Artwork

Revisiting a School Project Featuring the Grim Reaper

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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

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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.

Improved Covers on the Way

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Azael the Fallen Angel in the Angels Dark and Dumb Series

I’m really starting to enjoy writing these weekly reports. This weeks should be short though. While I had a very busy week, it was filled with communications with my Angels Dark and Dumb cover artist, R L Treadway at Atrtink, who has been creating my covers for years. She does the amazing character drawings for me as well. This is Azael, who is the antagonist in Fall for Freedom, Warrant for Damnation, and Cause for Redemption along with Margery the Demon. Besides changing the series name, she’ll be doing a minor overhaul of my covers to make them more colorful. Can’t wait to see how they turn out. I highly suggest her if you need any kind of artwork.

Anyway, I learned that changing the name of a series requires the publication of a new edition. So, yes, I’ll be doing this for the 3rd time. Figure I’ll rewrite descriptions and do all the work needed to refresh the series too, which means it’ll take a few weeks to publish Warrant for Damnation along with the others.

In other news, I created a Deviant Art account @meanwinniejean. Drop by and watch me. I’m hoping to upload all in the Ladies of Horror this week.

And finally, I posted an interview with myself on my company blog under my real name. Go to Interview with Wendy Spurlin, Founder of ArmLin House to learn more about the real me.

I guess this wasn’t as short as I expected. Have a great week!

Welcome & What’s Happening

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Howdy all! It’s been a long time! I have overhauled the site and will be active again on my blog. Every week I’ll share what I’m up to along with things I recommend you check out like I have in the past. So, here’s what’s been happening lately.

Warrant for Damnation, The Courier Book 2

It’s finally happening. I’m doing the final formatting, and the Warrant for Damnation EPUB will be published soon. Sorry, no date. In fact, there will be very little marketing for the book until book 3 is done. Considering how long it took me to finish Warrant for Damnation, dates are just not on my agenda. I will say that I’m actively writing Cause for Redemption and will share it here like I have the other books.

I’ll be giving away copies of Warrant for Damnation to anyone who signs up for my email list, so stay tuned on how to get a free copy.

My Artwork on Social Media

I’ve been playing with these collages that I release on social media every couple weeks. See my links below if you’d like them in your feed.

They are loads of fun to do and easy as well. I do them on Canva, which is becoming easier and easier to use to do these types of graphics.

I’m also releasing the Ladies of Horror in Patrick Nagel’s style from the 80s on social media as well.

After returning to school to become a graphic designer, it’s important to me to keep the artistic designs flowing.

How to Help Me This Week

Every week, I end my status report by nicely begging you to help promote my work. This week I’ll just put you on the spot to follow me on social media. Still at the same sites, but also on TikTok now, although there’s a pretty pathetic offering there. More soon because I LOVE creating short videos.

Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~ TikTok

Thank you and have a GREAT week!