10th Annual Rondo Awards – Final Voting Week!!

Just a quick reminder to those of you who would like to vote in the 10th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, this is the FINAL WEEK to cast your ballot! Go to the Rondo Awards website and follow the instructions to vote for your favorites from 2011. Some people are intimidated by the size of the ballot, but you do not have to vote in every category. I haven't had the chance to vote myself, and I'll be doing that sometime this week.

Good luck to the nominees!

Can You Dig It, Man?

Groovy Baby! Okay, so after I saw the new Dark Shadows trailer, I was inspired to do this piece. I've been reading people's reaction to the trailer online, and it has been interesting to say the least. Many Dark Shadows fans are crying 'Foul' and are outraged by the comedic tone that the film seems to have taken. Although you can't always judge a film by it's trailer, it will be interesting to see if the second trailer is the same or if it plays up the darker elements of the film. For me personally, I can't wait! I think it looks like a lot of fun. I follow the blog 'Dark Shadows News Page' and today he had an excellent, thoughtful post on the new Dark Shadows movie, and I encourage all of you to read it (click here). It sums up how I feel about the movie, and written much better than I could have done.

I'm really hoping that this movie turns out to be great. I was a big Tim Burton fan for many years, up until he made re-made 'Planet of the Apes'. After that, I just didn't have the same enthusiasm I once had for his films. 'Corpse Bride' was the biggest disappointment ever.

So in case you haven't seen it, here it is. The sticky sweet seventies Dark Shadows trailer:

And here's the song 'Our Favorite Vampire' by Vampire State Building. With images from a comic spoof called 'Darn Shadows'. I'd love to have that comic!

Those of you interested in seeing classic Dark Shadows images from me, you'll be happy to know that I'm doing a series of characters from the show for an upcoming issue of Video Watchdog.

Tim Burton's Dark Shadows official trailer, released tonight

The first look at Tim Burton's vision of 'Dark Shadows' premiers tonight. The official website is currently running a countdown to it's release. Now, I must confess, I've already seen the trailer by way of a hand held camera/phone/thingy. It apparently aired on the Ellen DeGeneres show earlier today, someone took video and posted it online. BUT even though I've seen it, I can't wait to REALLY see it in HD in a few hours.

I love this shot from the film. I found this at Dark Shadows News Page.

Kids in the Hall 'The Pit of Ultimate Darkness' Prints Available

Yes, I'm posting this again. It's mainly to let anyone who is interested know, that there are prints available for sale through Gallery 1988. The show opened on Friday, March 9, and on Saturday, all the pieces from the show were posted online. I was thrilled to see that my framed print has already sold! So get your Sir Simon Milligan & Manservant Hecubus print today! I only made 25, since it's my first show, and I don't know how many are left.

Also, there is a bunch of really great stuff, including John Rozum's cut paper Bill Cosby. Go check it out!

Disney Fan Art in under 2 hours

I recently came across a really great blog called 'Planet-Pulp'. Each month there is a theme posted, and then the artists involved post their art, based on that theme. If you are familiar with 'Art Jumble', it's kind of the same thing. Only instead of weekly topics, it's monthly. And I think they are more selective about their artists. I submitted a request to join, but haven't heard back yet, so who knows.... Oh well, it doesn't matter. I decided to play along anyway. Especially since this month's theme is 'Disney Villains'. I wanted to pick a Villain that wasn't one of the more popular ones, and for whatever reason, I happened to think of Madame Medusa from 'The Rescuers'. Once I started sketching, I knew just how it needed to look. And she is right out of the 1970s, which is so awesome.

My goal with this piece was to keep it simple, and to time myself on it. I have the problem of spending way too much time working on a piece, even ones that should be done rather quickly. So this one was done in about an hour & 40 min. I could have spent more time on it. I actually had some great ideas about making a diamond patterned background and maybe adding her pet gators. But maybe that will come some other day. This timing exercise was inspired by Shane at 'Horror Business' and his Poison Ivy post.

Since I'm on the topic of Disney, I'm going to continue on here a bit. I love Disney, or at least the Disney that I grew up with. And I love Disney fan art. It's very interesting to see different artists, who work in different media, take on established cartoon characters.

I've been wanting to pick up this book:

I found out about it awhile back, and put it on my Amazon shopping list. Today I found this great video of someone flipping through their copy, and now I think this book will be moving up on the list.

In the meantime, if you want to look at a LOAD of Disney fan art, go to deviantART. There is good stuff, there is bad stuff, there is bizarre stuff. Search 'Disney Fan Art', 'Disney Retro', or type in the name of your favorite character or movie. Heck or for that matter, just type in anything you like, and see what comes up. I discovered Andrew Barr's work for the first time while searching 'Manos: Hands of Fate' and found Leigh Young by searching 'The Young Ones'.

That website is my favorite time waster. (Even though I have my own page there, I don't update it very much). And I'm on there everyday, because I signed up to follow this 'BBC Sherlock' fan art group, and they post like 300 things a day. So I have to go through every day and weed out the ones I don't want in the watch folder, or it will get out of control!

Maybe you'll get another Disney Villain out of me before the month is over. Right now I've got to work on some other things. Definitely go check out Planet Pulp's Disney Villains!

Gallery 1988's 'Is This Thing On 2: The Weird Year' & Me!

Impolite and...

So last week I mentioned that I was going to have a piece in the upcoming group show 'Is This Thing On 2' at Gallery 1988. I decided to do Sir Simon Milligan & Manservant Hecubus from the sketch comedy show 'The Kids in the Hall'. Its funny, because I had thought about drawing these characters awhile back and then kind of forgot about it. This show presented me with the perfect opportunity to go forward with the piece. I did spend some time rewatching a bunch of 'Kids' episodes that I hadn't seen in many years. It gave me lots of other ideas of characters I could have done for this show, but I ran out of time.

So here is a pic of print #1, in it's frame before I shipped it off to California:

The show opens tomorrow (3.9.12), and will be hosted by Weird Al! I wish that I could attend, but I'm a long ways away from L.A. My art will be there though, and that is super exciting for me. Ever since G1988 began doing 'Crazy 4 Cult', I've dreamed of being a part of one of these shows and now it's finally happening.

And I leave you with the first appearance of Sir Simon Milligan & Manservant Hecubus:

Do not avoid the puppies of purgatory....

New 'Monsters & Mates' piece

I got another of my 'Monsters & Mates' pieces done. This is #4, and it's from 1932's 'The Mummy'. So I'm now down to the last piece, 'The Wolf Man'. I have no idea if that one's going to come together or not. I've been doing sketches for it on and off for months and nothing looks good. Well, maybe it will come together soon. Doing these has been fun, so I will probably expand this idea a bit further. Maybe do 'Dracula's Daughter', 'The Black Cat', 'The Mummy's Curse'. Or maybe use this same style, but get into the Hammer films. I also thought about doing a series based on Val Lewton's films. I just don't know. I've got tons of other stuff to do, so we shall see which path I decide to take. That is, after the dreaded Wolf Man piece is done.

I'm in Galleries...

Hey everybody, I just wanted to share some exciting news with you all. First, I'm going to have my debut at Gallery1988 in the upcoming group show 'Is This Thing On? 2: The Weird Year'. The show opens next Friday. If you live in or near L.A., you should check it out. I bet it's going to be amazing. I'll be posting my piece for the show here on the blog very soon.

AND, I've got myself a little 2'x6' patch of wall at a new local gallery called 'ZaPow'. I feel right at home there, since their focus is on illustrative, comic, pop culture art rather than 'fine art'. It's an amazing place and I'm so thrilled to be part of it. Right now I'm selling my prints, but I'm thinking of expanding and doing some original cut paper pieces as well as some greeting cards. And for those of you who like my Halloween art, I plan to have some of those printed up around the end of August, to sell at ZaPow during Sept. & Oct.

I took a couple of not so great photos, but you get the idea. To get a better look at their space, check out their website.