
Just finished a new piece for
Solid Gallery One's Chupacabra group show. It's a group show inspired by devils, weird animals & mythical creatures. Since I already did my version of a
Chupacabra I decided to do some monsters I grew up with as a kid. You really can't go wrong with
Ray Harryhausen's Cyclops. Gotta love those old
Sinbad movies.

You also can't go wrong with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. That has to be one of the best creature designs that still holds up today, in my opinion. I thought I would do two
separate paintings with these monsters, but time just wasn't on my side. Instead, I just had to figure out a way to have them both in there.

Sometimes I'll a do a
reeeally loose sketch on the shrink wrap that the
gesso board comes in just to get a sense of the scale, shapes and proportions.

Since I already own these two figures, my reference was covered. Knowing that, I went straight to the board and started sketching things out.

Above is a shot of the painting in the early stages. You can see fish face lurking in the background. Great model that guy.

The idea for the painting just came out of thinking about Sunday afternoons watching monster movies and playing with action figures and acting out your own movies with your toys. I can
guarantee that if you put some toys in front of a kid, the first thing they will do is mash them together with their own sound
FX and make them fight. I still do it to this day (don't tell anyone).
Anyway, the
gesso board had a cool
wide screen feel to it too, so it worked out perfect. The show is up until December, so if you're in the area, check it out!