This Week’s Art: Sickert’s “The Camden Town Murder”
What I find fascinating about art is how much the idea of audience interpretation comes into play. Whether it’s a detailed illustration, or something abstract, there’s always a sense that good art brings the viewer into this new world, for better or for worse. In this case, in a much more overt way than the painting […]
This Week’s Art: Goya’s darkly satirical painting “Witches Sabbath”
There’s a lot to unpack with Goya, especially for someone like me. I love traditional art, the kind you find in paintings that are hundreds of years old. I also love horror art, for those few fans I have left or those who have visited my art site it’s a fairly clear thing. So Goya speaks […]
Last week, I was doing a free-flowing session of ideas, whatever popped into my head. I started sketching an idea of someone running across a high bridge, with the zombies in heavy pursuit. Now, the thing about being an artist, especially an illustrator, is that you have to come up with lots of interesting ideas […]
Since it popped up on Netflix, and I hadn’t seen the film since it was in the theater, I thought we should talk about The Blair Witch Project. When I saw it in the theater, way back in 1999, there were only two of us in the theater. Now, with a movie that’s actually scary, […]
This article popped up on iO9 today (check it out here), all about “night terrors”. Go ahead and read it, and come on back. My turn? Well, to start off, here’s a gif from the comments in that article that might perfectly tell you what night terrors are: Yeah, they really are just like that. […]
I was in a pretty good habit, a couple of years back, of posting the sketches that I do all the time. Posting them is good for me, because I can go back and review the things I’ve done. Posting is good for others, so I’m told by other artists, in that they can get […]
The second Alphabeast ink of the day is a Japanese mythological creature known as the onryō. If you’ve seen The Ring (or Ringu), even maybe The Grudge, you probably have a pretty good idea what a onryō is. An onryō is a vengeful ghost, seeking retribution for some wrong that happened to it during life. The most […]
I missed the opening couple of rounds of Alphabeasts this time, so I’m gradually catching up with “A” and “B”. Today, I managed to get “B” out of the way, with an ink I’ve wanted to do for some time. One of the films that has always inspired me (from a twisted direction at least) […]
The Mouth of Sauron; Ink, color ink wash on 140 lb. Cold Press, 9″ x 12″; based on the character from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King;
In The Wrong World; Digital, story illustration for Peter Straub’s story Variations on a theme from Seinfeld Published in Cemetery Dance Magazine, 2009
This is the character Tomas from the film El Orfanato (The Orphanage). It is a digital color version of my original ink, 5″ x 7″ on 140 lb. Cold Press.
Rising After Dark; Digital, based on the book The Rising: Deliverance by Brian Keene; Published in the book as the signature sheet; by the Maelstrom imprint of Thunderstorm Books, 2010
This is a digital color version of my ink work of the Pale Man creature in the film El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth). The ink is 8 1/2″ x 12″, 140 lb. Cold Press, scanned in and colored in Photoshop.
Death From Below; Digital; published as the second endpaper for the novella Scratch by Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance, 2009); Companion piece to “Death From on High”, also on this site.
Death From On High; Digital; published as the first endpaper for the novella Scratch by Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance, 2009); Companion piece to “Death From Below”, also on this site.
This is sort of an old story, since the three Maelstrom books, two by Brian Keene and one by Kelli Owen, have been out for a few months now. But, as with many things, life managed to get in the way of posting the art that I did for the run. I decided to post […]
I decided that, for the gallery, I was going to take three famous “monster” actors and put an ink card for each in a frame, to sell at the gallery. I already have the Dr. Phibes that I did, and I wasn’t convinced that the Phantom of the Opera was going to work in it. […]
I needed to get my new painting, The Apotheosis of War, ready for the upcoming First Friday Gallery Walk. So, I set aside some time tonight to finish framing it.
I was hoping to do quite a few more small inked cards (I’ve been calling them “sketchcards”), but I haven’t had as much time as I’d hoped. But, tonight, I managed to get one finished. I call it Phibes, and it’s based on the character from the “Dr. Phibes” movies. Since it’s Vincent Price Day, […]
Now that I have the camera back (it took the family on a vacation this week), I can post a few shots of my work in progress. It doesn’t have an official name yet, but “futility” might have something to do with it. Here it is on my desk, and below it are a few […]
I’ve been lucky over the past few weeks to get to work with the fantastic Thunderstorm Books. I’ve been working on three books for their Maelstrom imprint, beginning with tonight’s showcase, the cover for author Kelli Owen’s Six Days. For me, this first book is special because it’s Kelli’s first novel. As she and others […]
I happened to be in the local Barnes and Noble earlier, and the latest issue of Cemetery Dance (#63) was on the shelf. I did art in that issue for the great Peter Crowther’s story “Memories”, which was a nice story and visually fun to work with. Here’s what that art looks like, comments always […]
Continuing on my art posts of really happy, joyous images (reference: sarcasm), here is Vasily Perov’s Found Drowned (1867, Oil on canvas, 27″ x 42″). I’ve had a bookmark for it for awhile, and I think it’s an interesting piece. I think it’s one of those pieces that has a story behind it, but still […]
After the accident (there’s a thread around here somewhere for that), I’ve had a hard time getting my head back into art. To help get that moving again, I’m returning to posting some of the sketches I’ve been working on. As always, they vary quite wildly, even on the same page. They range from sketches […]
It's been awhile since I've written an art blog, which I've done off and on for a few years. I usually discuss a piece of art, almost always one that I like myself, and give the world my thoughts on it.
I created a few computer desktop/wallpapers from the art that I did for Brian Keene’s Scratch. Here they are below: Download here Download here Download here
Last year I completed my first comic work, a short story by Horror Express owner/author Marc Shemmans. It’s a nice little story, and I learned alot working on it. I decided to post it here on the site, it’s in the right column over there. Or, I guess, you can click here . For comments, […]
Ok, so my “little break” was more like a couple of weeks. Add “extreme coughing from the lungs” to “Post-Las Vegas” and there you go. But I’m back, and this one is an interesting one for me. It’s one of the first art pieces that I really took something from, especially in the extreme emotion. […]
The fans of Edgar Allan Poe out there should like this one (not that they are probably reading my blog, but it’s worth a try). This is Antoine Wiertz’s The Premature Burial (1854, media/size unknown, aka The Hasty Burial), a piece I first saw many years ago accompanying Poe’s work by the same name […]
I’m back from the brief hiatus known as the Northeastern Writer’s Conference (NeCon), and I’ve chosen a piece that I haven’t come across before. This is Gilbert Rogers’ The Dead Stretcher Bearer (1916, size and media unknown, possibly oil), a fairly disturbing war piece. Now, before I get too far ahead, the version above […]
Here’s another week of art commentary, please let me know your thoughts on the art or other comments, and I will be posting this on my MySpace as well. This is Arnold Bocklin’s Self-portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle (oil on canvas, 1872). I like alot of Bocklin’s work, and I’m becoming a big fan […]
