Day 31: The Incredible Melting Man (1977) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

Well, I made it--and with plenty of time to spare!  And as is the tradition, it's myself represented at the beginning and end of each year--and this year I feel like this picture of "The Incredible Melting Man" (1977) looks.  Which is pretty much how I feel at the end of every "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween," alongside a mild sense of accomplishment of actually having finished it.  So, there's that.

I've probably mentioned it before, when I was a kid, I found a huge stack of "Monsters of Film Land" and "Starlog" magazines at a rummage sale.  One of them had "The Incredible Melting Man" on the cover and I must have pored over that cover so many times.  It was a gross-out cover and it definitely captured my attention.  As for the movie itself, it was pretty slow-moving (like The Incredible Melting Man!) and the story did sort of fall apart (like The Incredible Melting Man!), but it was good, clean fun (like The Incredible Melting Man!  Oh, wait... that's the opposite of The Incredible Melting Man...)

This was a bit of a strange year for my dumb "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" challenge, in that I was sort of bored just painting various horror movie monsters (and assumed everyone else was bored of seeing them) and decided to mix stuff up a little bit--in some cases literally, what with all the Mash-Ups and all.  Sure, there were still a few referenced drawings here and there (particularly the Addams Family and the Horror Host series), so it wasn't a complete deviation from my normal challenge.

Last year was almost all traditional acrylic paintings on cardstock.  This year was a bit heavier on the digital side of the ledger.  Granted, the first dozen mash-ups of "The Horrors of Sesame Street" and "The Breakfast Club" were 12" x 16" on chipboard, so those really kicked my butt as far as the amount of time involved.

Maybe I'll try something different yet again next year for HELL-O-Ween.  As always, we shall see...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick, digital pencils in Rebelle 8 on a 2,000px x 3,000px @300dpi digital canvas with the digital Pencil Brush.

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STEP TWO:  And here is the first pass with Rebelle's Filbert Quick Oil Brush.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with a variety of brushes, blending, and whatnot.  Also, lots of specular highlights with all the gooey stuff happening.

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Done in Rebelle 8.

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Unwanted Valentines: The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

 Unwanted Valentines:
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

Hey, it's that time of year when I post a couple-a-few Valentines so nerdy and/or grotesque (or perhaps GORE-tesque in this case) that no one would be all that pleased to receive them.

Yes, I did a painting of "The Incredible Melting Man" in the 30 Days of HELL-O-Ween but, ironically, I had the idea for this Unwanted Valentine last year before I even did the 30 Days of HELL-O-Ween.  I mentioned in that post I owned a copy of "Famous Monsters" featuring "The Incredible Melting Man", the cover image of which transfixed me as a kid.  So, here it is again!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the scribbled digital pencils.  I've recently decided to work with larger canvases, so this was done as a 5,000px x 7,100px @ 300dpi.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks as well as the lettering.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the various color layers, under the inking layer.  I subdued the reds a little bit, going with more rust colors, so it didn't visually blend into the lettering too much.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Day 10: The Incredible Melting Man (1977) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

When I was young, I got a box of science fiction/monster magazines which we bought at a rummage sale.  One of them was "Famous Monsters" with a cover story about "The Incredible Melting Man", which fascinated me for some reason--there were all kinds of other magazines such as "Starlog", "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" (which had delightful spot drawings from Gahan Wilson), Warren Publishing "Eerie" and "Creepy" Magazines, all of which I pored over.  Yikes, it's like a part of my childhood development laid out before everyone.

(Hey it's a copy of the "Famous Monsters" I had as a kid!  Which I also mostly used as a reference for the painting--Obviously, I hope.)

Anyhoo, all that boils down to I've been meaning to do something with "The Incredible Melting Man" for a while now, and here it is!  As for the movie, I finally got to watch it much later: it's a typical B-Movie with marginally OK special effects (covered up by them shooting Night-for-Night on film).  "Mystery Science Theater 3000" also did a great send up of the movie; I recommend it far more than the actual movie itself.  (I'm a huge fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and, sadly, I've seen most of the "MST3K" movies without Joel/Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo in the bottom right-hand corner.)

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

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STEP TWO:  And here is roughly the halfway point with watercolor/gouache.

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STEP THREE:  And here is the finished painting.  I realized a little too late that the eye in the reference was probably a mistake, meant to be covered for the actual movie?  But, I think it also works, somewhat.  So, I left it in.

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

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