Tuesday, October 23, 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Here's my image for the latest 'Gum or Mints' art challenge-FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER. I had fun with this one & the painting above was the culmination of all the following sketches.


I started just scrawling head shapes & variations on the typical dumb/agonised expressions.



I kept pushing the cranium size bigger & BIGGER. . .




I thought it helpful to not just DESIGN a character but to put it in a situation too. Initially I considered ripping off Mel Brooks' 'Young Frankenstein'-the scene where the old blind man pours soup in the monster's lap. However I figured that would be TWO characters to design & switched to the scene with the little girl & the flower, figuring the girl would be much simpler to design than the old hermit.

I thought the contrast between the two figures would work well & the situation is more subtle than the 'hot-water' gag; it can be perceived as entirely innocent with the monster simply delighted by the flower or perhaps his intentions are more menacing, implied by the well behind him.

I played around with various fun approaches to the girl character-some quite abstract but ultimately settled on more conventional shapes as I wanted her to look normal compared to the monster's distorted shapes.


Small, rapid thumbnails searching for some kind of background to lend atmosphere. I was looking for elements that wouldn't be too distracting from the characters & would evoke the atmosphere of the 1933 'Frankenstein' film sets.



This next one just happened after I spilt water on a pen drawing & the bleeding ink effect appealed to me so I splashed water all over it! Then I couldn't resist taking it into Photoshop to 'finish'. Putting him on a black background & adding some negative fx helped give that electric jolt to the original drawing!



This was another aberrant drawing that came out of the doodling process. It developed from Shelley's original description of the monster but my drawing ended up looking like some kind of New York disco junkie Freak!


Check out frankensteinia.blogspot.com for the ultimate collection of 'Frankenphilia'.

11 comments:

Oscar Grillo said...

Nice!

Brian Sibley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian Sibley said...

I like this stuff very much - it's especially funny to think that if Frankenstein stood up straight he'd bang his head on the top of the frame!! ;-)

I particularly enjoyed the electric-shock treatment picture. GREAT!

Kyle Marshall said...

Great work, love all the sketches.

Lena said...

Hi!I liked your Frankenstein!Style recognized,it is very good!I wish good luck!Lena.

Uli Meyer said...

Hey Matt,
You know I love the monsters. BTW, I'm blogging again.

Boris Hiestand said...

I love these- funny that you seem to love the "body broken in two" pose.
I've seen several doodles of yours where whatever character you draw stands bent over like that.
Namely in one of my sketch books, you know the one you don't want Gerbie to see ;) , where you drew me hunched over excactly like that, about to give you a good beatin' for being such an arrogant bastard!

hope to see you soon buddy!

Elliot Cowan said...

This reminds me of a Phillip Guston kind of thing.

Drazen said...

haha
thats great !

Unknown said...

Quelques bises de Californie mon Lapin, j'espere que tu vas bien.

MikeS said...

I quite liked the drawings developed from Shelley's original description of the monster but [your] drawing ended up looking like some kind of New York disco junkie Freak!

All very good!