Day 04: Frankenstein (1931) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2024

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2024:
Frankenstein (1931)

It's Franken-Friday!  I've vaguely decided to do some sort of Frankenstein-based post on each Friday in October.  Also, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the great joke from Joseph Scrimshaw.  In this case, rather than just steal his joke, I found the Tweet directly from him:

Onward!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils done with colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" extra-heavy toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first pass with Acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting.

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Done with Acrylic on 8-1/2" x 11" extra-heavy toned cardstock.

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Day 03: The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023:
The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)

Hey, hey!  It's day three and so far... well, I'm not nearly as far as I hoped I'd be.  But, here we are nonetheless.  This time it's from "The Curse of Frankenstein", the 1957 Hammer Film with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.  Hammer films were a staple of weekend movies on TV and watched them every chance I could.  Well, mostly they were pretty boring, so I'd thumb through comics, or play with various toys until the monster was on the screen.

Most of the story is just gothic storytelling, and the Monster only shows up a few times, but I do remember the ending as standing out from the rest of the story, with (SPOILERS) Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) being lead off to the guillotine.

The horror and gore for the movie were considered pretty over-the-top and intense back when it was released.  Looking at it today it barely warrants a shrug.  Funny how things change.

This was done with Acrylic Paint and a limited palette of: Paynes Gray, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, and Cadmium Red Deep.

On to the next one!

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STEP ONE:  Here is a quick outline done in Paynes Gray to suggest the general outline to figure out where everything was going to go on the page.  I painted it on an 8-1/2" x 11" extra thick cardstock which was primed with a 50/50 mix of gesso and matte medium.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the first pass with Paynes Gray, Burnt Umber, and Titanium White to model the form as well as the lights and darks for the painting.

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STEP THREE:  It's the finished painting, done with lots and lots of layering and back-and-forth.

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Done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" gessoed cardstock.

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Day 03: Frankenstein (1931) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2022

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2022
Frankenstein (1931)

Hey, it wouldn't be HELL-O-Ween without a Frankenstein post, would it?

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the great joke from Joseph Scrimshaw.  In this case, rather than just steal his joke, I found the Tweet directly from him:

And here are a couple process picks from the Acrylic Painting.  Onward to the next one!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils on an 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first (and probably part of a second) pass with acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting.

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Done with Acrylic Paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Frankenberry

Frankenberry

This was a commission of sorts.  It's a long, convoluted story, involving the purchase of the "King Shark" painting, that leading to a commission, which in turn lead to this commission (of sorts).  As the "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" just concluded, I thought it would be amusing to paint a picture of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein hot pink and label him Franenberry, and then added the usual accoutrements of the various pressure gauges and Steam Punk-ish goggles.  Ta-da!

I've been meaning to do some more work with Frankenberry and update the Monster Cereal drawings I did a while ago.  Heck, I even thought about doing a 5-10 page comic of a "Monster Squad" style mash-up with the Monster Cereal characters... and may still in the near future.  Keep coming back to find out!

As for the actual commission which started this whole thing off, I'm not sure if I'll be posting it next week, or in March, during March M.O.D.O.K. Madness, since it involves M.O.D.O.K.  Maybe both!  Again, keep coming back and watch this space!  (Quiet, Admiral Ackbar, it's NOT a trap!)

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils, scribbled out on 6" x 9" Canson (#140) watercolor paper.

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STEP TWO:  This is the first pass with acrylic paint.  I decided to keep it as monochromatic as possible by using only Quinacridone Magenta and Titanium White.  One problem was that Quinacridone Magenta is semi-opaque at best, and I had been a little heavy-handed with my pencils--using a regular, 2B lead.  If I had been thinking ahead, I probably should have used either a red lead or some other reddish colored pencil/watercolor pencil I had laying around.  It took a lot more work to cover some of those pencil lines.  Then again, a few of them sort of add to the drawing, so who knows?

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting.  I avoided adding Carbon Black into the painting, as I sort of liked the effect of it looking like a Magenta plate from a printing press.  It does make it a bit more challenging to have the darkest value in the painting be about a 70% black in value, but it also made it stand out a bit more for adjusting the gamut of values of the painting.

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This was done with acrylic paint on 6" x 9" Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.

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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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Dave Prowse - The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

 Dave Prowse - In Memoriam
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

In memory of the recently deceased, Dave Prowse, rather than go with the obvious, Darth Vader, I thought I'd go with "The Horror of Frankenstein" (1970).  Y'know, zig when I was supposed to zag.  It was a classic Hammer film (most Hammer films I watched involved Dracula, but they spread their, um, "wings" from time-to-time to include Frankenstein and his Monster as well).

I first watched this when I was a kid, so I didn't catch most of the semi-comedic hijinks until much later in life.  All I knew was it seemed scary and had monsters in it, so I was all in.  Yeah, I was pretty dumb and easily amused as a child... and as an adult, too, now that I think about it.

Besides, if I know me as well as I think I do, I'm sure I'll be doing plenty more Darth Vader drawings/paintings in the near future. 😀

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STEP ONE:  In Painter 2020 on my Windows 10 machine, I created a 3,000px x 4,000px canvas and sketched out the initial drawing using one of the digital pencil brushes.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the three-quarter point, done with a series of chalk brushes in Painter 2020.  I noticed the left eye was a little low in the painting and corrected that, and shrunk down the ear a smidge.

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STEP THREE:  For the last little bit and touch ups, I imported it into Art Studio Pro on the iPad.  It has a few extra brushes that I am familiar with using, rather than trying to remember where they are in Painter.  Also added some final highlights and shadows.  All pics were then exported at 1,000px x 1,333px and posted here.

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Done digitally in Painter 2020 with Windows 10 and finished in Art Studio Pro on the iPad.

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Day 03: Frankenstein - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 03: Frankenstein

This time, it's Frankenstein.  And, yes, Frankenstein is the scientist; the monster is the pedant who points that out.  (An old joke I couldn't resist. ;-)

And here's the progression of the drawing, from the beginning to the finished image.  There weren't any pencils--I just started drawing with a ballpoint pen/gel pen, then used white gouache (Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White) for the highlights.  I'm no Jung Gi Kim, but I get by.  

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Done with ballpoint pen/gel pen and white gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Inktober! Halloween Round-Up

Inktober!

Well, I suppose it makes more sense to show whatever was done with the Halloween-based, Pen-and-Ink drawings for Inktober without the colorized layers on top.  So, here they all are in their inky, black-and-white gory... er, glory.

Happy Halloween!

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All were done with pen-and-ink with a No. 8 brush on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.--although, the Mummy also used Copic .5mm marker, as well.

I almost forgot how much fun it is to work in straight up pen-and-ink.  I'm definitely gonna have to do this some more.  :-)

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Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

A staple of October Halloween movie marathons, the 1931 classic "Frankenstein".  While the movie is good in its own way, it in no way matches up with the great novel by Mary Shelley.  It did take me a long time to finally get around to novel, but I was really surprised how completely different the Monster was from his depiction in the movie.  In the movie, he was slow and shuffling, a near mute.  In the book, he had super-human speed and grace and spoke several languages; in spite of all that, he was still rejected by society for his appearance.  I am usually not a fan of epistolary novels (stories told in a series of letters), but this is one with which to make an exception.

And, yes, Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, NOT the Monster. :-P

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STEP ONE:  Here are the rough pencils on a 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock.  Many times, I do prefer the pencils to the finished picture... This is probably one of those times, too.  It probably has to do with the pencil line being somewhat sketchy, so your brain picks the best potential lines to emphasize.  Once it's inked, the line is essentially "locked down" and what you have is what you got.

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STEP TWO:  I inked the pencils with a a #8 brush and Pro-Art 4100 India Ink. 

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STEP THREE:  I scanned it into Photoshop and did a monochrome coloration with three values of green over a MULTIPLY Layer.

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Done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colorized in Photoshop.

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