A great session this week with a new model, very pleased with my sketches this week.
THE THING 1982 : Dog-Thing Pinup – Final Inks
I was very pleased with what the inks did to this piece- from the striking use of black to silhouette out Kurt Russell’s character “MacReady” in the foreground to the background textures of the wood walls and hay on the floor that all outline “THE THING”. I made it a point to work to keep all of the objects in totally different inking styles so whether this piece was black and white, or in color it still strikes you with all the different materials and lighting. Speaking of light- I was also happy with how I used a compass to make bigger circles emanating from the central light source to use different levels of line work and stippling to show the flashlight as a light source. The heavy line work on the large hands from the THING and the dogs that are being absorbed also gave all of the primary objects a real 3-D feel that you can almost reach in and feel the textures unfolding at the scene. Finally, I felt that the THING’s dog-face was an awesome focal point with the chiaroscuro really bringing out the melted and malformed features on the dogs unbalanced and angry face.
The awesome employee at JARU Inc. that does my large scale scanning, Miss Megan, who scanned this today, told me the image was upsetting and made her uncomfortable- all I can say is- Mission Accomplished!
Another Killer pinup under my belt and onto the next one-hope you enjoy this one as much as I did making it!
2/6/14 – Nude Figure Studies in Pencil with Model- At Art Alliance of Central PA
A solid session with a model that was older than our normal college aged folks- I really felt I nailed these four pieces, and I think the model gave us some challenges in her poses and made me work.
THE THING 1982 : Dog-Thing Pinup – Pencils
CLARK “I don’t know what the hell’s in there, but it’s weird and pissed off, whatever it is.”
One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite horror and sci fi films of all time- the Iconic John Carpenter Film from 1982 “THE THING”. As I have been making pinups for the last few months, I have been having a great time “visiting” different movies, TV shows and comics that I am a fan of, and getting to give OUTPOST #31 a visit was a long awaited place I’ve been wanting to go, and a place I wanted to take my fans to with some artwork that is beyond what you have seen for the standard fan-art for this property. I made two small commission from this film in 2013, which just fueled me to do a full out THE THING project- those two pieces are also below with my full art process, even though they were small doodles, I really loved them!
Ive been a fan of this Film for about 20 years now, and I love the hardcore fan base which is online at their Outpost 31 website here, I hope that I can meet some of these good folks at a show in person soon!
This film has great acting, a great script, amazing music, creepy sound effects and could be one of the pinnacle films of practical F/X with makeup, models and even some stop motion. With so many awesome scenes to pick from I chose the dog kennel which I have always thought was just amazing. I was lucky to get a diorama of it as a gift from my Mom years ago, so I decided that was the direction to go in- make that scene from a new exciting angle in my style, but stay as faithful to the film as possible, without just copying a film cel. Going with an over the shoulder POV with Mac (Kurt Russell) in the foreground I wanted his shotgun to lead the eye to a direct view of the dog thing with the transforming dogs on the outskirts. I felt this added a real sense of excitement and urgency to the image by the composition to the highly detailed scene on the kennel floor. I was really happy with the results- here is the clip from the film I based it on.
Welcome to Outpost #31…..
Below Pictures
Final Pencils…. traced transfers, Thing Study, thumbnail
Film Ref. and Photo Reference- thanks to my Dad (Ron Lenox) and Dog (Loki Lenox) for modeling for me on this project!
And my two 2013 THE THING commissions from Baltimore and Cleveland
Barron the Demon and Hydra Pinup- Final Inks
Here is the final inked version of this pinup- the biggest insight I can give is there was an old fake leather product my Grandmother had on a purse that I didn’t care for- it looked and felt weird- so I tried to mimic that on the Hydra’s heads for an otherworldly texture that also offset the lifeless eyes. I also gave Barron’s skull head a tweak to make it more 3 dimensional- it seemed off in the pencils with the head more a straight profile and the jaw on an angle- so I balanced it out. His right hand was altered as well in the inking phase to make it more realistic as well as creepy, It seemed to go from a weak element in the pencils to a strong one in the ink phase. Enjoy – and check out Joe’s book here– it got funded at over 100%
Really pleased and proud of how this turned out, and another Lenox Dragon is always a good thing to see…. Enjoy!
1/30/14 – Nude Figure Studies in Pencil with Model- At Art Alliance of Central PA
I felt like I had a hot hand this week, and I was really pleased with the figure drawing session this week, especially the bottom first drawing, which is always a non traditional angle to work. Also of note- I was very happy with how my feet turned out on these pieces.
Setsucon 2014- Commissions
Three random commissions I did at SETSUCON 2014- Jigsaw, Judge Dredd and a young lady who had a furry character she asked me to illustrate for her! I always enjoy these small sketches at shows!
Im looking forward to a larger scale DREDD study for a killer pinup in the near future- stay tuned…. it’s fun how these commissions can foreshadow something bigger sometimes!
Barron the Demon and Hydra Pinup- Pencils
Joseph Freistuhler has been involved in both of my comics, and now as part of our UGLI STUDIOS banner he is making his own comic project called EN TENEBRES which he is currently running as a KICKSTARTER HERE. I was tapped by Joe to do a pinup, and I wanted to focus on his Demon character known as “BARRON” which Joe had some really cool character designs on.
I wanted to draw another Dragon for a while as well, so this was a great chance to shoe-horn a Hydra into the mix. The “story” I am showing in this pinup is BARRON as a high officer in the “ARMY OF HELL” and the Hydra is BARRON’s living weapon of mass destruction. To give the piece a setting I have BARRON and his Hydra destroying a church in the middle ages, because what else do Demons that have Hydras with them have to do in their free time?
Visually I really wanted to make BARRON seem like a feral animal moving quickly while also showing he is really strong, and I think he really ended up looking like a fast moving creature stalking/running/crouching on that roofline. Part of this in the thumbnails to final pencils was bulking him up and getting his head down to more of a crouch pose. He also has really long creepy forearms as well which added to his unnatural aesthetic. I really had fun with his chest, which after it was done reminded me of the Alien’s chest from the 1979 film of a creepy exo-skeleton which was a second sub-conscious thing. One element you can see in my sketches was he was going to have a gorgon with a trident behind him, and this just didnt work from a layout standpoint for me, so she got dropped- I’m sure the monster union will file a complaint and protest with me.
I also really wanted to duplicate the great time I had creating my Dragon I did as a pinup for Kantara in 2012. That piece was really fun for me, and the fans have really connected with it and I get asked frequently “WHEN IS YOUR NEXT DRAGON?” so I present the newest “Jason Lenox Dragon”. At the same time I needed to do it differently, so creature design wise there are three big changes with this Hydra to the 2012 Dragon
#1 Three odd heads with different outcropping and features as well as breathing fire. I wanted to make these heads less natural and more freakish to show they had “Hellish” origins. I also felt like I channeled some old school Godzilla monster into the heads the center head sort of looked like a Godzilla foe (KAIJU!!!) that had a big knife for a head I liked as a kid- I realized this after the fact, so it was a second sub-conscious thing.
#2 The Hydra has blank “dead” eyes which I pattered after deep see fish that don’t see much light- thus just white plates with no pupils. The blank eyes always were an element that creeped me out, whereas the 2012 Dragon looks smart and cunning like a crocodile, the Hydra just looks like a mindless killer- again, it’s Hellish origins as a slave creature made by Demons like Barron to just wage war and cause indiscriminate destruction on Earth go along with this visual cue.
#3- The snake like body on the Hydra as opposed to the turtle like legs and the stout body from the prior Dragon. The lack of legs all adds to the malformed/un-earthly/hellish look I was working to achieve with Barron and the Hydra.
Visually the final element that just worked was the cross on the building, it was sort of a tribute to when Todd McFarlane made comics- he loved throwing that as a visual element into SPIDERMAN as well as SPAWN- I always loved his work and am still inspired by his ability to make things look fabulous, so with Demons running on a church roofline, I felt it was a fun wink and a nod to fans of Todd’s work from me to them.
Here are the final pencils, my thumbnails and Joe’s original Character Designs for BARRON.
1/16/14 – Nude Figure Studies in Pencil with Model- At Art Alliance of Central PA
Another session that was a struggle and challenge for me, here is my most current figure drawing session from last week. But like basketball, when a shooter hits a cold streak, you shoot your way out of it, I’ll be back at figure drawing class this week.
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