The Vampire Lovers

So, I haven't posted any Hammer film fan art in awhile so here's a good way to (almost) end the year. 'The Vampire Lovers' from 1970. This is one of my faves, and Ingrid Pitt is just fantastic in this one.

Make wise decisions this Holiday Season...

Well, I probably should have posted this before Christmas, but it's still the 'holiday season', so remember: Make wise decisions. I will have a few other posts before the end of the year, sort of a 2009 dump. Not to make light these posts, it's just a few things I didn't get around to posting because of the big Halloween Countdown. So stay tuned...

Animala at Christmas

I posted recently about 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra' and posted my first 'Animala' piece. I did another one, just in time for the Holidays. Oooooh, Shiny indeed!

Twilight Madness??

Here's something I know nothing about. 'Twilight'. I decided to go ahead and do a piece for this weeks Art Jumble topic & this is what happened to be the topic. My feelings about this final piece are luke warm. Lately I'm finding myself unable to get excited about my personal work. Hopefully that will change soon. I think I'm beginning to pressure myself too much, thus the process isn't fun anymore. And that's bad, because it's suppose to be fun for me. That's why I started up drawing again. I am thinking about doing some pieces that are related to cartoons & toys from my childhood, that may prove to be quite fun. We shall see.

Any way, I've never seen 'Twilight' but I'll admit that I'm curious about all the hype. To get the general idea of what the first movie is about, I settled for the 30 Second Bunnies version.

No YouTube on this one, if you want to watch it, follow the link.

A Christmas Story

Here's something about Christmas that I like, 'A Christmas Story'. It is probably my favorite Christmas movie. Has nice up lifting feeling without being to sappy or syrupy. Every year TNT runs the movie for 24 hours starting Christmas Eve night. So if you've never seen it, this will be your best opportunity.

Blue Steele

Even though I've posted several things over the last couple of days, I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a rut. My sketches don't seem to be working out the way I would like them to, and my main source material (my monster movie books), have just about exhausted themselves. So what's the perfect thing to tackle when you're having trouble making things work? Draw one of the people whose likeness gives you the most trouble. That's what I did. I drew a Barbara Steele a few months back, and while graphically it was pretty nice, the likeness wasn't all that great. I like this one much better. It actually kind of looks like her now.
I'm still working on some commission pieces and trying to work on some other personal pieces. I'm also trying to join Art Jumble, as I am already thinking about my 2010 New Year's Resolution, and how I would like to take on that challenge. I am still waiting to hear back from the administrators there. (fingers crossed ladies & gents).

Rower!

I'm a huge fan of Larry Blamire's film 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra', and I'm surprised at myself for not getting around to drawing some of this films great characters before now. This is a very 'toon-style' version of Animala, the woman made from 4 forest animals. I did a sketch of the Betty character some time ago, but haven't gotten around to making a final. I have so many ideas of 'Lost Skeleton' pieces that I would like to do, I guess I will just get around to them as I can. So this is Animala 1.0.

And if you've never heard of 'Lost Skeleton', check out the trailer below:

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!

Well, Thanksgiving has arrived! The end of the fall/harvest season. Today I will be enjoying MST3K and having a faux turkey roast and a terrific broccoli casserole. My little festive drawing is inspired by two sources.

1) A rare cartoon from 1949 I read about on the Cartoon Brew blog called 'The 3 Minnies: Sota, Tonka, and Ha-Ha'. You can read more about it here. This post was from June of 2007, and sadly the video link no longer works. But I swear that I have seen this when I was a kid. Anyway I fell in love with this still.

and 2) This terrific vintage Thanksgiving greeting card. Last month I posted a link to the Flickr account of a vintage collector riptheskull. He has a terrific collection of vintage Halloween Items, and he also has a great collection of vintage Thanksgiving cards. I really enjoyed looking thru these, some of them seem very Halloween-ish. Here are a few examples:

I also wanted to share this old Ub Iwerks cartoon 'Jack Frost' from 1934. This is one of my favorites to watch around this time of year. I really love the singing Jack o Lanterns & the scarecrow.

Now, that Thanksgiving has arrived tomorrow Christmas will completely take over. Ug! Now, I'm not a Christmas hater. The biggest problem that I have with Christmas is that stores try to push their merchandise earlier & earlier each year. I hate going into a store to look at Halloween stuff, only to find that there is Christmas stuff out as well. And of course between now and the end of the year, I will do everything in my power to stay away from Holiday Shopping areas. But there are things about Christmas that I do like. And I'm thinking about doing a Christmas Countdown of sorts. Or maybe a '25 Things About Christmas that I Like'. So that should be a fun little experiment. Stay Tuned, and hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Day!

It's almost here...

I have been super busy this past week. My current new job is particularly demanding, so this past week I've done nothing but sleep, work, sleep. Some times eat. Maybe. So now I have a few days off to recover & enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be getting up in the morning to watch the Macy's Parade and have some cinnamon rolls. Then I plan on spending a good portion of the day watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. Some of you might remember many years ago, Comedy Central would have the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon. Ah, those were the days. They would start Wed. night and run them for about 24 hrs. I would stay up as late as I could on Wed., then take a nap so I could get up and watch more. Well, this year, I'm going to watch some of my DVDs, back to back. I have two of the box sets, and last year I discovered a place online that carries all the rest of the episodes that are not available in official release. For $6 each, you get a plain white disc with only a show number written on it. The quality is about as good as a VHS tape, but I don't really care about that. I just wanted to watch some of my favorites again. If you're interested in picking up some MST3K episodes, here's where I got mine Cheepins.com

I'm excited because I just ordered a few that I don't really remember seeing before, and I've been saving them for tomorrow. I was going to order the movie 'Santa Claus', a Mexican Children's film from the late 50's where Santa battles Satan (or Pitch, rather). However, it has been taken off the Cheepins list, as it is going to be released in a box set, due out at the beginning of December. I highly recommend it!

Vertigo

This month's CHFB challenge was Alfred Hitchcock. I knew right away that 'Vertigo' was the film I would work from. If I ever made a top 10 list of my all time favorite movies, this would be on it for sure. I wanted to try to do a kind of pulp paperback novel kind of thing for this one.

Dracula's Daughter

Happy Friday the 13th everybody. I'm getting back to the drawing board now that the Halloween blog mania has started to die down. Or at least I'm not frantically trying to find something to post daily.

I just finished this piece of Countess Zaleska aka 'Dracula's Daughter' from the 1936 film. This was Universal's first sequel to 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi. This time around there was no Dracula or Lugosi to be found. Stepping into the main vampire role was Gloria Holden, who played, well, Dracula's Daughter. Of the Universal Dracula sequels, I actually prefer 'Son of Dracula', but I do like 'Dracula's Daughter'. And the countess presented a unique personality on screen.

I made this sketch several months ago and only last night did I think of how I wanted to execute the final piece. This was an experiment with Illustrator's Gradient tools. I thought it turned out pretty well. She looks very art deco goth!

Guy Fawkes Day

I hope that everyone had a very Happy Halloween. Now that I don't have to post everyday, I'm trying to get back to the drawing board. Since today is November 5th I wanted to share a page from a book that I picked up at the thrift store. The book is from a Childcraft book from 1964. I don't know much about these, they are kind of like a set of encyclopedias for children. The cover says 'The How & Why Library'. This is Vol. 5, Holidays & Customs, and it has lots of great illustrations. This spread talks about Guy Fawkes Day, which is today!
I would like to share some more of these pages in the future & hopefully by then I will have a scanner. Right now I'm having to photograph everything, which is kind of a pain.
Well, Happy Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night my friends!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

What a pouty face. Well, it's one of the few that turned out okay. Once again another Halloween has come, and I didn't get my costume finished in time. I just kind of threw on what I had so I could take some photos. Hope that everyone has a wonderful Halloween & thanks for joining me in the Halloween countdown!

Time is ticking away...

I can't believe in a few hours, it will officially be Halloween. The big day. The day I think about all year long. I went out tonight to pick up some sale Halloween items, and will most likely take one last trip on November 1st. Christmas stuff has already began to muscle it's way into the limelight now, even though Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

I'll be busy working on my costume, that may or may not get finished in time. It's a costume that I started to put together for last Halloween, and it just didn't happen. So hopefully, I'll have it ready for tomorrow.

I was watching some of The Munsters marathon on WGN this evening (hosted by Alice Cooper, heck yeah!) and I was reminded of one of my favorite commercials. Thanks to the wonderful world of YouTube, here it is:

When I was seeking out that commercial I found some other Frankenstein Ads.
And here's an older commercial for Shasta with the Frankenstein Monster. Oddly, he's referred to as Igor:



Frankenstein Monster and the Bic Pen:




Doritos & Pepsi:



Jackson Hewitt:

Mixed Treat Bag

As Halloween rapidly approaches, I realize I won't be able to post about all the things I had originally planned. *sigh* I was having trouble trying to figure out what to post tonight, so I just decided to throw a bunch of stuff together.

A friend sent me this photo he took of a newsletter cover from 1952.

Here is some Halloween merchandise that I picked up & received as gifts this year.

Here are some sketches I did that I haven't had time to turn into final pieces yet.

Annie, Laurie and Linda from John Carpenter's 'Halloween'

Fredrick, Igor and Inga from 'Young Frankenstein'.

Tomorrow I will be getting up to enjoy this years Martha Stewart Halloween Show on tv, then I'm going to catch up on all the shows that ran this week on marthastewart.com.

Halloween's Past

I have to make an educated guess on the year, as I don't have the photos in front of me

1976. The Pink Princess.

1978. (But I don't think this was my actual costume).

1979. I wish I still had this thing.

1984. The Red Princess. A jump in years here

from the 70's to the 80's.

You know, I'm quite disappointed that my family didn't take more photos of me at Halloween when I was growing up. It's really a shame too, because most years, my grandmother made my costumes. I'm also disappointed that I'm not better prepared for this post. I actually still have 2 of the costumes that my grandmother made, and was going to photograph my little sister wearing them. Unfortunately, my timing didn't work out and I most likely won't get to shoot the photos until after Halloween. Oh well, I can always use them for the countdown next year.

Halloween Parties

Here's two cartoons with a Halloween Party theme.

'Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party'

And Toby the Pup 'Halloween'. Wait till about the 3:25 min mark for things to get spookin.
A side note about this one. As far as I know, all Toby the Pup cartoons are public domain. However, not many of them survived. This was posted on Youtube earlier this year from a European source (can't remember where), and then removed a few months ago.

If you enjoy these old cartoons you might also want to check out Uncle John's Crazy Town. His posts are great year round, but right now he's got a few spooky ones up for the month of October.

HP Lovecraft

When I did the EA Poe piece, I wanted to do a companion piece of HP Lovecraft. He was also great fun to draw as he, like Poe, has a very distinctive look. And I am also including three Lovecraft related clips for today.

First up, a trailer for HPLHS's (HP Lovecraft Historical Society) terrific film, 'The Call of Cthulhu'. Filmed in the style of a 1920's silent film, this is one of the best Lovecraft adaptations I've ever seen.




Next, still in the 1920's style, an animated short film by Peter Rhodes of 'The Other Gods'.

And last, a trailer for John Carpenter's 'In the Mouth of Madness'. While not based directly on any Lovecraft story, it is very 'Lovecraftian'. This is a film I re-discovered in recent years, and I think it's quite good at capturing the feeling of Lovecraft.

Sing Cats Sing!

So this is a bit of a cheat post. These cats were part of another composition I was working on that just wasn't coming together, and I knew I wouldn't have it done by Halloween. So I just did floating cat heads. It still looks pretty cute.

Next week I will be away until Friday, but I am going to try and make pre-posts for all of next week. I wish that I had more time to work on my unfinished art pieces before the end of the month but it looks like that's not going to happen. I can't believe Halloween is less than a week away.

Well, hopefully, I will have everything up & ready for next week before the day is through and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week.

Also I know I haven't had a chance to respond to my comments, and I probably won't get to that until after Halloween. But thank you for posting feedback, and I WILL get to it, I promise!

Oopsie, I missed a post!

Oh dear! I missed a post! It could not be helped. I was out of town yesterday, and away from house longer than I thought I would be. And today's post isn't going to be that great, but I didn't want to drop the ball entirely.

Well, today my husband & I went around to a few different stores, looking for sales on Halloween/Horror DVDs. Last year Best Buy had a pretty good sale on, so that's where most of the titles we picked up this year came from. All under $10! I really like these sales because it gives me a chance to fill holes in my collection, especially with things like 'The Shining' & 'Evil Dead' 1 & 2. 'Poltergeist' is replacement for my VHS copy. I'll probably be watching a little bit of these before I go to bed. Mmmm, sweet dreams!

Edgar Allan Poe turns 200!

Well, actually his birthday was in January of this year. I thought I would just share a few random Poe things.

It's Rue Morgue's 12th Anniversary! And Poe is their cover story. The October issue of Rue Morgue is usually the biggest & best issue of the year. For me anyway. As I've said before, if you've never picked up Rue Morgue before, give the October issue a try. This year they even have a brief article on vintage/antique Halloween cards.

Rue Morgue also featured these stamps, which I didn't know about. I will have to get some.

Poe has one of those faces that just begs to be drawn. His features lend themselves very well to caricature. And to me it's really interesting to see how other people draw him, because it really does vary. Here's a couple of diverse examples.

Gerald Kelley

Leneja from DeviantART

André Carrilho

nina0688 from DeviantART

And I will close with some videos. First, is a video from The Parlor at Halloween Town. Earlier this year they held an EA Poe Group Art Show. This is a little video of some of the works on display. Not all of the pieces are of Poe himself, some are just based on his stories.

Next is a something I really love. Edgar Allan Poe & the 'Rave-ons'. In the role of Poe is Lee Presson of Lee Presson and the Nails, a great swing band from the 1990's. Here we see Lee, as Eddie, singing Oingo Boingo's 'Little Girls' . Lee Presson + Poe + Oingo Boingo= Awesome!

And last is the first part of Stuart Gordon's Masters of Horror episode 'The Black Cat'. I'm pretty sure you can find the rest of it on Youtube, although I didn't check. I include this because actor Jeffery Combs does such a great job as Poe in this. Combs of course is probably best known for his role as Herbert West in the Re-Animator films. This is also one of my favorite episodes of Masters of Horror.

Swingin' At the Seance

I did this piece earlier this year and it was inspired by The Moon-Rays wonderful CD 'Swingin' at the Seance'. The design & photography for the CD's packaging was put together by my friend, the very talented & crafty Wendy Amdahl. Some of you probably know her from her terrific blog, The Halloween Tree. The album 'Swingin' at the Seance' would make a perfect addition to anyone's Halloween Music collection. It's available from many online stores including CD Baby, Amazon, and Itunes.

Most Likely to....

Suck? Leave Hickies? Give you Rabies? Hmm... Some dumb Photoshop fun.

Dancing Skeletons

Here is a couple of cartoons that feature dancing skeletons. And who doesn't like that?

First up, the granddaddy of all dancing skeleton cartoons,

'Skeleton Dance' from 1929

Next Mickey Mouse is forced to play the organ for a group of dancing skeletons in 'Haunted House' also from 1929.

Flip the Frog finds himself in a similar situation as Mickey in 1932's 'Spooks'. Only the head skeleton of the house seems to have a more sinister plan in store for Flip.



And finally it's back to the graveyard for a 'Skeleton Frolic' (1937). This is very similar to 'Skeleton Dance' with good reason. They were both directed by the great Ub Iwerks.

Dark Shadows Bloopers

I miss Dark Shadows. I used to watch it on the Sci-Fi Channel when it ran back in the 90's & I loved it. Word on the street is that Tim Burton is planning to bring his version of this Gothic soap opera to the big screen, with the possible release date set for 2011. It's also rumored that Johnny Depp will be cast as vampire, Barnabas Collins. I'm going to make a prediction and say that Helena Bonham Carter will play Dr. Julia Hoffman.

One of the fun things about Dark Shadows is that they rarely did any second takes. So there are lots of flubs about in the episodes. I found these compilations of Dark Shadows bloopers on Youtube, and thought this will be my share for the day. Some of the bloopers are more obvious than others. My favorite is in Pt. 1 at the 8:57 min mark. I laugh every time.

Home from Collegeville

Tonight's piece is dedicated to the old masks and plastic smock costumes from the old days. I don't really know when it was that stores stopped selling these, but when I noticed they were gone, it made me a little sad. My Vampire Girl is kind of a hybrid of two different costumes, one from Collegeville & the other from Bland Charnas Co. And of course, I've added my own touches.

Haunted Radio

I did this piece to use as an album cover for all the old horror/suspense radio programs I've been downloading and listening to on my ipod. I've been getting them at The Monster Club.com. You have to sign up and get a password but it's FREE and you can listen to these dark tales online, or download them. Happy Haunted Listening

My purchase this evening...

Let me just say, World Market is Awesome! I'll have some more (and better) Halloween merch photos up soon but I just got this guy & I'm so excited. I normally don't like to buy glittered things because glitter get everywhere. But had to have this. It's the monocle. I love his monocle!

If you haven't been to World Market to look for Halloween stuff, I recommend that you do. Ours didn't have a ton of stuff, but what they did have was pretty cool. We saw lots of stuff that we are either going to try to go back out and get soon or wait till Nov 1st and clean up what's left.

Vintage Deviling

Continuing with the theme of Devils, I found these great vintage devil decoration photos on the Flickr photostream of riptheskull. He has an amazing collection of vintage Halloween items. I picked out some of my favorites to share, but go check out his photostream. You'll be glad you did!