Enlistee's art gallery!

[markchro]

Many thanks Earth 2 Chris, ChrisW, Creaturerevenege and Dan (I like the new avatar) Nope...I haven't tried scratchboard! Is that the same as scraperboard?

CR! Wow! I'm just getting my head around the idea of a 3D printer! The results are amazing with your painting and Ken's digital sculpting (nice website!!!)
...wow!...the possibilities!

Monsterfink! That's cool! I may know nothing about the characters as they're not in the UK, but I like what I see!

[ChrisW]

Thanks! We did use the Forgotten Prisoner in one of our haunted houses. We had it lit very similar to the original painting but we had some limitations that kept us from getting it exact. I had the privilege of spending a day with Mort Kunstler once! I was part of a film crew doing some filming for the navy for a series of short spotlight pieces they did on different artists and craftsmen around the country that do different types of Americana art. Kunstler has gotten into doing a lot of paintings of Civil War scenes. We he learned that I was a huge fan of horror and pulp art and movies he goes "Oh! Then you gotta see this stuff!" He took me and the crew upstairs into a little storage room upstairs in his house where he had a TON of his older paintings and works and started pulling out panel after panel of amazing men's adventure pulp magazine covers and even the original painting he did for the classic Poseidon Adventure poster! It was amazing! He is a GREAT guy!

That is incredibly cool, and yes, he is a great guy, and Debra is a class act as well! They invited us to their home and we were given the grand tour including the room off his studio. It was jaw-dropping (as is ALL the art in the house) to see his paintings stacked up against the wall, on the floor, in the drawers, etc. We were also invited to the New York Historical Society last year when his new take on Washington crossing the Delaware was unveiled. He was truly amazed by all of the publicity surrounding the piece.

Monsterfink - I don't remember Frankenberry, Booberry and the Count being soo...threatening? I'll never turn my back on those cereal boxes again!

[dlhenderson]

Hate to muck up the thread with a moldy oldie, but I just found this drawing (I'm still going through my junk, having given up my storage unit). Looks like I used a couple of different pens on some kind of a little notepad. This would have been around 1965 or so. Obviously inspired by a certain Hammer film.

[ChrisW]

Great stuff Dan!
I wish I had some of my old school note books just to see the drawings. At the time I'm sure the majority were Tom Daniel inspired hot rods and custom cars.
I'm going to scan a few oldies as well and put them up here...

[dlhenderson]

Sounds good, Chris. I've laid down the gauntlet!
BTW, Mark, my new avatar is a close-up photo I took of the only remains of my Aurora Frankenstein (well, actually I also found the hands). Fifty years has added a nice weathered patina to the old chap.

[ChrisW]

OK Dan, I'll see your early monster drawing with one of my own...


this was done in school, so probably '76 or'77. My guess is I was inspired by 'Salem's Lot...

[ChrisW]

...and I'll raise you a pussy cat Christmas card!


This is grease pencil on coquille board. It was done in the 90s. I do a Christmas card design every year, some more ambitious than others depending on my schedule. I always liked this medium...

[dlhenderson]

That's a scholar's choice; a Dichotomy of Windows!
Very nice stuff. I majored in print-making in college, with a focus on stone lithography. That technique (as you likely know) involves drawing with grease pencil on large slabs of limestone. We actually had a portable fork-lift to move the larger stones around. I chose lithography because it was the closest to drawing that you could get in a printing process. I had seen Escher's work and didn't know what "stone lithography" was. So I spent a good bit of time and energy to find out. I loved the feel of the pencil on a freshly ground slab (slightly grainy, like the board you use). I'll have to excavate some of that work; just realized that I haven't scanned any of it. In the meantime, here's a drawing from around that time ('72 or so).

[ChrisW]

Anxious to see some of the lithography. The only (stone) lithography I did was in school, experimenting with different medium. I do have a few old lithograph posters - Buffalo Bill travelling wild west show, I believe. Always amazed at the final full color effect by using multiple stones.
Re: the cat Christmas Card, I wish I hadn't put that d**n Santa Claus and sleigh in the picture! Yea, that was the point, but it ruins an otherwise pretty good drawing.
Was the drawing you posted ever colored? Using what? Were you illustrating an idea or concept? As always, amazingly imaginative.

[dlhenderson]

My lithographic work was always B&W. One of my instructors, Keith Rasmussen, did some very good polychromatic prints. Hold it; I do recall a couple of color experiments.
Never colored that last line drawing. Sometimes (ALL the time, to be honest) I let the mind and hand roam free. That's a fairly typical example. Maybe it's "jazz drawing"!
BTW, I'm kinda partial to your feline Santa observation idea. Yes, it would have a subtlety w/out the jolly old elf but the witch-over-the-moon effect is pretty cool and adds a dramatic focus to the composition.

[ChrisW]

Mike, Mark, Terry - anyone else want to dust off some old school drawings and post them for the world to see?

[Illoman]

The only thing I can readily get my hands on is this one:



I did this when I was 17, and it hung in my parent's home as long as I can remember.

[ChrisW]

ALL RIGHT MIKE! I love it!  I've gotta give you credit for carrying through on an ambitious piece like that. I don't think I had the confidence at 17 to do that.
Pretty fancy frame, too.

[Illoman]

Thanks, it's actually a small piece, probably 5"x10". My mom found that frame at a garage sale and I did the painting because it seemed to fit the frame!

[charp13]

Beautiful, beautiful paintings and drawings all around! 
You kids were all so talented (and still are of course)...I can imagine the pride your families felt when they saw all your artwork. I am so glad you found these treasures to share with us.