UPDATE: Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum

I just completed another update to the Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum gallery. Thumbnails for all 2012 posts are now up in their entirety.  I hope you enjoy!

Psyche Delectus: Church of the Burden

Minds shut tight like maidens of iron,
their bodies were only ever formed
to service the dissolution
of their God's hunger.

Saturday Sketch: Classic Hellcat

Marvel Comics Hellcat, Patsy (Walker) Hellstrom, was one of the first female heroines I read as a kid.  There was something about her simple design and bright primary colored costume that called to me.  Her later marriage to the Son of Satan and connection to demonic forces also made her very intriguing.

{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 purposes only.  

Exhumed: Dark Magus

This piece was originally posted on EXP3 back when I was still posting artwork there.  In the original sketch the character was a villain from a fantasy story.  In the color rework, I feel like he has taken on a more mythic quality.  Now he seems more like the dark magus of the plains of sorrow or some such title.  For this rework, I added elements from another older sketch that this seemed to echo in tone. 

{8x5.33,  Graphite with Color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From The Archives: Loose Zombie Head Sketch

Here we have the last of loose zombie sketches.  Because of the size of this sketch, I had to piece it together from multiple scans.  It came through mostly okay, but there are a few patches of variation between the scans.  This piece is the last of the loose zombie sketches.

{11x17,  Graphite}

Featured Creature: Gift of the Pyxis

Sigurd and Donna were fighting again.  Behind me, at the second table of artifacts, they stood over the ancient box that had been found at the new dig site and all but spat in each others faces.  An inscription translation was the item of contention this time.  I tried to concentrate on translating the runes on the sword in front of me, but they continued to escalate.

Professor Lincoln wasn't at camp today and in his absence they always went after each other.  They had not liked each other from the moment they had met.  A week in the cramped quarters of the base camp had not helped their temperaments at all.  Any professional courtesy had quickly withered until only venomous disagreement remained.  All common ground was lost.

"The inscription clearly calls this chest the Pyxis of Union!"  Sigurd said with derision.  Donna sighed heavily and flipped several pages in her notebook.  She read from her notes and glared back at Sigurd.

"The rune for death and transfiguration is clearly displayed at several key points on the chest.  It is the Pyxis of Death!"

Psyche Delectus: Red Wizard in the Grey Temple

In that forgotten place,
he became the flickering flame
at the heart of the lantern.

Saturday Sketch: Classic Mephisto

I always found something very unsettling about Mephisto whenever he'd show up in a classic Marvel Comics story.  Beyond the fact that the implication was that he was THE Devil, his presentation was always creepy.  All these years I've never been able to put my finger on it exactly.  

UPDATE: Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum

Just a quick heads up from the Psyche Delectus Tenebrarum.  I've added more links for posts from September 2012 - December 2012 at the bottom of the thumbnail gallery and more images to the slideshow.  I hope you enjoy!

Exhumed: Searching The Stars

This piece was always about vastness and immensity, so with the color, I tried to push the depth of the space within the piece further.  Also I feel that with the color I was able to give the figure in the foreground a bit more substance and form as opposed to the heavily designed shapes in the black and white version.  I apologize for the lack of darkness or horror here.  Exhumed is about previous posts and as much as I try to keep Zombie Bites completely dark, sometimes the light just slips in.

{11x14,  Ink and white acrylic with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Loose Chunky Zombie

Here's another loose zombie sketch with a chunky undead emerging from some bloody chamber of horrors.  With this one I had a bit of trouble getting it scanned.  The original drawing was fairly light and on a heavier stock paper.  This sketch had been folded like several other pieces from this month and the creases were very dramatic in the scan.  I had to play around in Photoshop a bit to erase the creases.

{11x17,  Graphite}

Featured Creature: The Shard

"Nick.  I've found something, something amazing."

Tony looked ill.  His skin was very pale and his eyes had dark circles beneath them.  His hair was disheveled and he had obviously been wearing his wrinkled tee shirt and jeans for several days.  As we walked across campus, he developed a slick sheen of sweat on his face and neck.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"That doesn't matter.  What I found is gonna change everything!"  He raised his arms up as danced around euphorically.

We turned the corner of the mathematics building and moved around the backside, a shortcut through the faculty parking lot to the cafeteria.  The building butted up against a large grassy field at the edge of the university property.  Birds chirped and danced in the sunlit grass. I enjoyed the warm afternoon air despite Tony's cryptic euphoria.

Psyche Delectus: In the Bloodlands

Even the soil weeps
for the imperative horror of life
on those blighted plains.