Monday, July 14, 2014

One, Two....Freddy's coming for you...

Only one drawing this whole weekend! I was very busy and ran out of time. This is done entirely in 0.5 and 0.3 lead pencil on a 4.5 x 4.5 square sheet. I wanted something simple - no color. I love drawing Freddy Krueger - I've probably drawn him over 1000 times since my days as a "yoot" - haha. Looking back at this two days later...I got some nice detail in there, albeit not totally accurate to the reference material. Enjoy.

















Friday, July 11, 2014

Blackie...First Commission DONE!

My first commission done! I hope my cousin likes it. Similar minimalist approach as The Joker from last week. Blackie!









Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Deliver Us From Evil - Movie Review...plus a MILESTONE!



"Your name, demon...what is your name?"

Let me get this out in the open. The Exorcist is the best demon possession movie that will ever be made. In many respects, it is the best horror movie that will ever be made. Everything else springs from that single perfect film from 1973. That being said...(obvious spoilers follow)

The film opens in Iraq in 2010 as three U.S. Marines uncover an ancient crypt. Of course they investigate and "something" happens, we hear screaming and everything goes dark. Fast forward 4 years later...Eric Bana plays a Brooklyn detective who happens upon a group of weird occurrences that seemingly tie in together the deeper he goes. He has become disillusioned with his line of work, shunning his wife (Olivia Munn) and daughter. An intense sequence at night in the Brooklyn zoo introduces us to our main antagonist, a hooded painter with an evil face.





As Bana continues his investigation, he discovers the painter is opening doorways with walls of ancient text - allowing a demon(s) to intrude upon our world. A priest, Edgar Ramirez, joins Bana and helps him discover the true nature of "the beast" and also helps Bana confront his own relationship with God.



Without giving too much away, they discover a connection between what the Marines found in Iraq and the evil that now spreads through the streets. They capture painter face and the priest must exorcise the demon once and for all.





This was a great horror thriller. I had little to no expectations which always helps, but this matched and exceeded what I hoped it would be. There are some truly scary sequences. Jump scares pop up all over the place and they actually have a point to the story, not just some random object falling over in the background like in so many other films. The makeup FX are mostly all PRACTICAL which was a wonderful thing to see. The wounds, blood and look of everything is REAL...not fake CGI blood splatter thank goodness. There is a nice theme of faith, darkness and redemption with Eric Bana's character right at the center. The acting is good to great on all fronts - hell even Olivia Munn puts on a good serious face throughout...I am also becoming a fan of Edgar Ramirez the more I see of him. It helps that he is so strong next to Bana's central cop. I wish the soundtrack would have been a bit stronger, but it was serviceable for this. Supposedly, this was based on the actual accounts of a former NY city cop...I don't know if I ever want to read that now. Creepy stuff.

I should have known something was up when at the very beginning the individual letters of the title slowly disappear one by one...the last five letters left on screen spell the word "D E V I L" - nice touch.

Oh, and then there's this damn creepy owl head toy that rolls off the shelf by itself. Dammit!



3.5 out of 5 Khans! (Just short of 4 Khans...)

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On a little side note, I realized this morning that my art post from yesterday was my 1000th blog post!!!! That's pretty huge I guess. I'm glad it was a creative post with drawings/sketches. Here's to 1000 more...

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Markers, Markers...I love markers...plus a Commission!

More sketching/studies last night...

First I had to get this Swamp Thing down using a reference pic from a recent comic issue.









Next up...my first Commission! It's for my cousin and I won't be charging him needless to say, but it's pretty cool either way. I will prob end up painting this a la Joker from last week but I wanted to get some marker studies down to see how it would look last night....voila!





And then one more to top the night off - Bale's Dark Knight from the TDKR poster. I like this one a lot...I'm glad I decided to attempt it..it's one of my faves so far...





Monday, July 7, 2014

More Markers...and a short Review

Got a few more in with the markers this weekend. First off my what-if Animated Khan - my favorite of the weekend...

"Buried Alive!"





A Swamp Thing in progress study...









and a quick Shockwave Transformer sketch and color...



Lastly, a quickie review from a weekend full of movies - Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. A quirky little "apocalypse" film starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. They meet under dire circumstances in their apartment building and go on a quest to find Steve's high school sweetie as an asteroid hurtles towards Earth. It's funny, sad, and hopeful and was a nice surprise. A good soundtrack accompanies it as well. Solid 3.5 out of 5 Khans.



Tuesday, July 1, 2014

"I’m gonna make this pencil disappear."

I now give you my favorite acrylic painting to date.

The Joker.























One of my favorite alternate shots.