Nevermore

The Hound

Actually it's more of a fluffy dog, but that didn't sound very Halloween-y.

Ghostly feline

Ghost Waif

"Wednesday's child is full of woe..."

Ghost Child

Goblins

The Goblins Are Coming

by Eric Scales

When the moon is all slight in that thin crescent way
And the mist through the trees wraps around
Then the Goblins set out to steal someone away
To slave in their mines underground

And they're coming tonight to take you away
The Goblins are coming for you
There's nothing at all you can do or can say
The Goblins are coming for you.

A goblin band is hard to turn away once it's set out
And there really is no chance that they've disbanded
You're the only pick up scheduled for this evening and I doubt
That they'd waste the trip and go home emptyhanded


And they're coming tonight to take you away
The Goblins are coming for you
There's nothing at all you can do or can say
The Goblins are coming for you.


So you'd better get used to doing all the hard things that you're told
For your goblin-free life here will soon be through

They're not coming to help the cobbler or to spin straw into gold
No, the Goblins, child, are coming here for you.

A little Wednesday Mischief

Still trying to come up with a suitable name for this little guy. He's a mischeivious white kitten with a black head, or is he a black kitten with a white body?

Vampire

Trying to stay with my Halloween theme, I was doodling vampires. I wanted to keep the traditional Bela Lugosi formula (same costume, widow's peak, etc...) but try some different body types to get different characters. None were too successful but I kinda like this one.

Bats!

Haunted Nonsense and Childhood Fears

I had planned on theming all of my October posts to darker imagery than normal. Unfortunately I just don't have it in me. I grew up drawing Disney and Garfield, and consequently my outlook is pretty sunny, if a bit sarcastic. So while I've occasionally created some pieces that are darker in tone, I haven't been able to produce enough scary stuff to post for a whole month. However I did discover a beautiful blog called Haunted Nonsense by artist Jesse E. Larson. To the cynical viewer, Mr. Larson's work may seem like just more gothic doodles from a Tim Burton wannabe (or an Edward Gorey wannabe, for the more mature cynical viewer). But there's a super slick sophistication to Mr. Larson's pieces that is really beautiful- the black and white pen and ink style reminds one of these other artists, but Larson's work is definately his own.

After looking at his blog, it really made me want to do something in that style. This was done really quickly (I'm sure Larson spends hours on his) and I intend no real comparison between his work and mine. Far from being some random doodle, this one sketch has been trying to come out for years! When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, I had a huge fear of wolves. I don't know what started it, but I was convinced that the creature pictured above was prowling around my backyard just waiting for the night when my parents forgot to lock the door. I had dozens of wolf nightmares, everything from being chased through my house by them, to being in an out of control shopping cart (how's that for a distinctly kid-oriented worry?) headed towards a back alley full of them , to being made to go out into our screen enclosed patio at night only to find that it was swarming with ravenous wolves. Anyway, as an adult I've vowed to myself to one day illustrate some of the mental imagery that so frightened me as a child- so far I've been unsuccessful at capturing the intensity of those fears. Funny that this 2 minute doodle does it so well.

If you'd like a peek at something that furthered this little phobia of mine, stroll on over to Kindertrauma, and check out the email I sent them a while ago.

A boy and his ship

A kid playing with a Star Wars ship.

3 faces of Eves

Just some quick girl doodles.

Toddler

Clean, but still upset

I'm not sure this has the same character that the original sketch did. She seems like a much tougher colder person here.

The Pups of Liberty

A few years ago, my friends Bert and Jennifer Klein asked if I'd be interested in working on an independent film that they were producing. I hadn't done much animation since high school, and didn't know what they really needed, but fortunately they were willing to give me whatever I could handle. I didn't have much time to devote to it so I only worked on 3 scenes, 2 short inbetween scenes and one where I actually got to animate, but they were both fun to do.

The film is finally finished and is making the rounds at various film festivals. There's a lot more info at their site pupsofliberty.com . The trailer below actually contains 2 of the 3 scenes I did. I animated the father and daughter dog and the crowd at the meeting, watching the Redcat speaking (didn't animate the cat, I think Bert did), and I inbetweened the shadow shown throwing the crate of teabones to the ground. Great stuff I know ;) Still, like I said, super fun to do. Someday I'll digitize my old VHS tape of stuff from animation class and wow everyone with my mad skills.

Ghost Image

Just a quick ghost sketch with Photoshop color

Cat Gargoyle

I can't even begin to explain where the idea for this came from.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

Flowing blonde hair

Trying to be a bit more stylized and breakaway from that Disney Princess look. As you can see, I still have a ways to go.

Kids

Blonde toddler

Just some quick ones.

Dance Dad

Here's one of the other few fathers that I see every week at my daughter's dance class.

Kids

A few kids that were around my daughter's dance school the other day.