Ben: The Monster At The End Of This Book

I was recently asked (months ago) to participate in a gallery show at Bay Arts by my friend Erin Schechtman.  The general theme of the "Old Friends Gallery Show" was to reference a beloved childrens' book.  I immediately knew I wanted to do something for Grover in The Monster At The End Of This Book, I just had no idea what.  Having planned on doing it at the last minute, like all of my projects, I had plenty of time to ponder my approach.  The more I "pondered" the less I thought about the story and more about the title.  "Monster At The End Of This Book" taken out of context sounds much more like a classic pulp novel than a children's book.

And that's sort of what happened.  Here is my Pulp/Film Noire version of Sesame Street.  Work in Progress at my personal site : NeedYourDisease.com  

-Ben

The Great......

Started my day out right by sketching Gonzo the Great.  

Week 7: Super-Grover Sneak Attack On Doomsday

Another "quicky" this week.  I had a couple different ideas in my head, but when I started sketching it just turned into Super-Grover vs. Doomsday.  I remember looking at coloring books and other drawings of Muppets in the past and thinking that there was something off about the way they looked.  Drawing this reminded me of what that is: a lot of there features are limited to the point where adding anything takes away from their look. Their mouths don't really bend or curve and some don't have eyelids or eyebrows.  Adding those features in the drawing takes away what they look like.   Its a real testament to the abilities of those puppeteers that they are able to produce so much expression and life from them.

Netflix Instant just added the documentary "Being Elmo".  I watched it yesterday and highly recommend it.

See the original sketch at my blog: Still-Reaching.blogspot.com

Twitter: NeedYourDisease

Wk7: You got your chocolate and my peanut butter!

Just so happens that this week's topic coincides with a commission I just finished. A couple friends of mine are getting married and approached me with this amazing amalgam of ideas that represents the both of them. Sweetums with Chewbacca's bandoleer on and Red Fraggle wearing Gryffindor house robes. Of course! I love that I have friends that think like this!
The technique used here was oil pastel, colored pencil, ink and acrylic on vellum. Drawing on the front side of the vellum, purpley-red oil pastel under painting on the back with whites erased out. Then flipped back over to the front for all the colored pencil, ink and acrylic. There's a little more to it if you guys have any questions I'd be happy to share. But there ya go, Red Fraggle, student at Hogwarts in love with Sweetums the co pilot of the Millennium Falcon . Makes sense to me!