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

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:

Taking A Run At Scooby-Doo’s Ghost Clown

The comedy-themed project streak continues unabated this week as Michelle and I each take a turn at rendering the classic Scooby-Doo villain, Ghost Clown. And everyone knows there’s nothing funnier than a clown who could swallow you whole.

The clown first appeared in episode 10 of the first season, Bedlam In The Bigtop. I’m guessing the original clown design was done by Iwao Takamodo, since he handled most of the designs for those early Scooby-Doo episode. His design was tight and perfect for the show, and looked like this:

I love that clown. But I wanted to try to make him a little scarier. So, after a few sketches, I landed on a slug-like monster with two-rows of razor sharp teeth. I lightboxed my digital sketch, and inked it with Microns, Tombow Brush Pens, and some brushed inks.

The wash I use is just water and Dr.Ph Martin’s Black Star ink. I keep a few pre-mixed jars of it so I don’t have to work out the ink-to-water proportions every time I sit down to do a wash. Once all of that ink is dry — all of it waterproof — I put down some nice, bright, circus colors that echo the original Scooby-Doo design.

And in addition to my version of the clown, this week Michelle plays another round of Ink It or Stink It where she tries to ink one of my drawings for a panel of judges. I sketched out the original Takamodo design for her to try her hand at, and members of our Patreon voted whether the final outcome was an “ink” or a “stink.”

If you want to see the process video, and hear us talk about Bedlam In the Bigtop, the video link is below.

Inking Godzilla Minus One

I don’t know what you guys did over holiday break, but Michelle and I just kept going back to the theatre to see Godzilla Minus One. We weren’t even necessarily huge Godzilla fans before this movie. I mean, of course he’s a ton of fun. He’s a monster. But this movie? It stomped us flat and left us breathless. Best movie we’ve seen in a long time.

When I was a kid, when I saw a monster movie that got under my skin, I’d spend days lying on the living room rug filling my sketch pad (and any other random piece of paper I could lay my hands on) with drawings of the monster. So it seemed natural for me to do the same thing with this new, powerful, terrifying Godzilla.

Big difference is that now I have better tools at my disposal. So I lightboxed my sketch onto heavy cotton watercolor paper, and went at it with Black Star inks and Micron fineliners.

My plan was to set up three distinct values — lights, mids, darks — and set up the composition so that they frame each other nicely, and lead the viewer’s eye where I want it to go. I wrestled over whether to render this in inkwash or hatching — each have their benefits — but chose to go with a very measured, hatched linework for the midtones to contrast with the chaos of the subject matter.

I had a lot of fun working on this and practicing my brushwork, hatching, and monster doodling. If you want to see me put the whole things together, Michelle and I recorded my process for this week’s video and talked about our Godzilla Minus One experience (no spoilers).

My Friend’s Mailbox is Haunted!

Maybe haunted isn’t the right word. More like it’s crawling with monsters. And it’s not just one friend, it’s a few. And it’s all my fault. Because this year, Michelle and I decided to draw and ink a bunch of Universal Monsters and send them to some of our friends and Patreon supporters as Halloween cards.

Sending and receiving Halloween cards is a tradition that seemed a lot more prevalent when I was a kid. Hardly any of my friends do it anymore. But it’s something I always enjoyed, and something I’m not willing to let slip so easily into the past.

And while picking a few cards up in the drug store to mail out is perfectly fine, whenever I can squeeze in the time to make the cards by hand, it’s always a lot more fun. So I grabbed some watercolor paper, inks, brushes, and pens and got to work.

We even figured out a way to make them a little more than just hand-done illustrations (although, that would’ve been fine). We crafted a delivery system that made the drawings more like actual cards, and even supplied a little mystery by way of a window cutout that obscures parts of the illustration until you open the card.

If you want to see all the monsters we sent out to terrorize our friends this Halloween, you can watch the process video below:

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!

Friendly Neighborhood Spider Sketches

No elaborate diorama building this week, just some basic ink and watercolor practice. For inspiration, we used a couple of Spider-Man characters that have been trending lately. First, because Across The SpiderVerse was king of the box office, we decided to do a quick ink and watercolor sketch of Miles Morales.

There was also a lot of buzz about Aaron Taylor Johnson and the upcoming Kraven The Hunter movie. So far, I’m not sure how I feel about a young, model-handsome Kraven, so I went with the old school, fed-face-angry, teeth-clenching Kraven from the comics. That guy was unhinged.

I like to try to stay in practice with the illustration tools I want to become proficient with, so for these sketches I used a couple different brush pens, as well as the old school brush and ink. With the watercolors, I challenged myself to mix the flesh tones with just the primary colors.

So, all in all, a good week of practice. I’m thinking about doing it more often. I go over the pros and cons of the tools I use, as well as my techniques, in this week’s video. I linked it below in case you want to see how it all turned out.

Two Hellboys for the Price of One!

And since nobody’s charging an admission fee, that price is free. Free to watch me ink this Hellboy.

I used traditional, brushed ink on watercolor paper, something I’ve been trying to get better at.

But that’s not all — I said two Hellboys and I meant it. In an episode of Ink It or Stink It, Run Red Run also took a shot at inking a Li’l Hellboy drawing I did!

How did she do? You’ll have to watch the video to find out. Hope you like it! -v