Day 11: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

It's all about family in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974).  A messed up, creepy, psychopathic family.  But, you know what they say: "Blood is thicker than water."  And, in this case, there is lots and lots of blood--not necessarily theirs.

While not as graphic as many horror movies afterwards, it's creepy vibe is off the charts.

Here's an Animated .GIF of everyone's favorite make-up influencer, Leatherface:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 11: The Fly (1986) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Fly (1986)

Oh, look color!  We've moved on from the Universal Classics and into something more modern.  Um, "Modern" being a relative term, of course.  In this case, it is David Cronenberg's "The Fly" (1986).  Originally, the word balloon was gonna have a shotgun in it, but that seemed a little too dark for my happy-go-lucky Blog.  Granted, my sense of humor can run Vantablack, but I decided to dial it back a little for this one time for y'all.

Anyhoo, 80's horror is in a class all its own and I grew up with a steady diet of it as a youngster.  As always, there was a moral panic that watching such monster movies would warp ones morality and look how normal I turned out!  (Wait, does "normal" need scare quotes in that context?)  It is also peak Cronenberg body horror.

Here's an Animated .GIF of The Fly.  The David Cronenberg one, that is:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 10: The Fly (1958) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Fly (1958)

A scientist with a giant fly's head on his shoulders?  What's not to love with 1958's "The Fly" with Vincent Price?  OK, this head is technically from the "Return of the Fly", as the original "The Fly" had a head that looked like a furry rubber mask with bug eyes that just barely went over top of his head (which it probably was), while the one from the "Return of the Fly" looked like a real-ish fly head done up like one of those giant Papier-Mâché heads you see in parades and such.  So much, much cooler!

Also, I've always wondered about the most horrifying part of the movie: What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is up with the teeth/gums of André Delambre, the main scientist, after the transformation into a human head on a fly's body?  Absolutely the most terrifying part of the ending with him trapped in a spider's web as he screams "Help Me!"  

Here's an Animated .GIF of The Fly, who could rally use some help.  Looking at that left hand, he probably needs help with his fly...  I'll show myself out after that one:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 09: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

It's the 1954 "Creature from the Black Lagoon", this time.  I know I said I was tired of doing monsters asking for ladies (lest most of the monsters seem to have the same request), but who can resist a face like that, I ask you?

One more of the Classic Horror movie before moving into something more recent.  Well, in color, anyways.

Here's an Animated .GIF of The Mummy, who need TP for his sarcophagus:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 08: The Mummy (1932) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Invisible Man (1932)

Boris Karloff's "The Mummy" (1932) is the original, silver-screen Terminator--Relentless stalking, h will not sleep, he will not stop, he will keep on persuing until you are dead by his hands.  The spirit of Harlan Ellison will be paying me a visit for that one!

Here's an Animated .GIF of The Mummy, who need TP for his sarcophagus:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 07: The Wolf Man (1941) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Invisible Man (1933)

Click to Embiggen

Hey, one week down... Several-and-a-half to go.  I have to admit, that The Wolf Man was always near the bottom of the pack (pun partially intended) when it comes to the Universal Monsters.  Sure, it could be seen as a metaphor for, say, puberty, for example.  Changes in one's appearance and behavior, hair growing in surprising places, simplistic grunts and growls in response to inquries, hairy palms--you name it!  But, mostly, it was kind of boring.  But, it was a monster movie, so I was compelled to watch it as a kid.

Also, I'm sure almost every male monster would just be a lady in the speech bubble as to what they want, but that was getting old in a hurry.  So, The Wolf Man, in this case, just wants a big ol' ham.  Y'know, the same thing my dumb dog always wants, why not?

And, here's an Animated .GIF of The Wolf Man:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 06: The Invisible Man (1933) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
The Invisible Man (1933)

Click to Embiggen

Here's "The Invisible Man" (1933), as portrayed by Claude Rains.  And, yeah, he isn't wearing pants.  I was debating just having the entire robe open and floating, but boxers with hearts on it seemed more amusing. 

The movie's special effects amazed me as a kid when I watched it.  Heck, they are still pretty amazing when I watch it now, IMHO.  And those awesome, awesome sunglasses are pretty darn cool.

And, here's an Animated .GIF of The Invisible Word Balloon... er, Invisible Man:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 05: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

And here's the response to the previous post of "Frankenstein", the "Bride of Frankenstein":

Sorry, Frankie, she isn't in to you.

As I pointed out in previous posts about "The Bride of Frankenstein," as a child the movie was a horror movie of monsters and terrified villagers in fear of their lives; watching it as an adult, I was horrified to realize how comedic it was and I was a dumb kid.  Well, the dumb kid part was pretty obvious, but the slapstick of "The Bride of Frankenstein," an alleged horror movie...  Terrifying!

And, here's an Animated .GIF of The Bride:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 04: Frankenstein (1931) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Frankenstein (1931)

Here's good ol' Frankenstein.  Originally, I was gonna have him saying "Fire bad!", or a picture of a campfire with a line through it.  But, in the book, what he really wanted was a Bride.  I will have the Bride's response tomorrow.  And, if you know, you know.

And, here's an Animated .GIF of Frankie:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 03: Dracula (1931) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Dracula (1931)

Next up is ol' Drac.  I was gonna have a slight joke of the character in the word balloon being the same as Nosferatu's.  After all, Nosferatu was a, um, borrowed copy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula".  But, then I realized I did it in the wrong sequence and should have had Dracula first, then Nosferatu.  Ah, well, Nosferatu is cooler, IMHO, so I couldn't resist doing his caricature first.  My impatience derailed a minor joke most people wouldn't have cared about or found amusing in the least.  Not that something like that would have stopped me, of course--No joke too small or stupid for me not to say it!

And I'll be doing some other Universal Monsters for the rest of the first week.  Y'know, the black-and-white classics.

And, here's an Animated .GIF of ol' Drac, asking for Bluuuhdddd:

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 02: Nosferatu (1922) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Nosferatu (1922)

Oh, brother, it's only the second day and I'm already running behind from where I planned.  I mean, even further behind than my revised plan.  Anyhoooooooo, once again I must point out that Nosferatu (1922) is probably still the most spooky and terrifying vampire out there.

And, introducing, Animated .GIF's for "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween":

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

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Day 01: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2026:
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Oh, hello there, I didn't see you.  It's time again once again for "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" in which I try to do 31 pictures from various horror movies--posting daily--in celebration of HELL-O-Ween!  We shall see if I prevail or I get to use the much-threatened blank page of "The Invisible Man" or "Slenderman" as a stick figure.

Well, OK, the first posting isn't even a movie, so you got me there.  This is one of those books that if you read it as a kid in school, you know.  But, as soon as the image popped into my head, I know it had to be the first posting for "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween", with the first and last posts most of the time being self-portraits of a kind.  The artwork in the book by Stephen Gammell was exponentially more scary than the stories.  As a young, wanna-be artist, I was amazed at the drawings and art style.  They were terrifying and so well drawn that I couldn't look away.  I pored over them.  And the drawings are probably the thing that everyone remembers that read this series of books.

Apparently, the drawings were a bit too disturbing to some, so they attempted to release the book with an updated series of drawings by Brett Helquist (I will admit, the last name sounds more at home in the book).  But, thankfully, due to the backlash from like-minded, demented fans that grew up in mild dread from seeing the Gammell drawings (myself among them), it was re-re-released with the original artwork.  See?  The good guys can win sometimes... 

  Every year, I always think to myself that "This time, I will be ready when "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" comes around..." and am immediately surprised to look up and see it is already October 1st.  I have a few things cobbled into a half-baked start, but, darn it, I wanted to have a nice cushion of work ready to go to give myself a little breathing room.  Sigh.  No such luck this year, either!

Speaking of, this year will be a little different.  I will admit that I am a bit bored of just painting frames from movies featuring various monsters.  Sure, it's fun and a good way to build up skills in painting but, after over 220 such paintings (digital and traditional), I want to do something a bit different (go through the Archives, if you're interested in the previous postings).  I think I will be doing more of a caricature of various movie monsters.  We shall see how that goes. 

Also, for the Work in Progress, I think I'll just wind up showing the digital pencils and the finished image.  Alas, when using Rebelle, I will almost always forget to include a halfway pic.  And, most of the time, I'm sure people aren't looking this far down in the post, anyways.  😉 

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck.  I'm gonna need it!  Hmmm... Y'know, I sure complain a lot for someone who has no one to blame but himself for all this...

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31 DAYS OF HELL-O-WEEN:
The Take-Home Game!

Once again, here are some logos for those of you who (for some dumb reason) want to play along at home!  It doesn't have to be daily--heck, just do one or two for the entire month--that's just as valid.  I'm just a dum-dum that does stuff the hard way.  There's no glory, no fame, and no fortune (trust me, this is my eighth year and none of those are anywhere to be found in my case).  It's just for fun.  Sorry, I meant "fun", 'cuz a lot of it involves loads of self-doubt and existential wondering why I do this to myself every year.  If you do wind up using them or posting anything, send me an e-mail of the link and I'd love to check it out!

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils 

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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting.

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Done Digitally with Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Dune (1984) - Charles Atlas Ad Parody

 Dune (1984)
Charles Atlas Ad Parody

Click to Embiggen

This end cap to the "Dune (1984)" Series took an embarrassing amount of time to finish for some reason, but here it is, FINALLY!  To give a peak behind the curtain and show "Where do you get your ideas?", it was such an odd, circuitous, and random chain of events that lead to "Ding!  I got it..." that I figured it would be mildly amusing to share.

For the past few years, I have been regularly submiting to "Moss Piglet", a small art magazine out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, published by my pal (and Superman's), John Bloner.  Each month, they have a prompt for submissions and a couple months ago, it was for "Beaches".  While my submission was OK, I was semi-disappointed in myself (it was done as a beach and see done as faux-astronomical analog: beachball as the moon, jellyfish as shooting star, starfish as stars, etc.).  Not bad, but, well, not all that good, either, IMHO and somewhat disappointing on a personal level.  It made it on the back cover, so it wasn't terrible or anything like that, I guess.

Originally, though, I kept trying to come up with some sort of parody of the Charles Atlas Ad to submit, as I found idea personally amusing in my nerdy way:

The Original Charles Atlas Ad (well, one of them...)

But, every time I was trying to think of something, the pull of Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol's Flex Mentallo, which was already a masterful parody of Charles Atlas, was a bit too strong, and I kept referring to Flex Mentallo in my head.  After trying and failing to come up with something, I gave up and just did the "As Above, So Below/Outer Space as Beach" visual comparison and left it at that.  After the deadline was done and everything was prepped to be sent off to the publisher, John B. mentioned that he was enjoying the "Dune (1984)" series on my Blog and it was too bad no one had made a "Dune" submission for the "Beaches" prompt.

As soon as he mentioned "Dune (1984)" in the context of the "Beaches" prompt, it immediately slotted into the Charles Atlas Parody I was trying to come up with and I saw Feyd kicking sand in Paul and Chani's face (Ding!); Paul saying he was going to gamble a stamp on the Bene Gesserit for the Gom Jabbar (Ding!); and Paul stabbing Feyd with a Crysknife (Ding!).  Suddenly, I had a framework and most of it immediately fell into place from that one little phrase, with only a few remaining square pegs to be hammered into the round holes remaining.

So I have to give him a tip o' the digital pen to John Bloner for unknowingly inspiring this Post (well, it would be unknowingly, if I didn't blab to him how I was immediately stealing that idea).

Anyhoo, it amused me and is a melange (pun intended) of the movie and book--and, yeah, I intentionally left off "Book" from "As seen on TV and Movies" as I thought it was funny to be pretend it can only be represented by Movies and TV Shows, even though the first "Dune" book is among my favorite books (I do like some of the ideas explored in the rest of the series as written by Frank Herbert, but as they were actually carried out, they were very good, but not as great as the first book, IMHO).

Now, off to figure out what the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks I'm gonna do for the "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" coming up in October.  Eesh, it's already almost here and I have several other projects unrelated to this Blog to get done, first.  Hoo-boy...  No rest for the wicked and, apparently, I've been a baaaadddd boy!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils done on a 3,300px x 5,100px / 11" x 17" @ 300dpi cavas in Clip Studio Paint.  At the time I pencilled it, I still wasn't too sure what all I was going to include in the two middle word balloons (something-something Gom Jabbar, something-something "Sleeper has awakened", etc.), so I just left those blank for the time being and moved on to the Inking portion of the drawing.  Originally, I was gonna do "Hero of the Desert", but referring back to "Hero of the Beach" seemed more fitting to me.

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

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STEP THREE:  And here is the final image, with lots of various color layers and did a color halftone of the color plate, which I overlayed at 30% opacity.  I also threw a paper texture over top just to complete the old tyme comic book feel.

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint.

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