2021 Monster Month: Night Stalker

If you decide to take your lovely lady out for a late night constitutional, please be very aware of your surroundings.

 

While he doesn’t quite know it yet, when he gets closer, that street beast will discover that Ethel and Horatio are on their way home from the Rotary Club’s annual bean supper.

 

Ink and black colored pencil in a sketchbook.

2021 Monster Month: Suspicious Minds

If you’re up to no good, be sure that this one will spot you. He’s the embodiment of Ronald Reagan’s old famous quote, “Trust, but verify.”

 

He’s probably irked that the optometrist is suggesting glasses. Hello! No ears!

 

Ultramarine colored pencil in a sketchbook.

2021 Monster Month: The Stare

Today’s entry for Monster Month is a piece I actually posted in 2019 on Instagram as just line art, and that’s how it remained for two years. It is an ink sketch from a sketchbook that every time I flipped to it, that hypnotic stare kept calling out to me in a raspy creepy voice, “color me!”

So, I took this zombie and his pet rat into Photoshop to see if a little color would make him even MORE creepy. I think it worked.

 

I wonder if he had LASIK surgery?

2021 Monster Month: Red Dragon

No, this is NOT about Hannibal Lecter. THIS Red Dragon is literally a dragon drawn with a red pencil complete with drool.

 

Now scratch your screen and see if you can smell his terrible breath.

2021 Monster Month: Orthodontic Nightmare

It would take a VERY brave orthodontist to stick his/her hand into THAT mouth to try to straighten things out.

This guy doesn’t chew his food really. Each row of teeth spins counter to each other like a series of saw blades in order to chop up his food. It must work like a charm, because the fella doesn’t look like he’s hurting for a meal.

The only real trouble is having to floss three rows of teeth after every meal. All this guy has time for is floss, then eat, floss, then eat. It’s worth it in the end if he never has to get dentures some day.

 

I’m not sure what got more paint – the sketchbook or my hand!

 

Ink, watercolor, and gouache in a brown paper sketchbook.

2021 Monster Month: The Seuss Is Loose!

A couple of years ago, I was working for Warner Bros. on the animated show Green Eggs & Ham that airs on Netflix. I was in that Seuss mode of drawing, and started wondering what a Dr. Seuss Cerebus might look like.

Now, Seuss was known to have drawn lots of inventive creatures in his books, so it is entirely possible that he has already drawn a three-headed beast that guards the gates of the underworld. I really don’t know if he did or not. Seems like he could have easily included it in Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

So, I decided to take a stab at it. This was the result:

 

Silly cop, good cop, bad cop.

2021 Monster Month: Daydreamer

Well, it’s Wednesday. Are you hitting that time in the week where your eyes are glazing over staring at the computer screen you are working on? Are you wondering when the weekend will finally get here? When you will feel the sweet release of freedom?

Hey, every job has its exciting and boring moments. Just imagine the guard standing at his post with nothing to do but keeping an eye out for intruders. But then a butterfly comes along to distract him, causing him to daydream about flitting off himself to a place of deeper personal fulfillment.

 

Well, technically the butterfly is an intruder.

 

Ink, watercolor, and gouache in a brown paper sketchbook.

2021 Monster Month: Dragon’s Best Friend

I’m not a pet guy, but I can see the appeal. After a full day of breathing fire on angry villagers or BBQing knights in shiny armor who are always trying to kill you first, it must be nice to come home to the unconditional love of a dog.

 

It’s all fun and games until he starts barking in the middle of the night.

 

Brown colored pencil in a sketchbook.