I love Hellboy

Hey all! Anyone who knows me or who has seen my library knows that I'm a huge Hellboy fan. He's a fun character, he's interesting, and he's one of those creations that makes me wish I'd thought of it, and there aren't many of those. Anyhow, I got bored in a coffee shop after taking a peek at The Crooked Man, and figured I'd pay my top comic hero a little homage. Hope you enjoy it.

Beasts and Beauties

Hey again! To just throw a little spice into my art and keep the darker places thing from getting too overwhelming, I give you a random page from my sketchbook. That way I was feeling kind of uninspired while I was at the coffee shop, but I found some fashion mags, and I considered a post I'd recently seen on conceptart.org, which, despite all its best intentions, I hate like a carnivorous virus. Anyhow, here we have some of my early work towards their concept for an 8-bit character redesigned: Firebrand from Gargoyle's Quest 2, an amazing game.
Firebrand rocks, enough said.
Also, the girl's are all from the random fashion magazine that was on the table next to me. I spent a while with the mag, trying to find decent pictures. Oddly, the same coffee shop wasn't really had any fashion magazines since, so I guess I had to make the most of it. I hear my old school's doing model nights on Thursdays now, so I'm gonna have to look into that. God knows I could use more models, and god knows my friends aren't doing enough posing for me. Oh well...

Beelzebub

Hey all! I figured that I would put something up that had nothing to do with Darker Places. Just a for-fun piece I did a while back in a coffee shop. Here we have my vision of Beelzebub, the lord of lies. I've always had this image of him in my mind, as a demon with segmented eyes and fly legs for teeth, who thrives off seduction and trickery. I've always drawn him as half-human and half fly, at times I've designed him as a giant winged maggot. Fun guy to work with. Anyhow, I was thinking of using this as the tonal scene for a painting. Thoughts and comments? Let me know!

Darker Places: The Halfway House

Hey all! Once again, we have another post in the Darker Places series. Here, we have what was originally the core of the series. This place was the heart of everything, back when I had this idea originally. This is The Half-Way House. Half way between the world of the story, and every other world.
The house itself serves as a border between multiple worlds. While its front door opens into a realm of darkness and wonder, the Half-Way House has many doors, each leading to another world. At any time, the Half-Way House is full of dozens of visitors; sleepers, maniacs and the truly gifted all pass through the thresholds of this house. It serves as a pleasant and mostly safe respite for those with the talent or ability to venture beyond themselves and their own worlds into something greater and, often, more terrible.
Serving as custodian and guardian of the house is an enigmatic creature who calls himself Hypnos Friend. Mr. Friend's appearance is hard to ascertain, though his presence is always felt as a strange halo of wellbeing and quiet unease, like having a pleasant afternoon tea while sitting with a serial killer. In truth, Hypnos may in fact be a god, or some remnant of human desire made strong enough to manifest in the form of the perfect host. Mr. Friend attends to the needs of everyone in his house in swift order, and prevents any attacks on the Half-Way house, of which there are many, for many know of the significance of the house and wish to tap into it's powerful potential.
Somewhere, in one of the upper rooms of the house, far from the madmen and schemers who normally roam the halls, is a young girl. Her life, her entire world, has been the rooms and halls of this house, and nothing more. Her private room is always well kept and tidy, and Mr. Friend regards her with a special affection. She has always been in Half-Way house, and no one can say why. Her name is Pistol. This is her story.

Darker Places: Xura

As promised, here's post number two for tonight. Behold another corner of the world of Darker Places, also inspired by Lovecraft; Xura, the land of Pleasures Unattained.
From the outside, Xura looks like a paradise on earth. Vast hills and valleys of flowers and verdant life as far as they eye can see. On the outside, the wilderness of Xura appeals to every sense, but scratching the surface of this wonderland reveals the gangrenous infection under the surface.
The winds of Xura carry both the songs of joyous celebration and revelry as well as the wretched strench of plague deaths and charnel pits. Every hill of flowers grows ravenously atop catacombs and mass graves. Nothing lives in Xura. Things may suffer and rot and decompose within the corruption of their own desires, but nothing truly lives in Xura. Even the vibrant greenery only feeds on the death and rot of spent desire and lost joy. Xura is a carnivorous land that masks its blighted nature with a painted surface, like a bright and colorful mask disguising the face of a desecrated corpse.
Enjoy the Hunter's Moon! It's supposed to be marvelous. I have a tree in the way...

Darker Places: Thalarian

Hey again! To compensate for the fact I didn't update last night, I'll be including two editions of my Darker Places series. For starters, we have the City of 1000 Wonders: Thalarian.
Thalarian was briefly mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft in his story The White Ship. I've adopted it into my darker places series. I felt it was a proper fit.
Thalarian is called the city of wonders with just cause. Each building is a palace, both temple and skyscraper, towering monuments to ingenuity and fortitude. The city is a veritable gallery of marvels. Each structure is a work of architectural genius and contains works of science and art that would baffle even the greatest minds. A single one of the great towers of Thalarian could occupy a human mind for a lifetime, and Thalarian is a city of almost endless towers. Streets stretch on for sightless miles, lined with structures grander and more imposing than the last.
However, looking beyond these wonders, the stale air of horror begins to permeate the senses. Thalarian is not so much a place of imagination as of obsession. The streets are paved in the pale dust of countless bones. The cries of the frustration and desperation of the long departed are carried on the breezes that sail between the vast towers, carrying the dust of their own powdered remains. The very air is thick with the sickly perfume of greed and regret. Down shaded streets, the rare wanderer can be found scouring the dust for some new inspiration,some new marvel, like junkies scrambling for a fix, only to reject it moments laters. To know the wonders of Thalarian are to be ever hungry for more. The city contains more marvels than anyone can explore in a lifetime, and the city itself seems to feed on that unsatisfied curiosity. Demons roam the streets of Thalarian, promising some new wonder, some new obsession, and linger around their victims like plague muses, siphoning off the feelings of longing and awe as if they were nectar.
Somewhere in the alleys and byways of Thalarian is the dreaded Lathi. Lathi's true form cannot be guessed at, as to gaze upon Lathi is to know the face of insanity and to be forever lost to Thalarian. Those who meet the Idol of Madness soon pave the dusty streets of Thalarian with their corpses. Lathi may be another demon, cunning enough to have given itself a name and dominance over its peers, or it could be something more sinister. Some say that Lathi is a god, lost and imprisoned within the city, soaking up inspiration and ideas in the hopes that it will eventually find its way out of the grip of the City of 1000 Wonders.

Darker Places: The Great Nowhere

Hey all! I took the weekend off at my folks place. I've got some art to show from it, but you'll just have to be patient for now. Why, you may holler? Because I've got yet another installation of my Darker Places series. This one if one of the oldest ideas I've had for this series, one of the originals; The Great Nowhere.
Deep in the recesses of the world without a name is a vast desert. Vaster than any world. No life can subsist in this space; not even the heartiest forms can last for long in this infinite wasteland. However, those with the skill an fortitude to survive into the deepest dunes may glimpse a true miracle. As far separated from any life as is conceivably possible, a vast obsidian pillar juts out of the bitter sands, rising hundreds of meters into the air. Atop this sheer pinnacle is a garden whose lushness is hardly seen anywhere in all the worlds, let alone in this improbable setting. The garden is ever green and lush, never dying or tiring but forever verdant and beautiful. It's said that one of the few gods who remain in this desolate, unravelling plane is responsible for this oasis. Other still claim that the god is in fact still inhabiting this garden of unearthly delights. Some claim that the invisible guardian, towering and unseen, if proof of its divinity, as many have perished in an attempt to scale the sheer walls of this nameless oasis, their bones now little more than dust in the seemingly endless desert.
Whether some divine power inhabits the garden or not is unknown, but so few have gazed upon its wonders that no one can even begin to speculate.
Also, I did a little photoshopping on this, just for the sake of the tones. More to come soon.

Darker Places: Descent

Hey all! Yet another addition to my Darker Places series. I don't know if I've stated it here, but I plan to paint some of these. Watercolor, gouache, maybe acrylic. I'm still thinking of practicalities. Anyhow, my new addition is yet another city; the infernal twin-city of Descent.
The name Descent is almost a joke amongst the population. The city in fact has two true names, one for each wall of the massive gulf that makes up the city proper, but everyone simply refers to the city as Descent. The vast architecture of both halves of Descent honeycomb the stone walls and dig themselves deep into the earth. Both halves of the city function independently of one another, and even trade with one another as if they were separate lands. Each half of the city has its own customs, arts and beliefs. And schemes. Though there have been conflicts in the past due to the polarized nature of the twin-city, they have usually been brief and subtle. Descent's true strength is something that both sides of the city can share, and it is also what keeps the city-states separate: the gulf.
For all intents and purposes, the gulf is bottomless. Descent has carved itself deep into the walls that oversee the gulf but only to a point. After a certain depth, construction of the ever-expanding city peters out, and few will willingly stay close to the gulf for long. The gulf is a place of deep mystery: a source of incredible power and even greater danger. The scientists of Descent have learned to harness the powers that seep from the depths of the gulf and bend it to their wills. The city and its industries (largely based around stone and gem-work and some metallurgy) are powered by energies drawn from the gulf. However, the gulf is not treated as a bottomless put, but rather as a divinity. Despite the temptation, the citizenry of Descent do not callously throw objects into the bottomless abyss, not so much as trash. To do so is considered a taboo and even accidental dumping must promptly be followed by an absolving prayer, begging the powers of the gulf for their forgiveness. People of Descent are largely separate because few people dare to cross the gulf. Once every twelve days, bridges are cast over the gulf allowing trade and transit, but any other movement across the gulf outside these times is generally forbidden. The only alternative is to leave the pits of Descent and trek across the barren wasteland that lies at the top of the gulf; an inhospitable plateau of searing winds and sand-blasted rock, and perhaps worse horrors still. The trip is hard and takes several days.
What lies inside the gulf that its citizenry would fear it so, yet still dare to tap into its wellspring of power?

Darker Places: Zeragith City

Hey again! I haven't posted in a little while, but don't assume that means I've been sitting on my hands. Here's my latest piece of conceptual location art, the Zeragith city, another part of my old Halfway House idea. Want more details? It's a long story, feels like it's from a lifetime ago. Just go to my older posts for Darker Places.
The Zeragith are a race of psionic bounty-hunters and mercenaries. It's believed they came from another dimension, one far more alien than anyone can comfortably grasp. It's believed that the city they erected in brass an obsidian was them trying to render their homeland in the crude materials at hand. It's believed that their city is situated so far from all other life because conscious thought is like white noise to the Zeragith, and that their tempers are short enough to silence that noise with little provocation. It's believed that gods walk the shadowey corridors of the city, long since bent in servitude against the powerful and alien minds of the city's inhabitants. It's believed the city is merely an outpost, a scout to a far greater invasion. The Zeragith are surrounded my speculation in the way a corpse is surrounded by flies. All that is known is that the Zeragith, when they can be coaxed from the depths of their whispering city, work as mercenaries and bounty hunters to the wicked and truly insane, for to deal with these creatures is to barter away your sanity.
Anyone foolhardy or desperate enough to cross the miles of jagged stone wilderness that separates the Zeragith from all other sentient life rarely ever report the journey to be a worthwhile one. Anyone directly confronted by one of these horrors will only remember a strong headache, words spoken too fast directly into their minds in a voice that sounds like grinding stone, and a floating silhouette of painted bone and oily ribbons of black flesh. The implacable creatures float aimlessly through the brass towers, conversing to one another in clouds of thought and alien sensations. Only those with true purpose even get close to the city, as the Zeragith have set up traps in the shadows of rocks and the angles of sunlight to distract and confuse intruders. Their remains can be found littering the stones on the path to the city and their unquiet and maddened spirits drift through the air like soot, begging for guidance and solace.
One this is certain: this place houses monsters.

The Ghoul's Birthday

Hey again!
Just a fast one this time. Sometimes, you just get an idea out of nowhere. Sometimes, that idea involved a birthday party for a ghoul. It happens.

Shotgun Enthusiast

Hey again! I'll be busy with posting stuff for the next little while. I've got quite a backlog to purge. In that spirit is one of my few forays into fan-art. Here we see Mr. Pendulum, stalwart sidekick of Wormwood from the amusing series of the same name. I love Ben Templesmith's art, and his ideas are no less sharp and fresh. I've enjoyed this character from the first moment I found out what he was. Fun concept, fun dialogue and his general love of mayhem makes Mr. Pendulum unforgettable. You won't often find me indulging in fan art, but this is a rare exception.

Weird West: Critters on the Range

Hey again!
I was in the mood to do some darker western stuff. I've been looking for some books with Western influences, though not necessarily westerns. I've been reading Steve Niles' Cal McDonald novels, and I've had a long-time admiration for mixed genre literature, generally when it's mixed with something supernatural and ghastly. In that spirit, I felt like doing a drawing of some poor old Wanderer of the Purple Sage meeting his match in the form of an unsavory beast out in the range. Who will emerge victorious? Who can tell. I mostly wanted to play around with lighting in this piece. Graphite makes for a fun campfire illustration. I've got another piece in mind that'll make its way here before too long.

Darker Places part 1

Hey again!
After my last illustration for the shores of Arcade (which, I'm now certain, I must paint) I've decided to go a little further into this old world of mine and see what else comes to mind. In the immortal words of Michael Keaton, "let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose."
Here, we have the far shores of Arcade. If you were to venture three days into the ocean beyond those pestilent shores, you'd spy the abomination that is The Pillars. Older than recorded history, these gigantic constructs of stone and iron are rumored to be the ancient shores of a land long since sunk below the seas, a land of god and giants, swallowed by the waves for their hubris and decadence. Or they could simply have been intended for what they are now; a prison. High atop these vast, bone-white monoliths is a city of convicts, forever bound to their hopeless fate high atop their stone island. Though they've hollowed the vast pillar with their tunnels and used the resulting stone to build a vast city, their home is constantly on the verge of grinding down to nothing. Resources are scarce, and more so are decent men. Anyone on the city of The Pillar would gladly murder and devour their fellow man in a moment. This is a place of hunger, of desperation, and visitors would do well to be wary. Though there is trade to be found, how often is it bartered with a life?