Day 22: The House by the Cemetery (1981) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The House by the Cemetery

It's Dr. Freudstein from "The House by the Cemetery"--a name which is so on the nose, it can only be Freudian, itself.  I watched this movie way back when VCR rentals were a thing and Italian Horror movies were somehow thought of as more exotic and taboo.  It was done by Lucio Fulci, the same director as "Zombi 2" (best known for the zombie vs. shark scene) and features the crazy bits of gore and general shocking, gross-out violence.

In this case it's the story of a house... by the cemetery.  Oh, an there's a sort of tunnel/cellar area which also is connected to the cemetery, too.  By 80's standards, it was probably shocking (I was a little bit shocked when I first watched it as a young teen), but looking back at some of it today it's a little cheesy and schlocky... but still pretty gross.  When Dr. Freudstein gets stabbed, yeah, that's still pretty yucky; don't watch that scene while eating Supper.

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STEP ONE:  The simple pencils, done on an 8-1/2" x 11" piece of toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first layer of acrylics to cover the page.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting.  Onward to the next painting...

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This was done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 21: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
A Nightmare on Elm Street

In a smooth segue, I went from a nightmare puppet with a knife for a hand to a Nightmare with knives on his hands.  While the later sequels really started leaning hard into the more surreal and ironically comedic kills, the first one I remember mostly for being a bit more straight forwardly a horror movie.

Gasp, I hope Freddy doesn't in some way make my nightmare of missing a post on this last 10 days of "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" become a reality!  I better skip sleeping so I can paint some more!

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STEP ONE:  Pencils done on an 8-1/2" x 11" piece of toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Just a quick foundation of acrylic paint upon which to build up the rest of the painting, as well as generally give the rest of the layers of paint something to stick to, and show the basic lighting and modeling.

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STEP THREE:  And, after a lot of going back-and-forth to build up the scars and whatnot, here's the finished painting.

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This was done with Acrylic on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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Day 20: Puppet Master (1989) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Puppet Master

I suppose we can finish this series of killer dolls and puppets with Blade from "Puppet Master", a mildly amusing B-Movie involving killer puppets animated by Egyptian magic.

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STEP ONE:  The pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The first layer of acrylic paint, done to quickly establish the lights and darks of the form.

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STEP THREE:  And the finished painting.  No time to stop now, I gotta get going with the next one!

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This was done with Acrylic Paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 19: Saw (2004) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Saw

It's the most terrifying thing you will ever see: Jeff Dunham's puppet, Jigsaw!  What's that?  It's not a Jeff Dunham puppet?  Huh.  Ok, well, those are still terrifying as heck, if you ask me.

Anyhoo, let's keep this whole Killer Dolls and Puppets thing going with the 2004 movie, "Saw", which launched a bunch of sequels which are still going on almost 20 years later (OK, so far it's only 17 years, but close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear weapons).  And, yeah, the puppet wasn't actually doing the killing, but he looked kinda cool and interesting.

I'm not much of one for torture pr0n, nor am I much of a gore-hound when it comes to horror movies.  I generally like the monsters in monster movies.  That said, "Saw" does have some truly "Ewwww" moments in it, and tortures which will make your teeth ache.  I hate needles, so of course the needle pit in "Saw II" really made me wince.  Granted, if you think about some of those traps for more than 4 seconds, you begin to think: "How did that key get there without major surgery and recovery... and without the victim knowing about it?"

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STEP ONE:  It's the quickly scribbled pencils on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The first layer of acrylic paint...

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STEP THREE:  And, after much noodling about trying to get some texture on the face, here's the finished painting.

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This was done with Acrylic Paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 18: Bride of Chucky (1998) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Bride of Chucky

"Hi, I'm Chucky!  Wanna Play?"  

Whew!  Done with an hour-and-a-half to spare!  This time, it's Bride of Chucky--the movie which answers the existential question about what happens when dolls possessed by the spirit of serial killers have unprotected sex.  I mean, sure possessed dolls are plastic and practically are the definition of safer sex, but here we are...  

Anyway, it's an amusingly bad B-Movie, and just entertaining enough that I overlooked all its many, many flaws.  I thought about painting Chucky, and with all the sewing, staples, sloppy rebuilding and reanimation of him in "Bride of Chucky", it was obvious to me this was the version I would have to do.

And, because I'm not all that bright, of course I would choose a day when I'm running behind to paint two people (well, dolls, but still) rather than something really simple.  When will I learn?  And why is the answer to that question always "Never!"?

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STEP ONE:  Hey, it's the pencils done on a toned piece of 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  And the first pass with acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  This is the finished painting, with plenty of time to spare!  Onward to the next one... hopefully, one that's a little easier to paint.

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This was done with Acrylic Paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock

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Day 17: The Invisible Man (1933) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Invisible Man

Hey, it's the Invisible Man--NOT the one I will have to use if I completely blow it and am not able to get a posting done in time (it's the Invisible Man, naked in a snowstorm right next to a polar bear!).  For this one, I decided to take a more Virgil Finlay / John Totleben (American comic book artist best known for inking "Swamp Thing" in the 80's--and in my personal Top Five of best Comic Book Artists) approach to the drawing and work more with the line width and variation to get an image.  They used stippled lines, varying line weight to give an almost etched look to their drawings.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils in Clip Studio Paint on a 1,500px x 2,100px canvas.  I did the background in black and did the blue "pencils" in a normal layer.

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STEP TWO:  Here's about the halfway point.  Rather than use white as the pen color, in Clip Studio Paint I prefer to use the Transparent color, which acts like an eraser tool to carve away the black background--it's easier to pick the color, than to switch tools back-and-forth, IMHO.  When I use my Wacom at home, I have the first button set to switch colors between the Primary, Sub, and Transparent, so it's just a couple button clicks to get to it even easier.

I did a series of dots across the face and in other places to know where to aim the thicker lines to add more highlights ont he drawing.  To be honest, with the lines underneath, I wasn't able to see the digital pencils properly.  So, a lot of it was just trying to match up somewhat closely to the reference picture.

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STEP THREE:  And, after lots and LOTS of noodling, here's the finished drawing.  I think it has a more ghostly, ethereal look to it by using the series of varied line-width, although I do want a few more darks in the facial features of the head.  Tsk.

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STEP FOUR:  Behind the scenes special footage: This is about the half-way point on the first attempt at the digital scratchboard, but it seemed a little bland.  While I do think I like some of the dark areas a little more to give more contrast, the gray areas are just kind of "dead" and uninteresting.  Nothing really wrong with it, per se, but nothing really right with it, either.  So, I abandoned ye all hope who scratched here and started over again.

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This was done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Day 16: Frankenstein (1931) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Frankenstein

Well, I'm just barely over the halfway point.  Why did I ever think this was a good idea?  I mean, a good idea, again?  One would think I'd have learned my lesson the first two time, but nope!

To state the obvious, pedantic point: Frankenstein is the name of the Doctor and not his creation; The Monster is the one who points that out.  And, yes, I know the The Monster is also named "Adam" in the book.  Speaking of, read the book.  Sure, it's a little slow moving at times compared to our moden sensibilities, but I found it a thoughful, philosophical story about the responsibility we have to our creations, and quite different from the movie(s).

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STEP ONE:  Hey, look, I went right into painting and forgot to scan the pencils.  Sigh.  Anyhoo, here's the first layer of acrylic paint.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the finished painting.  Of course, the scanner also picked up some of the warping on the cardstock, but it adds a little bit of extra texture.  Normally, I would mist the back of it with water and press it under some boards and weights to get it to flatten out, but didn't have the time I needed to do that the time as I had one foot out the door on my way to work.  Onward to the next one!

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This was done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 15: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

It's the tale of an unemployed, meat-packing worker and his destitute family being hassled by a van full of Hippies... just kidding, it's Leatherface from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".  Tobe Hooper's movie of a psychopathic family had some truly disturbing scenes--the first guy knocking on the door for some help getting gasoline, only to have it opened by Leatherface with a maul.  The way the first victim's foot shakes after the blow, and is then pulled into the house as the door slams shut, still haunts me.

I did find it mildly ironic that the person who played Leatherface, Gunnar Hansen, was a Texan poet and writer.  

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STEP ONE:  The pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The initial layer of Acrylic paint...

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STEP THREE:  Followed by the finished layer of Acrylic paint!

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This was done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 14: Carrie (1976) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Carrie

They're all gonna laugh at me!

It's been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall the movie, "Carrie", stuck closely to the book--and was probably the better for it.  There is something cathartic about a straight-up revenge story, and "Carrie" has it in spades.  And the goggle-eyed look on her face as she telekinetically begins extracting that revenge on the entire school is probably the scariest part of the movie.

Both the book and movie are sort of bookended by blood: a little spot of blood in the beginning, and lots and LOTS of blood at the end.  Buckets of blood, one could say, literally and metaphorically.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.  Truth be told, this is probably my least favorite position of the head to draw--if you don't get it just right, the person looks like the have a pig nose; and even if you do get it just right, it still looks like they have a pig nose.  However, in this case, it is looking up at Carrie that is such an iconic pose that I couldn't not do it (if you'll forgive the double-negative).

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first layer of acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  And, after much more noodling, we'll call it dunnzo!  Onward!

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This was done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 13: The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Cabin in the Woods

Hey, it's the super-creepy looking Sugar Plum Fairy from "The Cabin in the Woods", a comedic horror movie which plays with the convention of horror movies.  Being a fan of self-referential and meta-textual humor, it's like this movie was almost written for me.  And the underground bunker that kept all the archetypical monsters (as well as their generic, knock-off versions of recent movie and TV monsters--"Hey, it's the RC Cola version of Cenobites," for example) in their glass cases (well, until they aren't, of course) was fun.

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STEP ONE:  The pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the first layer of acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  And the final acrylic painting.  Well, onward to the next one!

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This was done with acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 12: Rawhead Rex (1986) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Rawhead Rex

Rawhead Rex?  More like Rawhead "Wrecks", am I right, folks?  OK, obvious joke, but the Clive Barker-penned movie is an 80's man-in-costume movie filled with everything you think Barker would include: grotesque creatures, not quite so sublimated sexual drives, and gore galore.  He was one of the doyen of Splatter Punk, after all.

Rawhead Rex a thin veneer over the darker side of the male libido and sex drive--Rawhead Rex's original description in "The Books of Blood" was definitely more... phallic.  In the movie, he looks like an escapee of an 80's British hairband video with marginally better teeth.  I mean, what ancient deity comes back wearing a mullet and expects to be taken seriously, I ask you?

While the costume is rather lackluster, the movie isn't without a certain goofy charm.  In some ways, that goofiness of Rawhead can amplify the horror.  Somewhat.  I mean, not a lot--just look at that costume!  Clive Barker so hated the movie, he decided for the next one, "Hellraiser", he was going to take a more direct role by, well, directing.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils done with a .5mm on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  And the first coat of acrylic paint...

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STEP THREE:  Here's the finished painting.  No time to reminisce--On to the next one!

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This was done with acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 11: The Mist (2007) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Mist

Hey, what's more appropriate to follow "The Fog" than Stephen King's "The Mist" (2007)?  For some reason, people sometimes confuse the two movies.  What other weather phenomena should I do next?  Perhaps, next, I should do "The Haze"?  Or maybe "The Light Rain"?

I always liked the Lovecraftian horrors in both the short story and movie (yeah, I also apparently like the adjective "Lovecraftian", which I seem to be including in a majority of HELL-o-Ween posts this year).  And, of all the monsters that dwelled in the Mist (again, in both short story and movie), the one that captured my imagination was the Behemoth.

I do agree with King, that this is one of the few times when the movie version does have a better--if more darkly ironic--ending than the work they are adapting.

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STEP ONE:  Digital pencils scribbled in Clip Studio Paint on a 2,100px x 1,500px @300dpi gray-toned canvas.  Part of me wanted to just do it up as a loose, scribbled, digital pencil drawing, but that seemed a little anathema to the Mist effects I wanted to use.

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STEP TWO:  This is about the 2/3's point in the digital painting, with the Behemoth mostly finished.

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STEP THREE:  And here is the final image.  I used a few layers involving the digital airbrush on a Normal Layer, an Add Glow layer, and a Darken layer.  Time to call it good enough and move on to the next entry!

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This was done with digitally with Clip Studio Paint

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Day 10: The Fog (1980) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Fog

Day 10!  Almost one-third of the way there!  So far, so OK...

This time, it's from John Carpenter's "The Fog" (1980).  It's been quite a while since I watched it, but I mostly remember the moody and atmostpheric effects, punctuated with occasional jump scares and some minor gore as pirate, leper ghosts come back 100 years later for revenge.

John Carpenter had one heck of a run of cool movies--several of which are among my favorites ("The Thing" and "They Live" are masterpieces of paranoid Sci-Fi-Horror, IMHO).  I will probably do a couple more John Carpenter movies before the month is out.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a 1,500px x 2,100px canvas at 300dpi.

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STEP TWO:  I thought it would be fitting to do the drawing as a digital scratchboard.  I started with a black layer, and used the Transparent color with a pen to carve out the black layer (one of the things I really like with Clip Studio Paint is that you choose the Transparent color, rather than having to switch between the Pen and Eraser).

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STEP THREE:  At first, I thought I should just leave a the entire drawing black-and-white, and when I colored it, it looked a bit off.  I then landed on just doing a few spots of color, which seemed to work.

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This was done digitally with Clip Studio Paint.

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