How MONSTER MEMORIES are made.

For quite a long while now, I've been creating the cover art for SCARY MONSTERS magazine and its annual MONSTER MEMORIES edition.   Over the past two days, I produced the wraparound cover art for the upcoming MONSTER MEMORIES 2010 issue.  I thought it might be fun to follow the process.  

It begins with an email from editor/publisher Dennis Druktenis outlining all the images and copy he'd like on the cover.  As this issue contains a previously unpublished interview with the late Forrest J Ackerman, Dennis sent along multiple photos of Forry in his cluttered office.  For the movie monsters/actors depicted, I searched my collection and the web for appropriate reference photos.  On this cover we have Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster, Bela Lugosi as Dracula (from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Lon Chaneys, Senior and Junior -- and Aurora model kit "Big Frankie."

The next step is a rough pencil layout -- which I neglected to take a pic of -- but it's just a bunch of squiggles anyhow -- you're not missing much.  I then drew all of the cover-featured creatures in pencil -- roughing in the logo and placement for some of the cover copy.

I scanned this image, dropping out the rough logo and copy, and using Photoshop, altered the pencil tones to a light blue.  I then printed this onto bristol board.

Using colored inks, I started working on "Uncle Forry."

Here we are a little further along.

The  Forry portion of the piece was fully colored/painted -- with the messy elements on his desk just suggested, and fading away into white in the corner of the piece.  Using blue inks I added more depth and detail to the "background" monsters/actors. I also printed out a light blue scan of FJA's "Frankenscience Monster" book and with x-acto knife and glue, placed it in Karloff's hand

The next step was to scan this and start playing with contrast, hue and saturation in Photoshop.  I bumped the blue up to a darker purple and tried a greenish background color.

I liked that -- but maybe orange would look better?  Yup.

Next step was to hand draw the logo, scan it and combine it with the already existing illustration. 
More fussing with color -- a deeper reddish orange for the background, and a little more contrast saturation on that purple.   A little "Sam Scare" head was added by the logo, as well as all the cover copy requested by Dennis.  A few minor tweaks, and it's done.  Look for the cover below on your newsstand in the not too distant future!

Wolfmen!

I've just finished the wraparound cover illustration for the 72nd issue of Scary Monsters magazine.  For those who've wondered why this blog is "Scary Terry's World," -- this is why -- for more than a decade, I've been providing art for this mag, and since Scary and Terry conveniently rhyme, the nickname was inevitable! 

After years of painting these covers in acrylics on illustration board, pasting up copy on an overlay and shipping it all to the publisher in a big bulky cardboard box, I'm now experimenting with new ways to work, and making the final cover in Photoshop -- delivering the piece electronically.  Yes -- I know it's a shock to some, but I'm digging this 21st century technology.  

For this werewolf themed cover, I searched the web for images of Oliver Reed in the Hammer Studios movie, Curse of the Werewolf, and used a flopped version of a frame from the film for my preliminary drawing -- also referencing other stills and promotional photos for details.  The Lon Chaney Jr. Wolfman images came from still-frame screen images.

I started with pencil drawings on vellum -- shown here in their original black and white state.  The next step was scanning them and playing with color and contrast in Photoshop.  For Lon's Wolfman, I gave the linework a rich brown treatment, with a pale yellow in the highlights.  For the Oliver Reed Werewolf, I went with a deep blue, and then using the airbrush tools, added pinks, purples, reds and yellows under the linework.

The final step was to combine the images and add copy, logo and plug in the mag's mascot, Sam Scare.  

Click on the images for a larger view!

Next on the drawing board -- finishing up a few commissions, drawing a band gig poster and starting a major new project that'll keep me occupied for six months at least....

House of Frankenstein!

Here's another Scary Monsters wraparound cover illustration -- this one featuring various characters from the Universal horror film House of Frankenstein, as well as TV horror host M.T Graves.