Day 14: Carrie (1976) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Carrie

They're all gonna laugh at me!

It's been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall the movie, "Carrie", stuck closely to the book--and was probably the better for it.  There is something cathartic about a straight-up revenge story, and "Carrie" has it in spades.  And the goggle-eyed look on her face as she telekinetically begins extracting that revenge on the entire school is probably the scariest part of the movie.

Both the book and movie are sort of bookended by blood: a little spot of blood in the beginning, and lots and LOTS of blood at the end.  Buckets of blood, one could say, literally and metaphorically.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.  Truth be told, this is probably my least favorite position of the head to draw--if you don't get it just right, the person looks like the have a pig nose; and even if you do get it just right, it still looks like they have a pig nose.  However, in this case, it is looking up at Carrie that is such an iconic pose that I couldn't not do it (if you'll forgive the double-negative).

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first layer of acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE:  And, after much more noodling, we'll call it dunnzo!  Onward!

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

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Day 11: The Mist (2007) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
The Mist

Hey, what's more appropriate to follow "The Fog" than Stephen King's "The Mist" (2007)?  For some reason, people sometimes confuse the two movies.  What other weather phenomena should I do next?  Perhaps, next, I should do "The Haze"?  Or maybe "The Light Rain"?

I always liked the Lovecraftian horrors in both the short story and movie (yeah, I also apparently like the adjective "Lovecraftian", which I seem to be including in a majority of HELL-o-Ween posts this year).  And, of all the monsters that dwelled in the Mist (again, in both short story and movie), the one that captured my imagination was the Behemoth.

I do agree with King, that this is one of the few times when the movie version does have a better--if more darkly ironic--ending than the work they are adapting.

* * *

STEP ONE:  Digital pencils scribbled in Clip Studio Paint on a 2,100px x 1,500px @300dpi gray-toned canvas.  Part of me wanted to just do it up as a loose, scribbled, digital pencil drawing, but that seemed a little anathema to the Mist effects I wanted to use.

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STEP TWO:  This is about the 2/3's point in the digital painting, with the Behemoth mostly finished.

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STEP THREE:  And here is the final image.  I used a few layers involving the digital airbrush on a Normal Layer, an Add Glow layer, and a Darken layer.  Time to call it good enough and move on to the next entry!

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This was done with digitally with Clip Studio Paint

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Day 27: Creepshow (1984) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020
Creepshow (1984)

I always liked reading "Tales from the Crypt" and other horror comics growing up--well, the few that I could find, anyways.  "Creepshow" is a loving pastiche to those comic books directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King (a fan of his writing, too).  So, quite the horror pedigree.

It sounds like I am damning with faint praise (and, perhaps I am), but IMHO "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" is probably Stephen King's best job acting.  Sure, it's overly broad overacting with a stereotypical, backwoods, cross-eyed cornpone, but I found it actually funny--the day dream sequences with his visits to the local college's "Department of Meteors" make me laugh.  If you ask me (and why would you?), it's the best of the short stories in the anthology.  The other stories are good, but the story of Jordy's sad, lonesome death is both funny and oddly touching.

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STEP ONE:  The pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock with a black colored pencil.

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STEP TWO:  And this is about the halfway point with gouache/watercolor.  As usual, just trying to get a feel for the forms and lay some color down.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the end result.  It's always tricky trying to get a likeness.  A fraction of an inch/a few millimeters here or there can make all the difference.  I think you can tell who it's supposed to be, but as to whether it truly looks like Stephen King, well...  It's tolerable, I guess.  On to the next one!

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Done with Watercolor/Gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Dark Tower - There Are Other Worlds Than These.

The Dark Tower:

"There Are Other Worlds Than These."

This was a commission of sorts.  A friend of mine is a HUGE "The Dark Tower" fan and wanted me to do a painting of the Tower.  I've read "The Dark Tower" and was a fan of the series.

Being a sucker for alternate universe stories, I happened to mention the line "There are other worlds than these", one of the lines from "The Gunslinger" which always stuck with me (and, in the context of the story, was a bit of a cheat, IMHO).  That turned out to be her favorite line in the whole series--so that nailed down the theme right away.

I went with a more graphical image for "The Dark Tower", rather than something more literal; she was super-please with it, while I'm slightly more ambivalent.  I'm not sure if I will do more with this or not.  I am half-tempted to go go further with it and do it up as a giant, digital print.  Then  again, maybe in an other world.

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STEP ONE:  The pencils were done digitally in Clip Studio Paint EX using the Symmetry Tool.  I found a reference to groups of roses and drew it freehand from there.  And, I admit to cheating a little bit by typing out the lettering in non-photo blue and then inking over it.  (Yeah, I still **HATE** lettering... :-)

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STEP TWO:  I printed out the digital drawing in non-photo blue.  I used painter's tape to keep the sharp edge for the banner across the upper-half of the drawing; it did a remarkable job of keeping a sharp edge when I inked/watercolored over top of it.

I did a layer of Cadmium Red for the roses, and a mixture of light-red near to the tower.  I then used a mixture of the Cadmium Red, Ultramarine, and Burnt Umber to paint the lines for the roses, thinning it out with water to make it lighter.  I painted the watercolor/gouache over the Dark Tower inks.  And, decided to leave Roland in white silhouette, with a slight nod to the doorways in "The Drawing of the Three".

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Done with digital pencils and ink with watercolor/gouache on 8" x 10" Arches Hot-Press paper.

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Separated at Birth: Pennywise and Killer Klowns

Separated at Birth

Hey, it's another joke that is rather obvious, and of course that means I cannot allow it to pass by without a comment!  (Thanks, Captain Obvious!)

Both Pennywise and the Killer Klowns from Outer Space:

- Came from Outer Space/Alternate Dimensions

- Have clown-like appearance

- Murderous... Very murderous

- Generous use of balloons for terror

- Crazy hair

- Bad teeth

- Divergent strabismus (exotropia)

* * *

STEP ONE/TWO:  In this case, I did do some step-by-steps for the Killer Klown digital painting ("Slim", in this case).  First, I did some quickly scribbled digital pencils (5 pt. hard brush).  Followed by the color roughs on a new Layer just below the pencils which were done with a 50pt. chalk brush.

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STEP THREE/FOUR:  I merged the digital pencil layer down on top of the color layer and began to build up and tighten the colors--pushing the shadows and bumping up the highlights.  The head was pretty much done, leaving the collar and shirt to finish.

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STEP FIVE:  I also decided to update the Pennywise a little bit, moved the nose down, re-colored the hair, and made minor, um, cosmetic changes.  I made the lighting slightly more dramatic so it would better match the Killer Klown digital painting.

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Done digitally with Photoshop.

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Pennywise / Poundfoolish

Pennywise / Poundfoolish

OK, I admit it: this is a joke so obvious that I've had it kicking around in my head since the very first time I heard of "Pennywise the Clown" in the pages of Stephen King's "It".  And, what better time to actually getting around to doing it?

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STEP ONE:  Here's the quickly scribbled digital pencils, done in Photoshop with a 5pt. hard brush.

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STEP TWO:  I used so many different layers to paint over top of the digital pencils, that I forgot to save intermediate steps.  Well, that I'm a little slow, sometimes.  So, here it is all finished.  Ta-da... 

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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Unwanted Valentines: Blaine the Mono

Unwanted Valentines:

Blaine the Mono

This Unwanted Valentine is a mash-up of Stephen King and "The Simpsons".  Blaine the Mono is the (dare I say it?) crazy train from King's "Dark Tower" series--a twisted, self-aware monorail that loves riddles and is on a suicide run hoping to take Roland and his Ka-Tet with him.  

From "The Simpsons", it's the awesome card Ralph Wiggum gets from Lisa Simpson for Valentine's Day after she takes pity on him.  Ralph takes the card as an invitation to be Lisa's boyfriend.  A very sweet episode, all around.  And it contains one of my Top 20 favorite lines from "The Simpsons": 

RALPH: "The doctors said I wouldn't have so many nose bleeds if I kept my finger outta there."

Here is a screen capture of the famous card that Lisa Simpson gave to Ralph Wiggum.

Now, of course one cannot have a mash-up of Blaine the Mono and "The Simpsons" without invoking the much beloved song from "Marge vs. The Monorail".  (The song begins about one minute into the video.)

Also, Blaine is a Pain. :-)

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils for Blaine and Mono, done with blue lead on a sheet of card stock.  I also included one of the skull/hearts I was going to insert into the card, as well.  I even accidentally had the foresight to draw only a single rail on the train tracks, just to head off any comments about Blaine being a MONORAIL.  ;-)

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STEP TWO:  I did the inks with a Sharpie bleed-proof pen and scanned it into PhotoShop.

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STEP THREE:  I figured it would be more creepy to do a more realistic skull on the cartoonish train, so I added a layer and did a more painted-looking skull overtop the train's face.

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STEP FOUR:  Here's everything all together.  I colored everything with a MULTIPLY Layer, with some extra highlights on the skull done over top a New Layer.  I also duplicated the skull/hearts and scattered them about to match the "I Choo-Choo-Choose You" card.

* * *

Done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock and colored digitally.

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