Day 22: Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023:
Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

OK, I've done "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) a couple times in the past on this Blog, but it was one of those formative movies of my childhood.  I can't say it was in a good way, necessarily.  As a child, this movie scared the bejeesus outta me.  I watched the movie alone, in the dark, during an overnight show called "T.J. and the A.N.T. (All Night Theater)", which showed various Monster/Sci-Fi B-Movies and old TV Series that were cheap and in syndication (the classic "Andy Griffith Show", "Charlie Chan", and many others). 

The aliens had giant, bulbous heads, bug eyes (with an extra eye on the back of their hands), double mouths, and hypodermic needles coming out of their fingers.  And the squeaking and squealing they did was also terrifying to me as a kid.

Then, when I watched "Invasion of the Saucer Men" as an adult (well, let me put "Adult" in scare quotes), it was terrifying all over again.  Mostly because rather than a scary horror movie of a monstrous invasion, it is actually an attempted comedic parody of space alien movies.  In the end, the aliens are vanquished by a group of car headlights shining on them, which cause them to explode.  Just imagine what the modern car's LED beams at full intensity would do to them!

Anyhoo, this hits me right in the ol' nostalgia and is part of what lead me down the path of wanting to watch so many other B-Movies involving aliens/monsters/and robots.  I made my decision as a child and I guess I stick by it.

This was done with Acrylic Paint and a limited palette of: Paynes Gray andTitanium White.

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STEP ONE:  Here is a quick, color breakdown done to suggest the general layout on the page.  It is painted 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 next pass to put more paint on the cardstock.

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STEP THREE:  It's the finished painting.  Onward to the next one!

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

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Day 10: Invasion of the Saucer Men - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 10: Invasion of the Saucer Men

Hey, it's about one-third of the way through the self-imposed challenge and so far, so OK...  Although, I'm a little behind schedule, so let's see how that pans out.  Argh!

Anyways, as a kid, anything with monsters, aliens, or space ships and I was all in.  "Invasion of the Saucer Men" is one of the quintessential B-Movies that best sums up my dumb childhood (as is "Plan 9 From Outer Space")--and it TERRIFIED me as a kid.  Now, I'm terrified that I ever saw it as scary.  At the end of the movie, the aliens are killed when the blood alcohol of the town drunk is so high, they practically explode in a puff of smoke when car headlights are shined on them...  It's a long, dumb story--Just like my childhood! 

Also, if you do an image search for Invasion of the Saucer Men, I do have to wonder if their ears are intentionally something straight out of YouPorn...  YIKES!  NC-17 for sure.

This was done with ballpoint pen on 9" x 12" marker paper--I didn't bother with pencils, etc.  I sprayed some casein fixative, which turned it into a bit of a blurry mess, but I wanted to use that to then use gouache over top.  Alas, this paper didn't smear the ink nearly as well as the Canson Mixed-Media did for "The Creature of the Black Lagoon" drawing, but I was able to still over-paint with gouache.  

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Done with ballpoint pen and gouache on 9" x 12" Borden & Riley marker paper.

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Inktober 2018 - Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

Inktober 2018:

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

Yes, "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) is schlockey and terrible, but when I saw it as a 6-to7-year old, I found it terrifying.  I was a dumb kid, who watched terrible movies as long as they had aliens, monsters, or robots--as opposed to now, when I'm a dumb adult who watches movies as long as they have aliens, monsters, or robots.  (Just kidding, I don't really get a chance to watch all that many movies/TV shows, these days.)  But, "Invasion of the Saucer Men" made an indelible mark on my childhood, and gives me an inordinate fondness for B-Movie monsters.

I watched it again recently and saw a lot of the movie was played for laughs, but I guess I was too focused on the aliens and must have mentally checked out for the other parts.  Also, the scare factor may have been influenced as I watched them on my own as a kid, late at night, as part of a TV show called "T.J. and the A.N.T. (All Night Theater)" on WLUK-Green Bay in Wisconsin.  It played B-Movies, cartoons, and old syndicated television series throughout Friday nights and into Saturday mornings when cartoons would come on.  Yes, a childhood wasted.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils, done with an ebony pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The inks were done using a #8 and #10 brush, with a little bit done with a 1.0mm ballpoint gel pen.

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STEP THREE:  After it was imported into Photoshop, it was colored over a Multiply layer

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Done with Pen-and-Ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock / Digitally colored.

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B-Movie Re-Make: Invasion of the Saucer Men

B-Movie: Invasion of the Saucer Men

I have an inordinate fondness for old, cheesy B-Movies.  Growing up, I watched almost anything with monsters, robots, space ships, and aliens.  "Invasion of the Saucer Men", "It Conquered the World", "Plan 9 From Outer Space", "Godzilla Vs. Mothra", "Gamera", "I Was a Teen-Age Werewolf", "The Brain that Wouldn't Die" (also known as "The Head That Wouldn't Die"), and so forth.  I watched them all with the wide-eyed wonder and terror that can only be generated from being 6 years old and having a rather over-active imagination.

In fact, as a bit of sad commentary on my life, I have probably seen 80% of the movies from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" with Joel/Mike, Tom Servo, and Crow down in the corner heckling the movie.  (Que the "Sad Trombone" music for a youth mostly wasted...)  That said, I still have a broad, internal smile for giant paper-mache heads, bad special effects, and terrible dialog and stories of these movies of my childhood.

For those who are interested in seeing some of these (cough) "Classics", most of them are Public Domain and can be seen in their entirety on YouTube, or even downloaded at the Internet Archive.

Just for fun, here's the step-by-step...

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STEP ONE:  First, I did a quick charcoal sketch on 11" x 14" Strathmore (#80) toned paper.  The gray paper acts as a mid-tone, with the charcoal for darks and shadows and white chalk for highlights, it is like getting 3 tones for the price of 2 (black and white, plus the gray of the paper).

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STEP TWO AND THREE:  Next, I lay in some rough shading and blend everything into a soft, blurry mess.  Then I began to model the form a bit more and lift out some charcoal with a kneaded eraser. 

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STEP FOUR AND FIVE:  I continue to push shadows and lift out highlights with a kneaded eraser, then use white chalk to better establish a light source.

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STEP SIX:  I imported the picture into Photoshop and did some digital touch up in black-and-white.  I used a Chalk brush in PhotoShop for the background, and to add a little more texture to the drawing. 

Hmmm, maybe I should have just left the drawing in black-and-white, since the movies themselves were in black-and-white.  :-)

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STEP SEVEN:  Once in PhotoShop, I added a MULTIPLY Layer and colorized the drawing.  I realized a little too late that I should have included  their creepy hands into the drawing/portrait.  The back of their hands had an eyeball on it and they had retractable, hypodermic needles for fingernails.  To a 6-year-old John Douglas, these aliens were terrifying!  :-)

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Done with charcoal, carbon pencil, and white chalk on 11" x 14" Strathmore (#80) toned paper and colored in PhotoShop.

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