TotU pg 5

Hey folks! Managed to get another page drawn, but won't have time to add tones for a while so here is the inked page in a more raw stage. I did get some work done while I was gone, especially for this comic, but showing it would spoil too much of it so for now we have this raw page. I'll post more when I can. I start training for my new second job bright and early tomorrow ;3;

I hope you've been keeping up with El Goro at Talk Without Rhythm Podcast for "31 Days of Halloween." He's been able to keep updating every day this month, much better than I have, so go reward his hard work by telling him how awesome he is. There's a facebook for the podcast too.

See you folks later~

Day 22/ Page 4 TotU

Hey all! Day 22 and comic page number 4 of "Tomb of the Unspoken".

Just to let everyone know the next update will probably be Sunday. I'll be posting what ever I can get done over the next three days and then that will be it for "31 Day of Horror Art." I'm starting a new second job on Monday and that whole week will be 12-13 hour shifts all day and night (8am through 10pm) and I will not have time to draw any updates. It pains me but it'll just be for that week. My hours after training will be much more manageable. I'll keep updating the comic afterwards so that will still keep going. I'm excited to be doing it. I hope you enjoy the comic so far, and I'll see you in a few days!

TotU page 3

Hey everyone! Got my errands (read: finding pieces for a Mabel of Gravity Falls Halloween costume) done this morning so page 3 of 'Alencia: Tomb of the Unspoken' got done early today. Enjoy, more is on the way!

Be sure to check out El Goro's review for "31 Days of Halloween" with today's review of "Dread."

Tomb of the Unspoken- pg.2

Hey everyone! Things are getting pretty cray cray around here. Between work, family/home obligations, and this project I'm getting a bit stretched thin over here. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. But I'm gonna keep going with these as best I can. On Thursday I'll be out all day, and spending Friday and Saturday with my beloved (celebrating Halloween with a huge movie marathon. I need this.) So I'll be working on pages while I'm out and uploading them in a bigger upload when I get back (looking at some time Sunday). Then Monday I start my new second job and things will get even more crazy 8D

So here is page 2:

Don't forget to check out what El Goro is up to with the "31 Days of Halloween" podcast.

[EDIT]- Added the text to the page :P

Back in Black and White

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed the Clockwork Queen mini comic because now I'm back on "31 Days of Horror" but this time I'm mixing it up with a new comic! I'll be posting a page (or more!) every day following a new Alencia adventure, "Tomb of the Unspoken." The way it's going right now this might last past October, so if that happens I'll just keep updating until it's done! :D

Here's page 1

Make sure you're checking out El Goro's "31 Days of Halloween" podcasts! Today he reviewed the french horror film "Sheitan."

Clockwork Update

Hello everyone! I'm getting some things sorted out today (errands and chores that need to be done) and spending some time with loved ones so to make up for yesterday's lack of a proper update, as well as today and tomorrow I'm going to post a special treat for you! A six page comic! This was the comic I did for an anthology that later got cut from the book. It's a snippet from a story I was working on in early college, a steampunk-horror-scifi involving a scientist who uses his wife as a prototype for a military robot project as well as kidnapping other people. The rest of the story is a rescue mission involving other characters, but this mini comic just concentrates on the scientist.

The comic pages were on 5x8" watercolor paper and were drawn with pencil, inked with pocket Pentel brush pen, and toned with India ink. The color washes, as well as text and speech bubbles, were added in Photoshop. I definitely want to experiment with water-coloring comics in the future and have been looking to comics like Blacksad for inspiration. I hope to have my pages that well painted in the future.

Let me know what you think! Enjoy, and see you in a few days horror fans!

Bad News for Today

Sorry guys but I'm not going to be uploading a "31 Days of Horror Art" piece tonight for personal reasons. But I will do what I can soon to make up for it. Sorry to disappoint but I have some things that need to be taken care of first.

Day 17- I brought some friends...

After doing watercolor paintings for most of the month I long to use some non-photo blue and mechanical pencils, and to revisit some of my own characters. So for today's illustration I mixed ink and pencils to show off my aspiring Necromancer (and early D&D character) Zona facing off against an unseen enemy.

Be sure to also check out day 17 of El Goro's "31 Days of Halloween" as he reviews 1989's "Intruder."

Day 16

Playing around with the composition here... it came out different than the sketch. It feels slightly off but I still like it. Roses and carnations because I read that's what they stuffed the beaks of their masks with to mask the scent if the dead. I was also trying to do a Mignola-ish thing with the flea there but I did get it quite how I wanted.

Plague Doctors are just so cool looking.

Be sure to check out what El Goro is up to for "31 Days of Halloween!"

Day 15

For today's illustration (or yesterday's now, sorry. I literally spaced out while watching 'Spaced.' I'm on season 2 now.) I decided to choose one of the many listed demons of hell to draw a portrait of. They all have interesting descriptions and finding monsters and demons of old to be interesting I decided to give it a shot. I chose the Marquis Amon. He had two descriptions on the wiki page I found but I decided to draw this one for the wolf teeth in a raven's head. I liked that. Also still haven't out grown my desire for red paint backgrounds. I thought it would compliment the colors here.

Be sure to check out day 15 of El Goro's "31 Days of Horror" if you haven't already!

Day 14- Bad day getting worse

Hey guys. I had planned to upload a new drawing after getting back from work but I wasn't expecting to have to stay late (thanks to customers deciding to come in 3 minutes till closing and then take their time looking around. I had to stay an extra 30 minutes to get things done), and to be this physically and mentally EXHAUSTED.

You should have seen me try to make dinner when I got home. I was curled up on the floor, surrounded by rice that I dropped everywhere while trying to measure it, sobbing like a wounded animal. It was pretty pathetic. I might have to draw it later...

But since I'm so tired I had then decided to post a drawing I did a few months ago especially for Halloween that I was quite proud of. But after searching my files I seem to have not scanned it yet. "No fear" I thought, "I have it in a sketchbook still" except oh wait I don't. And I still can't find it. So here is a drawing of my Scion: HERO character Ramla getting a violent bloody nose (those happen before she sees a prophecy, although I took liberties in making this one much more bloody).

I have a new watercolor painting planned for tomorrow. Thanks for sticking with me!
Also be sure to give El Goro some love and listen to his newest "31 Days of Halloween" podacast. I'm enjoying the hell out of them and so should you!

Also to cap off this terrible evening it looks like Blogger is spazzing out and reset everyone's blog views and traffic/blog info and stats. I hope that will be fixed soon, otherwise it looks like we're starting fresh :/

Day 13

Hello all! So for today's drawing I did an ink illustration of some corpses and chrysanthemums. The corpses are inspired by the Cappuccini Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily. I found out about this spooky place after doing research for a college illustration project and it's stuck in my mind ever since. It's the only place I've seen that displays the bodies of people on their walls, on hooks, and in glass coffins. I heard it was considered an honor to have your body rest here but it never fails to make me feel uneasy. I personally feel like the remains of the dead need to be treated with a certain level of care and respect and while the customs here are accepted, I still feel uneasy about it all. But I think that's part of why it has stuck with me. Aside from this place giving me feelings of unease, I still respect it as the bodies of the dead were cared for and even preserved very carefully, including ritual visits from family members and even changing the clothing of the dead to be more presentable. Aside from Egyptian pharaohs I haven't heard of anyone taking so much care with the dead in contemporary times.

I also added chrysanthemums as they are a customary funeral flower in Italy (and must not be used for anything other than funerals).

Be sure to check out El Goro's latest podcast review for "31 Days of Halloween" with the movie "House."

Day 12- All Caught Up

Hello all! I'm back with Day 12's illustration. Another more fashion inspired one. I bought a cute sweater recently (at full price no less!) and I've been wanting to wear some cute, 'pastel goth' inspired outfits but work prevents me from playing dress up so I draw it out instead :P

Don't forget to check out El Goro's review for Day 12 of "31 Days of Halloween" with the movie 'Silver Bullet.'

Day 11- Belated

Hey all! Sorry for being a no-show yesterday. Had places to go and people to see but I bring you an offering of a zombie-fied Moomintroll!

Once thought to be a cartoon that I had imagined in a childhood fever dream it turns out the Moomins were a pretty rockin cartoon I enjoyed as a kid. I don't remember much from it other than odd character designs, a charming little world they all inhabbit, and little finger-like creatures called "Hattifattener."


It also included one of the least memorable opening themes of my childhood.

Be sure to check out the Alternative Mindz website as this illustration was born because of them. They were nice enough to invite me to participate in a little event they are doing were different artists draw zombies of comic strip characters to celebrate Halloween! Moomintroll was mine, but be sure to check out what the other artists involved are doing too!

And as always be sure to check out El Goro's "31 Days of Horror" review for "House of the Long Shadows"!

Day 12 will be coming up soon along with Day 13! Stay tuned!

Day 10- Hail Gozer!

Greetings all! Day 10's entry comes a little late in the day today since I wanted to finish it properly. Thanks to a suggestion from my handsome partner in crime Ryan, I tried my hand at painting Gozer the Gozerian of the first Ghost Busters movie. She was a lot of fun to paint and I had a good time playing with the colors.

Be sure to check out El Goro's newest "31 Days of Horror" movie review of THE DEADLY SPAWN!

Demonic Frills

To prep for today's illustration I started doing some warm up drawings. I'm very tired from work today (under staffed, overworked, along with rude customers, it just hasn't been a great day) but while drawing I really liked this one of a little demon girl wearing a Lolita outfit featuring plague doctor masks and flowers. I decided on the print pattern near the end, but if I had planned it out early I probably would have given her a mask :P Making her a demon was inspired by a photo a friend posted recently of a goat with two pairs of large horns. I thought it was interesting and it grew from there. I also just really miss drawing Lolita related things. So here's day 9, a demon girl in frills to chase away my retail blues. I do plan on coloring her, I just don't have the strength today, forgive me.

I'll try to draw something scarier tomorrow, promise. Be sure to check in with El Goro and see what horror movie he's reviewing today!

Day 8

Greetings all!
To celebrate day 8 of "31 Days of Horror Art" I'm paying tribute to one of my favorite horror/sci-fi franchises, "Alien." I'm a big fan of 'Alien' and 'Aliens' so I had to draw something in honor of it. I had draw to draw the first gen Alien (with the clear head and visable skull, my absolute favorite design and Giger's original vision), the leading lady herself Ellen Ripley, and of course Jonesy the cat. I swear that cat most of the time has the expression of "oh man you guys are screwed," especially in a certain scene.

Don't forget to check out El Goro's latest podcast, "31 Days of Halloween," where he reviews a horror movie every day this month!

Mistress of the Dark

When I was in late middle school/early high school I saw the first Elvira movie. Despite being a bit more prudish at the time, I thought Elvira was just such an awesome lady. She didn't care what people thought of her, and was sassy and confident. I wanted to be like her in these respects. Then later in high school I got to meet Cassandra Peterson at a sci-fi convention in London. She was super nice, absolutely gorgeous, and signed my DVD of her first movie. I still admire her to this day.

I think I got all the desire for red wash out of my system. I promise I won't abuse it anymore ;3;

Be sure to check out El Goro's newest podcast review for the 1976 movie "Satan's Slave."

Doubt Monster

Starting early today!
This illustration is a bit more conceptual in it's horror, and also a 'relief' drawing for me. I had a discussion with El Goro while I was struggling with the previous illustration and I expressed that while working on my projects I hear a little 'voice' that asks me probing questions and says things in a quest to get me to give up on what I'm doing. It's caused me over the years to drop projects and not get around to doing things that I'm actually excited about. He explained that your brain actually tries to end your 'suffering' by convincing you to stop doing things that stress you out or cause anxiety. So our brains are actually trying to sabotage us when we work! It made so much sense to me, I then became inspired to draw this big, looming, smoky monster that sits on my shoulders trying to convince me to give up. It represents the feelings of self doubt, fear, inadequacy, that lead to vulnerability, anxiety, and other frighting emotions that leave me feeling like a helpless failure.

I'm learning to beat those feelings back, because honestly nothing feels better than holding up a pile of drawings or comic pages and admiring all the hard work you've done. It outweighs the fear, the fear is just stickier to get past. So never give up!

While you're here I also suggest checking out El Goro's podcast today for a great review of the movie "Stanley."

Ghost Bride

Hey guys. Today's illustration is on the simple side. I tried to experiment with silhouettes but didn't get the desired effect. I was aiming for something haunting and ethereal but I think it fell a bit short. But better to try and fail then not try at all. Gaining experience points and all that :P

The ghost of a bride wandering the forest looking for her groom.

Be sure to check out day 5 of El Goro's "31 Days of Halloween" podcast! He covers the movie "Kwaidan."

Trickster Spirit

Today's Illustration is a creature I've designed for a future Alencia story. This creature is actually an enchanted mask that entraps the spirit of anyone who puts it on. In the story (so far at least) there are two of these masks that have spirits attached to them. They float around in the tomb they are imprisoned in collecting bones that they use to construct their 'bodies.' Because of this they can arrange the bones into what ever form they want. If they want to be snake-like they can, if they want lots of limbs they can. If they want to combine themselves into a bigger monster, THEY CAN. So I'm having lots of fun with them so far, but still have things to iron out. Today's illustration is one of them after it has torn apart some fresh prey to take its bones.

Also decided to stick to graphite and watercolor with this one. I think prefer the results when using ink and water color but I suspected a lot of the bone detail would be lost with the brush pen. Still quite happy with it and the layering I did with all the blood/gore.

El Goro's podcast today covers the 1960 movie "Jigoku." Check it out!

Note: Tomorrow's update might be late. I'll be out of town for the day, then going right into work that evening. I'll try to update that afternoon/night or twice on Saturday.

Lovecraftian

For my birthday this year El Goro sent me some awesome books, one of them being a thick and heavy copy of 'The Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft.'

I read comic books much more than novels because a lot of the times I find it hard to really get into a book and have it keep my attention for long periods of time. Usually Neil Gaiman books are the only ones to do this. And even then I have a bunch of his books that I've never finished. As a kid I had a habit of picking up fantasy books that looked interested but I didn't fully understand the way they were written so I'd leave them for years waiting to be 'smart' enough to read them. I'll usually find a book that sounds interested and leave it by page 4. Its not something I'm proud of but it makes my reading tastes very narrow. I was pleased as punch upon receiving this beautiful book, and excited to finally sample some of Lovecraft's work, but I was also afraid that his writing style might be over my head and harder to enjoy. Luckily I was dead wrong and I found myself pouring over the book on a long road trip. I find his work easy to read and an absolute treat to enjoy.

So here is my first attempt at a worthy offering to his greatness. I say first attempt because there are things I'd like to do differently next time that will prompt me enough to give a portrait of him a second try (Like my failure at typography; at least it looks like the banner is being eaten...) However I still like this one so it will go up today. For those haven't enjoyed the work of H.P. Lovecraft I highly suggest you throw down some dough for this book. Especially if you find yourself enjoying lots of 'Chuthulu' type things. It's good to know the source material.

Also if you haven't yet be sure to check out El Goro's podcast today where he reviews "The Bat" starring Vincent Price!

And yes those are Elder God Putti.

The Prince of Horror

When I was a kid one of my favorite movies was 'Edward Scissorhands.' I hadn't seen anything like it and it was a treat to go to my friend's house and watch it during sleep overs. There was just something magical and enchanting about it. The characters, the setting, the haunting music; I loved it all! But Vincent Price was a big part of my love for the movie. He was so charming and charismatic in the movie but I knew next to nothing about him. As I got older I learned more and enjoyed more of his movies. So this is my little tribute to him. Based on this photo.

I hear El Goro of "Talk Without Rhythm Podcast" is going to be covering 'The Bat' featuring Vincent Price tomorrow! Be sure to check it out. Today he covered "The Mummy's Curse."

That's Not How You Make Friends

Good morning boils and ghouls!

Today starts the beginning of the "31 Days of Horror Art" project! Today we begin with an ink and watercolor illustration called "Making Friends."

I really love working with the Pentel Pocket Brush-Pen and the ink is very waterproof (unlike the regular Pentel Brush-Pen) so it allows me to work with watercolor and not smear the ink everywhere. For this image I wanted to show a more sinister side to Lolitas and play on the comments I've seen over the years from girls who are the 'only Lolita in the village' who long to have a friend who likes the fashion. I thought it would be funny if one of these girls 'made' a friend who was a fellow Lolita.

For anyone who doesn't know what Lolita Fashion is here is the handbook where you can read all about it. Here is also the original article that got me hooked on the fashion almost 10 years ago.

El Goro of Talk Without Rhythm Pocast has started his "31 Days of Horror" reviews with the movie "The Ghoul." Check it out!

I'm off to a grueling day of truck shift now, see you tomorrow!