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.

* * *

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.  

* * *

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.

* * *

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!"

* * *

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...

* * *

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.

* * *

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!

* * *

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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Happy (belated) Superman Day!

Superman Day - 2026

I don't know why I don't realize these things until they are too late, but last week on April 18, 2026, it was Superman Day.  With Superman being my moral North Star since I was but a child (some would argue I have yet to grow up and I can't say they are entirely wrong), I thought I'd do up a painting of Christopher Reeve as Superman, why not?

After my mentioning I think I've been a little too heavy on digital painting of late in my last post, I figured I had to do up something with traditional painting--in this case it is another Acrylic painting.  Although, I wish I had a better scanner, as the colors are a bit more harsh than they are on the original.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils done with a blue pencil on an 11" x 14" piece of copy paper.

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STEP TWO: I was going to bust out the light box and trace it onto some watercolor paper and thought "Hey, why don't I just scan it in and print it out on some extra-heavy cardstock?"  Also, it was a bit larger that I was intending and shrunk it down to 8" x 10".  I converted the Blue Line to Black, darkened the lines, and printed it out to paint with Acrylic Paint.

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STEP THREE: And here's the first pass with Acrylic paint.  Mostly, just to lay out the basic shapes and colors and give the next layers something to stick to, as Acrylic seems to adhere better when going over top a previous Acrylic layer.

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STEP FOUR: And here's the final painting.  Alas, the finished painting is much more subtle in color and blending than the scanned image shows.  Ah, well...  I guess it's OK.

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Done traditionally with Acrylic Paint on 8" x 10" extra-heavy cardstock.

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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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Day 13: The Breakfast Club: Carmella Creeper - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Breakfast Club: Carmella Creeper

Whew, got it done just in time and an hour-and-a-half to spare (well, about one hour by the time you factor in the scanning, clean-up, and whatnot).  Although, I did think it would be fun to set it to post at 11:59:59pm just to add a bit of suspense.

In my dotage, I do have to admit that Carmella Creeper somehow slipped past my Monster Cereal radar.  Well, that and my attempts to avoid sugary cereals, so I don't pay as much attention to that part of the food aisle as I did a years ago--aside from a brief notice that it is that time of year when the Monster Cereals are back out again (which I find reassuring, for some nostalgic reason). 

Anyhoo, here is "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) as Carmella Creeper.  Although, she seems to look a lot like the goth lady on NCIS, Abby Sciuto (played by Pauley Perrette... Yes, I had to Google it 'cuz I didn't know the answer to either of those questions).

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils I did digitally in Clip Studio Paint on an 12" x 16" canvas @ 300dpi. 

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STEP TWO:  I transferred the drawing onto a 12" x 16" gessoed chipboard using Carbon Paper/Transfer Paper, which I then painted.

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Done with Acrylic on 12" x 16" Gessoed Chipboard.

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Day 12: The Breakfast Club: Frute Brute - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Breakfast Club: Frute Brute

Still done in plenty of time, it's Frute Brute done as the Universal Wolfman.

There's still one more Monster Cereal mascot to go for tomorrow, and after that... well, I'm still trying to figure that out.  We shall see!

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils I did digitally in Clip Studio Paint on an 11" x 14" canvas @ 300dpi.  I printed it out on 11" x 14" paper.

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STEP TWO:  I transferred the drawing onto a 12" x 16" gessoed chipboard using Carbon Paper/Transfer Paper, which I then painted.

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Done with Acrylic on 12" x 16" Gessoed Chipboard.

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Day 11: The Breakfast Club: Yummy Mummy - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Breakfast Club: Yummy Mummy

It's Yummy Mummy, based on the original "The Mummy" (1932) with Boris Karloff (y'know, Frankenstein's Monster).  The colors were just getting too muddy when I tried to do a more realistic shading and I wanted those colors to pop, so I went with a completely different painting scheme.  Almost a sort of color solarized effect.  It... it definitely stands out.  I'm unsure if it was successful, but here it is nonetheless.

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils I did digitally in Clip Studio Paint on an 11" x 14" canvas @ 300dpi.  I printed it out on 11" x 14" paper.

* * *

STEP TWO:  I transferred the drawing onto a 12" x 16" gessoed chipboard using Carbon Paper/Transfer Paper, which I then painted.

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Done with Acrylic on 12" x 16" Gessoed Chipboard.

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Day 10: The Breakfast Club: Boo-Berry - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2025:
The Breakfast Club: Boo-Berry

It's Boo-Berry, this time as the "Phantom of the Opera" (1925).  I'll be honest, I wanted to do "The Invisible Man" (1933), but with both "The Invisible Man" and "The Mummy" coming up for Yummy-Mummy seemed a little too close together.  Also, Phantom and Ghost seemed like enough of a connection to hang Boo-Berry's pork-pie hat upon.  And bow-tie.

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils I did digitally in Clip Studio Paint on an 11" x 14" canvas @ 300dpi.  I printed it out on 11" x 14" paper.

* * *

STEP TWO:  I transferred the drawing onto a 12" x 16" gessoed chipboard using Carbon Paper/Transfer Paper, which I then painted.

* * *

Done with Acrylic on 12" x 16" Gessoed Chipboard.

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