2021 Monster Month: The Good, the Bad, & the Deadly

When out West roaming the lonely frontier, the mind can play a lot of tricks on even the most seasoned hombre. You start to hear things. You start to see things. You start to smell things – things that no living creature should hear, see, or smell.

If you should find yourself riding along a dusty trail surrounded by mysterious mesas and you hear the blood-curdling twang of the undead coming from a whirling dust cloud preceded by the stench of a fortnight’s worth of rotting decay, you might just want to tuck yourself behind a boulder to dare to take a peek at the soul-less cowboy riding by on his four-eyed, flaming-haired demon bull followed by his flitting gang of howling bats ready to do his evil bidding.

 

I’d bet he’d cheer right up if he could just get a nice glass of water.

 

How about a closer look at some great hat hair.

 

Speaking of smell, this painting actually smells REALLY good! You see, the paint was something I brewed up – literally. It’s COFFEE, punctuated with some brown colored pencils.

Back in my days at Disney Animation in the late ’90s/early aughts, one of Walt’s old animators Walt Stanchfield used to come in and give us drawing classes once a month. I remember he showed us some sketches he did in a diner that he shaded with coffee. Every now and then, I like to give it a try, too. As you can see, it takes to the paper in a gritty kind of way.

There are only TWO days left in this year’s MONSTER MONTH! Stick around for what are two of my favorite pieces of the month. Saved the best for last!

2021 Monster Month: Dino Drip

Maybe if the caveman had gotten the vaccine, he would be protected.

 

I guess it could be worse. The drip could be coming from his nose.

 

Ink in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.

2021 Monster Month: Time Warrior

Time can be our friend, or it can be a cruel joke.

When time is more of the latter, that is when one must call upon the services of the Time Warrior. He travels through time to write the wrongs one has done, but he does so for a price – a price that you don’t always fully grasp until it’s too late!

 

Waitaminnit – is it EVER too late if you can hire the Time Warrior? Yes, yes it isn’t.

 

Ink and gouache on brown paper. Sidekick not included.

2021 Monster Month: Fish Bowl

I can’t quite be sure, but I think this alien has fish on the brain. The truth is very likely stranger than science fiction.

 

That is some SERIOUS brain fluid!

 

Ink drawing in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.

2021 Monster Month: Monsters At Work

Well here’s something different in this month-o’-monsters – an actual bonafide monster job! Back in July I was hired to work on this advertisement for the Disney+ animated series Monsters At Work.

The agency had already written the ad, and another wonderful artist had illustrated it and laid it out (that means the graphic design part of it), but then two things happened: 1. it went through changes, and 2. the other artist had to go out of town and didn’t have the time to make the changes. So, I filled in as needed.

 

Click on the image to enlarge.

 

So, what you see here is a true team effort. I illustrated all the characters except three monsters in step 5 and Mike Wazowski (which are all by the talented Liz Masters), and then I re-laid out the steps and bottom info with all the new text following the look that Liz had already established. It was a super fun gig, and obviously I love drawing monsters. Happy to have had a crack at the Disney/Pixar creation all thanks to Liz for pulling me in on it!

Oh, and Disney+ tweeted this out back in July just a few days after I had finished it. Quick turnaround to meet the launch date of the new show!

2021 Monster Month: Stardate

I don’t know, if this creature was on an intergalactic dating website, I might steer clear. He’s either smiling or constipated, and the fact that he likes “long walks down a dark alley” is a little worrisome.

I don’t know why, but this guy seems like something one might see on Star Trek. He was just a random ink, watercolor, and gouache guy in my brown paper sketchbook.

 

Watch out ladies, he’s single and ready to mingle.

2021 Monster Month: The New Kid

Every kid goes through it. One day they are out in the neighborhood playing with their friends, when a big moving truck pulls into the driveway of the Jenkins’ old place. Inevitably, a new kid moves into the neighborhood.

Will he be cool? Will he be a dork? One will never know until introductions are made.

 

They can say hello back. He won’t bite. Or will he?

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?