This my first contribution to the recent Remake/Remodel thread at Warren Ellis’s Whitechapel forums – Kardak the Mystic. It was quite a fun thread. Go check it out!
Author Archives: skook
A Modern Deucalion
This is my attempt at representing Deucalion, Victor Frankenstein’s first creation, from Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein trilogy. Deucalion has named himself after the son of the mythical titan, Prometheus. Koontz’s story isn’t a sequel to any specific version of Frankenstein; neither the original novel nor any of the multitude of plays and films that have been inspired by it. Deucalion, rather than being hideous at his awakening as in the novel (and most of the movies), was apparently very handsome. His facial scars are the result of Frankenstein’s attempt to destroy him after he rebelled against his creator. A Buddhist monk added the tattoos to distract from the scars.
Behold, the Toxic Avenger!
Since my first marker sketch made me think of the Toxic Avenger I thought I’d go ahead and try to draw the fellow. I still haven’t seen one of his movies so I can’t say whether or not I’ve succeeded. I did have fun doing the drawing so I don’t mind.
Just the Pencils
While I do like these sketches I just didn’t have the energy or inspiration to color them. Oh well. Say hello gentlemen.
The Other Frankenstein Monster
Frankenstein’s Monster has come to be depicted as a patchwork horror, a creature crudely stitched together seemingly at random with odd bolts or wiring sticking out of him. While I think that’s rather far from how Shelly actually envisioned him I have to admit it’s a fun pattern to try to invent new variations on. I did an earlier version of this fellow as one of my first contributions to A Patchwork of Flesh. I do like this design. It’s a variation on the hulking creature of the movies without (I think) referencing any specific version.
Pretty and Pink
You’ve probably noticed that I draw a lot of monsters. When I’m sketching I tend to draw monsters to begin with because –
A) I like monsters
B) They’re fun to draw
C) If I make a few mistakes and the monster’s features end up lopsided who is to say that I didn’t do that on purpose? Monsters are supposed to be ugly.
Once the monsters are out of the way I try to draw something challenging, something, someone … pretty. It’s nerve wracking.
Sooner or Later the Zombies Arrive
Another marker sketch. I liked this one enough that I’ve been using it as my profile picture on my Facebook account. It’s no goofier that any of the actual photos of myself that have filled that spot.
Playing With Markers
So I’ve had a box of color markers that I’ve only rarely used (and not at all for the last ten) for something like 20 years now. I’m not exaggerating. I’ve got a set of grey tone markers that I use occasionally but the colored ones have just sat there, untouched, loved only from a distance. Since most of my printed illustrations have been in black and white I haven’t felt compelled to do much color work.
It’s looking like I’ll be getting more color illustrations printed soon. One thing tends to lead to another and I figured I should get some practice now while I’ve got a chance. So I pulled out the box and I’ve set to work. As with most initial sketches I drew a monster. This fellow is not any specific monster. He’s got a bit of Toxic Avenger vibe to him but that’s purely accidental. I’ve yet to see any of Toxie’s movies.
Step By Step Frankenstein #10
And done. I’ve added highlights to the figure and cleaned up the fire and lightning so that there’s a strong contrast between the figure and background.
Happy Halloween!
Step By Step Frankenstein #9
For the next step I create an empty layer set to Multiply. I want to keep this simple so I only laid down one color, a cheery yellow that, once combined with colors already present, becomes a bit sickly looking.
