31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020
Motel Hell (1980)
When I saw the production stills for "Motel Hell" as a kid, it disturbed me--a man wearing a pig's head wielding a chainsaw? That was a next level twisted horror, sure to make the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" look tame by comparison! Well, many years later, I finally got a chance to see it and it turns out it was far more campy and comedic--and mildly gory at times. Still, that image from the movie stayed with me as a sort of Platonic Ideas of something terrifying for the longest time. I mean, 'til I actually saw the movie in question--after which that Platonic Ideal became a shadow of it's former self (philosophy jokes a plenty!).
It's Rory Calhoun (former star of Westerns in the 50's and 60's), making Farmer Vincent's Fritters extra delicious--and you'll never guess the secret ingredient! It's Soylent Green! No, wait, that's a different movie... but the same secret ingredient!
Originally, it was supposed to be directed by Tobe Hooper (of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Poltergeist" fame, as well as lots of other movies), but the producers of the movie wanted to go into a more comedic direction so he bounced on that.
* * *
STEP ONE: The pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock with a black colored pencil.
* * *
STEP TWO: Here is the first pass with watercolor/gouache, just getting some color down on the paper.
* * *
STEP THREE: Getting closer... I fixed the cloudy background, smoothing things out a bit, and corrected a bit of the pig's head. I'm not all that great at drawing animals, but in this case I may have made a silk purse out of a sow's ear (I'll show myself out after that one).
* * *
STEP FOUR: Here's the finished painting. I fixed a few things which bothered me--the chainsaw wasn't quite right, for example. So, rather than trying to fit the end of the chainsaw on the paper, I decided to go the other way with it and just run it off the page. Usually, I have no probably doing that... not sure why I kept shortening it this time to fit the page. I do think running it off the page improved it by changing it from a hedge-trimmer to a crazy, scary chainsaw. Also, it may have improved the composition a bit more. Oh, well, here it is!
* * *
Done with Watercolor/Gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment