Wk 25: Lavinny's Boy

 

I had known about H.P. Lovecraft's work since around High School which I would imagine when most of us first heard the yoohoo of Cthulhu.  It wasn't really until I was well out of college, one fateful night, that I read some of his work.  We had been talking about ghosts and monsters all day at the office and the thought that I should grab a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories from the bookstore on the way back to the apartment.  Keep the creepy vibe going, take advantage of the feeling to heighten the reading of stories I had heard were legendarily horrific.  I was met at the elevator of my apartment building by the Building Supervisor looking like he had a horrible day.   "You live on the seventh floor right?" Right off I was wary. "Seems as though your neighbor from down the hall had passed away some weeks ago, we just found him today.  You might want to make it to your apartment as quick as possible and open some windows."

SO at the peak of creeped out I read "The Dunwich Horror."  A nice little family story about the Wathley's.  This is young Wilbur Wathley, without giving too much of the story away let's just say, in a way, he's kind of Lovecraft's version of Hercules.  To say much more may ruin the story, all I can say is, go out and read it!

The piece itself comes from a rather inspiring talk I had with Jim Giar.  So inspired was I that I did this piece without a preliminary sketch, just jumped in and went at it.  Not entirely happy with the composition as I am the technique.  This is graphite, watercolor, ink, colored pencil, oil pastel, acrylic all on clay board.  I even scratched out the highlights like you might do scratchboard.  I learned some stuff from doing this little piece, hope you enjoy!

Week 23: Cleopatra Jones

Pretty damn fun to draw.

Crider WK24: TMNT

The ninja turtles are the first things I drew when I quit playing little league and starting focusing on art.  They're near and dear to my heart. 

So maybe someone should let me draw a ninja turtles comic book.  

Week 22: Lifes Blood

Yes...I know. I'm way behind...waaaaay behind. SO I'm playing ketchup...errr catch up, starting with "Tools" week. But for now...an Oprah Winfrey moment.
 My parents divorced when I was young and for his own reasons I didn't see Pops for a few years. Pops was a pressman at our local paper, years later becoming the press room foreman. But at 11 years old, in order to see him...every Saturday I'd hop on my bike and make the trek to downtown and hang with him for the day around the huge presses. The smell of ink, solvents and the noise of the presses as they ran...are some of the most deeply felt and clearest childhood memories I have. Those scents..the sounds..still feels like yesterday.
 But what I remember most is the ink. Buckets of it that they'd scoop out and put into the bins below the huge cylinders of the press that fed it. Pops had permanently stained fingers from the ink. And when I work with it and that dark liquid stains my fingers and splatters my cloths...I can't help but grin and remember him and those moments we spent together Years later as I began venturing into art and comics it's always been the ink that is my most expressive tool. I'm constantly trying different brands...alwasy looking for the darkest and blackest. I fully realize it's considered a medium more than a tool in our art world. But for me...it has always been and always will be my tool of expression. It truly does run in my veins

(drawing by Tim Switalski)

We here in the Rust Belt love tentacles just as much as we love our monsters.  So much so we've decided to devote a week to the master of both tentacled monsters and monsters with tentacles, H.P. Lovecraft!  Of course I over simplify but in a world of humanoid monsters, Frankenstein and Dracula, Lovecraft injected some much needed, tentacles, crab claws, fish parts and indescribable bits to horrify his readers. So without any further adieu we shall dive into Lovecraft's Old Gods, Outer Gods, horrors and legends and see what we might turn up. 

wk 24: Sailor Don

Don't really know why this turned into a tattoo but after a certain point it made sense.  I've always been a Donatello fan, first TMNT action figure and first one I chose to play in the arcade game. I suppose he would be the first turtle I would get as a tattoo if I were so inclined.  

This one is watercolor and graphite, enjoy! 

Wk 23: Mamma Mia!

While thinking about the exploitation movie poster it would seem that it requires a few things, a bad guy, a lady and a promise of extreme action.  Donkey Kong seemed the all too obvious a choice, right?  We got a ape with destructive intentions a damsel in distress and a working class hero, how this was never a movie in the seventies I'll never know!

This one, like the most of the others, pencil on vellum colored in Photoshop.  To be honest there are a few things I am not entirely done with in this piece but I like it well enough to jump back in at some point in the future to finish it up.  Until then I hope you enjoy. 

Week 24: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Week...Nuff' said.