I spy with my little eye – something that begins with the letter “K”.
Eye Without a Face (Color)
Category Archives: skookworks
Eye Without a Face (Black and White)
Most of the illustrations I’ve created for the Skookworks.com banners don’t have any context to them. That is, they don’t have any specific context, no specific story. They are images that came to me as I was staring at the blank paper. I can’t say they spring from nowhere. I doubt that anyone’s imagination is that fertile.
This one was probably inspired by those old haunted house movies. The ones where the houses have secret passages and big gloomy portraits on the walls. Often those portraits have removable eyes so that someone in a secret passage can look out and spy on an unsuspecting resident of one of the regular rooms.
I don’t think I’ve seen that bit in any recent movie.
Just a Few Scars (Color)
I grew up watching Star Trek. I’ve been indoctrinated to find green girls to be sexy.
(Nah. I find girls (women) to be sexy. Green. Blue. Jet black or any of the myriad real people shades.)
Just a Few Scars (Black and White)
Drawing scars is fun. I wouldn’t wish the process of getting wounded enough to get a cool scar on any living person but I like giving scars to the characters I draw. I’m sure I’ve drawn a lot more scarred characters than tattooed ones. I’m not sure why. Maybe because a tattoo is usually a drawing and since I’m already doing one drawing I don’t feel like putting another little drawing in the middle of it? Perhaps because getting a tattoo requires a person to sit still whereas getting a scar is a more vigorous activity?
Top Hat (Color)
I like formal wear and fashions prior to the 1960s. Suits, ties and hats just look cool. I wouldn’t trade the need to dress up for today’s casual comforts but drawing all that cloth is fun.
Top Hat (Black and White)
The illustrations I do for Oz Squad are in a simpler style than I use for my RPG pieces – clean line work with flat colors. Examples of what I’m talking about can be seen in the banners at Oz-Squad.com. I thought it would be a good idea to include some illustrations in that style at Skookworks.com.
Of Course There’s a Frankenstein Monster (Color)
And here’s the color version of yesterday’s Frankenstein monster. He’s got a little more green in him than I generally give my Frankensteins. I grew up with Herman Munster and the ubiquitous Universal Frankenstein and, however cool those characters are (or are not), I tend to react against them when I draw a Frankenstein.
As I understand it, the Universal Frankenstein wasn’t meant to be green. All of the original Universal Frankenstein movies were filmed in black and white. The makeup that Boris Karloff wore in the first films was green because it photographed as a sickly shade of grey. Color publicity photos and green shaded versions of the monster in later promotional material fixed his color as green in the public’s imagination.
The world is full of square headed green Frankies. I don’t need to add to the number. Mary Shelley’s version was a very different monster. There have been many different interpretations of the creature on stage and screen and comic book page in the last 180+ years. And I like different.
Of Course There’s a Frankenstein Monster (Black and White)
Here’s the black and white original version of my requisite Frankenstein Monster. It would be difficult for me to design a portfolio site without including a Frankenstein or two. He got a place on the first Skookworks.com banner.
I’m still in the process of figuring out how I want to arrange the galleries at Skookworks. I’m not sure if I want to have a specific Frankenstein gallery or if I should include him in a general Monsters gallery. Heck, I’m not sure yet if I want a general Monsters gallery.
Thinking, thinking.
They’re Not All Winners (Color)
I’d hoped that, somehow, in the process of coloring this piece, I’d find a way to make it look good. Or if not good then at least good enough that it would be useful to include in one of the headers at Skookworks.com for variety’s sake. Unfortunately I didn’t like it any better once it was in color.
Now I could be wrong. This could be one of my masterpieces. Sometimes I see more of the errors in a drawing than the good stuff. Feel free to let me know.
They’re Not All Winners (Black and White)
I liked the pencil version of this illustration but somehow, in the process of inking and toning it, I screwed it up. This guys is supposed to look ugly, lord knows, but the ugly that I ended up with isn’t satisfying. So he’ll get an airing today and again tomorrow when I post the color version but he won’t graduate to a spot in the Skookworks.com headers.
