Shameless Self-Promotion: Oculus Rot

 Shameless Self-Promotion
"Oculus Rot" by Buried

It's another bit of Shameless Self-Promotion!  As I obliquely mentioned in my MF Doom Memoriam posting, this is a shout out to my friend, Joel, and his bandmates for their new album which dropped on Valentine's Day (yeah, I know, I'm a little slow, sometimes): "Oculus Rot" by Buried.  

When it comes to my taste in music, I'm pretty omnivorous: I listen to everything from Abba to Zappa, if you will, and everything in between.  And while I will admit that Death Metal isn't my go to when I'm chillin' at home, it does find its way into rotation when the mood strikes.  As does Classical Music, Opera, Alternative, Thrash, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Pop, Metal, Ska, Punk, Rap... Oh, you get the idea.  A little bit of everything.  Stuff that would alternately bore you to death and scare the life outta you.

Anyhoo, it started many years ago when Joel contacted me to see if they could use my Facehugger Valentine drawing for their T-Shirt.  Sure!  As a follow up, he was kind enough to ask me to do the cover for their new Album, Oculus Rot.  It just so happens, doing a cover to a Heavy Metal/Death Metal album/T-Shirts was high up on my Bucket List.  So, that's kinda cool!

I also did a pastiche of a "Tales From the Crypt" cover, which included the caricatures of Joel, Steve, Robbert, and Marc, and it is used on the Mutoid Maniac shirts.  (I did the caricature of Joel as an alien in "They Live" during my first "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" which he got it as a tattoo on his leg--so he has a history of questionable decisions.)  

BTW, the stereotype of Death Metal band members being among the nicest, kindest people out there seems to be true in my experience (all the stories about nihilistic hooliganism are usually associated with Black Metal, which is a different genre altogether).  Many times when I was writing to Joel, he'd mention it was a sunny day and he was out with his family, hiking, rescuing cute woodland critters injured by other careless hikers, picking wildflowers, and reenacting the opening scene to "The Sound of Music" with him in the role of Julie Andrews, to which I'd think "Hmm, that's not very metal..."  (While I am engaged in mild hyperbole to give Joel a bit of a comedic roast, it is shocking how close to reality it is!  Shocking, I tell you!)

So, my best to Joel and his bandmates!  Here's to hoping my meager Blog helps even a little bit.  Thanks for the opportunity letting me do the cover art, gents--much appreciated!

Here's a link to their FACEBOOK Page and a link to a REVIEW from RocknLoadMag, which gave them 8 out of 10 stars!

If you like what you hear, buy 10 copies so they can become world-famous and I can maybe trick them into letting me do another cover or bit of promotional art!  If you hate it, buy 20 copies to remove it from the market and make sure no one else can get a copy!  Oh, and maybe just get a bunch of T-Shirts, too, while your at it for the same reasons listed above. 😁

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Unwanted Valentines: Ex Machina (2014)

 Unwanted Valentines:
Ex Machina (2014)

Another Unwanted Valentine!  This time, it's based on the 2014 movie, "Ex Machina", which I liked quite a bit.  It's the age-old question about what it means when you can't really tell the difference between "real" human emotions and the machine equivalent.  Are the robots in the movie actually conscious, or just programmed to think they are conscious?  Is there a way to tell the difference?  Is there even a difference to tell?  After all, my brain--the seat of my alleged consciousness--is the most important organ in my body; I know this because my brain tells me so.

I often think we'll be disappointed when machine learning truly passes the Turing Test.  Not because they will be so smart and clever, but rather because they will be so dumb and annoying that we will think only humans could be so stupid and bothersome.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, created on a 5,000px x 7,100px @ 300dpi canvas in Clip Studio Paint.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks.  I had a hexagonal pattern, which I was able to warp around a little bit to minimally follow the form.  I then traced over the pattern to give it a more hand-drawn feel.  And, boy, did that take a long time!

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STEP THREE:  And here is the finished color, which was done beneath the inks.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Unwanted Valentines: The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

 Unwanted Valentines:
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

Hey, it's that time of year when I post a couple-a-few Valentines so nerdy and/or grotesque (or perhaps GORE-tesque in this case) that no one would be all that pleased to receive them.

Yes, I did a painting of "The Incredible Melting Man" in the 30 Days of HELL-O-Ween but, ironically, I had the idea for this Unwanted Valentine last year before I even did the 30 Days of HELL-O-Ween.  I mentioned in that post I owned a copy of "Famous Monsters" featuring "The Incredible Melting Man", the cover image of which transfixed me as a kid.  So, here it is again!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the scribbled digital pencils.  I've recently decided to work with larger canvases, so this was done as a 5,000px x 7,100px @ 300dpi.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks as well as the lettering.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the various color layers, under the inking layer.  I subdued the reds a little bit, going with more rust colors, so it didn't visually blend into the lettering too much.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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