Frankenstein Illustration – Halloween Poster

Frankenstein poster

This visual idea for a guitar wielding Frankenstein monster went through several phases. Initially the idea came together as a potential poster to exhibit and sell at the Worcester MA Rock and Shock show. The ink illustration was finished but the final color digital poster design was finalized several months later for an entirely different gallery event.

I started with a  thumbnail sketch idea for a long/narrow poster design built on strong contrasting shapes; the monster against the sky.

Time went into doing some fun photo research on the classic Universal/Karloff film, Flying V guitars and Marshall stacks. I then did a tight ink drawing on large bristol paper keeping close to the design of my original sketch layout.

Frankenstein layout

Although I had a rainy/night sky in mind, I gave myself the option of working it in as a separate layer in the final stages. My ink drawing of the monster on the cemetery hill was inked in completely with india ink.

Frankenstein ink

I inked a rain filled sky onto a separate, full size photocopy of my monster ‘foreground’ drawing. I scanned this ‘sky’ for later use.

After experimenting with some typography ideas in Adobe InDesign I worked out my final color art in Photoshop, with some slightly tweeked layers of green for the main image and set the type.

Hellboy art cards

One of my favorite ‘modern’ comics is Hellboy – I’ve been fascinated by the visual world created by Mike Mignola and continued in B.P.R.D. by the great artist Guy Davis.

I’ve done some previous Hellboy drawings but this year I focused on a small trio of sketchcards featuring some of my favorite monster hunters: Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, and Hellboy.

Art Cards are size 2.5 x 3.5 inches, india ink and marker on 4ply Strathmore bristol cards

HellboyLobsterAbe