Sheena - Queen of the Jungle

Sheena - Queen of the Jungle

Hey, it's been a while!  A cross between being super-busy with non-art-related things, and just feeling that minor existential crisis of not knowing what to do next mixed with everything I was working on just felt like it wasn't going anywhere.  So, lots and lots of projects started and abandoned (some of which I will probably pick up again).  Of course, not being able to get anything finished also added to that feeling of just not knowing what to do next.  Ugh...  Heisenberg would be proud that I was simultaneously busy as heck and getting nothing done at the same time!

But, one foot in front of the other, it's time to get back in that saddle again, sally forth, and all that other B.S.

This time it is a commission of sorts for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

One of the mildly amusing things about this drawing is that while I didn't have a photo reference, by the end it looked a heck of a lot like one of the regular models we used at the Figure Drawing Sessions I used to run before COVID (alas, she moved to another state and we are still waiting to see when/if we will have Figure Drawing again).

* * *

Done with Colored Pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.

Day 18: Plan 9 From Outer Space - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 18: Plan 9 From Outer Space

How many of these darn things am I gonna do for the abysmally cheesy "Plan 9 From Outer Space"?  Well, three of the from the looks of it!  In this case, Eros (played by the unfortunately named Dudley Manlove), the, um, "Mastermind" behind the infamous ninth plan in the "How to Conquer Earth" instruction book.  Or, something like that.

Anyway, I happened to pause when Eros had a peculiar look on his face and thought I should draw that.

In this case, it is done with black and white colored pencil on toned cardstock.

* * *

* * *

Done with colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.

Day 14: The Thing - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 14: The Thing

Hey, it's two weeks in and I'm still going one with this mad thing!  Although, I am still flying by the seat of my pants... YIKES!

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is probably my favorite horror movies.  It has just about everything I find terrifying: Body horror and horrific transmutation; body replacement and doppelgangers; loss of self and identity through absorption into an alien monstrosity.

Based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s short story, “Who Goes There?”, "The Thing" features an alien creature which absorbs and disguises itself as its victims.  It's filled with a slow-burning tension (ironic, 'cuz it's set in the Antarctic) that continues to build.

This is the scene in which Bennings was exposed as a Thing--the transformation was 95% done, except for the hands.  It drops to its knees, lets out an alien scream, and it set on fire.  

Spoilers on a nearly 40 year-old movie: MacReady and Childs survive at the end, but for how long as they don't trust each other and it is getting colder.  The ending is a little elliptical: is one of them a Thing, waiting to go back into hibernation?  If so, which one?  I prefer to think of both of them as human and just too untrusting, where they freeze to death.  Something about the nature of humanity would make that seem to most logical ending, IMHO.

As for the picture: It was done with colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.  The paper was coated with casein fixative, to keep it from warping too much, as I originally intended to do some gouache over top the colored pencils.  But, instead I used some Gamsol (oil painting solvent) to brush around and smooth out the colored pencil, and just finish it with colored pencils, instead.  Done and done!

Here's the work in progress...

* * *

* * *

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

.

Day 06: The Invisible Man - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 06: The Invisible Man

Hey, it's Day 06 of my increasingly bad idea of doing a monster drawing a day for the month of October.  Ugh!  What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks was I thinking?

Anyway, I joked I would be posting drawing of blank panels by the end of the week and calling them "The Invisible Man".  While I may, yet, here's a legit drawing/painting of The Invisible Man.  BTW, the whole time I was drawing this, I was thinking about Rebis/The Negative Man (Woman) from Grant Morrison's run of "Doom Patrol" (one of my favorite comic book runs), of which he/she/hir was an obvious nod to The Invisible Man.

This drawing was done with Indigo Blue colored pencil and gouache (an opaque watercolor) on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

Here are two progressive pics.

* * *

* * *

Done with colored pencil and gouache/watercolor on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.

Day 04: Dracula (Bela Lugosi) - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 04: Dracula (Bela Lugosi)

This time, it's Bela Lugosi's Dracula, done with colored pencil and white chalk on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.  I used some Gamsol (oil paint solvent/thinner) and a paint brush to smear the colored pencil around and smooth out of most of the paper-grain effect of the colored pencil.

Below is the progression of the drawing.  The first drawing is really, REALLY off model for Bela Lugosi--the nose is too short, the mouth is too high on the face, the lower part of the head is too short and also too narrow on the left side... it's just a mess.  It changed rather drastically as it progressed.  But, I left it in as an example of how much of a difference just a half-inch can make... and to show how much a picture can change from the beginning to the end.  And, ugh, it was a LOT of work to fix!  Well, fix as much as I was able, anyways.  It's not a complete likeness, but it's closer than it was, I guess.

* * *

* * *

Done with colored pencil and white charcoal pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.

Mini-Drawing: Seven of Nine

Seven of Nine

By request of a friend from work, here's a drawing of Seven of Nine from "Star Trek: Voyager".  I always liked the character.  I even remember reading Star Trek novel writer, Peter David, in his "But, I Digress" column in the late "Comics Buyers' Guide", had suggested a female Borg long before Seven of Nine appeared (and the Borg Queen from the Movie, too).  At the time, the Producers just said all Borg were male and left it at that.  Hmmm...  

Anyhoo, I liked the character and have been doing some drawing in colored pencil lately, so figured "Sure, I'll do it... and post it on my Blog for good measure."  It's a two-fer!

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here's the start of the drawing sketched out with a black colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

* * *

STEP TWO:  Hmmm, I thought I had scanned in the drawing sometime during the mid-point, but I thought wrong!  Here's the finished drawing.  It was done with a series of black, white, and gray colored pencils.  The toned cardstock gives a nice, neutral value which can either be brightened or darkened, with the added bonus that it really makes the lighter areas pop out.

* * *

Done with colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.