From The Archives: Devil May Care

Here's an older quick sketch of a devilish character.  My original intent for the character was as a rogue hero or a villain.  That may still happen.  I have several stories that he would fit nicely into.

{8x5.75,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Black Tongue

This is a development sketch for a character called Black Tongue.  Black Tongue is a goblin of negative thinking.  It is the voice that tells you everything that is "wrong" with yourself.

{8x5.77,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Moon Mystery

Done in an older contour style, here is a sketch of an embodiment of the mystery of the moon.  There is an echo of ancient Egyptian style to the imagery and a faint feeling of the Goddess Isis within the image.  These choices were not intentional at the time.  I often drew in this style ecstatically with no planned intention when I began drawing.  I would just begin drawing to see what emerged.  This process is what evolved into the process I use to create the pieces within the Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum.

{8x5.78,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Paperclip Bird

Here's an older sketch of a creepy bird thing.  I've always found it especially disturbing when inanimate objects start moving around of their own volition.

{8.5x11, Graphite}

From the Archives: Naga

I've always been disturbed by snake creatures with humanoid heads.  I think at the time I drew this that I may have had something more complex in mind, but it never went any further than this.

{8.5x11,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Lich

Here's a creepy Lich sketch from some time ago for a fantasy story I was working on at the time.

{8.5x11,  Graphite}

UPDATE 031915:

This piece was Exhumed and reinvestigated with color in February 2015.  Check out the Exhumed image here.

From the Archives: Nosferatu

Drawn around the same time as last week's gargoyle, here we have a graphite sketch of an elder Nosferatu.

{8.5x11, Graphite}

From the Archives: Gargoyle

Here is a graphite sketch from some time ago of a gargoyle type creature.  Perhaps this is how some of the inmates of Arkham Asylum perceive Batman...

{8.5x11,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Devil Head

Here is a quick sketch of a devil's head.  I've always been fond of the design quality of light emitting from within the eyes and mouth of a dark face.

{Sharpie}

From the Archives: Horned Goblin

I don't remember the exact inspiration for this strange horned goblin.  Considering its fluid physiology, perhaps the creature is in mid transformation into some other form.  I do remember that its gleeful malice was intentional.

{8x5.75,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Hyenaman

Here we have a sketch from some time ago of a man animal.  Initially my thought was of a hyena, but this isn't very hyena like at all.  Perhaps he is just a smug werewolf instead?  Now that I think about it, this looks a little bit like Scar from The Lion King.

{Graphite}

From the Archives: Hangerman

I forget the exact inspiration for this sketch, but I'm sure it had something to do with shallowness.  How certain person's identities are little more than a support structure for the surface window dressing they surround themselves with.  Perhaps this may be a thought on the human ego in general.

{8x4.8,  Graphite}

From the Archives: Thauros

This is a character design sketch for an ongoing dark comic series I've had for some time.  I'm not sure if it will ever see print, but here's a taste at least.  This is the dark prince of Unter, Thauros.  I couldn't seem to get a good scan without the mark making showing up.  My scanner just sees right through the sharpie on that particular kind of paper.  I tweaked the scanned image in Photoshop to get it a bit closer to what the original image looks like.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: Burning

An older sharpie and marker sketch.  When I first discovered color sharpies I was so in love.  Here we have the beginnings of some of my more psychedelic coloring but on one my standard angry faces.

{8x11,  Sharpie and various markers}

Exhumed: FEAR

Here we have explorations of an older sketch for a fear logo.  Whereas most of the other Exhumed pieces have been about simply adding color to develop the image further, here I've taken the idea from the original sketch and constructed an entirely new design. 

{8x5.33,  Created in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: FEAR

Here is a quick graphite sketch for a logo design or larger art piece.  Perhaps in time it will become both.  Check this week's Exhumed post for my current thoughts on this idea.

{8.5 x11,  Graphite}

UPDATE 022614:

This piece was Exhumed and reinvestigated with color in February 2014.  Check out the Exhumed image here.

From the Archives: The Ghostly Princess of Mirrors

The Ghostly Princess of Mirrors was cursed long ago.  The curse forced her into a strange endless limbo.  Her transparent metallic face takes on the aspects and appearance of the person to whom she is speaking, but her eyes are always closed.

From the Archives: Beyond

Gestational processes seem to be my focus this month.  Influenced by H.R. Giger in my teens by his work on the movie Alien, I used to draw these pseudo-sexual techno organic pieces.  I do not draw them as much anymore, but that idea is at the base of much of what I do and how I approach my art.

{Sharpie}