I have no idea why a roll of toilet paper would be so sad, but it’s still cute.

Click for full-size.

Here’s an old architectural concept illustration from sometime in 2008. A sort of portico of brick archways suspends a living roof accessible from the second story of the main building to which both are attached. Small fruit-bearing trees could be made to take root making a pleasant garden roof-top.

I hope you like it. Marker & ink.

Marker on cheap white paper.

Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This as you may recognize is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you.

While not the same image you may see on the attraction from which this quote comes, my sketch of a door drifting into a starry field certainly brings the scene to mind.

The illustration is ink & blue highlighter on 3-inch-square “sticky note”.

I really wanted to get some clay under my fingernails, and here is the result: a little ducky.

Here’s the concept art, a sketch of an existing design.

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This is the first post in a personal challenge to do & document something creative daily. Instead of eating lunch today (I’m not exactly wasting away), I did a quick marker sketch of an iconic frame of an iconic character. Chernabog can be seen in the original Fantasia. Here it is:

Click for a large view.

One of his eyes needs some work, but part of this challenge is to let go of nit-picking. I’m really happy this took me less than half an hour. Here’s a description from the Disney archive:

From his perch high upon Bald Mountain, Chernabog unfolds his wings and casts his dark shadow over the sleeping village. Born of nightmare and myth, he conjures writhing harpies and fiends, and calls the spirits of the restless dead to perform at his beckoning. His minions live and die at his whim, feeding the fire with their bones when he’s wearied of their devotion. Chernabog is king of the darkness and no human dares walk the night while he’s abroad! His evil power stands against anything — except the clean light of the sacred dawn. When the sweet notes of morning break over the mountain, the monster must crawl back into hiding, for against the purity of the day, his evil is helpless. But Chernabog is never gone, he merely waits for the coming of another night, and the chance to continue the eternal battle between light and dark.

Animator Bill Tytla drew on the Ukrainian myths of his childhood, and the powerful concept imagery created by Danish artist Kay Nielsen, to bring the frightening Chernabog to life. Horror-film star Bela Lugosi performed live-action reference for the giant demon, but Tytla was not completely satisfied with the result and re-shot much of the acting himself.

Film: “Fantasia” (1940)

Animator: Vladimir “Bill” Tytla

Click for a large view of reverse side of sheet.

This is the back view of the paper, which shows how I did the coloring for this image. All the black marker is on the front side, while coloration was achieved by liberally applying yellow, terracotta, and blue markers through the backside of the sheet to mix & blend. This can give a “splotchy” color effect & allows you to use markers without having a solid “edge” to each stroke. A clear blending marker could also achieve this end.

I would be very interested in hearing what you think!

Other Links

• Chernabog_(Fantasia) on wikipedia
• Chernobog on wikipedia