Day 18: Young Frankenstein (1974) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2024

  31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2024:
Young Frankenstein (1974)

For Franken-Friday, it's the classic, "Young Frankenstein" (1974).  Or, should it be "Young Frankenstein's Monster", to be pedantic.  Or, "Young Frankensteen"?  It's a great pastiche that uses actual props from the original "Frankenstein", and it actually funny.  And, of course, "Putting on the Ritz" it worth the price of admission, alone.

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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 08: Young Frankenstein (1974) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2022

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2022
Young Frankenstein (1974)

Young Frankenstein is the Doctor, the Young Monster is actually... Oh, wait, never mind, I did that joke already.  While not a Horror movie, per se, it is a parody done with such care and attention to details, that they used the actual props from the original James Whale movie of "Frankenstein" (1932).  It is a great comedy with so many great lines.  In our office, I used to call out "Puddin' on da ritz!" to a couple co-workers in the know, followed by "Soooper-duperrrr!"  Also, Marty Feldman as Igor (pronounced "Eyegore") was awesome, with the response to where he got the brain for the monster: "Abby... Someone".

Slight tangent: I generally like parody songs (and movies, comics, books, etc.).  There is a parody of the Kim Carnes song "She's got Bette Davis Eyes" by Bruce "Baby Man" Baum, "She's Got Marty Feldman Eyes".  It was a regular rotation on "Dr. Demento" back in the day (a syndicated radio show which played all manner of novelty songs, and strange ephemera) and I was delighted to hear it every single time!  Give it a listen, won't you?  😁

Great stuff!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the loosely sketched digital (blue) pencils on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the first with a digital brush in Clip Studio Paint called "Wet Chet". It's sort of a cross between a gouache and charcoal brush.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Day 31: It Ends! - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 31: It Ends!

Boo!  HAPPY HELL-O-WEEN!

Well, here it is: The End.  I actually was able to post every day and made it, somehow!  No one is more surprised than yours truly about this (mostly) working out.  There were several times as to when I just wasn't sure I would make it to the end without dropping the ball a few times, but I guess that's part of why it is called a challenge.

Originally, I had planned to do it much more as quick sketchbook drawings.  Y'know, 30 to 60 minute drawings and painting to post on the blog.  But, the amount of time I spent on the drawings and paintings kept incrementing upwards--expanding to fill the remaining time.  Also, some of the first few I did turned out better than expected, so it built more of a personal expectation of quality I felt I had to keep.  It almost bit me in the arse more than once.

THE GOOD:  Shockingly, I was able to do a posting every day.  So, just that amount of work so relatively quickly was great for learning what techniques worked for me.  I also really improved my inking style, IMHO.  And, I think it also taught me to stop being so precious with my drawings; it's better to just do a bunch of drawings, no worrying how they will turn out, rather than thinking each one must be perfectly crafted before posting it.  Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good, as some have said.  Now, I just have to learn to consistently follow that for myself, too.

Also, some of the drawings and paintings actually turned out far better than I would have expected: Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Metaluna Mutant, Reagan "Possession" cartoon, Christopher Lee, Pumpkinhead, Trick 'r Treat, and Pennywise all seemed to turn out all right.

Oh, and thanks to this dumb stunt, this will be the most I've posted in a year on this Blog.  So, there's that, I guess.

THE BAD:  Some of the postings are just OK.  Minor things about the drawing/painting bug me and I wish I had fixed them before they were posted:  The Wolfman just isn't quite up to snuff; the head on the Saucer Man should have been more bulbous and rounded like a light bulb; The Man From Planet X should be a little better; while I liked the scratchboard effect for the "Night of the Living Dead" is nice, the hair on the zombie girl could be better drawn; the nose on the Brain Gremlin bothers me--the bottom of the nose is a bit too rounded and I kinda want to fix it; and the Charlie Brown ghost seemed a lot better in my head than it turned out.  Sigh...

Also, this time around, I think I stuck a little too closely to references and to the movies, rather than recreating the monsters or inventing my own.  But, once I started down that path, it was difficult to change the direction.  Mayhaps next year...

THE UGLY:  A few of these didn't turn out nearly as well as I would have wished.  For example, I really didn't care much for a couple of the "Plan 9 From Outer Space" drawings: Vampira's face is a little messed up, and Eros just doesn't look quite right.  Also, I didn't care much for my Benning posting from "The Thing"--it's OK, but just not as good as I would have liked (I think I should have thrown some watercolor over top, rather than just left it as colored pencil).  Bleh.  But, since I needed a posting, it went up anyways.  Oh, well.

I also had several times in October when something came up and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get the drawing done, so there were some moments which went from light concern to mild panic.  Also, as mentioned above, many of the drawings took more time than I planned.

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Sincerely, if I may take a moment, thank you to all who stopped by to gawk--even those of you who were hoping to see a metaphorical car wreck.  I think I'll try this again and may actually plan things a little more, rather than flying by the seat of my pants the entire time.  I'll burn that bridge when I get to it...

This was done digitally in Art Studio Pro on an iPad Pro over top the first posting for "31 Days of Hell-o-Ween".  So, we end back where we began: with a parody of "Young Frankenstein".  And, yeah, it captures pretty much how I feel at the end of this whole, dumb idea.  Here's to the dumb idea next year, too!

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This was done digitally in Art Studio Pro on an iPad Pro.

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Day 01: It Begins! - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019
Day 01: It Begins

(This picture is intended as a nod to Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein".)

Greetings!  OK, this is probably a bad idea.  In fact, I'm reasonably certain this is a bad idea.

Rather than my usual half-hearted participation in Inktober, I thought I'd invent something else:

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31 DAYS OF HELL-O-WEEN!  

(Queue lightning/thunder sound effects and scary screams)

 Here are some logos/stamps to use for those of you who want to play along at home!

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Rather than stick to using pen-and-ink (a good idea, IMHO--which is why Inktober got so popular), I'm opening this up to any medium.  And by "medium", I mean the spooky people who talk to ghosts!  Oh, wait, no, I mean any ARTISTIC medium: pen-and-ink, marker, watercolor, casein, acrylic, oil paint, charcoal, digital...  All of the above?  Whatever you want to use to do a Monster-a-Day for the next 31 days!

That's right--For the next 31 Days, I plan on posting drawings/paintings of monsters every day (mostly B-Movie monsters, as well as other famous movie monsters) until we reach Halloween.  So far I have plans for "Nosferatu", Bela Legosi Dracula, Christopher Lee Dracula, Frankenstein variations, "John Carpenter's The Thing", "Invasion of the Saucer-Men", "It Conquered the World", "They Live", "Plan 9 From Outer Space", etc., etc.  Y'know, the usual favorites.  Maybe even a few monsters of my own, if the muse strikes me.

I had hoped to get ahead of the rush and build myself up a bit of a cushion of a few extra drawings for any days in which life interrupts and I'm not able to get stuff done.  Alas, I just finished the digital painting above a couple hours ago.  I'm off to a glorious start and am behind schedule before I even began!  Sigh...

So, place your bets as to how long before I'm posting stick figures and smudges on paper as posts of Lovecraftian madness the mind cannot comprehend?  Or blank panels explaining it is "The Invisible Man"!  What excuses will I make when I inevitably fail to make a post on one (or more) of the days?  Will it be a spectacular and public failure?  Join me each day and find out!  (SPOILERS: It probably will!)

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The painting was done digitally on the iPad with ArtStudio Pro.

The Logo was created in Clip Studio Paint.

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