Artmares

Check out this cool drawing by artist Chase Henderson. For this year's Artmares show he did a series 
of self portraits where he's dressed up as local artists for Halloween, and each piece is in the style of that particular artist. In this one he's dressed like...me! I really like the smock with the picture of my face on it (one of my favorite things about old Halloween costumes) as well as the touches that emulate my work, like the background and the signature.

And speaking of Artmares, here's some nice press from my friend Rondal Scott over on FuelYourIllustration.com.

Hallows Eve

This is my main piece for this year's Artmares show; it's the one I did first and it also took the most time. (Though I'm very happy I was able to play around with all the ideas I had and produce three new works total.)

There's no deeper meaning to this piece other than drawing whatever seemed fun at the time, and adding little elements and design choices as they came to me.

One thing I did while working on this piece was to research the history of Halloween. I found out that originally people carved turnips rather than pumpkins, and they used them as lanterns to go door-to-door on All Saint's Eve asking for gifts in exchange for prayers on All Saint's Day. Pumpkins weren't used until the tradition was brought to America, where they are a native crop and easier to carve since they're larger.

I thought it would be cool to include a turnip lantern, as well as something I remember from my Trick or Treat days, the McDonalds' Halloween pail.

Interesting how some people have deemed Halloween a Satanic holiday when it was originally such a religious affair, huh?

Strange Kids Comix Magazine #2 Update

Here I am enjoying my Halloween edition of Strange Kids Magazine, which you can order here! Also note issue #1 and the Strange Kid T-shirt, both of which I had a hand in. And that creepy mask is included in the book!

If you're on the fence about ordering a copy here are a handful of reviews:

Freddy In Space - Cool Shit: Strange Kid Comix Magazine #2
The Liberal Dead - Strange Kid Comix Magazine #2
The Bloodsrpayer - Retro Radioactivity: A review of Strange Kid Comix #2
ComicBooked.com - Review, Strange Kid Coimx Magazine #2

When the time is right I'll post the full comic that I contributed to this issue.

Wendigo

I've been working on my pieces for this years Artmares show and I really wanted to draw some sort of mythological creature that hasn't been done to death. I already drew the mothman once before, so that was pretty much out. I settled on the wendigo, a creature you'll supposedly turn into if you engage in acts of cannibalism. I drew a lot of inspiration from Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. comics' version of the creature, as well as some images I found online. Apparently there was a low budget horror movie made about a wendigo, and in that it had the giant head of a deer. I have no idea if that has any roots whatsoever in the actual wendigo myth, but I really liked the antlers so I used them.

The Artmares reception will be from 6 to 10 pm on Friday, Octrober 28 at the Kanawha Players Theater, 309 Beauregard St, Charleston, WV.

Donald Duck

For whatever reason I've had the to idea to do a weird drawing of Donald Duck floating in my head for probably a year or two now. Something about the design of early animation characters is just so perfect; it makes you want to do your own take on them even though you know it will never be as good as the original. Also, I recently got to spend a day at Walt Disney World and one of the gift shop items I found were these plush Mickey Mouse dolls that had really weird arbitrary coloring, and I loved them. I eventually found a Minnie, Goofy, and several color variations for Mickey, but no Donald. So I decided to carry the idea over to  my drawing and give Donald his own funky palette.

Adventure Time Update

The Dr. Sketchy Adventure Time session got a nice mention on TheDailyWhat.

And Chase Henderson has put up a ton of pictures from the event which you can check out here on his site. All the photos are great, so give them a look. Plus they have more nudity than the ones I posted earlier in the week! Which may or may not be a good thing depending on if you're reading this from your couch at home or from an office surrounded by coworkers.

Ghost Glen

A Halloween themed self portrait, just for fun.

Dr. Sketchy's Adventure Time Tribute

I've mentioned Dr. Sketchy on here before, but I'll explain again for the newbies: Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School is a hybrid figure drawing class and burlesque show, with emphasis on a fun, sexy, and social atmosphere. There are Dr Sketchy branches all over the US and in several countries, and the new branch in my hometown of Charleston, WV has been going strong.

Several months ago Chase Henderson, local artist and the guy in charge of our branch, brought up the idea of doing a session themed after the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. I think it was mostly thrown out there as a silly "wouldn't this be funny?" sort of idea, but I thought it sounded great, so I encouraged him and offered to help.

Chase quickly set to work recruiting models, and it was officially decided that Charleston's September Dr. Sketchy would be an homage to Adventure Time.

I had a blast at the session and I'm sure everyone else did as well. The poses were clever and tied into the show/characters, costumes were accurate (well, I suppose they had to be creative with what the character's skivvies looked like,) props were cool (including a Beemo,) and everyone was excited to participate in the various contests.

Chase took all the photos you see here, showing off the hard work of  the models: Molly Tilly as Finn and/or Fiona, Lavender Menace as Princess Bubblegum, and Lita Lane as Marceline.

Here are a couple of my drawings from the evening:

Apparently the main Dr Sketchy branch in NY loved this idea and we wouldn't be surprised to see a few more Adventure Time sessions start popping up across the country.