Happy Thanksgiving

 

Plant Monsters part III

The Slobbering Pine, aka Drosophyllum is a genus of carnivorous plants containing the single species Drosophyllum lusitanicum. This sticky plant lures its prey with the sweet smelling digestive adhesive that captures and dissolves prey. This monster just makes itself. If such a creature were very large and lumbering around looking for humans to snag I think it would make a wonderful creature for games and fantastic tales.

 

Plant Monsters II

A thiseling, this monster is one of my own design and is a real prick. lol

This creature is my idea of a Triffid. Triffids are alien plant monsters from an old sci-fi film I watched as a kid. 

FEED ME!

Plant Monsters

I love plants and I love the idea of monster plants of all kinds. Botanical life comes in a wide array of interesting forms and I love to explore what I can make out of them in my creature designs. Here is tonight's project. Venus Hominid.

Octopus Woman

Also known as a Cecaelia, these creatures have very little lore written about them. They have been included in many old illustrations and Ursula the sea witch from Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) certainly qualifies as a cecaelia. 

Krampus II

 

I have Krampus on the brain today, what can I say. This is a speed painting, it only took about 20 minutes.  

Krampus

 

 

When it comes to Christmas I have a hard time enjoying the more traditional elements. I hate the consumerist gift giving and the obnoxious music, but I have found certain elements of it enjoyable. I love Krampus, the Yule Cat, and scary ghost stories, among other older traditions of the season. A friend of mine has created a thirteen days of Creepmas project and I plan to post a Christmas/horror themed image here each day. Not all of them will be new projects, but I hope you will enjoy each one for what it is.

 

http://www.creepmas.com

Monster Dictionary

I am nearly ready to start editing my monster dictionary project. This is a test image of the first monster in the book. Adaro is a sea monster from the Solomon Islands and flies through the sky throwing poisonous fish at people. 

Winter Isn't Coming

Snow in November is a rare thing in Tennessee, but it happened this morning and I was inspired to alter one of my digital paintings to match the weather.

Artist Rights and Christmas Demons

So it seems that artists have very little right to protect their own work these days. I have a piece of my work floating around out there on the net that is being used to promote the new Krampus film by Michael Dougherty, who I am a big fan of, but it is so hard to make it as an artist in this world, and when people use your art to promote their article or their company or jut because they like it, and they don't pay you. They kill the industry just a little every time. Some want to say "It would be great exposure for you!" Bull!!! It is a great chance for you to exploit an artist to make you money! I am trying to keep a cool head about this kind of thing, but it is not easy. 

I have started to include my logo on my work as you can see, but the damage with my past work is already done, sad to say. If you see someone using an artists work and they are not credited, let the poster know in the comments who the artist is and give a link to the artists work if you can. 

Rotten

I enjoy photographing my Jack o Lanterns after they have rotted and fallen apart a little, or in some cases, almost completely. These are some of the photos I have taken. I hope you enjoy them.

                 

          

The Great Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu

H P Lovecraft inspired a multitude of imitators and homages to his strange and wonderful works, but none is more popular today than the great Cthulhu. 

Things in Jars

Sideshows and freak shows invoke a Kaleidoscope of emotions, the most common being fear, pity, and disgust. While humans and animals were both subject to being displayed for audiences to ogle, some inanimate objects and taxidermies were used in shows. One well known creature is the Fiji Mermaid. This object was the assembled parts of a juvenile monkey sewn to the lower extremity of a fish. Pulling from this rich history of freaks in jars as well as inspiration from a wonderful short story, Ray Bradbury’s The Jar, I chose to create this assembly of atrocities for the shelves of my office. I hope they make you as happy as they make me.   

 

  

Lamia

 

The Lamia has many forms and many legends surround the creature. All agree that the Lamia is a horrible monster that feeds on the flesh of men and drinks the blood of children. The Lamia is of ancient Greek mythology, she was the queen of Libya who was transformed into a monster. Zeus, her lover, gave her the power to remover her eyes, the reason for this is unknown. In Edward Topsell's The History of Four-Footed Beast, the Lamia appears as a scaly lion with the head of a woman, but in Greek myth she has the tail of a serpent in place of her legs. Other tales say she is normal, but has a distorted face.      

 

The Jersey Devil

 

The Jersey Devil is a Cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. It is a demon born of a mortal woman named Deborah Leeds. The creature was her thirteenth child and reportedly was born a normal baby, but changed its form to become the horror you see above. On January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil. Reports continue to pop up on occasion, even now.   

 

Wendigo

The Wendigo of Algonquin lore is a demonic spirit born of the unforgivable sin of cannibalism. This monster is one of my favorite creatures. It is endlessly hungry for human flesh and eats any animals it comes across as well. It has associations with winter and madness resulting from solitude. Greed can also cause one to be transformed into a Wendigo.  

Halloween 2014

My monsters and I had a great October. Halloween came and went like a dream. It never lasts as long as we would like, I guess that is what makes it so precious. I hope you had a great October and that you are looking forward to the next one. I know I am.

Being an Artist

 

Being an artist isn’t easy, it can be fun, but making a living is a real challenge sometimes. I paint windows for stores, teach painting and drawing classes, and teach at a local college that is closing soon. (sadly) I illustrate, do graphic design work and occasionally build something for someone. Sometimes I think I should do something else to make a better living, but being an artist is who I am and it is very hard to not be who you are.

 

The Hound

The Hound is a tale by H P Lovecraft about a creature chasing a couple of grave robbers in an effort to punish them for defiling a cultist's tomb.

Last Year

Last year we planned a camping trip that was blocked by a powerful storm that could produce tornados, so we stayed at my friends place and told stories, watched movies and ate and ate some more. It was a lot of fun even if our plans didn't work out. Every year I try to create an illustration that captures the feel of that year and for last year I picked a Halloween tornado.

Dreams in the Witch House

 

 

Dreams in the Witch House is one of my favorite works by H P Lovecraft, I created this prop with that story in mind. She is a favorite of many of my friends and I plan to build her two sisters based on other stories.

 

 

Beautiful Vampire

 

 

 

My lovely girlfriend and I went as vampires this year. She looked great.

 

 

All Them Witches

Ethan Black Arts 2005 ©

 



In 2005, created this coven of witches for my yard haunt. They are long gone, but I plan to build two more witches to go with the one I have.  They will be ready for 2015. Yep, already making plans.

The Watcher

The Watcher is one of my attempts to create fine art photography and is one of the creepiest things I have done in my opinion. I plan to create postcards with this image in the future. 

Halloween 2005

Long ago I took photos of my early yard haunts with film. These are my favorite photos to come from that time. I have many more to be shared another time.

 

 

 

 

 

The Devil Takes a Witch

The Devil Takes a Witch Ethan Black 2010 ©

 

I created this illustration for an art history report that required us to write about two pieces of art that influence us creatively. I chose the film Haxan and the sculpture The rape of Persephone. The marriage of the two resulted in this illustration. This project is one I am very proud of, I enjoyed doing it and it is the type of illustration I would like to do more of.

 

Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) is directed by  Benjamin Christensen, the film shows witches in the Middle Ages and is very creepy. The imagery is strange and dream like with nightmareish and oddly erotic images. My imagination is awakened by this film easily.

 

Rape of Persephone, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622-1625 is an amazing sculpture that depicts Hades taking Persephone in a pose that I used to inspire my work for this illustration. In doing so I was trying to draw attention to how our myths evolve, merge ad change and how Christianity’s Satan is connected to the older religions deity’s and myths.

 



Fine Art?

I love fine art and Hallowe'en, but I rarely see the two meet. I try as best I can to merge the two in my work. I paint, draw, take photos, sculpt, and get mixed results. I hope you enjoy this image of a scarecrow I built for my parents a few years ago. He has fallen apart and is sadly no longer with us. 

2 of 13 The Shroud

This ghost was based on the traditional shrouded spirit. He haunts an abandoned church, guarding the grounds from vandals. Guardian spirits are a common theme in ghost stories.

Award Winning Pumpkin Fiends

My Pumpkin Fiends have won second place in The Holiday Store's prop contest. I am very proud of them.

 

 

Golems

Golems come in all shapes and sizes and all can trace their concept back to an ancient tale, The Golem, from Jewish mythology. The animated clay man who when not correctly controlled runs amuck. This is also the origin of Frankenstein's monster.

This golem is based on the one from Jewish myth and was drawn for my book on mythological creatures. More on that another time. 

This golem was designed for a short story about a candle maker who's son is wrongfully executed causing the father to create a monster to exact revenge on the conspirators.  

Biohazard

This prop was a combo static prop and fogger. I plan to make a tutorial for it soon. 

Candy Beast

I am always looking for new things to turn into monsters. This is just one more horror to add to my collection.