Day 02: The Horrors of Sesame Street: Kermit - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Horrors of Sesame Street - Kermit

I had this idea a few years ago in the back of my mind and decided this was as good a time as any to dust it off and put it to use.  "The Horrors of Sesame Street" will be a series of 6 characters from "Sesame Street" transformed into various monsters.  This pairing was sort of obvious, but I'm nothing if not obvious.  

The good news is that I planned out a half-dozen to get an early start.  The bad news is that I only have three of them finished so far, so it's barely an early start at all, given that they are much larger (12" x 16") and take about twice the time to paint.  Sigh.  So, it looks like I will be playing the part of the Red Queen this October: Running as fast as I can just to stay in place.

Two posts down, 29 to go.  But, who's counting?  😃

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils I did digitally in Clip Studio Paint on an 11" x 14" canvas @ 300dpi.  I printed it out on 11" x 14" paper I had laying about, not thinking about the 12" x 18" newsprint until I had a couple done and printed out already.  Yeah, I'm a little slow sometimes.

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STEP TWO:  I transferred the drawing onto a 12" x 16" gessoed chipboard using Carbon Paper/Transfer Paper, which I then painted.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to do a scan of the mid-point in the painting, so here's the finished painting.

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Done with Acrylic on 12" x 16" Gessoed Chipboard.

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Day 01: This Island Earth (1955) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
This Island Earth (1955)

Well, here it is, the start of my 7th year doing "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween".  Over the years, I've done nearly 200 paintings, drawing, and assorted whatnot with various Monsters and their Movies.  This year, I'm hoping to mix stuff up a bit more.  I have plans for the first dozen pictures that will be monster-related, but not from particular movies, per se.  And, after that, I really don't have much of a plan for that, either.  Not that I really had much of a plan in the years prior, of course.  But, this time, much more so!  Or is it much less so? 

Anyhoo, this year I will probably play around a bit more with the format and subject matter, just sort of mixing stuff up some more than usual.  Will I post something all 31 days, as I have in the past?  Who knows?

I'm not sure why I started doing the first and last posts of "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" with myself as various monsters... well, aside from being a solipsistic egomaniac (hmmm, what's the opposite of an oxymoron?  A tautological redundancy, perhaps?). Anyhoo, this one is a Metaluna Mutana (Or, "Myoo-tant", as pronounced in the movie) from "This Island Earth (1955)".  The Metaluna Mutant was the symbol for Sci-Fi when I was young, and the pictures of the Mutant fascinated me.  It was for a movie that I had never seen at that time, but sorely wanted to.  It was a long time before I caught the movie on a Weekend Monster Matinee on TV.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick, digital pencils in Rebelle 8 on a 2,000px x 3,000px @300dpi digital canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here is the first pass with the layout and coloration.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with a lot of back-and-forth, blending, and general reworking until everything is done.  I then imported it into Clip Studio Paint to put in th word balloon and logo.

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Done in Rebelle 8 with an assist from Clip Studio Paint.

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Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) - How I Thought It Would Go...

 Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
How I Thought It Would Go...

Hey, hey!  From the End Credit Scene for "Thunderbolts* (2024)" and the trailers for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps", my brain took those bits and pieces and made its own story as a sort of dime-store Kuleshov Effect (also known as Russian Montage Theory, where connected images can be turned into a story inside the minds of the viewers, named for Russian director, Lev Kuleshov, from his works in the 1910's and 1920's).

That story suggested Silver Surfer shows up declaring the world is marked for Death, Reed says "I dunno if y'all will be safe" as they all pile into a rocket ship, a world is destroyed, and a Multi-versal Ship shows up at the end of "Thunderbolts*".  It would have been darkly funny if they had done that, with the crowds of Earth first clapping and cheering them on to fight Galactus, and the having it dawn on them that they may not be coming back and they are hightailing it to the next universe over.  As I said, darkly, darkly funny.

Anyhoo, I was there opening night for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)", and while it was the best of the FF movies (damning with faint praise, I know) and it was great to see giant Galactus stomping through New York City, there were a number of things that missed the mark, IMHO.

I did really like the retro-future look of the movie, and the characterizations were very good, but there were a few parts of the story that didn't quite work for me.  Reed is supposed to be the smartest person in the world, but does a number of rather dumb things, IMHO.  "Galactus said he wanted our child in order to save the Earth.  Can you imagine?  Anyways, I'm gonna work on a device that teleports the entire Earth.  Here's to hoping it works!"  That plan seemed... less than ideal.

Also, the Thing's beard... Blech!  I didn't care for that all too much.

Of course, setting it in Universe 828 had an unexpected payoff that warmed my cold, dank heart (there was something about that universe name that caught my attention enough to remember the number until the end--I guess my unconscious was signaling me, but wasn't quite able to piece it together).  And, so as not to keep y'all in suspense, 8-28 is for August 28th, Jack Kirby's birthday.  Cool!

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the Digital Inks, done on a 2,000px x 3050px canvas @300dpi in Clip Studio Paint.  'Cuz I'm a dum-dum, I accidentally deleted the pencils sometime when I wasn't paying attention, so no pencils to barely look at and move on past this time.

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital colors.  Everything was a bit rushed, as I have so many other irons in the fire at the moment.  But, I wanted to get this done before October 1, 2025.

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Done Digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Moss Piglet (July 2025): Alice in Wonderland (Part 2)

Moss Piglet (July 2025):
Alice in Wonderland

Once again, it's a submission to "Moss Piglet" is a small art magazine out of Kenosha, Wisconsin which I've been contributing to for the past few years (tell 'em John says "Hi").  This time, it was a mash-up of "Alice in Wonderland" and Rosie the Riveter, which seems appropriate given it's Labor Day, today.  I'm not entirely sure why I went with making Alice a tattooed punker--aside from being able to use the tattoos to get to illustrate other "Alice in Wonderland" characters.  Also, being a child of the 70's and 80's, I always liked the Punk aesthetic.

I dunno, I may also enlarge this one as a print if there is interest, as well.  I guess we shall see...

Here's a copy of the J. Howard "We Can Do It!" Poster featuring Rosie the Riveter, a symbol of the Labor Movement, used as the template for this "Alice in Wonderland" digital painting.

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STEP ONE:  Here's the quickly scrawled digital pencils done on a 5.5" x 8.5" canvas @ 300dpi in Rebelle.

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STEP TWO:  Well, I once again had forgotten to do much in the way of a work-in-progress, so here's the finished digital painting.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7.

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Moss Piglet (July 2025): Alice in Wonderland

Moss Piglet (July 2025):
Alice in Wonderland

Hey, hey, it's time for another set of submissions I made a few months ago to "Moss Piglet", a small art magazine out of Kenosha, Wisconsin which I've been contributing to for the past few years.  They use a monthly theme for it's publication and this time it was "Alice in Wonderland".   A little bit of a stretch from my usual fare on the Blog, but it still sort of works.  Kinda.

This one was a bit of a cheat, as it was originally a 12" x 16" Acrylic Painting, "Alice, Illuminated", I did for a friend, as she was a HUGE fan of the books.  She was gifted the original, but I had scanned it in full size and went back in Rebelle 7 and digitally fixed some of the things that bothered me and other assorted digital chicanery.

I have a soft spot (both in my heart and my head) for "Alice in Wonderland".  When I was a child, I used to pore over the madcap drawings of Sir John Tenniel and read random passages here and there.  I wanted to do up a half-dozen or so submissions to "Moss Piglet", but I was absolutely swamped with other projects at the time.  Ah, well, I can still work on some of those ideas at a later time.  In fact, I have an appropriately insane project using "Alice in Wonderland" that I am planning on doing later this year/early next year.  We'll see how that goes.

I will also be posting the second submission from the "Alice in Wonderland" issue tomorrow, as it coincidentally works for the celebration of Labor Day (no pun intended for "works" and Labor Day in the same sentence, but I'll pretend I did).

* * *

STEP ONE:  As it just so happens, I have some of the "Work in Progress" from a while back as I was making this painting and figure I'd give a behind the scenes as to how this came together.  I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to think of something that my friend would appreciate and fell upon the idea of "Alice, Illuminated", done up in a saintly, beatific manner.  This was among the first, very rough layout sketch that I did in ArtStudio Pro on my iPad.  You can see that I had an idea of other items swirling around, but jettisoned those for the most part as it was just too busy.  As I said, it was a first go at translating the idea into an actuality, so it a bit crude and quickly scrawled.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the drawing I did in Clip Studio Paint.  I believe I printed it out and used carbon paper to transfer the image to a gessoed, 100% cotton watercolor paper (#140) I had glued to the 12" x 16" masonite. 

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished Acrylic painting.  The scanner was a bit harsh with some of the colors not showing as blended as they were, but that happens when comparing the original with the scan, of course.

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STEP FOUR:  And here is the digitally sweetened version I did for "Moss Piglet".  I was able to fix some of the minor things that didn't work out in the painting.  I did have to change the aspect ratio a little bit to fit the format of the "Moss Piglet" magazine, hence the extra space above her head.  I think I'll also have to add the clouds back in on the finished print.

I am mostly done digitally updating the painting in Rebelle and hope to release it as a print if people are interested.  Updates toward the end of September.

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Done traditionally in Acrylic, then worked over digitally in Rebelle.  So, I dunno, Tra-Digital, since it's both Traditional and Digital?

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Superman: Super Grover

SUPERMAN:
Super Grover

He is faster than lightning, stronger than steel, and smarter than a speeding bullet--Oh, and he's cute, too!  Look, up in the sky!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's (said disappointedly after he crashes) Super Grover...

Yes, that's right, it was one of my favorite segments as a kid watching "Sesame Street" because, y'know, it involved Super-Heroes.  I figured it was a fun way to end the unofficial Superman Week.

* * * 

STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, first pass with digital paint, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.  Once again, I used the Oil Palette Knife brush rather than the Oil Filbert Brush.

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STEP TWO:  Here it is a little further along and more blended.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Superman (2025) with David Corenswet

SUPERMAN:
David Corenswet

Of course I went and saw "Superman" (2025) the opening night, and I thought it was generally a great movie.  People have described it as the most comic book of comic book movies and I will agree with an emphatic "Hell, yeah!"

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen were perfectly cast; Mr. Terrific was, well, terrific; Guy Gardener was exactly what you would think he would be; Hawkgirl was fun for the little bit she was in the movie; Lex was just a straight up villain; Jonathan and Martha Kent were perhaps dialed up a bit too much on the corn pone level but were still good people who raised a good son.  Krypto was also great fun (the part with Superman looking for Krypto and saying "He's not even that good of a dog" amused me, but he kept looking).

David Corenswet is a great Superman (so was Henry Cavill, but I felt he was failed by the dour story in which he was placed).  Gunn really got Superman right for the screen--and this is probably the best Superman alongside Christopher Reeve, full of hope, kindness, and there always being a way--although there were a few story plot points which rubbed me the wrong way (particularly the motivating action of the movie involving a Kryptonian video--I'll leave it at that).

Overall, I enjoyed it, had fun, found the funny parts funny, enjoyed the action and easter eggs; there were a couple plot points that I didn't care for, but those were mentally put aside for the good time and good vibes I had for the rest of the movie.

Hmmmm, one more digital Quick Paint and it would be a full week/seven pictures.  Ah, I have an idea related to Superman that should tie everything together.  Well, probably not that far, but it will amuse me (and hopefully y'all) nonetheless.  Stay tuned for tomorrow to see how we end this Super-Week!

* * * 

STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, first pass with digital paint, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.  Once again, I used the Oil Palette Knife brush rather than the Oil Filbert Brush for those of you who are curious.

* * *

STEP TWO:  Here it is a little further along and more blended.  After a little while, I realized that I had the face a little off, so I did some quick Selecting and moving around--moved the face up here, shortened the nose a bit there, and then did some more blending and painting to fix it.

* * *

STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting.  Once again, I was a bit too quick on the draw (heh, pun!) and should have corrected the placement of the eyes/nose/mouth much earlier, rather than rushing into the fun stuff, building up the shading on the face, trying to finish as soon as possible, etc.  There's a lesson in there that I am sure I will fail to heed.  But, I did get mostly there in the end... mostly.  Then again, these are just Quick Paints, so won't be perfect.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Superman Lives with Nicolas Cage

SUPERMAN:
Nicolas Cage

Hey, it's turning into Superman Week here at the Blog, why not?  This time, let's go off script and go with something completely wacky: Nicolas Cage as the Superman that almost happened but never was collaboration with Tim Burton.  I will admit, that I was not vibing with this when it was announced, so wasn't too disappointed when it wasn't made (although, the movie 'The Death of 'Superman Lives'" did make me wonder...).  Sure, I would have gone to see it, but there were so many things which gave me pause, primarily the casting.  Then again, I may have been wrong and it could have been up my alley.  Heath Leger's Joker gave me pause before I actually saw it in the theaters and it was perfectly done; Nicolas Cage's Superman could have done the same, who knows?  (But, odds weren't favorable, if I had to guess.)

Cage did sort of get his chance to finally fight that giant spider at the end of "Flash" (2023) movie, which was not a very good movie, either.  Side Note: The Speed Force and running effects were just terrible after seeing them done right with Quicksilver in the "X-Men" movies (ironically, not very well done in the Marvel "Avengers: Rise of Ultron" (2015) movie).

* * * 

STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, first pass with digital paint, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.  This time, I used the Oil Palette Knife brush, rather than the Oil Filbert Brush for those of you who are curious.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the digital painting a little further on and doing what I can to correct initial errors when doing the general layout.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting.  I did color correct it, as there was a green color to the screen grab from the "Flash" movie.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Superman: The Movie (1978) with Christopher Reeve

SUPERMAN:
Christopher Reeve

Ah, "Superman: The Movie" (1978).  The tagline was "You will believe a man can fly," and while I wouldn't go that far, it had a profound effect on me watching it as a kid.  Superman is a truly totemic character to me--probably to an embarrassing amount--and this movie fully captured the inherent kindness and humanity to Superman as I understand the character and will always compare to other versions of Superman.  Of course he's an absolutely wholesome, big Blue Boy Scout and goody-two-shoes who will try to help everyone: He's Superman.

The sequel, "Superman II" (1980), was pretty great, as well, but I overlooked the silly, "Three Stooges" slapstick comedic parts Lester directed which really stand out like a sore thumb when I watch it today.  Ah, well, it's a good enough movie to overlook it.

Needless to say, the quality of the Christopher Reeve movies went down sharply thereafter, but let's not talk about that...

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, first pass with digital paint, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.  This time, I used the Oil Palette Knife brush, rather than the Oil Filbert Brush for those of you who are curious.

* * *

STEP TWO:  Here is the digital painting a little further on.  Mostly, it was just blending and adjusting what was laid down in the First Step.  I realized that the chin was creeping into Frank Quietly territory, so I lassoed it and moved the face down a bit.

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STEP THREE:  After moving the face down, that seemed to correct something which was nagging my subconscious when doing the painting.  It mostly looked alright and seemed correct, but there was something about it which was making my Spidey-Sense tingle, if you will forgive me mixing my comic book franchises. 

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Adventure of Superman with George Reeves (1952 to 1958)

SUPERMAN:
George Reeves

Now it's the ubiquitous Superman of my childhood.  Every once in a while, it would be syndicated on a local channel and I would get to catch some of the episodes of "Adventures of Superman".  Reeves version of Superman was more square-jawed and avuncular.  As cool as it was to see Superman on the small screen, I was always disappointed he wasn't able to battle the villains from the comic books.  Instead, it was Superman fighting other middle-age men in suits... Granted, they are probably the true bad guys in society, but I wanted to see his fighting Brainiac, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and assorted aliens and monsters.  Granted, I was a dumb kid with no understanding of TV Budgets or Special Effects limitations of the time (as opposed to now when I'm a dumb adult with only a marginal understanding of TV Budgets or Special Effects limitations).

Still, it was from a time when beggars couldn't be choosers when it came to super-hero fare on the ol' television, and I took everything I could get.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the colors done under the pencils, which I duplicated and merged down onto a single layer.  I then duplicated the Layer to preserve it for the "Work in Progress", and started working over the digital pencils/paints.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with lots and lots of back-and-forth and blending.  Mostly, it was done on a single layer, with an occasional added one which was then merged down, as well.

I realized that the nose was a bit short and the shape of the head should have been a bit more square.  It's another example of a 1/4" here and the 1/8" there (that a .6cm to .3cm to those of you who use metric) can make a real difference as to how a picture turns out.  Onward to the next one or two!

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Serials with Kirk Alyn (1948)

SUPERMAN:
Kirk Alyn

It's time for another Superman digital painting, this time it is the Kirk Alyn from the first "Superman" Serial from 1948.  I've only caught a few of the black-and-white serials over the years, but Alyn always seemed like a happy-go-lucky, smiling, and ebullient version of Superman, which is how I always picture him in my mind's eye.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.

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STEP TWO:  Here's a quick black-and-white value study under the pencils, which I duplicated and merged down on the value painting.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with lots and lots of back-and-forth and blending.  Mostly, it was done on a single layer, with an occasional added one which was then merged down, as well.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Superman: Fleischer Studios (1941 - 1943)

SUPERMAN:
Fleischer Studios

With the James Gunn Superman movie arriving later this week (I'll be there opening day, of course--Superman is probably the most totemic character in making me the person I am today, for better or worse), I figure it's time to do several Superman Quick Paints, why not?  In this case, it's a tribute to Fleischer Studios version of Superman.

Every once in a while when I was a kid, I would see some Fleischer Studios "Superman" cartoons show up on TV, and they were a beautiful jewel showing up--smooth and brilliant animation, highly artistic, and thrilling stories when compared to the typical animation of my childhood.  They would show up out of nowhere, randomly, and I would have my mind blown at their greatness, then it would go away for a while until the next time I would see them.

They used Rotoscope and highly rendered backgrounds.  I cannot believe there would be the Bruce Timm "Batman" cartoons without Fleischer Studios "Superman".

As the Fleischer Studio "Superman" cartoons are in the Public Domain, feel free to watch them HERE on Archive.org.  ENJOY!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 3,000px x 2,000px canvas in Rebelle 7.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks.

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STEP THREE:  And here is the color plate, done on several layers.  I almost treated it like and animation cell, with a rendered background and flat character in front.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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Thunderbolts* (2025): What About Bob?

THUNDERBOLTS* (2025)
What About Bob?

OK, this semi-obvious joke was the first thing that popped in my mind with I saw the trailer for "Thunderbolts" (2025), with Bob/Sentry/The Void: A mash-up of the "What About Bob?" (1991) movie poster with Bob and Sentry shaking hands in the foreground, and The Void choking out Bob's shadow in the background.  Yes, it seems obvious, but it only seems that way because it totally is.

Here's the "What About Bob?" poster.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas done @ 300dpi, done in Clip Studio Paint.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks and the lettering.

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STEP THREE:  And, finally, the colors done under the ink layer.  Nuttin' fancy, just semi-posterized coloring done with an ink brush and minor blending of the skin tones.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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