Exhumed: Dead Wolf

This piece was orginally posted within the Featured Creature weekly posts.  I updated the black and white with a greyscale version shortly after.  The Exhumed color piece here isn't too far away from the tonal version due to the muted nighttime lighting, but I feel the texture and depth here are much stronger.  Actually, getting the colors muted was a bit of a challenge for me with this piece.  No matter what combinations I used, everything seemed too intense for moonlight.  It wasn't until I began bringing in the fog textures that the colors finally calmed into what you see here.

{8x5.57,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Skin Crawling Comics February Update

The Skin Crawling Comics website began in January 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!

The Basement Page 6

The Basement Page 7

The Basement Page 8

The Basement Page 9

The Basement Page 10

Proposed Print cover for SCC

Night Terror Page 1

Night Terror Page 2

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

From the Archives: Body of Wounds

Here we have a study for some future piece.  A digital sketch painting from Photoshop of a skinless body.  I have to admit a certain level of pure play here because I have fallen in love with the painting brushes in Photoshop.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part V, Illumination

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part V, Illumination

~ Continued from Part IV ~

Alan sat for several long moments with his back against one of the bookshelves for support.  He slumped to a sitting position and watched the jellyfish creatures, trying not to look at Tim.  The vibrating light from the creatures pulsed in a slow rhythm, casting odd patterns on the walls.  The fearsome shapes that Alan had seen earlier beyond the egg were appearing now on the wall above where the circle had been.  He watched as massive shapes slithered beneath the surface of the wall.  His throat closed up with rising panic.   He took deep slow breaths to quiet the quivering fear within him.

When Alan had moved out of range of the creatures he realized that he still clutched the copy of Die Tür Des Bösen in his good hand.  Alan scoured the book.  He struggled to see in the momentary flashes from passing cars, but could not read in the quickly fading light.  The sleet ticked against the window incessantly, rising and falling with the wind. 

Featured Creature: In the Fields

"Its arms rose and fell like a carnival ride as it moved around the fields.  It twisted back on itself like a slow moving tornado.  A thin cloud of dust danced behind it.  There was a whining noise coming from the thing, like the howl of wind inside a drafty house.  It was covered in baleful red eyes and no matter where I walked they seemed to always face towards me.

Psyche Delectus: Entrance

A pause of reflection proceeds the movement into mystery.

Saturday Sketch: Limbo Nightcrawler

I've decided to do an entire set around the characters involved in the Magik limited series from Marvel Comics.  Here we have the Nightcrawler left in Limbo who was corrupted by Belasco's influence and became his evil slave.

 {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: Nightboy

Here I've exhumed a portrait of the Nightboy.  With this reinvestigation, I chose to remove the black sketchy blot in the background and replace it with some scenery to give the image greater depth.  I also chose a very dark muted palette to reflect nighttime lighting.  I tried to soften the image a bit with the muted colors. However, my original drawing is so stiff I never quite got beyond it.

{8x6.02,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Host of the Dead

This piece was part of the development for the Night of the Cauldron event, but it never become more than this interesting sketch of lurking spirits.  I wanted some kind of fantastic fiction to go with it, but nothing ever developed.  I really enjoy the ominous feeling here.  I may still make a story from it eventually.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Bristol

Featured Creature: Eye of the Dead

"It is said that all succumb to the light of the Oculi Mortui save the wielder of the lantern.  A favored artifact of thieves and assassins, those exposed to it's light are drained of vitality and fall into a state of paralytic torpidity.  After the lantern's passing, they wake at the next sunrise exhausted and disoriented.  Horrible dreams have been recorded by those who have been exposed to it.  Sleepers are assailed by visions of terrible lifeless vistas where the wind ceaselessly howls."

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

9 Years

Happy Birthday to Zombie Bites!

It has only been nine years since I began posting, but it seems like a lifetime ago.  To commemorate the occasion, I've created this image including a combination of elements from The Moon and The Hermit cards of the major arcana of the Tarot.  I included the Hermit as card nine of the major arcana and the Moon due to its correspondences with the ninth sephirah of the Kabbalah, Yesod.

Psyche Delectus: Shadow Priest

He seeks truth in forgotten spaces.

Saturday Sketch: Classic Bloodstone Medallion

Here is my first object of power for the Saturday Sketches, the bloodstone medallion. Belasco used the bloodstones to bind Illyana Rasputin to his evil intentions.  I've rendered it as it appeared at the end of the Marvel Comics limited series, Magik, with three of the five bloodtsones in place.

{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: Grahtennas

Here is the color version of a previous sketch of the demonic arch duke Grahtennas.  In the first portrait of Grahtennas I posted the intensity of color was much greater, but that piece was more of a depiction of the essence of Grahtennas.  Here, I toned down the intensity of the color to lend it a more atmospheric sense of space. 

{8x5.33,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Face of Wrath

I was originally developing this piece to be included in the Night of the Cauldron event from last Halloween, but it never coalesced into anything more than this sketch.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Doctor Theodore Mars

"At the time of his incarceration, Doctor Mars was in the process of surgically reconstructing live human subjects into complex and unnatural forms.  Investigation of his laboratory revealed that he had been performing these operations for an as yet undetermined number of years.  It is suspected that he was conducting his procedures at multiple clandestine locations and that the full catalog of his victims has yet to be uncovered and identified."

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Psyche Delectus: The Plains of Despair

And in that place, dawn never comes.

Saturday Sketch: Belasco

I first heard about Marvel's, Belasco in New Mutants 14 volume one and later saw the demon lord later in the Magik limited series.  He's always kind of freaked me out for his ability to corrupt.  I've never read the Ka-Zar issues where he first appeared but I do enjoy him as a demonic villain.

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}

UPDATE: From the Archives

 

From the Archives is growing up!  From the Archives has left Other Features and blossomed into it's own gallery.  Although currently only a partial sampling of all the From the Archives posts, I'll be updating regularly with fresh links!  Check it out and let me know what you think!

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.

Featured Creature: After the Storm

"The morning after the storm, they found them hanging from porches and trees, car bumpers and the sides of bridges, fences and clotheslines.  No one knew what they were, but by nightfall, everyone knew."

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Psyche Delectus: Encounter in the Hallways of Loss

It is impossible to resist the current.

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part IV, From Beyond the Gate

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part IV, From Beyond the Gate

~ Continued from Part III ~

Alan put his hands under Tim's arms and dragged him away from the circle as quickly as possible.  With the only light coming from the windows now, the corner had become an abyss of pitch.  Through the windows, Alan could see that the buildings across the street were dark as well.  Only passing car headlights and the darkening grey sky offered any illumination.

"Get up Tim!  C'mon Timothy, You've got to get on your feet!  We've got to get out of here!"  Tim managed to get his feet beneath him and he and Alan rushed towards the table.  Nonetheless, Alan kept hold of one arm to support him.

Alan had begun sweating profusely.  He knew that this was only the beginning and if he could not get he and Tim back to his house and within the arcane protections surrounding it, they were both in mortal danger.  First, though, they had to get out of the building.  

As they reached the table, Alan made sure Tim could stand on his own and grabbed his backpack.  He directed Tim to his own jacket and kept his eye on the dark passage to the restrooms for any sign of movement.  From the pack, he procured the book Tim had been reading earlier, Die Tür Des Bösen.  He hoped he could find some indication of what Tim had been exposed to that could lead him to devising some form of defense.

Saturday Sketch: Golden Age Doctor Fate

A classic version of one of my favorite sorcerers DC Comics, Doctor Fate.  

{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: The Collapse

This piece was originally done to simulate a woodcut but in the color version I kind of left all that behind.  I wanted to accentuate the dying of the light with this piece.  However, as I finished this I realized there is a quality of discovery here as  well.  The uncovered ancient corpse.  eep.

{8x6.59,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part III, The Ritual

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part III, The Ritual

~ Continued from Part II ~

 
Alan sat and returned to copying his notes.  He quickly went through several pages, glancing up sporadically to watch Tim's reactions as he was reading.  Timothy sat with his legs crossed and the thick volume cradled in his lap.  He had taken off his coat and draped it across the back of the chair.  Alan took a secret pleasure in watching his friend as the sequence of realization and understanding played across his features.

At first Tim's eyes darted plainly back and forth as he read with a veiled disdain.  As he continued to read, a squinting confusion settled upon him.  His eyebrows furrowed together.  Slowly that confusion blossomed into a genuine interest and his page turning increased.  His eyes grew narrow with focus and intent.  Alan focused on his own work for awhile and copied several more pages of notes before looking up again.