Monday, March 24, 2008

GROSS ANATOMY (part 4)


Welcome to the fourth installment of Gross Anatomy! This time we'll dissect my new cover art for Canada's hardest-hittin' hillbillies, Golers! Damn, these barnyard boners crank out some vicious South Mountain Cretin Crossover! The new one is called Backwoods Messages and it sounds like a steel cage match between Poison Idea and Macabre! Anyway, I think this drawing really lives up to the name gross anatomy, but you can decide that for yourself. Let's get started...1, 2, FUCK YOU!


I start out scribbling like a monkey on any scrap of paper within reach. There's probably an artsy term for this sort of intentional doodling, but basically it seems to warm up my hand while allowing my mind to properly unhinge. I'll scribble like this until something emerges from the mess that strikes a nerve. In this case the inspiration was...BEASTIALITY! What did you expect? Now, pay attention to the guy in the upper right corner, he'll evolve into a prominent character.

Next comes the full-scale pencil sketch! The Golers take their name from a real-life inbred family made (in)famous when Canadian journalists exposed their den of depravity in a book called On South Mountain: The Dark Secrets of the Goler Clan. I wanted my drawing to up the ante and convey all the isolation and menace of the backwoods. I imagined Little Red Riding Hood meeting Sawney Bean down at Shotgun Gultch! Some compositional matters still need to be worked out here, but this is a fairly tight rendering of things to come...


Heehaw! Here's the final 14 " X 14" image! I've layed the ink on meticulously and solved some logistical problems. For instance, I wasn't happy with the feet in the upper left corner of the pencil sketch. I wanted to convey a sense of someone coming down the path unaware what they were walking into, so I decided to "zoom out" and give the scene some depth. I also had fun with the detail, like my signature on the can of beer near the pig's snout. Click on this image to get a closer look. I hope you're not at work, pervert! Backwoods Messages is available soon at Unrest Records!

Until next time...Get Golerized!!!!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Destroying Angels #9

Destroying Angels #9 gets a pretty sweet review in the new March/April 2008 issue of Metal Maniacs! Meanwhile, work has already begun on Destroying Angels #10 and it's shaping up to be the best issue yet! Expect a Fall 2008 release date.