Psyche Delectus: Shadow Armor

In preparation for its mission,
occultation is engaged.

Saturday Sketch: Wolverine's Skeleton

I hadn't planned on exploring this as a sketch, but as things kept moving with the Magick set, I figured I owed it to Wolvy.  He doesn't actually appear in Magik, but he does show up in the Uncanny X-Men #160 issue that leads into the limited series.  He only appears for a couple of pages at the foot of Belasco's throne but I feel that any dead X-Man deserves remembrance.  His corpse doesn't hold the same emotional impact as Colossus' from the previous sketch, but the fleshless bones of Wolverine are a omen of doom all their own.

Exhumed: Open Skull

Here we have a quick sketch of a strange skull.  With the color reinvestiagtion I wanted to give it an environment to inhabit.  I figured the skull has been sitting about for quite a long time collecting dust in some dark dungeon corner. 

{Sharpie with colors added in Adobe Photoshop}

Skin Crawling Comics April Update

The Skin Crawling Comics website began earlier this year and regularly posts pages to the individual stories of the anthology every Tuesday and Thursday.  I'll be doing an update at least once a month with links to the newest pages.  Drop by and check out the latest updates!

Night Terror Page 11

No Place like Gnome Page 1

No Place like Gnome Page 2

No Place like Gnome Page 3
No Place like Gnome Page 4
No Place like Gnome Page 5
No Place like Gnome Page 6
No Place like Gnome Page 7
No Place like Gnome Page 8

If you haven't already, check out last month's pages.  Also visit Skin Crawling Comics at Twitter and Facebook!

Psyche Delectus: Walpurgisnacht

Here is an bonus Psyche Delectus piece for this week in celebration of Walpurgisnacht.  This time period is also the same as the Wiccan / Gaelic sabbat, Beltane.  A happy Spring to all!  May your bonfires burn bright!  Only 6 months now until Halloween!  :-)

From the Archives: Dance of Death and Life

Here is a sharpie sketch from long ago.  I don't remember my exact inspiration for this piece but it is one of the few feminine/female nudes I've done.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

Featured Creature: The Moonlight Calls It Forth

"We entered the graveyard in the hour after midnight and it was not long before we saw the thing.  We noticed a figure moving oddly in the shadow of a tall tree.  As we walked closer, the horror that had been a man emerged into the full light of the moon.

Its putrescence was obvious as it staggered slowly towards us.  The rancid odor coming off the thing poisoned the very air.  I covered my mouth with the neck of my shirt to keep from retching.

Psyche Delectus: Offering of the Gift

After a great distillation, 
results of the process are revealed.

Saturday Sketch: Belasco's Altar

Continuing the Magik set, here we have Belasco's altar.  Protruding from one of the towers of his citadel, this was the demon lord's high place of power.  Here the walls between Limbo and the Earth dimension were thinnest.  Illyana uses this location to return to Earth at the end of the Marvel Comics Magik limited series.

{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: The Narrator

I had an plan for this guy to narrate an ongoing series of dark comic book stories.  I may still use him for such, but I think he's gonna have to have a make over.  I'm not sure what I was thinking of with the strange and severe butt cut hairdo.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

Featured Creature: The Bunny Man

"...locals allegedly began to find hundreds of cleanly skinned, half-eaten carcasses of rabbits hanging from the trees in the surrounding areas."

Find out more about the real Bunny Man of Virginia here and oh yeah, Happy belated Easter.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Psyche Delectus: Temple of Dread

Unaided, Fear births its own children.

Saturday Sketch: Classic S'ym

Continuing the Magik set, here we have a classic version of the demon S'ym.  He acts as Belasco's main muscle in Limbo until the end of the limited series.  It was not until recently that I found out that S'ym's original conception was a tip of the hat to comics creator Dave Sim.  It had never occurred to me before I began doing research for this piece that visually S'ym is Cerebus.

{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. 

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part IX, Deidre's Warning

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part IX, 
Deidre's Warning

~ Continued from Part VIII ~

Alan fought to open his eyes.  He was warm and comfortable and sedated within ease.  He felt as though his brain were wrapped tight in a thick comforter.  There was a warm and gentle pressure against his palm.  He woke to someone holding his hand.  When he finally got his eyes to open he struggled to focus on the figure at his side.  It was Deidre.  He squinted into wakefulness and offered a weak smile.  Deidre smiled back.

"Hi."

"Hi yourself."  She leaned in closer and rested her other hand on his forearm.  They sat silently for a moment and enjoyed a quiet reunion.  They both tried to hold back, but soon there were tears.  They held on to each other in the silence for a long while.

"I came as quickly as I could."  Her eyes were glassy.  He could tell she had not slept in some time.

"How long have I been out?"

"Two days."

From the Archives: Shadowed Face

Here we have an overworked sharpie sketch.  I think the original inspiration for this was an image of Robert Plant from back in the day.  I enjoy the shadows here, but I feel like it would have been more successful if it were a bit looser.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

Saturday Sketch: Limbo Colossus

 
Here is another of the set from the Marvel Comics Magik limited series.  To me, this was one of the most horrific elements of the origin of Magik.  Frightened and lost, young Illyana Rasputin comes face to face with the corpse of her older brother Peter Rasputin, the X-men's Colossus.  Killed by the demon S'ym, his body was left imbedded in the walls of Belasco's fortress.

{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: Burning Stone Face

I do not recall the inspiration for this image, but I do enjoy the striation patterns in the face.  Perhaps this is some powered henchman of a super villain.

{8.5x11,  Graphite}

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part VIII, The Blue Chasm

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part VIII,
The Blue Chasm

~ Continued from Part VII ~

The large truck careened toward Alan.  It crushed the bookshelves and scattered books into the air as it plowed forward.  The edge of a shelf hit one of the smaller jellyfish and the thing exploded in a burst of slimy luminescence.  He turned quickly and pushed hard with his legs.  The last thing he saw as he leapt away was the creature entwined with Tim's body pressed flat against the truck's front end.  He jumped.
 

The world twisted around him and a lightning bolt of pain shot up his leg.  The library became a blur as Alan was tossed about.  He landed hard against a shelf and it fell to the ground.  The truck front flattened against the wall with a metallic grinding thud.  There was a bright flash of bluish light and the entire building shook violently.

Psyche Delectus: Imprisoned Fire

Repressive control
undermines the nature of a thing.

Saturday Sketch: Limbo Shadowcat

Here we are continuing the set of the Marvel Comics characters in the Magik limited series.  This is the Shadowcat who was left behind in Limbo and initially saves Illyana Raputin from Belasco, but in the end meets a terrible fate.  I placed her in the landscape where we see her most in the limited series, the warped desert wastelands of Limbo.

{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. 

Exhumed: The Storm

Here we have an image of an incoming storm.  With the color reinvestigation I wanted to try to capture the weight and ominousness of an approaching storm.  I also tried to simulate the odd twilight that accompanies such storms.  With such heavy cloud cover it becomes neither night nor day, but instead some dim other light.

Sorry about all the Spam

I discovered recently in my attempt to increase my traffic and draw attention to my artwork, I have inadvertently become a spammer.  During all of the updates I have been working on since December, I noticed a drop in my number of views.  Upon investigation I discovered that I've been doing some things that Google penalizes.  I had been reposting some of my work over at my tumblr, Wind of the Gods and duplicating thumbnails for monthly review posts at ARS JWC.  SEO rules are kind of nebulous as to what is effective and what is detrimental.

UPDATE: Writing Gallery

I just added a fresh set of links to the Writing Gallery, including, in the Serials section, the links so far for the ongoing Reunion at the Merrimon Library.  Check them out and let me know what you think!  I hope you enjoy!

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}

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part VII, The Rune of Banishment

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part VII, 
The Rune of Banishment 

~ Continued from Part VI ~

Alan quickly stacked the books again in the circle formation Tim had originally created.  The things behind the wall had begun emitting a sickening blue light that vibrated like the light from the jellyfish creatures but it gave him more than enough illumination to find Die Tür Des Bösen amongst the scattered volumes.  He frantically flipped the pages until he found the illustration with the banishing rune.  To draw the rune, Alan chose a spot on the wall adjacent to the bulging shapes.  He ran over the banishing ritual in his head adding the name of the rune, Eisott Mudulica.  He took a deep breath.

Just then the wall beside him bowed out about two feet.  It pulsed barely inches from from his face.  Thick drops of jelly dripped from it.  Alan's breath came in sharp short gasps.  As the wall stretched thin he could see a massive shape beyond , another creature like the others, but as large as a truck.  It pushed hard against the skin of the wall, but luckily the barrier held.  The monstrous shape on the other side retracted and the wall fell back into place.  However, the skin of the wall sagged slightly this time, like an empty balloon.

Psyche Delectus: Purson

All that is hidden, he sees.

Saturday Sketch: Classic Stepping Discs

Here's another in the Magik set.  I hadn't really planned on giving this one it's own post, but the stepping discs play a fairly pivotal role in the tale of Illyana Rasputin.

Skin Crawling Comics March Update

The Skin Crawling Comics website began recently and will be posting pages to the individual stories of the anthology every Tuesday and Thursday.  I'll be doing an update at least once a month with links to the newest pages.  Check out the latest updates!

Night Terror Page 3

Night Terror Page 4

Night Terror Page 5

Night Terror Page 6
Night Terror Page 7
Night Terror Page 8
Night Terror Page 9
Night Terror Page 10

If you haven't already, check out last month's pages.  Also visit Skin Crawling Comics at Twitter and Facebook!

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}

Psyche Delectus: I am TV

In its dim light, darkness is revealed.

Saturday Sketch: Belasco's Citadel

There are very few shots of Belasco's citadel within the issues of the Marvel Comics limited series Magik.  Drawn by several different artists, each version they drew of the citadel was different.  I took several images of the citadel as reference and married them all together.