New Ink Art and Walkthrough: The Colossi of Memnon
For a very long time, since way back when I was a college engineering student, I’ve been fascinated with ancient architecture and stonework. Near the top of that list has always been the Egyptian statues known as the Colossi of Memnon, two massive representations of pharaoh Amenhotep III. When I say massive, they are among the […]
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted a new ink, and it’s about time I did. Life gets in the way of art sometimes, but art is still something I need to be building consistently. In this case, I wanted to try another fossil as the base idea for an ink. I have lots […]
In getting ready for my Spectrum booth this coming May (check out the event here), I’ve been working out which pieces of art to bring with me. One of the ideas that came up, which I’ve had before, is to combine three of my smaller inks into one framed set. I had two previous H.P […]
For this week’s Alphabeast creation, I came across the description of a type of mean faerie, called an “unseelie”. Now, in the many descriptions I’ve come across, sometimes it’s described as the “unseelie court”, and sometimes as the creature itself. In either case, the unseelie is seen as a very mean faerie, one that tends […]
Here’s a new Alphabeast creature, and an interpretation of a scene from one of my very favorite films, John Carpenter’s The Thing. If you haven’t seen the film, go ahead. I’ll wait. Back? Wasn’t that just awesome? To create an ink of the creature isn’t the easiest, considering that it doesn’t really have one single […]
I’ve been a big fan of the film Dark City since I saw in the theater back in the 90’s. For awhile now, I’ve been considering doing some ink art of one of the creatures from the film. They are known as “the strangers’, and our hero (played by Rufus Sewell) has to go up […]
This week for Alphabeasts, which I’m now caught up on, I decided to try something different. With my computer being backed up and doing some maintenance, I thought I would try a larger piece than the others have been. This week’s letter was “R”, and the first thing that popped into my head was “revenant”. […]
Here’s today’s second catch-up Alphabeast art, for the letter Q. This is a qilin, from Chinese mythology, and something I found very interesting. As a creature, a qilin is (from Wikipedia and others) a creature that’s described in a few different ways. Among them is a description of a beast with horns/antlers, more of a dragon’s head, […]
In trying to catch up on life, especially while my computer is a bit busy, I’m finding that I can still work on ink art away from the normal spot. Case in point, today’s first catch-up Alphabeast art. I had a few “P” choices to pick from, but this one stood out quite a bit. […]
For quite awhile now, I’ve wanted to do an ink of a large tortoise. I’ve seen them in various places throughout the years, and they have a great texture in their skin that I’ve wanted to try and work with on an ink. Any time you have an ink idea with texture though, it complicates things. You only […]
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 […]
A few different ideas went through my head when it came to the “nightgaunt”, for my latest Alphabeast. For those that don’t know, a nightgaunt is a creature that is present during night terrors. Now, night terrors are the worst thing in all the world. Frightening, to the point that getting a night terror affects […]
Quite awhile back, when I was first getting back into inking, I created an ink based on the Im-Ho-Tep/Mummy character from the 1932 film version of The Mummy (see it here). The idea with that one was to work from a photo, something I hadn’t done much (if ever), to recreate the iconic face of […]
Continuing on the mission to make 2012 mine, I completed a second ink today (don’t miss the first one, here). It was a challenge, in more ways than one, but I think it turned out well. The ink is of a Lampade, from Greek mythology. Lampades were companions of the goddess Hecate, and were nymphs […]
The end of the year didn’t go anywhere nearly as well as I thought, art-wise. Of course, the whole year was… yeah. But this is a new year, and I have a lot of catching up to do. Though I’ve been working on art behind the scenes, here’s the first posted one of the new […]
I’m gradually starting to get caught back up, after a disastrous few months. I decided that I didn’t want to end 2011 with nothing completed, so I manged to kick out two pieces of art in the last couple of days. The first was the skatedeck art, The All-Mighty Dollar (see it here), and below […]
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) […]
Once again, I’ve created a new ink for the Alphabeasts project (alphabeasts.tumblr.com). This time, I had a bit of a quandary, since there are a few creatures that start with “F” that I thought might be interesting. Of course, there’s the faun from El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth). But I have an interesting ink […]
My good friend Patrick Douglas has a new book coming soon, and I created a new art piece for him to use as a signature sheet. The book itself is great, and tells the story of an outcast girl who has stumbled into a lost tribe in a cave system. Signature sheets, at their base […]
New Ink Art and working with reference: Cthulhucraft
I’ve been itching to do more ink work lately, and I decided over the weekend that H.P. Lovecraft’s birthday was a great chance to work something in. The trick, of course, in doing art of a recognizable character (or person) is that you just have to get it right. Sure, there is some leeway here […]
I’ve always loved the image of the female robot from the film Metropolis. It’s a very streamlined, very cool design, and well ahead of it’s time for when the film was made. I’m not sure I captured it as well as other ink works I’ve done, but I’m still happy with it. I think it […]
While I was in Austin, Texas, for the World Horror Convention, I had a bit of time to kill before checking in. I decided to sketch some things first for projects that I have in play, and after that I decided to create another ink card. Now, the main motivation for it was that I […]
Since last night’s ink card (see it here!) was a bit on the dark side, both figuratively and literally, I thought I’d something different with today’s ink card. Today’s ink is of “The Spaniard”, the temporary nickname for the character of Maximus in the film Gladiator. I chose it not only because I really like […]
As I’m jumping back in on the art thing this week (see the previous article), I wanted to try something, well, harsh. I wanted to try and create an ink card that was very dark, and really only show the barest of highlights. It’s tricky for sure, and to be perfectly honest I’m not sure […]
It’s not really a well-kept secret that I like the scary stuff. So, when I was looking to create a new ink work for the end of the week, I ended up with a scary figure. Now, in this case, it may or may not look that scary. The character is Tomas, from the film […]
Since yesterday’s art was more on the horror side of things, and I’m working on a horror book cover, I think my brain wanted to play nice with this new ink card. This one is back to what I have been doing, 5″ x 7″ ink on 140 lb. Cold Press. I also added just […]
Sometimes when I’m thinking of doing some art, I get a good idea going. Some concept, or some particular scene grabs me and I want to get art made of it. Today was no different, as I’d had an idea for another ink work based on some old noir films. I thought that not only […]
I decided that I should take a break from inking monsters, and try something that has less texture to it. Texture is fun with characters, but I want to challenge myself by working with images that don’t necessarily have a lot of texture in the important areas. Case in point, this new ink that I’ve […]
I had fun digitally coloring The Pale Man ink that I did (see it here!), and I thought I’d try it again. I’ve been away from inking for a couple of weeks, due both to the job search and some paying gigs, but I created a new one today for sale. I have numerous ink […]
Today has been an experiment in not only a larger format for an ink work, but also in the idea of not letting a problem in the art end the day. When I started doing art today, I just grabbed my 12″ x 18″ watercolor stock and went to work. I had a decent idea […]
While I’m working on these ink cards, I’m trying a few different ideas out. Of course, one idea is purely commerce driven, I’m unemployed and selling things keeps food on the table. But artistically, there are a few things at play here. First, I’m trying to relearn what I knew about inks so many years […]
Now, I’m not sure how many will know who Aknot is, but let’s just say I enjoyed making the ink card (5″ x 7″, ink on 140 lb. Cold Press as usual) and leave it at that. Ok, I guess I can let you know. Aknot is a warrior/creature that appears in the wildly underrated […]
Ok, technically I’m not breaking a book. But I am being rude to it. Some time ago, I started getting an idea that it might be fun to take one of my contributor copies, of some of the books I’ve created art for, and add new ink art throughout. The idea came about because one […]
I’ll be a guest at VisionCon next week in Springfield, Missouri, and I’m trying to create more art to show (and sell there). I’m also having fun doing these ink cards, it gives me more confidence going into larger pieces. I’m also getting good practice working from a photograph (or a series of them), which […]
I’ve been thinking of doing more monsters in ink, for sale while I’m a guest at VisionCon 2011. Here’s the newest one, one of the ghosts from The Devil’s Backbone. It’s like the previous ones, 5″ x 7″, ink, on 140 lb,. Cold Press. It has just a hint of red too near the top, […]
Over the busy weekend, I’ve still managed to create two new ink cards, both based on ancient stone sculptures. They are also both ink on 5″ x 7″ 140 lb. Cold Press paper. The first is a gargoyle, based on one that I have here in my office. I’m having fun toying with the close-up […]
