Halloween Gallery #11: Lord Necron

Right back at you with another Halloween drawing. This one featuring the vampire nobleman, Lord Necron as seen in this comic.

This is another one where I tried something new in Photoshop. I actually didn't ink this drawing at all. Once I drew the pencils, I just used Photoshop levels to darken the lines and the "stamp" filter to smooth them out. I think it worked great for the backgrounds, but on the character I kind of missed all the varied line-weights I get inking with the brush tool. But, it didn't seem to matter too much once the colors were added.

Speaking of colors, this is another one where I tried to do more with background painting to try to get more of a painted animation background look with more contrast between character and background. I think I did a better job this time so don't be surprised if this is the "look" of my backgrounds from now on.

Hope you like it, and Happy Halloween!

Halloween Gallery #10: Invaders From The Stars!

Halloween is almost here, and I have a few more treats for you all (one might even be posted a little after Halloween, but I like to hold it over for a day anyway). Being in a Sci-Fi B-horror mood this year, I present to you this...

From a distant planet, these invaders attack! Laying waste to our meager planet in honor of their hive queen!

This one was something of a challenge, as I was experimenting with a more textured look to the background as well as just using the pencil line, much like certain styles of animation background. I'm not really sure I pulled it off, and I welcome anyone with tips on how to do it better next time, but at least I tried something new. Overall though, I'm happy with how this turned out, and I had fun making this.

Halloween Gallery #9: Mood Table 2015

I've been keeping up with Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown lately, being a fan of Matt Caracappa's work since the good ol' days of X-Entertainment. And, one idea of his that really catches my eye is the Halloween Mood Table, a special area of the house, usually a small table, where one puts lots of Halloween decorations and activities to help keep their Halloween spirit alive as the big day draws closer. As he's always encouraging others to adopt this idea with mood tables of their own, I decided to give it a try.

Starting with a duo of TV trays and covering them with a plastic Halloween door cover...

I soon created a world of Halloween fun right in my living room! As you can see (you can click any of these pictures to make them larger BTW) , I have the paper maché pumpkin mask as seen in this post. I also have an inflatable skeleton purchased from my local antiques/random stuff store, a cool black plastic skull, and some dancing top-hat pumpkin statues that my family traditionally gets out at Halloween and keeps around until New Years. And, inside the pumpkin mask is a set of flashing lights with cool Halloween sound effects. I just flip a switch and watch it spring to life!

As you can see, I have an assortment of movies and books on the table as well, that way I have easy access to all kinds of Halloween appropriate things to watch and read...

Bubba Ho-Tep: an excellent off-beat horror dramedy.

To me each Halloween season has me in the mood for a different kind of monster. Some years it's vampires, other years it's werewolves, Frankenstein, slasher-villains, etc. This year, to me, is the year of the 1950s/1960s sci-fi horror! Aliens, Atomic-Science-Gone-A-Muck, Giant Bugs, Ed Wood, whatever takes us back to a time when aliens were a stand-in for Communists and giant monsters were a metaphor for the atomic bomb!

And of course, the anime classic Vampire Hunter D. This is of course the result of me taping it from a movie channel one time that it came on. This is the original 80s film, but I do have the more modern sequel Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, on official DVD no less. I'll probably watch them both, but it's the original that makes it onto the mood table. I have some of the original books too, but for Halloween reading I have other things in mind...

Going with the popular horrors of my childhood. This includes Scary Stories for Sleepovers (the book I'm most likely to actually read), a trio of Goosebumps books, and Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters. Some light, but still scary (or at least fun) reading in between other activities for this busy October.

Anyway, this was a very fun project, and I thank Matt for making this a thing. I'll certainly consider doing this again next year. In the meantime, I have more Halloween Gallery entries to come (and they will be a lot less wordy).

Halloween Gallery #8: Creepie the Clown!

It's that time again. The leaves are turning orange. The nights are getting crisp.It's getting to be Halloween time again! And, this year I'm adding some great new entries to the Halloween Gallery. Starting with this happy fellow with a free ticket to fun...

Creepie the Clown is here to start our Halloween season off right. Have a Happy Halloween!

BTW still looking for voice actors.