Dune (1984) - Shai-Hulud / Sandworm

Dune (1984)
Shai-Hulud / Sandworm

The Spice muse flow!  There was something terrifying about the Sandworms in the book.  Sure, those tri-lobed annelids were pretty gnarly-looking in the movie, too, but in the book, they have a sense of dread--just waiting below the surface, like Jaws, waiting to strike if anyone moved in a rhythmic fashion while walking across the desert.

And, SPOILERS, they are the source for the Spice Melange, used by the Spacing Guild to navigate hyperspace, and by Paul Atreides to be given prescience as to the future of the Golden Path.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gessoed hard board which I tinted blue for no real reason, aside from it would be a complimentary color to the brown paint I was planning on using.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.  

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting, with lots and lots of back-and-forth with painting, repainting, and re-repainting, and even painting some more.  I swear I may as well have re-painted it from the beginning for all the back-and-forth I did.

I sort of like the first pass better in many ways--the dust/spice clouds seem a bit better.  Sure, that's probably 'cuz they are looser, less formed and finished so my brain is busy choosing which shapes it likes better, etc.  When I tried to add the dust/spice cloud down the length of the Sandworm, but it looks weird (not nearly as good as it did the first pass), so I painted over that so it was back to the sky.  Also, I added in the tiny, needle-like teeth.

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

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Dune (1984) - The Spacing Guild Navigator

Dune (1984)
The Spacing Guild Navigator

One of my favorite, most interesting classes of characters from Lynch's "Dune" (1984) are the Spacing Guild Navigators (they were mysteriously cool in the book, too).  To me, the Navigators will always look like a fetal slug crossed with a testicular, morel mushroom.  So transformed by their exposure to the Spice Melange, they are no longer human and are the only beings which have the precognition needed to perform the mathematical functions to travel through hyperspace--giving them the monopoly on hyperspace travel (and, SPOILERS, becomes a pinch point in their need for need for Spice to maintain the folded space ways.  The Spice must flow, after all).

When I watched this as an early teen, seeing their monstrous figure wheeled into the throne room in an Art Deco style train canister, I was transfixed.  Even when I later read the book (one of my favorites), I could only see the Spacing Guild Navigators in my mind's eye as those in the David Lynch movies.

All others attempts I've seen on screen seem weird and wrong (says the guy looking at the weirdest, wrongest interpretation there could be of them... yet, it works, IMHO).  Then again, David Lynch's body horror and grotesquerie is done in just the right amount in "Dune" (1984); Like any Spice, to torture the metaphor, too little is bland, too much is overwhelming, and Lynch adds just the right amount.

I will admit that this painting got away from me a little bit.  I tried to get close enough to show details, but I think it may have been too close so you couldn't properly see the tank/train that was holding it.  So, it just looks like the Navigator is floating in an orange room of some sort.  And every time I tried to add a highlight for the glass, it just looked... off.  Ah, well, they can't all come out looking like you envision them in your head; or even some of them, for that matter.  I'll have to work on that.  Sigh...

One more painting, and then one bit of my usual shenanigans, and I will put this "Dune" series to rest for a while.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.  

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting, with lots and lots of back-and-forth with painting, repainting, and re-repainting, and even painting some more.  As usual, there is a point where you wonder if you will ever be able to fix the mess in front of you and, sometimes, you can.  Not saying this was one of those times, but it was sorely improved from where it was many times in the painting process.

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

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Dune (1984) - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Dune (1984)
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

It's another "Dune" (1984) painting, this time the Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit.

The Bene Gesserit were carrying out a genetic breeding program for thousands of generations in hopes or creating the Kwisatz Haderach--a sort of Messiah figure of sorts.  However, that was all cut short by the birth of Paul Atreides, one generation early and a male, born to the Bene Gesserit, Lady Jessica... It's a long, complicated story.  I read the book, Dune, long ago and always loved all the wheels within wheels political intrigue among the various factions.

Side Note: It is shockingly difficult to paint/draw someone without eyebrows without it looking very, very weird, lemme tell you.

I think I'll be doing three more "Dune" (1984) posts before moving on to something else equally nerdy that will surely catch my attention.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.  You may hear artists (of which I guess I can meagerly call myself) refer to the ugly middle part of a painting, and this is it.  Nothing looks good at this point, just getting paint on the canvas... or hardboard, in this case.

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting, with lots and lots of back-and-forth with painting, repainting, and re-repainting.

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

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Dune (1984) - Gurney Halleck

Dune (1984)
Gurney Halleck

It's yet another "Dune" (1984) painting.  "Dune June" marches onward (although, as busy as I've been of late, it will conclude in "Dune July"), with a couple more I have planned to finish the series.

Anyhoo, this time it's an opportunity to paint Patrick Stewart as the War Master for House Atreides, Gurney Halleck; Before he was Jean-Luc Picard, he was Gurney Halleck.  There is such a melange (pun slightly intended) of well-known actors that turn up in Lynch's "Dune", it is always a case of "Oh, yeah, so-and-so is in here, too!"

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting, with lots and lots of back-and-forth with painting, repainting, and re-repainting.

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

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Dune (1984) - Feyd Rautha

Dune (1984)
Feyd Rautha

Hey, hey, everybody, it's another "Dune" (1984) painting.  I guess it is "Dune June" after all.  But, there was no way I couldn't include Sting as Feyd Rautha.  Perhaps David Lynch and Sting were channeling their inner Zardoz, but those black leather bikini briefs (ribbed for his/her/their pleasure?) definitely make a statement.  What kind of statement, I don't think I wanna know...

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE: And here's the finished painting.  As always, lots and lots of back-and-forth with painting, repainting, and re-repainting.

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

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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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Dune (1984) - Paul Atreides

Dune (1984)
Paul Atreides

I admit I was surprised to see a Dune 3 trailer already, figuring it would be another couple a few years before it was going to come out.  But, anyhoo, as great as Denis Villeneuve's version is, my "Dune" has all manner of David Lynchian weirdness: Jean Luc Picard/Professor X as Gurney Halleck; men with eyebrows bigger than ZZ Top's beards; Sting running around in a black thong; Spacer Guild members are giant fetuses in steam-powered locomotives; and more festering pustules than you can shake a stick at.  There is something about the David Lynch version that I find compelling for all its strangeness.  Well, that and I saw it when I was a teenager--the prime time to imprint on media.

So, for not much reason, I figured I'd do a run of "Dune" paintings.  I also feel as if I had been doing a bit too much digital work of late and feel like I need to do some work in the actual painting and whatnot.

Of course, I should have done some sort of rhyme or pun with "Dune" and "June", I suppose.  Ah, well.  Perhaps, by the time I'm done with the half-dozen or so paintings I'm vaguely planning for this run, it will be June or close enough to it.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE: And, after a lot of back-and-forth and corrections, here's the finished painting.  Now that it's scanned in, I'll toss a coat of varnish on and call it done!  

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

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Unwanted Valentines: Dune (1984)

Unwanted Valentines:
Dune (1984)

Hey, hey, time for one more "Unwanted Valentine", a Valentine so nerdy and built upon jokes so corny it will surely result in many a break-up and divorce if you were to give it to a loved one.  This time, it's based on David Lynch's "Dune" from 1984.  I was tempted to go for the slightly obvious, more ribald reference to "You can ride my Worm anytime", but decided to reference "The Spice must flow", instead.

Even though Lynch disliked the end result, I always thought his adaptation was fun and visually brilliant (the monstrous-looking Spacer Guild is amazingly grotesque and my canon view of the Spacers).  The latest "Dune" by Denis Villeneuve is also visually brilliant, but is something more clinical and missing some of the true grotesquery of Lynch (well, so far.  We'll see what Part 2 brings).  The first novel, "Dune", is among of my Sci-Fi favorites, and the ideas of the follow-up Frank Herbert series have a lot of great ideas.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital blue pencils, done on a 2,000px x 2,800 @ 300dpi canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks, done mostly with an 8pt and a 12pt brush.

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STEP THREE:  The colors were done on the layer below.

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint

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