPC and be either a war comic, a sci-fi or action/superhero type of thing.
Just the shape of one of these books wrapped in gift paper and I knew instantly I'd gotten one in my Christmas stocking when I was younger. The exciting covers would always attract me to them when they appeared in the local newsagents or W.H. Smiths in the run up to Christmas, with promises of action and derring-do! The artwork inside however, was nearly always in black and white and on quite poor paper stock.
 I thought I'd do a bit of a pastiche (can that still be a tribute?) of these publications by inventing my own starring character and his "annual" In a style that would've made the nine or ten year old me want to read it!
   Not wanting to make him too "cool" I made him have one eye and a scar like a villain from a Bond movie, some cybernetic insect legs, a "hussars" type of tunic and a bald pate with hair that's just a shade too long at the sides and back! Because just as in real-life, his strongest power is the power of denial, he thinks he's marvellous!
And you know what...?

So do I !

 May I present, The Crimson Beetle annual 1978.
A completely fictitious tribute publication.

Illustration Friday. TRIBUTE

As a tribute to both one of my favourite film studios, and also to a favourite illustrator, I did a piece based around the "Hammer" films depictions of Frankenstein, influenced by the illustrations of J.C. Leyendecker.

 Relaxing at home; aren't these gentlemen the pinnacle of sartorial elegance ?

Farewell (Illustration Friday)

Farewell got me thinking of "Farewell My Lovely" By Raymond Chandler,  which got me thinking of pulp novel cover art, which made me think of bruisers, femme-fatale android assassins and an alien squid named Groob Mc Zirdar...  of course!

Painted specifically for the illustration Friday topic of "Farewell" in photoshop, I feel it could be another t-shirt design for me, if nothing else!

Frequently asked questions.

The title says it's an illustrated blog, so here's an illustration.

Innumerable people have asked me recently, due to the massive popularity of my recent completely fictionally published graphic novel, "Captain Non-Sequitur. A study in cheese based clothing and paper saucepans." some very probing questions indeed...

  I haven't the room to publish them all but after looking at my answers I'm sure it will be obvious which answer relates to your own personal inquiry.

1. I have not, nor will I ever, spend an evening trying to milk a sideboard. Although in my defence, I would like two counts of gently fondling a Georgian tall-boy to be taken into consideration.

2. Some of my sketches are being judged on how they look! This is completely the wrong criteria as they were intended to be judged purely on how hard I pressed the crayon into the paper.

3. No, a half-eaten fisherman's friend lozenge is NOT an appropriate substitute for a birthday present!

4. One of the prints was burned, its ashes ground quite finely then sprinkled on an incredibly sacred site in the Asda/Wal-Mart car park in Swindon as an offering. The rest were consumed by an incontinent  Bon-Jovi impersonator

5. Nothing is ever improved by serving it in aspic.

6. The smell of an over-ripe aubergine in a crowd can make people break into hives and skip in a north-easterly direction for up to 15 minutes. Fact!

7. My toaster was recently arrested and detained by the authorities as it transpired it was actually a heavily disguised North Korean spy that had been part of a sleeper-cell that had infiltrated Argos in the early nineties.

8. Acrylic medium cannot contact previous paintings.

9. Statistically speaking, at least one person you know harbours a dark and secret desire to fashion a jump-suit made completely from feminine hygiene products and string; then fight crime while wearing it.


I do hope that this helps clear up a few things for you and that it gives you a greater understanding and insight into the thought processes of a person who has had his mind replaced with a Mr Kipling's Fondant Fancy, a piece of lint and a pencil shaving.

Vintage Dynamic Duo ( Illustration Friday. "Train")

Using a slightly different technique from my usual overly laborious painted or digitally painted illustrations, I thought I'd try a little collage from royalty free images to make this! If nothing else it made me giggle like an imbecile while making it.

Made specifically for Illustration Friday's topic of, "Train"
Thank you for viewing.

He just couldn't "Swim" (Illustration Friday)

"The boy stood on the burning deck...

...then proceeded to devour the crew, leaving him stranded with only seagulls to eat!!

Small Victorian vampire children in sailor suits?
Well why ever not!?

(Acrylic paint on canvas board 7" x 5") The middle piece of a triptych I've been working on. Here's a (sorry it's blurry, I'm no photographer, and there's an opinion I'm not a painter either!) glimpse at the pieces in their frame. What a lovely family they are!

Some finishing touches to do yet, it's still a work in progress. If anyone's interested I'll be posting some detail shots of the charming ladies in the end picture too!

A Talented Kid. (I.F. "Talent.")

 This is a small painting which is part of a triptych I hope to finish this week. Its size is approx... 15cm x 11.5cm, that's around 6" x 4.5" in old money! Made specifically to fit into a vintage 1940's/50's oak picture frame, it depicts "Dr. Fausthausen" with one of his "Fiendish Family."

Dr Fausthausen and his talented kid, Gerta the goat-girl.

 Another traditional painting inspired by a cache of vintage family photographs i recently acquired. This triptych deals with "family" and what that means to various people, and the subjectivity of just how conditional a family's love is, and how bizarre those conditions may be, although quite normal within their family unit. A carnival of freaks to some, a cohesive, loving family unit to others.
   After finally caving in to the fact that digital paintings, unless produced for a specific concept, or to be printed in a publication have zero intrinsic worth, (most people think you just press the "make-art" button as soon as they hear the words digital or photoshop!)  I have launched myself back into the tangible and splodgy stuff. (Albeit acrylic instead of oils as I still have little patience for the drying times.!)
 This painting is the first of the three to fit into the frame which I aim to customise and sign-write a little like an old carnival/sideshow poster. Using what seems to be the norm now of adding some sort of directional indication to the word "cycling" to mean plain old re-using, I shall pioneer the use of "Side-cycling!" instead of Up cycling as its use is similar, but whether better is subjective! I'm a committed side-cycler!

Great old frame, bought for a fiver, badly printed mass-produced floral prints discarded.

 

 The second painting is nearly complete, as is the third, as I like to work on two or three things at once because I bore easily and it keeps me at least producing something! If I can shoe-horn the topic of next week's illustration friday in I may post it under that too. Apologies once again for the awful photography, I really must invest in some lights when I have the dosh.
As usual, enjoyment of these images is entirely at your discretion, but I hope you do.

Wilhemina Whisper.

This is a miniature traditional painting I worked on this week. She's a spooky li'l vampire child of barely two hundred years old, who goes by the name of Wilhemina Whisper.
The painting's unframed size is approx 12cm x 9cm
(that's just under five inches high by three and a half wide in "old money" as they say.)

 Inspired by vintage photography, I start by collaging various photographs in photoshop to arrange composition etc until I have something I'm reasonably pleased with. (a difficult task at the best of times). I then use that composite image as a reference from which to paint. I paint in acrylics on illustration board or card and varnish afterwards giving it a look more reminiscent of an old oil painting. I work in acrylics for speed, as I'm incredibly impatient and find the longer drying times of oils quite frustrating. Apologies for the awful "Glary" photograph, My skills with a camera are even worse than those with a paintbrush.

Wool. (Illustration Friday)

This week's topic was wool. As you may, or may not know, I'm not the best person to depict "cute" things; so a cuddly lamb or sheep was out of the question. I chose to depict a woolly man knitting his woolly beard.

 

Despite my knitted beard and customary furrowed brow,  I tried to not take this self-portrait and indeed myself, too seriously...  maybe I'm just being guilty of woolly thinking?

Their last picnic.

Nigel waited so patiently. He was certain Felicity would be returning any minute now; after all, she'd only gone into the woods to answer the call of nature. All those tales of evil spirits in the woods probably kept the local beauty spot to themselves he mused.

 Nigel would keep the things she left behind for the rest of his life.  Felicity vanished that day, and was never to be seen again. It was their last picnic.

Yet another piece inspired by some post war British photography and the narratives which one can conjure from them. The original pictures come from a photo album bought in our local second-hand/vintage shop, called "Magpie." It's a fantastic treasure trove of a shop run by a lovely family. I got two old albums chock full of vintage photographs for a fiver! (Bargain!) The original images have such a warmth to them that it's enormous fun for me collaging various parts from these pictures, inking them, turning them on their heads so to speak, and inventing these eerie narratives and imbuing them with a (hopefully) subtle almost gothic malevolence.

The joy of gardening.

It was by far the finest example of a Charybdis Dionaea Sarlaccus that had ever been grown in an urban garden and Bert Chucker was rightly proud.

 
Needing regular watering and feeding itself on small rodents, garden pests and neighbourhood cats, this also unfortunately depicts the last image in existence of Bert's rather clumsy daughter Maisy before her "accident!"

 I had the urge to try ignoring colour for a while and get back to black and white "inked" work.  Inspired and influenced by Mike Mignola's use of heavy blacks and shadows and the lack of cross-hatching reminiscent of some 17th century woodcuts. I quite enjoyed the mixing of the neo-gothic with the sometimes all too "cosy" depictions of middle class post war Britain to try to ellicit a bizarre sense of unease. I think it worked reasonably successfully.

Storm (Illustration Friday)

I have recently been experimenting with a different style of illustration work in an attempt to "free myself up" a bit and work in a quicker, looser, "cleaner" style more suitable for editorial work.
 I have always had the annoying tendency to not know sometimes when to walk away and consider a piece done (personal insecurity bleeds into artwork shocker!). A deadline's good for this, because the clock will make it "done" whether you think it or not. So I started this,  this morning and spent around 4/5 hours on it.
Anyway.... here's my offering in a different style.. Oo er...

I have been inspired of late by two illustrators' work,  Yuko Shimizu , (No...NOT the inventor of Hello-Kitty!) whose work is a fantastic hybrid of traditional ink and digital colour, and also Benjamin Gudel an artist who has work reminiscent of both underground comics and cinema. Both have a different but eclectic approach to inking and colouring their work that I find fascinating. Yuko's blog is particularly informative in its detail of her artistic processes.
Enjoy their work, endure mine!

Illustration Friday: Wheel (Or lack thereof)

 Will Self's eschewing of the wheel in favour of walking, plus the title bestowed upon him by some as a modern day Flâneur as characterised by Baudelaire; suggested to me a depiction of him as this strange hybrid of a painted caricature and a "wheeled" walking toy from the 19th century.
  I figured if he were to have wheels, this would be the only way to go!
(But that's just how I see things, I apparently have an odd perspective!)

   It was produced solely for this week's Illustration Friday topic of Wheels.

When doodles become art.

This week I've been enthralled by the work of John Kenn Mortensen. He seems to have been deeply influenced by Edward Gorey,  although he adds a bit more of a modern sensibility to his finely crafted drawings, he somehow still seems grounded in a bygone era of black veiled sick rooms, gas-lit alleyways, and haunted cottages. Done with a regular pentel-style pen on post-it notes.
The quality and charm of his work is undeniable, no matter what the medium.

 

 Mortensen, according to his blog, writes and directs TV shows for kids. In his spare time, he makes exquisitely morbid little sketches on Post-It notes. He has published two collections of his work: Post-It Monsters, and More Post-It Monsters. Simple, elegant and suitably creepy! I love his work and really that wish I'd thought of it!

Check out his work at: http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/

Poor Dorabella.

(Exerpt of an entry taken from the recently discovered journal of Dr. Stamen Yawnoak)

Miss Dorabella Burrowell was one of the earliest children to be born at the

St. Gavin the Obtuse Memorial hospital and meat packing plant. Orphaned from birth, Dorabella was the daughter of a local tin miner. After what could only be described as a difficult labour, Mrs. Burrowell did not survive the birth of her daughter. 

Mr. Burrowell, when presented with the child, let out a blood-curdling scream and retreated into the local tin mine and was never seen again.

 

A timid child with incredibly photosensitive eyes, Dorabella spent most of her youth in the hospital’s basement, looked after by her long suffering nanny, Miss Agnes Thickett.  Due to her rather remarkable condition, she enjoyed many hours of  “Diggy-Diggy” as she named the hide-and-seek game she played in the footings of the hospital building. It was a solitary game where she never told anyone it had actually started, and involved her rapidly disappearing down a hastily hand-dug hole; usually followed by a very irate and concerned Miss Thickett.

  She would occasionally be seen at night in the hospital’s grounds, usually by the gardens and vegetable patch feasting on raw root vegetables and earthworms. Suffering from debilitating bouts of melancholia and completely unshakeable feelings of abandonment, she never stopped looking for her father; and to this day evidence of her fruitless searches blight many a mining survey on potential property purchases.

 

Illustration Friday: Ocean

 
   Not all of the children at the St. Gavin the Obtuse Memorial Hospital and meat processing plant came from the supposed entrance to the nether world. One of the first ever occupants was young Januska Smadzenes who was fished out of the ocean by a local fisherman. Upon seeing her head bobbing around, he originally thought she was a large portuguese man of war.  After bringing her home, his wife's nigh constant vomiting at her bizarre appearance, and him not being able to sell her at the fish market prompted him to dump her on their doorstep.
 The hospital easily found out her name, as despite being approximately five years old, she was able to speak, read, write and converse quite freely in most known languages. She could also recite Pi to up to fifty-thousand decimal places, and was far more intelligent than any tutor provided for her.
She read all the medical journals one weekend and eventually became chief diagnostic consultant at St. Gavins at age seven. Her most disconcerting party trick however, was answering general knowledge questions.... three seconds BEFORE you asked them!

Edge (of sanity) Illustration Friday.

 

 
  

Illustration Friday: NEW

 Sister Epiphany Brisquette had worked all her life at the Saint Gavin the Obtuse Memorial Hospital and meat processing plant.  Built in the early 19th century and situated atop Tenaron hillock in Trevagary Cornwall, over a supposed entrance to the nether-world; its maternity ward was a closely guarded secret. (due in no small part to the wholly unnatural appearance of too many of the births for the entrance to the nether-world to be supposition.)
  It was a job she found incredibly rewarding spiritually. She just knew she was doing good work. It gave her an enormous sense of well-being bringing these NEW little ones into the world. Usually rejected by their horrified birth mothers, she also relished finding them new homes and surrogate parents too.

Witch Doodle...( why, THAT doodle of course!)

As per the title of this post.....

A witch doodle.... Technical details as follows...
: Photoshop downloaded tree brushes by midnightstouch on "Brusheezy."

The rest was just done by selecting the chalk brush in photoshop and shouting "Paint me an image now you jumped up clock with delusions of grandeur "  at my mac's screen, as apparently according to some, it does it ALL for you! meh... Who knew? 
(I think my version may be faulty.) Like the old saying about computers goes...   "Garbage in = Garbage out!"
Which begs the question... Is there an app for shoulder located chip removal?

Preliminary study

Many times I prefer preliminary studies to my "finished" work as they have more life to them.
Maybe "Death by noodling !" should be my new credo!

 

e.g.  My quick study for Clarence seems far more benevolent and "lively" than the one I actually posted on Illustration Friday. There again, it was in colour, and I dislike intensely the "colorizing" of original black and white films. Perhaps that came through in the illustration.

As always, 

thank you for viewing.

Glow... Illustration Friday

Clarence* didn't care how much his dinner guests protested. The benefits of him using the microwave to cook Christmas dinner far outweighed the disapproval of those that would tell him he wasn't having a "proper" Christmas, unless he cooked as they instructed!

* If the reference of "Clarence" is lost on you, then watch, "It's a wonderful life"
(1946 In black and white with NO 3D or C.G.I. Yes, they did make them like that then!) the classic movie starring James Stewart. It might make your heart "Glow!"
(How tenuous a link to GLOW was THAT?)

Snow. Illustration Friday.

A light dusting of snow can make almost ANYTHING picturesque at this time of year.!

Pen and ink sketch and a bit of digital colouring in.
Thank you for viewing.

Illustration Friday. Explore.

This week's illustration Friday topic was "explore" here's my take, and its little back-story...

   The small and woeful story of the little-known, (and some would say quite rightfully obscure) British "Victorian" explorer,
Major Fotheringhay Bleaksausage is indeed a most cautionary tale.
Upon his return from, as he put it, "The Darkest Unexplored Regions Where Civilisation is but an Ethereal Whisper."
  He proclaimed he'd collected innumerable samples of the indigenous flora and fauna which, along with the memoirs of his travels, he had hoped to publish into a best-selling book. (Or at the very least wished it to be serialised in a leading scientific journal or gazette.)
 Discovered only recently, Bleaksausage was "found" and rescued, (in his own words...)
"by a highly trained specialist search party that had been exclusively funded by Her Majesty The Queen when she became personally concerned for my safety and well-being, while I was deep inside the bowels of a subterranean labyrinthine structure, obviously indicative of an ancient and intelligent mystical civilisation." 
  Unfortunately, as it turned out, Bleaksausage was more than a little deluded. It was 2012 and he had actually spent the past seven months living in a small shelter built from twigs just off Tibbet's corner roundabout near Wimbledon Common.
The roundabout's pedestrian underpass had served as his "subterranean labyrinth."
The search party were two rather stupefied community support officers who had received a complaint from local nearby residents about, (amongst other things,) his guttural hooting, verbal clicks, and piercing whistles made at passers-by in an effort to communicate, his fearful stench from months without bathing, and lastly the frequent proffering of bits of lint, dried gobbets of discarded found hair-covered chewing gum produced from his pockets as items for trade; and they were there to move him on.
  The samples of flora and fauna he had collected, in actuality, amounted to three white asparagus tips, a butternut squash plus a solitary brussel sprout. All of which were abandoned as they fell from a startled woman's shopping bag earlier that year! That only accounted for the flora.
 The fauna consisted of the dried flattened carcass of a wood pigeon and half a hedgehog peeled from the road that had been run over by a passing number 93 bus.

His journal, at present, remains un-published.
The major publishing houses, as yet, remain... unperturbed.
Major Fotheringhay Bleaksausage's present whereabouts remain unknown.
Amongst his near incomprehensible rantings when ejected from the underpass, he did let slip his wish to explore "The enchanted rounds of Swendaloon."
(Local authorities in the vicinity of Swindon's magic roundabout have been placed on high alert.)

Fantastic Creations!

  I recently came across the creations of this amazing artist, Amanda Louise Spayd 

I absolutely love her strange and beautiful creatures. Highly decorative with fantastic eyes and teeth, the movie she's made using stop-motion animation is for me like a fantastic hybrid of Jan Svankmajer and Tim Burton. Dealing with the frailties of mortality and the passage of time, (and maybe even an underlying Bride of Frankenstein vibe?) with wonderfully detailed creations and sets, plus an emotive score, make this a charmingly disturbing and poignant small film. I found it utterly spellbinding. If you can, please take 5 mins out of your day to view it.
(So yes, I was rather taken with it.!)
 Here's the link... The Maker
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

One for the kiddies...!

Here's a little painting I was working on this weekend; based around the creature known as the Krampus. I'm quite the fan of folklore, fables and legends, and indeed their roots and uses as moral tales, but...
I really do find painting big monsters far more preferable (and a damn sight easier) than little ones!

It was about now, that little Jimmy wished that he hadn't been such a naughty boy this year,
and also that last year's Superman pyjamas had come complete with the relevant powers, or at the very least a built-in diaper.!

As always, thank you for viewing.

Illustration Friday: STRETCH

This week's illustration Friday topic was "Stretch." My take, as usual, is skewed, weird and more than a little cynical. Here's the illustration, and its back-story. With more than a nod to  H.G. Wells for the inspiration.

 It had been a STRETCH, eking out her pension what with the excesses of Christmas coming and all, but Doreen Klaxon swore that this was the very last time she would shop at this particular chain.

She refused to shop at “Moreaus” any more.!

  Oh the staff were polite enough and all,  she couldn't fault their impeccable manners,
(and believe me she really wanted to!)  But she just didn't give a hoot how graciously the staff intruded on her shopping, even if they did start by politely saying, "Allow me, madam."
She also cared little that the store's owner was apparently once a doctor. But as she STRETCHED for an own-brand-basics packet of birdseed, the thing she just couldn’t bring herself to accept was the store’s openly (and in her mind quite blatant) equal inter-species-staffing policy.

 No-one could accuse her of being “Specist” she thought to herself…

After all, some of her best friends were budgies and cockatiels; but they knew their place and belonged in cages as pets, and pets they should stay!.

   She was always quite complimentary about the service she'd received, when she was asked at the checkout.
"They were all really helpful and lovely!"  She sometimes almost boasted, with a smug display of faux altruism. 
(from a distance, as long as they were more “normal” looking, didn’t eat funny, smelly food…  and kept to their own kind."Ugh..! Smelly animals!")  Was what she secretly thought.

  Of course, in these latter years of perceived rampant political correctness gone mad she had to keep those thoughts to herself, but she was certain it wasn’t like that in her day!
"Change may be inevitable, but it doesn't always mean it's for the best! "She assured herself with her hackneyed mantra,  as she grumbled toward the bus stop, myopically unaware of her own heady malodorous cocktail of violets, mothballs and more than just a trace of stale urine.... Indeed; these days, it was a STRETCH for Doreen to have a good word to say about anyone!
 For the most part, the staff were just glad she kept to herself... and her own kind. (Or maybe they were just being ageist?)

Illustration Friday: Whiskers

  Before his fall from grace, the cyclist Lanze Flosse-Stark was the poster boy for the top cycle brand,
"Walrosse Cycles."He was famed for using his facial follicles to quite legitimately edge out in front for photo-finishes, a ploy that featured heavily in their advertising campaign.. Unfortunately, his reputation was forever tarnished when it was found that he was  ingesting performance enhancing mackerel. Ironically this was discovered by the very cat in the poster, a white American longhair named "Kimmy" who was flown in especially to "soften" Lanze's appearance and appeal to a broader audience. Being the celebrity ambassador for the "Love Shrimp" foundation, an unfortunate association was then made with this most noble of causes for a very long time to come!

 As usual, thank you very much for viewing. It is appreciated.

Illustration Friday: Zoom

This week's I.F. topic was Zoom. Yet again, trying not to do the glaringly obvious, I chose to try and depict the "dolly zoom" filming technique used extensively by Hitchcock to convey unease in the film "Vertigo."

Not wanting to do just a simple clip from the movie, I tried to give it a painted "pulp" style and imbue it with a little humour by including Hitchcock in one of his infamous cameo roles; and James Stewart looking more than a little aghast at his inappropriate antics given their perilous position.( although  I know he was really lying prone on a film set)
Painted entirely in photoshop using the chalk brush.
Thank you for viewing.

Great Scot !

Tonight's digital painting is of the actor David Hayman.
I love portraiture, especially if the face is as full of character as this actor's... a face that looks carved out of granite, and a voice that sounds like he gargles with the stuff,  he is a wonderfully charismatic character actor.

 I've portrayed him here as the character, Jonas; Mr Moray's quietly menacing, one-armed enforcer from the BBC production: The Paradise.
A sinister and malevolent character role that is in direct contrast to this man's philanthropic nature in real life.
spiritaid, Founded in 2001 by David Hayman and friends, is a completely volunteer organisation set up to support children and young people around the world by running humanitarian projects.
 Thank you for viewing.

Illustration Friday. The family, Tree.

This week's illustration Friday topic was "tree"
here's my take.

I really could have "noodled" around with this for weeks, trying to get everything looking hyper-realistic, as I enjoy this kind of work, but I feel the point was conveyed reasonably well and there's always a danger of overworking these things, so I left it as is. (It was difficult, believe me!)
As for influences on this, I looked to old victorian family portraiture and the art of Travis Louie
I was toying with putting a plaque under the picture of the tree behind the family saying "Granpa" but felt it may be overkill.

Mr Gatiss.

After seeing all series of BBC documentaries on horror films made by Mark Gatiss, (an obviously personal and much loved subject of his)  I felt compelled today, to do a small illustration of him being suitably "stalked" by Nosferatu.

 On a personal level, I greatly admire much of his work, which encompasses acting, directing, screenwriting and writing novels. He truly is one of my generation's renaissance men.
It doesn't hurt that he's passionate about one of my favourite subjects too!
Bravo Mr Gatiss. I salute you!

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

You can't go wrong with a Shakespeare quote for your title. I was going to go with "Many a true word is spoken in jest." But I always feel that quoting some Shakespeare always adds an air of gravitas to the proceedings.
 Tonight's digital painting was inspired by a conversation with a friend over the subject of behavioural patterns.

Oh, how often this is true.... And unfortunately not just of Peter Cook. (or myself for that matter...
Oh well, at least I'm in esteemed company!)

Shy... coconut shy!

Well... After much "shoe-horning" of the kinds of things I love to paint into the theme of this weeks illustration friday theme, (Shy) I came up with this. I just couldn't envision drawing yet another doe-eyed naive sketch of a girl peeking out from mum's side, or a maybe a kitten or a puppy,
(not that there's anything wrong with that, but it really isn't me!) ...  so here's my take.

A bizarre zombie coconut shy, presided over by a lank-haired sideshow freak, in which one throws coconuts at severed heads (of course!). The carnival's name is taken from the father of the modern zombie film, George Romero, who also appears as the central head, flanked left and right by Messrs Tom Savini (Movie make-up genius) and John Carpenter, the horror movie director and composer.
Taking the sage advice of "Do what you love." It turns out that THIS is what I love to do.!
(painting macabre illustrations, not throwing coconuts at severed heads!)

Thank you for viewing.

Sketches.

I have made some graphite sketches in my sketchbook from photographic reference, mainly from snapping away at daytime television shows! The only good thing I can find about daytime telly (with its air your dirty laundry, and tawdry little life in public, so I can feel smug about mine, faux philanthropy...Faux-lanthropy?), is that it can be rich in a variety of well-lit general public's faces. Perfect fodder if you want inspiration for a variety of characters and can't get outside to sketch. (just remember the mute button, there's no need to listen to the drivel as well!)

These sketches can form the basis of character concepts (as long as the folk are altered sufficiently to avoid any legal issue), sometimes narratives and stories can just pour out, especially if you don't know the factual circumstances at all and just focus on the peoples body language and facial expressions and gestures.
Thank you for viewing,  hope looking at the pictures didn't bring on a bilious attack or fill you with inertia.! I shall endeavour to post what these sketches become, if they ever do become anything that is.

Favourite Satans.

Today's digi-doodle was a joy!
It just so happens that one of my own personal favourite satirists, Peter Cook ("the funniest man who ever drew breath."),  played Satan, or George Spigot as he was known in the movie "Bedazzled."
and no, not the crappy remake with Liz Hurley, the original with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
As usual, enjoyment of this image is entirely at your discretion, but I hope you do!

I would put some technical stuff, but I doubt anyone's really interested in process, just look at the pictures!

One of my favourite Satans.

A quick painting of Peter Stormare as Satan in Constantine.

More of my favourite personifications of "evil" to follow.
Thank you for viewing.

Clench !

A self-directed piece I've been working on this week, focusing on the different reactions to an (unseen) event. Clenched fists tension and blood, but no boxers. (...or zombies, which is novel for me!)

Completed digitally, I wanted it to look "painterly" but with more than a hint of caricature.The painting's around a metre long and I've tried to give plenty for one's eye to rest on in the picture.
Thank you for viewing.

... as an addendum, I did realise, If I put old age pensioner and fisting after this picture as a tag, my viewings would go up exponentially.!    I decided against it.

Dead fanboy.

A cover I did a while ago for a zombies in London project. (Aren't zombies just everywhere now ?)
Mmmm spoon meat.!

His hoodie is a visual echo, if you will,  of The Spectre's outfit. I thought as dead fanboys go, he's stylin'...!

The Doctor , vintage advertising.

Continuing my ongoing obsession with vintage advertisement-style art, mixed with popular culture references
I just couldn't help myself when I came across an old ad for "Spur Ties" who used to make pre-tied bow ties. I also loved the way,  that in our ignorance we also used to have doctors recommending coffee and cigarettes to us too. Doing the same, I thought THIS doctor promoting bow ties would be a lot more fitting under the circumstances.

This digital painting's actually quite large it was done at around a metre high and at a resolution of around 150dpi because I find for the pastel brush, (and some others that mimic traditional media) work better at the lower res,  I then reduce the image size and up the res rather than have a 300dpi brush that lags .
The Doctor at the bottom of the image, WAS where the tardis is at the bottom right, unfortunately, it then resembled him looking up Amy's skirt, which although amusing, really wasn't what I was going for.! I may yet remove him altogether.

Damsels in Nighties... Oh My.!

Thought a work in progress would be a suitable post, here's another old ad/horror movie pastiche using one of Hammer film's actresses who frequently played a beautiful victim to some nasty or other.
The actresses name is Madeline Smith, the combination of her surname and Hammer films was too easy/tempting, not to use!

Painted entirely in photoshop, using the pastel brush and a soft round. I prefer only using a couple of brushes and maybe just two active painting layers, but I constantly merge down and save, otherwise with photoshop's plethora of visual editing options you could tweak forever! It forces you to make those difficult artistic decisions.  Of course whether those decisions are any good is entirely subjective!

Mocata's watching YOU !

Another poster/t-shirt design. This time using Charles Gray's character "Mocata" from Hammer fim's "The Devil Rides Out." A character that was apparently based around Aleister Crowley.

His sinister "fluence" was in full effect when portrayed by Mr Gray, one wonders if Mr Crowley was THAT camp?
Painted in photoshop in a kind of  Orwell's Big Brother* style.
You WILL enjoy this.... you WILL enjoy this... you WILL enjoy this........ mwahahahaha



*(As opposed to a simulated reality telly show.)