"The Thing" Sketches

Howard Hawk's "The Thing from Another World" (1951) was on Turner Classic Movies last week and even though I've already seen it three times I decided to record it anyway. It got me thinking again about all things "Thing." The last time I got really into it was as a sophomore in college two years ago, where I decided I wanted to illustrate the original short story upon which the movies were based, John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" along with Harry Bates's "Farewell to the Master," which inspired "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Since both movies were made in 1951 and showed opposing depictions of alien beings in film, one benevolent and one hostile, I thought they'd make a great subject for an essay/ art series. Sadly, I think it may have been too ambitious at the time, what with school and all. But that doesn't mean I can't post any sketches from that ill-fated project! So here it is, two years late, ladies and gentlemen, the Thing from Another World!

I tried to be as faithful to the original short story as possible while trying to put my own stamp on the design. While in Hawks's 1951 film it looks a bit like the Frankenstein Monster and has no form in John Carpenter's 1982 remake, Campbell's story depicts the Thing as a blue two-armed, three-eyed Medusa-like being. I also tried to incorporate cats in the design, because cats can have pretty peircing eyes. Giger's Alien was also a bit of an inspiration, although I don't know if that really shows.

Even though I didn't finish anything, I really like what little I produced. I may post a finished Thing piece if I come up with something I really like. Only time will tell.

Gamera is really neat. He is made of turtle meat.

Just sime pics I did based off of my favorite giant turtle.

Gamera and Master Roshi from Dragon Ball. This actually happened: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Baby_Gamera

and a little meme I created using pics and dialogue from "Gamera vs. Barugon." 

100th Issue of G-Fan

My little tribute to G-Fan Magazine, which is reaching its 100th issue very soon. Here's hoping it goes on for 100 more!

RIP Maurice Sendak

A moment of silence please.

Batman

In my illustration workshop class we had to draw film noir pictures. Batman's film noir last I checked, so I drew Batman. Batman was always hard to draw for me, it's the damn ears for some reason, so I was proud that this came out at least halfway decent-looking:)

kAIBUTSU!

The three principal monsters for "Kaibutsu," my kaiju version of "Watchmen" where I take different Godzilla monsters and come up with analogues set in their own universe for an original story. To read their origins, go to my Deviantart account at crocazill.deviantart.com.

The poster

                                                  

 

Luctandor, obviously based on Godzilla

Arunah, based on Mothra

Last, but not least, Fragorsidus, based on King Ghidorah.

There should be more, as I continue to develop the world, but only time will tell if I manage to get anything done.

Some new sketches

Anguiras, of Godzilla fame.

An everyday scene on the Island of the Fighting Monsters

Crocazill and his noble steed

And lastly, an Astronaut Shark.

Rough zoo studies

Alligators make great subjects because they almost never move over the course of a few hours.

 Same with iguanas.

More Godzilla

Godzilla vs the Daleks from Doctor Who in a match I'd love to see happen. I don't think I did the idea much justice, as I may have rushed tp get this done in time for G-Fest, the Godzilla convention in Chicago I go to every year.

Speaking of G-Fest, I doodled this there.

Godzilla and Gamera: Surf's Up!

Sorry I haven't updated in a long time!

I decided to make this after I saw an old picture I drew of Godzilla surfing on Gamera and decided it was a good concept but I could do better. I'm going to try to make a few more giant monster-related pics for G-Fest this July, whenever I have time off from my summer job.  

Self portrait... and more portraits

Tarzan of the Apes

Third in the Burroughs series. Tarzan joining the apes for the Dum Dum ritual. Not sure if I'll post the fourth one though, since I don't know if it's good enough or not.

Mahar's Stare

"Still the girl advanced, chained by that clammy eye."

Second in my thesis focusing on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, this time focusing on Pellucidar, the first series of his I read. I was in the 6th grade, I think. Leave it to Burroughs to make the idea of telepathic pterosaurs sound awesome, in the same way a giant jet-powered turtle is awesome. The Mahars were kind of like steampunk Skeksis in a way. I even enjoyed that movie from the 70s with Peter Cushing, of course Caroline Munro helped.

John Carter of Mars

So yeah, this picture pretty much took my entire weekend to produce. It's the first in a series of pictures for my thesis project in figure drawing class. We have to come up with four pictures that followed a theme, so I chose the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of my favorite authors. The next three will focus on Pellucidar, Tarzan, and a fourth which I haven't decided on yet. I'm thinking either Venus or the Moon Maid. I'd do Caspak if I weren't already using that story for another project.

Here we see John Carter and a Thark about to engage in some good ol' fashioned Martian diplomacy while Dejah Thoris looks on. Is it just me or does John Carter look like Doctor McCoy? "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a swordsman!"

I think the only problem I have with this picture is that I have Dejah just standing there without giving her anything to do. I was originally going to have her cowering but I didn't know if I had enough room.

I'm still proud of this picture because I think I've advanced with my cross-hatching and drawing of people.

Mo portraits

Characoal Portrait

My dad was the model. You can tell I don't do characoal much:(

Just your standard street fight between a cop and an eldritch horror

Done for figure drawing class to give the teacher an idea of what we can do. It had to incorporate the human figure in some way, otherwise it was completely open.

I'm not too proud of the cop because I don't feel like the way the arm's bent looks too realistic, nor does the face under it. And I'm not too keen on the shading of the girl's arm. For me what shines is the monster in this piece, as does most of my work. This is also the first time I've tried to draw hair highlights on the computer.

Originally I was going to make it one of the Elder Things from H. P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" but I couldn't figure out how to fit one in the composition, so I just opted for some random tentacles. Maybe one day I'll draw the creature these are attched to if I come up with a good design.

Roundhouse Flipper to the Face

Okay, this one takes a bit of explaining. So for C. F. Payne's class we had to make an illustration for a hypothetical article in a children's magazine about a random fact. I chose "dolphins sleep with one eye open" because I had the idea of crossing it with an old Chuck Norris joke which said the same thing (although now that I think about it it might have been "Chuck Norris doesn't sleep, he waits"). So yeah, it was only funny for about ten seconds, and after a while I was like "fuck this." To keep me motivated I put some of those prehistoric ceolocanth fish in the background, because prehistoric things make me happy. I'm weird that way.

Holiday Post

A comission for the holidays, featuring a very one-sided battle between two famous stop-motion arctic monsters: the Rhedosaurus from "Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms" (one of my favorite Harryhausen movies) and the Abominable Snow Monster from the Christmas classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer." Whose to say the Beast didn't make a trip to Santa's Village before swimming down to New York?

I hope everyone who reads this blog is having a Merry Christmas (or a Happy Hannukah, but that's been over for a while, hasn't it?). Mine was pretty good. I got a copy of the complete run of Xenozoic Tales by Mark Schultz, which I can't wait to dig into.

cover art by Mark Schultz

In my opinion, any Christmas when you get a book whose alternate title is "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" has been a pretty damn good Christmas!

Vegiteam and Snakulons Project

Members for two opposing teams I had to design for a fictional PSA on nutrition. You can pretty much guess who's good and evil.

In the Lead Carrot I was influenced a little by Sonic, Super Saiyans, and the Scrubbing Bubbles. Then I made the Female Carrot a bit like Sailor Moon, and the Baby Carrot... I just tried to make look cute.

I don't know if he really looks like a blob of gravy. I was inspired by Cthulhu and more than borrowed from a certain Godzilla monster...