The Process of the Planet of the Apes

Like many sci-fi fans, Michelle and I are hyped to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. A nice, long, wordy title but it still doesn’t beat The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Nevertheless, I think the ape movie might be the better film. So we’re gearing up for it by doing some ape art.

In this week’s video, I do an ink and watercolor illustration of the movie’s antagonist, Proximus Caesar. He’s a big, scary ape and he fits right in with our channel’s usual monsters-and-villains theme. And in keeping with our share-the-knowledge theme, we recorded my process.

In the video, I take you through my entire illustration process from digital sketch to pencils to inks and finished watercolor. My way is certainly not the only way to do it, or even the best way. But in searching for the best way to do things, Michelle and I enjoy watching process videos by different artists and learning all the options. If you like that stuff too, maybe you’ll enjoy this video.

Have you seen the trailers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? I’m always on YouTube so it’s kinda’ hard to avoid them, and any accompanying spoilers from the peanut gallery. For the past six months everyone and their brother has been speculating on the plot, the characters, whether or not there’s time travel, whether or not it’s a reboot of the original 1968 film — enough already. It opens this Friday and I’m gonna plug my ears until I see it.

If you’d like to see our completely spoiler free video where I draw Proximus Caesar, the link is below.

She’s Alive!

This week marks the 89th anniversary of the classic Universal Monster movie, The Bride of Frankenstein. Michelle and I realized this late into the evening on Saturday and quickly ripped through a new ink wash illustration and process video to celebrate the occasion.

The actual bride of Frankenstein (played by Elsa Lanchester in a dual role that also saw her portray Mary Shelley) only appeared in that one eponymous movie. But despite not having as many times up at bat as Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, or The Wolfman, the character has left just as indelible an impression on pop culture as her monstrous counterparts.

And while I always look forward to rendering The Bride in watercolors and debunking the idea that she has green skin (preposterous!), I wanted to stick to the same black-and-sepia ink and wash technique I used on all those other Universal Monsters last October. Now she fits right in with the rest of them.

The sepia ink is a nice counterpoint to the black ink, but I wanted to use it for The Bride for a very specific reason. Elsa Lanchester had red hair. You can see it very clearly years later when she plays Katie Nanna in Mary Poppins opposite Julie Andrews. It follows, then, that The Bride of Frankenstein may also have had red hair. It’s not canon? Well…it’s my drawing, and I say she did. The warmer tones of the sepia ink do a passable job of conveying the idea that she has red hair, while not being as obvious as a watercolor wash.

If you want to see my process for this image, how it turned out, and listen to Michelle and I gab about movies and toys for seven minutes or so, the link to the video is below.

Studying the Way of the Samurai

Preparing to work on an upcoming Usagi Yojimbo commission, Michelle and I realized we knew little to nothing about the character. So, this past week we’ve been researching the Stan Sakai comic, doing some sketches, and, in this week’s video, a full ink, wash, and watercolor study of the samurai rabbit.

Wikipedia tells me Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema, Kurosawa, and other samurai pop culture icons. And it’s here that I realize there is a giant hole in my pop culture/cinema foundation. Aside from flipping through some issues of Lone Wolf and Cub back in college, I never really dove into stories involving samurai and ronins and swordplay. I read a few issues of Groo the Wanderer, which Sakai lettered, but it was mostly for the comedy and the classic Sergio Aragones cartooning. Look, I like comedy and monsters. Who knew there was such rich storytelling going on involving feudal japan and anthropomorphic rabbits? Everyone but me, apparently.

The watercolor study this week doesn’t do much to shore up my knowledge of that culture, but it does help me put a shape to the character. I think what little research we’ve done informed my decisions on how to pose the character, and to try to convey a quiet strength in his stance and expression.

And though the character and storyline of Usagi Yojimbo are set centuries ago in feudal Japan, this study prompted me to use modern technology to develop a new tool to help in the inking and coloring process.

Worried I’d lay down a wobbly or broken line when inking the katana and sheath, and having no flexible ruler to mold to my drawing’s sketch lines, I used a scan of my sketch, vector software, and a laser cutter to create a custom ruler out of wood.

Was it an over the top move for a simple study? Probably. Should I have just used the opportunity to strengthen my freehand inking skills? Definitely. But like the ronin’s of feudal Japan, I have no master. And I have cut ties with my family and clan. So if I want to buck the traditional methods of inking an anthropomorphic rabbit to turn out a half decent illustration, who’s to say I can’t? No one. You’re not the boss of me.

We recorded my process for creating this Usagi Yojimbo illustration. If you want to see how the illustration turned out, or watch me wield my deadly samurai custom ruler, the link to this week’s video is down

*blog originally posted at vincedorse.com

If You’ve Had A Dose of a Freaky Ghost

Who you gonna call? Not Michelle or I, that’s for sure. We don’t want anything to do with ghosts. Unless, of course, the ghosts are part of some cute and creepy art project like this week’s Ghostbusters Mini-Puft Sculpt-Off!

To hype ourselves up for the opening of Ghostbusters:Frozen Empire, we challenged each other to sculpt one of the tiny marshmallow mini-pufts from the movie. Michelle chose to work with felted wool, and I decided to sculpt my spook out of clay.

There are pros and cons to each medium. Michelle benefited from being able to alter, change, and repair her sculpt right up to and through our video/photo shoot. I couldn’t do that with my solid rock of clay.

On the other hand, my clay sculpt didn’t confuse the camera the way the fuzzy wool edges of Michelle’s sculpt did, and I was able to finish my sculpt well before she could. The needle felting process consumes time the way Slimer consumes hot dogs.

The bases we decided on are just simple black plinths with the classic Ghostbusters “NO” logo on top. That way they retain that black/white/red color theme of the original logo, and the mini-puft ghosts look like they’re popping out of the logo to come to life.

One final element we added to match the violent streak these malevolent marshmallows posses is weaponry. In the movie, these creatures are always putting each other through devastating physical distress: burning each other with fire, running each other through with skewers, liquifying each other in blenders. But our creatures aren’t marshmallows, they’re clay and wool. So their weapons reflect their art supply origins.

If you wanna see Michelle and I try to defeat each other in this Ghostbusters Sculpt-Off, the video is linked below.

You Know The Name of King Kong

Back in January, we inked Godzilla as a way to celebrate our love of Godzilla Minus One. This month, Godzilla X Kong:The New Empire hits theatres. And while we’re not sure whether we’ll love it or not, Michelle and I thought it was only fair to ink up a King Kong in anticipation of the release.

The difference between the two should be obvious. I inked Godzilla with pens, using hatching to achieve my grey tones. With Kong, I decided to use ink wash. It’s a softer look, but I think it works well for the composition and subject (a giant gorilla stomping through a misty forest on an uncharted island).

In addition to my own ape inks, we have once again conned Michelle into playing a game of “Ink It or Stink It” where she’ll take a run at inking my drawing of Kong’s apparent nemesis, Skar King.

We both learned a little about technique and materials while working on these, which is our constant goal. But if you want to see how they turned out, you can check out the video at the link below:

Our Holiday Tribute to Rankin/Bass

If you’re old enough to have watched all those great Rankin/Bass stop motion holiday specials when you were a kid — or young enough that your parents force you to watch them because “that’s what Christmas was like when I was your age!” — then you might enjoy our holiday card for this year. It’s an illustration of some of the worst creeps and goons Rankin/Bass ever animated.

Creeps like Professor Hinkle, for example. The failed magician who ended up stalking a small child through a frozen wasteland only to lock her in a greenhouse while her magical snowman friend melted into lukewarm water. Nice guy, right? And a wonderful thing for children to watch. It really helped prepare us for the real world. Never trust a magician.

And, of course, you have the Miser Brothers, Snow and Heat. These two petulant monsters argued constantly to get their way and threw tantrums when they didn’t. A great example of now NOT to solve conflicts. These Rankin/Bass specials really were valuable on so many levels.

And that’s why we decided to honor those fantastic holiday specials with a collage of their villains. We did it in watercolor — no colored pencils or inks for linework or details — and tried to capture that holiday magic that Rankin/Bass imbued all of their stop motion specials with. Well…maybe not Little Drummer Boy. That one always put me to sleep.

If you’d like to see us put this holiday illustration together, you can watch the video below. And since it’s just a couple weeks until the end of the year — Happy Holidays! We hope you have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for 2024!

It’s Muppetober! Yeah? So what does that mean?

Hey! During October, a lot of artsy-types do a daily challenge: ink something every day, draw something every day, and they match it to a particular theme. I’ve done it before and I’m doing it again. This year, we’re calling it Muppetober!

For every day in October, I’ll be inking a Muppet. There’s a lot to choose from, so I’m just picking some of my favorites. But I’m not inking too heavily or elaborately, because it’s more than just inking, I’m also going to try to add some watercolor on top.

Will I be able to pull it off? I don’t know. We’re 13 days in and…yeah, it’s a struggle. And it’s not necessarily the drawing and inking. That’s goes down pretty smoothly. The watercolors, they’re a bit more involved. But the real pressure? The real time suck? Michelle and I are recording my process for all of these, editing and uploading a short to YouTube every single day.

All of this is going on, of course, while we’re juggling some other projects and commissions. But we’re letting you know about this in case you need some Muppets in your life every day. Even for just one precious minute.

Here’s the link to our shorts. Have fun!

Just An Old Fashioned Muppet Song

Today is Paul Williams’ birthday. If you don’t know who he is, you’re missing out. Musician, composer, actor…Paul Williams has had a dazzling and diverse career in show business for over five decades. But for me, the most impressive achievement he ever racked up was working with The Muppets.

Williams, along with Kenny Ascher, wrote the timeless classic, Rainbow Connection, and all the other amazing songs from the first Muppet Movie. Williams also penned all the tunes from the holiday classic Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. If you’ve ever found yourself humming Barbecue at the holidays, you can thank Paul Williams. Years later, the Henson company picked him to create the songs for yet another Muppet holiday classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Considering how important Williams is to the Muppets, Michelle and I decided to honor that collaboration (and his birthday) with an illustration of Williams jamming on-stage with some of our favorite Muppet musicians.

That means that he’ll be performing not only with the Frogtown Hollow Jubilee Jugband from Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas, but also the powerhouse rock band The Electric Mayhem who shook the rafters in The Muppet Movie.

He’ll also be joined by Rowlf on piano and, of course, Kermit the frog on banjo. But a performance this massive couldn’t be confined to just the paper it’s printed on. So Michelle and I decided to craft a sufficiently Muppety frame to showcase this band.

We wanted the frame to evoke the proscenium arch of the old Muppet Theatre. A throwback to vaudeville days, the Muppet stage was framed in rich, dark red wood with ornate gold accents. So Michelle and I set about finding all of the parts and pieces necessary to complete that visual.

That meant finding and painting a wooden frame and accents, right down to the seashell footlights. The overall effect when looking at the image is that you’re viewing a Muppet performance on a stage, in a classic, old-style theatre with, of course, Paul Williams front and center.

To see us put both the illustration and frame together — and to hear us gab about Paul Williams’ many artistic accomplishments for six solid minutes — you can watch the video below.

Lady In White Sculpt Was A Trick And A Treat

This week we journey back to Willowpoint Falls and the world of Frank LaLoggia’s Lady In White to sculpt the film’s protagonist, little Frankie Scarlatti.

I used polymer clay for the figure and tried to work small. That made it a little tricky to nail all the details (like tiny little fingers) but I try to do things out of my comfort zone as often as possible as a way of learning, improving, and moving forward. Plus, who’s got the shelf space for giant dioramas anymore?

Michelle worked on the base with me, helping me out with the important grunt work so my delicate hands never have to touch sandpaper, and I never risk getting paint under my pristine fingernails.

She also helped me turn the wooden plinth into a grassy front yard on Halloween with autumn leaves scattered at Frankie’s feet.

Another pleasant outcome of working on this sculpt is that Frank LaLoggia, the writer/director/composer of Lady In White actually likes the sculpt, and has even linked some of our process videos up on his new website, franklaloggia.com. I urge every fan of Lady In White (and film making in general) to visit that site and take a spin through all of the behind-the-scenes videos, interviews, press releases, and photo galleries that comprise Frank LaLoggia’s inspiring film career.

And if you’d like to see Michelle and I put Frankie together, you can watch our video below.

Beware, Spider-Villains…I got new brushes!

During our month-long summer break, Michelle and I hit a few different art stores in a quest to find some new, decent brushes for inking and watercolor. I decided to try Princeton Velvetouch brushes, and I thought we’d test them out inking and coloring some scary Spider-Man villains.

The Green Goblin was inked entirely with a number one round. Even the smallest detail lines where I’d normally use a fine liner, I inked with that brush.

I liked the way this brush handled. It has a great point, and the bristles held plenty of ink for me to draw long, variable-width lines without going back to the ink jar too often.

The inks went down smooth and dark on this hot press watercolor paper. And after getting used to the feel of the brush with the Goblin, inking the Lizard was a breeze. However, we wanted to color these villains. But unlike our reptile friend above, hot press paper does not have a lot of tooth. And we knew that watercolor was not going to lay down as nicely on a paper with so little tooth.

There’s a bit of a trick to it, but if you’re careful, you can get decent results with watercolor even on the hot press paper. I imagine the colors would look even nicer on cold press, but then I’d have to sacrifice that smooth surface I love so much for inking.

And I wasn’t the only one trying to get watercolors to work on hot press. Michelle, once again, took the Ink It or Stink It challenge with a Spider-Ham I sketched for her. However, there was a new twist: Sure, she doesn’t ink and yet is forced to ink during this game. But to balance that out, she has also never worked with watercolors. So I threw my palette in front of her and had her color the image she inked. Did she get an Ink or a Stink from the judges? Did I enjoy the Princeton brushes enough to start using them on a regular basis? Am I way off base with my choices for scariest Spidey-villains? You can find the answer to these questions (and a whole lot of art tips) in the video below.