Saturday Sketch: Original Moon Knight

Here we have the original Moon Knight as he first appeared in Werewolf By Night.  I've always enjoyed how Moon Knight looks a bit like the iconic American ghost image.  With his covered face and mostly white costume, he has always had an otherworldly aura to me.  This version of his costume was fun to research as before I drew this piece I was mostly familiar with the version from the Bill Sienkiewicz run in the 80's.

{2.5x3.5,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

I claim no copyright for the properties represented in the Saturday Sketches.  All copyrights and trademarks are retained by their respective owners.  I make no money from what I am presenting here.  It is presented for portfolio and appreciation purposes only.

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}

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Throne of the Moon

"The throne shimmered with an eerie glow as the aperture in the ceiling opened.  The full light of the moon fell in a fan across the chamber.  In that delicate pallor a figure was revealed.  It was nearly invisible in its transparency.  In the radiance of the throne I could see inside it as though I were viewing a living xray. 

From the Sketchbook Archives: Halloween Poster Pieces

Here are some unused sketches and color elements for a Halloween poster from several years ago.  Much of the imagery here is inspired by early twentieth century Halloween paraphernalia.

From the Archives: Moon Cocoon

An exploration of Sharpies and Prismacolor pencils.  I forget my actual motivation at the time I did this piece, but I remember thinking it strange even as I was drawing it.  Usually the moon lends itself towards cooler colors, but here the solar set of analogous colors appears.  An ambiguity of questions pervade the piece..flame or gauze wrapping?  Moth?  Mummified person or Homunculus?  An odd piece all around.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Winged Cat Demon

Here is another of the rescanned images from the sketchbook.  On this one, the scan was so much better than the photo I took, I didn't have to touch up the image at all.  Please check out the old post and compare.

From the Sketchbook Archives: Winged Cat Demon

Another from the sketchbooks.  Quick sketch of a cat demon thingie.  I figured they would still chase twitchy little rodents even if they had bat wings.  As you can see, I never decided on the tail.  Also, I think this might be a dark aspect of my personality when I get too dehydrated.

{Sharpie}


UPDATE:

Another update from the Rescans.  On this one, the scan was so much better than the photo I took, I didn't have to touch up the image at all.  On the first image, I had to adjust the brightness, contrast, and sharpness. Here you can see the molten deliciousness of the Sharpie where I filled in the blacks.  It looks almost exactly like the original image.  ...mmmmm Sharpie.  :-)

Return of the Lord of the Forest

From the Archives: Portfolio 2001 Front Cover

In 2001, I took all of my current artwork and created my portfolio for the year.  Sadly, this and most of the digital pieces from that portfolio were lost to the Hunger of the Zip Disks.  I finally figured out that the zip disk scramble must have happened around the last quarter of 2001 or at some time in 2002 because I made this portfolio to show at Dragoncon in August of 2001. 

I was very lucky recently to discover I still had a physical copy of this portfolio.  I was able to scan several images from it.  After scanning, I had to touch it up a bit due to dust and scratches, but the most of the image integrity is still intact.  It is a bit dark, but so was the original Photoshop file.  Those are my hands in the background.  If I remember correctly, everything else was created in Photoshop.  The Moon image/card in the center is from my business card at the time, but here it is inverted from its original values.  I wanted to create an artificial space that would give a feeling of Mystery and Magick in its artificiality.  I hoped to add to that by confronting the viewer with something that is at first glance seems mostly normal, but upon closer inspection is challenging to understand. 

There is always such a strange relationship between my business cards and my portfolios.  They trade off themes very readily and sometimes dominate each other.  My two favorite portfolios so far have taken their themes from my preexisting business cards.   This portfolio and my current one both followed themes that I had used on the business cards prior to making the portfolio.  I don't currently have a copy of my business card from this time frame but I will find it and post.  :-)  My current card is here.

{Digital Images manipulated in Photoshop}

Changing Course

When I originally started this blog, it was simply to display my general artwork.  At that particular point in my life, things were fairly dark and bleak, so that was the theme that I chose.  Things have changed somewhat.  

Zombiebites will still be the home of my shadowy works, but I will no longer be posting anything other than my darker pieces here.  This will now become the home for my horror works, my works involving fear and darker emotions, for all my Dark Arts.  I'm going to leave the older pieces that are not of the horror genre intact to avoid any kind of confusion or complicated relinking.  From this point forward though, Trail of Bread Crumbs will host all my work that has a spiritual and philosophical bent and EXP3 will host all of work focused specifically on graphic design.

I will have to consider if this blog is going to receive an adult rating though.  If I am truly going to explore my shadows in this space, I may need to apply that filter as in the shadowy realms things can get a bit...unpleasant.  We'll see what time brings.

{Created in Adobe Photoshop}