Dune (1984) - Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Dune (1984)
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Continuing on with the David Lynch "Dune" (1984) series, here's Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in all his leering, greasy, sleazy, pustule-ridden glory.  Well, perhaps "Glory" is the wrong choice of words for the Baron, but you catch my drift.  This Baron is mordant, putrefying, and disgusting in every decadent, Lynchian excess.  Because of that, he is definitely a memorable character and when I think of "Dune", this version of Baron Harkonnen with his hover-vest is what immediately comes to mind.

This painting, although filled with more fussy details, was so much easier than the previous, Chani, painting.  It has no doubt giving me enough false-confidence I need to get myself way over my head in some future endeavor.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.  I noticed the chin was a bit off when I scanned it in, but figured I'd fix that when I started painting.  Something you'd think I'd learn not to do since it has bitten me in the rear so many times previously...

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.  This time I was actually able to fix the mistakes in the pencils (the chin, for example) right away in the first pass.  So, lesson NOT learned, thank you very much!

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting.  Lots and lots of finicky details in an attempt at sickly skin textures and whatnot, with varying degrees of success.  Onward to the next one!

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Done traditionally with Acrylic Paint on 6" x 8" gessoed hardboard.

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Dune (1984) - Chani

Dune (1984)
Chani

Continuing on with the David Lynch "Dune" (1984) series, here's Chani, played by Sean Young.

Ugh, I have to admit, this one really kicked my rear end.  I was displeased with the results most of the time, which lead to me leaving it alone for a while, paint on it a little bit, still found it unsatisfactory, set it aside again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  I considered just dropping it and going on to the next one, but then thought I'm just gonna power through, even if I have to start over.  Which I more-or-less did a couple times over considering the amount of acrylic I've slathered on this painting again-and-again.

The weird thing is that I think about how for "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" I was able to crank out 8-1/2" x 11" Acrylic paintings almost daily--some of which I wasn't even embarrassed by--but this one just kept kicking me while I was down.  Ah, well, go figure.  Sigh...

I suppose, in the end, it's OK...  On to the next one!

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.  I should have taken the extra time to make sure the eyes were correct, but I was impatient to get started and figure I'd fix it once I started putting acrylic on the gessoed board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.  Here's where everything started going downhill for a while.  When I saw it, the first thought that crossed my mind was this guy's face sign that shows up on the Internet and it just went down from there...

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STEP THREE: And, after a lot of noodling about, I more or less decided to fix most of the problem and repainted the right-eye and tried to correct some of the worst of what was bothering me, mostly for the better.

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STEP FOUR: After so much more noodling about, back-and-forth, here is the finished painting.  It's... OK.  As always, it looks better in person than scanned in and posted.  (That is one of the advantages of digital art: what you see is more or less what you get, setting aside monitor adjustments and such).  

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Done traditionally with Acrylic Paint on 6" x 8" gessoed hardboard.

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May the Fourth be With You 2026

May the Fourth be With You 2026

OK, I'm only 6 hours late to the official "May the Fourth"--based on a pun so obvious and terrible I am disappointed I didn't think of it myself.  It's also using Jaxxon T. Tumperakki as part of a running joke I've been using for... 11 years now?  What the--what happened to all that time?  Well, let it never be said that I will not commit to the bit.  This time it's Jaxxon wistfully staring off at the Twin Suns of Tatooine as they begin to drop down below the horizon.

To re-explain everything about Jaxxon (and to copy-and-paste part of this from last year's Blog), he's part of my continuing--although not as Quixotic as it used to be--quest to make Jaxxon, the "Star Wars" version of a green Bugs Bunny, into something vaguely popular.  Jaxxon started in the Marvel Comics "Star Wars" #8 (1977), taking place after "A New Hope", in a pastiche of "Seven Samurai"/"Magnificent Seven" and...  And it's a long story.  He's a 6' tall, green rabbit which was loosely based on Bugs Bunny that was in "Star Wars" comics and he caught my attention as a kid.

Since I've started this crazy quest, he's now he's appeared in comics (sure, it's the "Star Wars: Adventures" line, but I'll take it as a win and say he's officially canon, now), and apparently even has a Black Series action figure.  He also is the star of the "Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories" one-shot with Dark Horse Comics a couple years ago (with an awesome Mike Mignola cover).  And he is in the non-canon "Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past", voice by Ben Schwartz.  So, shall I declare myself the winner and say I'm done?  Oh, I'll probably beat that dead horse a little more, still!

BONUS for "May the Fourth": Here's an unrelated link to a hauntingly beautiful song by Jeremy Messersmith's "Tatooine", delightfully animated with paper cutouts from the original trilogy.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scrawled digital pencils on a 3,000px x 2,000px canvas in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the finished digital painting

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Done digitally in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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