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!

Art Plans for October

Greetings everyone! I have some news to share:

-Turns out I didn't get into the Steampunk Anthology after all. But my friend Steven Yarbrough did so I'll still be excited to see the two stories he illustrated in the book. I saw the line art for one of them and it was excellent! Also since the pages didn't get in, I'll be sharing them for my next project....

-31 Days of Horror Art
This is a project I'm doing along side El Goro of Talk without Rhythm Podcast. Every October he reviews one horror movie a day that he's never seen before. So this October I will be posting a new piece of art that is horror, Halloween, or 'spooky' themed everyday! Halloween/Samhain is my favorite holiday of the year and I think this will be the perfect way to celebrate it all month!

-Also to note, things like OMN are going to continue to be sporadic since I've been getting more hours at work lately (yay) but I will try to put out at least one comic this month if any. 31 Days of Horror Art will be my main project for the month :)

-Etsy
I'm going to hopefully get some artwork and comics up on Etsy soon. I've got to photograph everything and post them all. I've been pretty busy selling things on Ebay too which I'll be doing another round of stuff for soon. But I'm hoping to have original artwork, some prints, comics and even OOAK jewelry pieces that I've made up on Esty in the next few days. I'll do another post when that is all ready.

Clockwork Queen in a Comic Anthology

I recently was invited by a friend to participate in a Steampunk themed anthology project put together by Neoflux Productions.

My entry was a short, tl;dr version of the intro for a steampunk horror story I was working on back in my early years at SCAD. I’ve redone the comic twice for school projects but it’s been sitting on the back burner since about early 2008 so I thought I’d revive the idea for this, but take liberties and shorten it to just get the basic idea across. I had gotten a small watercolor paper journal recently and decided to draw and ink the comic in that. Working so small was both interesting and challenging but working with ink wash was a pure joy. The colors were added in Photoshop since the entries had to be colored. I really wanted to keep the comic in greyscale but the simple color wash look has grown on me. This project has inspired me to try more watercolor/wet media techniques with my comics and I look forward to doing more of that as time goes on :D

http://www.facebook.com/groups/236795539754275/ (the FB page) Steampunk Originals is an anthology of Steampunk comics. Coordinated by Neoflux Productions. Published by Arcana.

I’ll post updates once it gets published! Also be sure to check out the work of my friend Steven Yarbrough. He was also part of the project and told me about it in the first place. He’s a super nice and talented guy, so be sure to check him out!

Updates!

I can't believe it's August already. Where has the summer gone? Granted I'm pretty ready for fall :P

I just wanted to let everyone know what's going down as things are changing a lot in the world of Fran.

1. Comics
Right now I have a three page update for OMN waiting to be looked over and hopefully put up tonight. I didn't tone or color it like I had planned to because I was invited to take part in a Steampunk Anthology comic by a friend of mine so I'll be trying my hardest to finish up a few pages of comic for that. I'm really excited about it and did a little coloring test to see what kind of style I'll be doing it in.

I've decided to do the comic on watercolor paper with ink and inkwash, and then color flat colors under it in photoshop. This will allow me to have the black and white versions of the comic that I like doing, while providing the book with colored pages that they require. Long time followers might remember this gentleman as he's a hint to what story I'm adapting for this book :)

2. VA Comicon
The Alencia fan art contest ends on the 4th, and any entries I get will be formatted into the book, and it will be sent off to get printed. I am SUPER excited! Also a bit nervous as the con gets closer and things around me get more hectic. But I'm too excited to let the nervousness last too long :P

3. Side Projects
My media studies for the most part are on hold but in their place I've been doing a "30 day monster girl challenge" on tumblr. I've been using it as a character design/media excercise and it's been going well so far. Click the link there to follow the tag on my art tumblr. It will resume after the comic anthology is done (as that deadline is pretty close).

4. Kale
After sitting down and thinking it over I've decided I'm going to restart my Kale story. The first issue, while being an important early mile stone in my comics career, doesn't allow me to take the story in the directions I'd like to. So I'm working on completely rewriting it, and already I'm seeing a massive improvement. I'll bring more news and behind the scenes look at the story as I work on it.

Okay that's all I have for now. Keep an eye open for an OMN update either late tonight or tomorrow!