Artwork

Run the Gauntlet

by

This is all I got for ya this week. It’s an old perspective assignment from my Drawing I class. Also happens to be the hallway to my bathroom, minus the holes and knives of course. My favorite part of doing this drawing was finding the mix of handles for the assorted sharp objects.

Next week I should have book covers. Hopefully all the books in Angels Dark and Dumb will also be published/republished. I’m also writing an informative blog post for the ArmLin House Production blog on the remaking of a book series. So far, I’ve acquired the experience of changing my author name from W. J. Howard to Winnie Jean Howard along with changing the series name, two things that kinda make it time consuming to publish. It’s also taken me way too long to write each of the books. Oh yeah, and my experience with way too many publishers for book 1. Blah blah blah…forever complaining about this series. Truth is I like to do things the hard way.

Saw the new Evil Dead Rise this week too. I give it an average review. As I would, I really wanted more comedic moments. Thing I liked most about the movie was the dark and dreary atmosphere and setting. High budget, so of course the special effects were done well. Not gross or shocking enough for me, but good mainstream horror movie.

Enjoy your week!

Lydia Deetz is Done

by

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

by

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.

Revisiting a School Project Featuring the Grim Reaper

by

This week I’m revisiting a project from school a few years ago. I did this for my Illustration class. Believe it or not, Zap It! is a real product for swatting flies. Google it! We had to take the style from another artist and make an ad in that style for a modern day product. As usual, horror comedy was a theme in my work. As you may have guess, this was done in Adobe Illustrator.

For the artist, I chose Aubrey Beardsley, one of my favorites, who died way before he was able to truly fulfill his potential. He created illustrations for Oscar Wilde, which is another reason to love him. And Beardsley was a huge contributor to starting poster art, so choosing his style for something like this is kinda a given.

Why share it now? Because I’d like to start a series of grim reapers. Why a series of grim reapers? Because I wrote a short story about the Grim Reaper’s son that I outlined into a book. Hmmm… Is there a pattern with me here? Writing stories about sons and fathers. Actually, I’ve written quite a few short stories about Grim. I should drag them all out and reread them.

Otherwise, I’ve made no progress on Angels Dark and Dumb except for some work on cover copy. Covers are still being revitalized. And Lydia Deetz is in the works and will hopefully be in next week’s status post. Have a great week!

The Missing Ladies of Horror

by

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.