"Xylon"

"Xylon" / 9 x 12" / acrylic & ink on paper

I'm closing out this week's illustrations with a hanging gone terribly wrong. At least, it's gone wrong for the executioners. Apparently, the evil our five heroes have captured and hanged is far from dead.

Have an excellent weekend, and tune in next week for the final two drawings of Alphabet Attack! Series 4. I can hardly believe how close we are to the end!

- Dave C.

"Unseen"

"Unseen" / 9 x 12" / acrylic & ink on paper

Strange creatures and a forbidden alleyway kick off this week's run of drawings. I'm particularly stoked for this leg of the trip, as it's my last full week of Monday through Friday illustrations. If all goes according to schedule, Series 4 will be completed a week from today.

Here's to hoping for a strong finish!

- Dave C.

"Tracker"

"Tracker" / 9 x 12" / acrylic & ink on paper

I'm closing out this week's drawings with a Dangerous Woman & Creepy Monster combo piece! As I've said before, I'm an absolute sucker for drawing a well-armed woman, stalking through the woods after some ungodly creature. Of course, who's to say that the beast is stalking her, and not the other way around?

Have a great weekend, everyone. And join me on Monday for the start of the last full week of Alphabet Attack! Series 4.

- Dave C.

"Rampage"

"Rampage" / 5.5 x 8.5" / acrylic & ink on paper

And, just like that, I'm back to drawing monsters! This one was a lot of fun to create. It's actually a rough sketch, seen through to completion (hence the smaller size of the drawing).

Once I realized how much movement & gesture I'd already captured in the loose sketch stage, I didn't want to waste time trying to redraw it on a whole new sheet of paper. Some days, you could draw for hours, and still never recapture the raw energy that you stumbled upon in a 30 second sketch.

- Dave C.

"Prostration"

"Prostration" / 8.5 x 11" / acrylic & ink on paper

Nothing says, "Monday," quite like a drawing of a lone warrior being attacked by a portal-hopping demon!

As bad as I feel for our frightfully exhausted (and now shield-less) hero, they may still make it out of this. Who knows what the scent of death-from-another-dimension will inspire them to do?

- Dave C.

"Kindred"

"Kindred" / 11 x 17 / acrylic & ink on paper

Hope everyone had a swell weekend, and a peaceful start to this week. I'm kicking off this Monday through Friday run with some of my patented creepiness. It all spawned from a handful of questions that popped into my head -- don't monsters have relatives? If so, how do they keep in touch? What's a demon family reunion like?

And the image of this strange ritual came together from there.

- Dave C.

"Zenith"

"Zenith" / 14 x 17" / watercolor, acrylic & ink on paper

And so Alphabet Attack! Series 3 comes to a close, with "Zenith." Though it consists of my more frightening subject matter, I had a lot of fun creating these illustrations. It felt great to explore horrors lurking in the darker recesses of my imagination. It was also a wonderful opportunity to delve into mixed media techniques & aesthetic approaches that I had previously reserved for my sketchbooks.

Stay tuned for news, regarding the future of Alphabet Attack!

"There are those who laugh & not believe, until they feel that touch upon their sleeve."

- David Crosland

"Rivals"

 

 

"Rivals" / 14x17" / watercolors, gouache, acrylics & ink on paper 

Eight more letters to go....

"And that's why they say I'm different... and that's why they say I'm strange."

- King Gum

"Perilous Position"

This unfortunate scene -- well, unfortunate for the diminutive human in the image -- was created during C2E2, at the Nerd City booth. It was my first painting of the weekend, just meant to warm up the ol' painting arm. But when I got home, I realized it was the perfect scene for what I wanted to do with The Letter P.

"Perilous Position" / 9 x 12" / watercolors, gouache & ink on bristol

Who knows? The little guy might find a way out of this... somehow.


"What's growin' like grass with the mass appeal?"
- King Gum Crosland

"Gargantuan"

"Below the streets that steam and hiss, The Devil's in his hole."
- King Gum 

"Doggone"

This marks the end of my first week back on the daily illustration wagon. I hope you've enjoyed Letters A through D. Have a swell weekend, and be sure to check back on Monday for more Alphabet Attack!


"Clan in the front, let'cha feet stomp."
- David

"Coral Carnivore" Step Two

As you can see, Step Two of "Coral Carnivore" involved going from the initial sketch to a finished drawing. At first, I was reluctant to do a complete redraw for this piece. Maybe it was a pang of laziness, but I was so in love with the sketch (see last Thursday's post), that I almost didn't see the point in recreating that image from scratch. But in the end, I harnessed my weekend work ethic and channeled it into this finalized drawing.


The core elements here are essentially the same as in the sketch. I've tweaked the devilish siren a bit, and added some extra details to her toothy lower half.


I also added a stone archway to the scene, further emphasizing the fact that this beastie is lurking in a shallow cove. I've actually been to places like this, along the California coast. They are truly gorgeous, awe-inspiring scenes. I highly recommend visiting the ocean, as often as possible. There's nothing like standing next to a force of nature that's loaded with mystery, unseen creatures and corpses. It's beautiful and frightening, all at the same time.


Lastly, I found a strange satisfaction in taking the time to redraw this piece. A lot of Classical painters and 20th Century illustrators whose work I admire would endure the rigorous task of creating preliminary drawings, before ever touching the canvas. Some would even create whole paintings, just to work out the kinks in their plan for what would be the real finished piece.

That's something I've always wanted to incorporate in my work. I know it doesn't really jive with our push-button, instant gratification society. But it felt amazing taking the extra time to push myself from an already satisfactory drawing, and on to something that reached for even higher ground.

Stay tuned this week for the next steps of "Coral Carnivore!"

"I'm in the cube & I'm deep in the toilet! Way down deep where no good shit gets started!"
- Dave