This blog was developed in order to showcase some of my more chilling concept work in progress as well as document early influences. These are visions of haunted dreams on darkest nights... distant memories to be relived over and again in fitful slumber:
It is a springtide in time forgotten; with eyes ajar, I can still feel my childish fingers brush lazily against long dry grass in a field that is littered with stones. A hazy sun slips behind the dark cool clouds. I wear cut-offs and squat barefoot on the graying loam. The goblins are here. I can see their dread features hidden in the twisted crags of broken rocks...drawn in shiver lines.
Back in school, creative compulsion didn't allow for paint
drying time or procedural pauses. I found it both necessary and an easier solution to work on several
paintings at once. My personal design process has an interesting correlation.
I may cover several sketch book pages in an hour, only working as long as it takes to form a complete concept in as few lines as possible. Drawings can be put on hold at any time to quickly pursue a new idea they've inspired. Each day reapsfinished work and seeds to sow for the next. [continued next post]
As I was growing up, Bernie Wrightson and Len Wein's Swamp ThingTM DC Comics, was an enormous influence on my work. Many comics fans comment on that when they see some of my horror sketches. I love Wrightson's art and artist's like Franklin Boothe, Jack Davis, and Roy Krenkel who influenced him greatly.
This miniature sketch of Swamp Thing was painted very loosely for an image only 1.5"x 2". Working loose, tight, large, small, with an airbrush, in oils, watercolor or whatever medium ...it's all stimulating and beautiful.
Two enlarged details below show some interesting and painterly suggestions from the subject at left.
A 1/2" Flat, a #5 Pointed Round and only four colors were used to paint the tiny portrait of the Mossy Mammoth .
A couple of unused rough skulls for a video game concept [near actual size.]
I like to begin with nothing but imagination and design shapes that are interesting. It's faster. Taken to the next level, animal or human skull reference would be used to enhance authenticity. I picked up the idea of consulting references afterwards, while briefly working with some exceptional storyboard artists at a small studio in Chicago.
DVD Covers from 3 releases of The Monster Club [1980]
The Monster Club is probably the last of the British anthology horror film of which I've seen only a few. More familiar are Stephen King's Creepshow films, an homage to the best of Horror and Sci-Fi comics from the 1950's EC tradition.
The Prolific and Stylish John Carradine and The Immortal Vincent Price.
These are the two actors that initially prompted my keen interest interest in The Monster Club on an early 80's USA Network cable station fright feature. Carradine and Price deliver, despite the campy dialogue and silliness in the scenes devised to frame the films trilogy format.
A Conversation with Two All-time Favorite Classic Horror Film Stars.
Monster movies played an important part in forming my already overactive imagination. The Monster Club manages to serve up a two tales
with striking visuals and bleak Gothic themes that reinforced my
fascination for arcane imagery. [continued next post.]
The Monster Club TM 2006 Pathfinder Home Entertainment.
A John Bolton Pin up from House Of Hammer Magazine for The Monster Club movie[1980.]
The Monster Club's rock 'n roll nightclub narrative framing device had it's share of memorable moments, such as the New Wave bands performing the campy Monster Club music and a stripper who takes it all off...right down to the skeleton. These segments make the movie fun, but were not the part that really grabbed my imagination.
The Shadmock displays his gentle innocence.
The first story, entitled"The Shadmock" showcased lush period settings, striking costume design, and Gothic atmosphere reminiscent of classic Hammer Films. Based on the short story written by the late British horror writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes, featuring a hybrid-monster with a diabolical whistle. The tale begins with the monstrous mogul hiring a new assistant, Angela, to help catalog his possessions. The tension mounts to an awful ending for the young woman, as she reluctantly agrees to help her crooked boyfriend swindle The Shadmock out of his fortune.
Shadow and foreshadowing in The Shadmock's garden.
The art from the comic book adaption has its own appeal.
John Bolton's art on the comics version of the Lost In Town.
The Monster Club's final tale concerns an American film
director who stumbles into a mysterious 17th century village populated by Ghouls. The antique illustrations used as part
of the plot were my first exposure to the incredible art of John Bolton,
a fact that I didn't realize until several years later. The art was
equally frightening and fascinating; it burrowed its way into my brain as these were easily the best ink
drawings I'd seen.
I remembered this scene vividly from 25 years ago.
My early influences were gleaned
from great novels, classics, The Twilight Zone and a host of
other shows in the same vein. If course it all started with the Universal monster flicks replayed
on PBS. These were all transformed by my outlandish imagination into
something more than vivid. It's hard to experience some of the source
material the same way now, but the memories are as potent as ever.
The Monster Club has been released at least 3 times on DVD; it's still fun to watch my own copy from time to time.
