Ladies of Horror

Having a Proud Artist Moment

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Finished another Lady of Horror this week. Fatso is a character in the Casper movie released in 1995 that includes Christina Ricci as one of the main characters. Fatso is in drag as Amelia, her deceased mother, to fool her father. Very very funny scene! I watch the movie every Halloween. Brad Garrett does the voice of Fatso perfectly! Interesting fact, Casper was “the first feature film to have a fully computer-generated visual effects character in a leading role.”

The Ladies of Horror series is a mix of feminine horror actors done in a Patrick Nagel style, although I kept the integrity of the character because Fatso wouldn’t look good without depth. I started these to better learn the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, and they’ve become an obsession. Now, with this one, I’ve mastered gradients…well kinda. If there’s a lady in a horror movie or TV show you’d like to see, leave her in a comment.

While this is my first try at a major use of gradients in Adobe Illustrator, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Can’t wait to start a new project with gradients! Not at all sure what I want to do, but I feel it should be something original. Maybe I’ll try the Grim Reaper, who is a character I’ve mentioned in a book I wrote awhile back but never published. I want to revisit the book as a graphic novel.

No news on Angels Dark and Dumb. The cover artist is still working on the updates, but she’s getting close. Until next week…

Fatso Progress

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Took the entire weekend off last week for the first time in months to enjoy Mother’s Day and play with real paints and digital drawings. Here’s a digital drawing start of Fatso, one of the obnoxious ghosts from the Casper movie. Remember it? I watch it every Halloween month, mostly because I’m a huge Christina Ricci fan. Such a fun movie. This is from a hilarious scene where he becomes the deceased mother of Christina Ricci to kiss her father.

Fatso’s part of my Ladies of Horror series where I take a well known female horror character and turn her into a Patrick Nagel painting. I’m getting kinda bored with the tracings, so this has been extra fun to do. Taking me a bit of time to work on because I’m not the greatest with gradients yet. The character just works so much better with depth. Took me forever to get the hair the way I like it, and as a critical artist, I could five you a list of things I still hate about it. Hoping to get it done before next week’s status.

Big news on Angels Dark and Dumb. I’ve changed the name of the third book based on some critique advice I got from a writer friend. Originally the title was Cause for Redemption. The title goes well with Call for Obstruction and Warrant for Damnation, it following a similar pattern of words. But, again, it kinda has a lack of comedy feel. So, I’m changing the title to something I came up with a while back. Are you ready for it? Big reveal…

On the Corner of Hell and Second Chances

What do you think? It actually goes well with the titles for the three next books in the series. Yes, I’ve gotten as far in naming and detailing the ideas for them. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another 10 years to see them published.

Lydia Deetz is Done

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She’s done! Lydia Deetz was fun and a little challenging, which is a good thing. I had the most fun with her hair. She is one of my favorite characters in horror comedy movies because I can relate to my favorite quote by her in Beetlejuice…

“I, myself, and strange and unusual.”

Not much else other than the freebie running for Angels Dark & Dumb in the previous blog post. Again, Call for Obstruction will be off of the KindleUnlimited program going forward. I want it available in more stores. Fall for Freedom will remain on the program. Boring news I’m dumping on you twice.

Otherwise, I won’t drone on about my recent bout with the flu and the worst sore throat ever. Oops! I just did. Anyway, have a great week!

Elvira’s in the House

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Here she is…Elvira. I love the way her eyes turned out. She’s quite suited for this style. I feel like I shorted her though. Elvira needs her boobs and dress and legs to really be represented properly. I may do her that way sometime in the future. She’s such a great character full bodied.

What else is up? More like what else is complete and ready to debut. Well, nothing. It’s funny how you can be very very busy and seem to not get anything done. That’s why I revisited my list of projects and am trying to stay focused on getting only one image in a series done at a time. Holly crap! What a list I’ve got.

Until next week, enjoy the Mistress of the Dark. She’s got me all caught up on sharing the Ladies of Horror in my blog. I’ll be back next week with Lydia Deetz…hopefully. She’s my main focus and almost done.

The Missing Ladies of Horror

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It occurred to me that I haven’t posted the 1st two Ladies of Horror here in the blog, so that’s what I’m posting this week with my usual status or rant. As you can see, it’s Lilly Munster and the Bride of Frankenstein. One thing I’ve noticed is that they are getting better with each one I do. Everything was flat for these ladies and I’ve been playing with gradients with the more current ladies. I’ve also been getting braver on making changes to some of the line work. I finished Elvira, but you won’t see her here until next week or so. She’s up on Deviant Art @meanwinniejean if you want to see her there. I’ll always reveal the new ladies there first going forward. BTW, Lydia Deetz is in the works.

What else is up? I’m trying to find direction or training on how to draw zombies. I have this expectation that zombies need to look the scientific way of decomposition and that someone out there has created detailed instructions on how this works and how it should be drawn at various stages. Seems I’m sadly mistaken or need your help finding what I’m searching for. I spent a number of hours last week looking for blogs or YouTube videos that instruct in this way, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. I did find How to Draw Zombies video by David Finch that I should mention. Best part of the video is early on, when he goes over the usual stances for zombies. I found the rest of the video okay. It just got a little boring to watch because it was so long. I also felt the main zombie he drew was washed out. I really want to learn how to draw flesh wounds and shrinkage that pops.

Otherwise, covers are still under renovation, and there are a few other projects in the works that you’ll have to wait to see and hear about until next week. See you then.