Caleb's Artblog

"The Star Spawn" on IBA

2013-11-26T21:49:00.004-08:00

Managed to ~~sneak~~ submit a drawing of mine under the wire for the Infected by Art! Swing by and vote if you've got a mind to! Their judged gallery submission system reminds me of Epilogue from back in the day, only about a 1000 times clearer. Definitely worth exploring.

Sneak "Peaks"

2013-09-01T06:27:00.001-07:00

Some previews of a new personal project. All digital, all works in progress.

Colonel Tick-Tock!

2013-07-21T22:59:00.004-07:00

My take on The Thrilling Adventure Hour's resident Victorian chrononaut, Colonel Tick-Tock! Set your watches for fun!

Mi-Go

2013-07-07T00:13:00.002-07:00

Graphite on Bristol.

For Chaosium.

Horror on the Orient Express

2013-06-23T22:12:00.002-07:00

Abduction from Istanbul

The Rubbish Bin

The Surgical Lab

Here's some illustrations I did for Chaosium's upcoming pen and paper horror RPG.

Graphite, Prismacolor pencil, ink and Photoshop on Bristol.

The Star-Spawn

2013-05-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

From the upcoming Call of Cthulhu RPG supplement - "Secrets of Tibet".

Graphite and compressed carbon on Bristol. For Chaosium.

Closing the Door of the Earth

2013-05-04T07:32:00.002-07:00

Cover art for the Call of Cthulhu RPG supplement "Secrets of Tibet". Published by Chaosium.

Thrilling Adventure Hour: Agent Abby Adams

2013-04-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Can't say enough about Agent Adams: beautiful, deadly, and tougher than a red, white and blue coffin nail. Just one of the many awesome characters on The Thrilling Adventure Hour voiced by the amazing Annie Savage. Dirty Krauts!

Secrets of Tibet - Part Two

2013-04-27T23:25:00.002-07:00

More scary monsters and super-freaks. This one's a take on a spirit from Tibetan folklore that takes on the aspect of a beautiful maiden to tempt susceptible monks, then changes into a monster if they succumb to base urges. Seek enlightenment safely, kids.

Here's a variation on the byakhee, a classic Cthulhu monster and one of my favorites.
One of the things that I loved about the old Chaosium game was that the supplements were written drily, like academic articles. They approached the beasts methodically, citing (fictional) sources and theorizing about their habitats. Even if the fantastic creature in question were from between the dimensions, they'd try to hypothesize about its native environment, something I hadn't seen outside of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (and wouldn't see again until his book Inferno).
A byakhee's natural habitat, for example, is supposed to be on airless planetoids and comet nuclei. That is, until they get hungry.

Mi-go: Silly name, terrifying concept. The ones crawling around the cave above are employing some signature weaponry - lightning guns and mist projectors.
Still more to come...

Secrets of Tibet - Part One

2013-04-16T07:58:00.002-07:00

Ah, Lovecraftian horror. Neat stuff, right?

See, Call of Cthulhu was my gateway drug to the world of roleplaying games, and over the years my love for the game and the genre never lost its lustre. A month ago, Chaosium asked me if I'd include some art for the interior of their newest adventure supplement, Secrets of Tibet, and I jumped at the chance.

Here we have a pleasant canoe tour of a remote Tibetan river; a wonderful place to make new friends.
This assignment afforded me a great chance to evoke mood and depth , and I thought it would be perfect as a chance to work in this graphite technique I've grown so fond of. All the images here were underdrawn with graphite on vellum Bristol, with compressed carbon shavings laid down and smeared with tissue first, in order to get darker values.

Here are a pair of cephalopoid beings, looking none too happy that you interrupted their hyperdimensional meditations. I learned the Riley method of sketching while doing portraits, so mucking about adding growths and tentacles on a couple of otherwise unremarkable human frames was pure joy.

According to Lovecraftian lore, those interstellar monsters the Mi-go prefer high mountain ranges for their outposts, and it doesn't get much higher than Tibet. Here we have a party of explorers encountering a friend after he's undergone the radical surgeries for which the Mi-go are known. I wonder if he's happy to see them?
More to come!

Nightmares the Clown

2013-03-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Nightmares is the childhood bogeyman of Frank Doyle from The Thrilling Adventure Hour's "Beyond Belief", voiced by the talented James Urbaniak. Trying to come up with a frightening, yet un-Pennywise clown turned out to be easier than I thought it would. Hope you enjoy!

Gummy

2013-03-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Why, it's the ever-lovable hobo mentor of Down in Moonshine Holler, Gummy (or my take on the character, anyway)! I'm no Apelad, but I really enjoyed doing this guy - I hope it shows. Just another one of the many awesome characters on The Thrilling Adventure Hour voiced by Hal Lublin.

Phillip Fathom from The Thrilling Adventure Hour

2013-01-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

He's the hero the ocean deserves! Starting up again with my portraits of characters from The Thrilling Adventure Hour. This is Phillip Fathom, the Deep-Dea Detective, an aquatic Caped Crusader right down to the themed gadgets, the combination of mystery and fisticuffs, and the ridiculous growly voice (by the talented Hal Lublin) that lurches into ridiculous growly shouting right when you least expect it. He's one of my favorite characters in the podcast, which you should listen to. If not, then shame on you.
HIS PARENTS DIED AT SEA!!!

Happy New Year! And Space Knights!

2013-01-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sketch of some space-knights for a pitched sci-fi cartoon.

Moony and the Whomping Willow

2012-09-20T13:09:00.002-07:00

Been ahile since I updated - here's my take on one of my students' class projects at LCAD. (Taken with Instagram)

Steampunk Girl Sketch

2012-08-08T21:49:00.001-07:00

I've taken a break from TAH fanart the past two weeks, so I thought I'd post something I drew during a meeting of Legend3D's sketch club while I worked there.

Thor vs. The Sandman - the Script

2012-08-01T20:06:00.001-07:00

I talked Caleb into posting the script to the comic in the previous entry on his blog. Jump to it here, you'll be glad you did.

Thor vs. The Sandman

2012-07-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

Last summer, with about 2 weeks to go before Comic-Con, my friend Caleb Monroe generously offered to write a 5-page comic script if it would help me create some sample work for my portfolio. When I agreed, he suggested that it focus on two popular characters, one from the stables of DC and one from Marvel. I picked Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and The Mighty Thor. An odd combination, to be sure, but I thought, "That'll be a challenge."

I had no idea that he'd deliver something so poetic, almost lyrical. There's no dialogue, no colors, no onomatopoetic sound effects; I did my best to bring this lovely little story to life, and I hope you like the results.

"Tales from the Black Lagoon" Fanart

2012-07-23T15:13:00.001-07:00

Hollywood's always done its best to prove the adage "truth is stranger than fiction", and the guys behind The Thrilling Adventure Hour have taken it even stranger with Tales from the Black Lagoon. A tale of Hollywood noir, Tales is a terrific whodunit according to "the newly-rediscovered memoirs of Ben Chapman", the man who played the titular beast from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a fantastic example of world building by the show's writers.

In Tales, everything you think you know about the golden age of the silver screen is topsy-turvy: Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff's infamous feud? Invented to hide the fact they were lovers. The hilarious Harpo Marx? A vicious thug with arms like boa constrictors. And the cherubic Angela Lansbury was a deadly femme fatale who'd "had more extras than Central Casting."

I really wanted to nail the likeness here, so this was a bit of a challenge. There's definitely a dearth of reference of Angela Lansbury looking anything other than 357% wholesome and adorable. Super-fun.

Soon to be colored and made into a cigarette card.

Atomic Cthulhu

2012-07-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

The paranoia of the 50's, along with the social tensions and political volatility of the era, just screams to have other, less metaphoric vistas opened onto strange worlds. This is my cover to a book of playing aides for people wanting to roleplay Lovecraftian horror in the "atomic era", when technology (and your neighbor) suddenly became something to fear. Published by Chaosium.

When the book becomes available, I'll make sure to post a link to a place where it can be purchased.

The Red Plains Rider

2012-07-18T11:25:00.001-07:00

... and right on the heels of Pterodactyl Jones comes The Red Plains Rider! Often seen in the company of Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars, who paired her up with her future husband, the frontiersman Cactoid Jim. Red is most often portrayed by the talented Busy Philipps on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, but as the equally-awesome Annie Savage has also taken a turn as the fiery vigilante, I kept the likeness pretty soft.

Had a ton of fun with this one designing her outfit and weapon of choice.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

Pterodactyl Jones and Harvey

2012-07-16T21:35:00.001-07:00

A portrait of Patton Oswalt as Pterodactyl Jones, the house detective of the most haunted hotel in New York City, The Opal, and his dinosaur-ghost sidekick, Harvey. Their adventures can be heard on the Beyond Belief episode "The Devil and Mr. Jones" on The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Patton's likeness still isn't as close as I'd hoped, but Harvey makes up for it, I think.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

More Dungeon Majesty Goodness

2012-07-03T19:48:00.003-07:00

Mystika, the Cleric/Necromancer

Shakuntala, the Druid

LaTiza, the Sorceress

Devastina, the Barbarian

The Dungeon Majesty girls, done in the style of Larry Elmore. Ink on bristol, 2007.

More "Thrilling Adventure Hour" fanart

2012-06-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Croach the Tracker, emotion-impaired, onus-obsessed Martian sidekick of Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars. Croach is portrayed by Mark Gagliardi on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

The pose and costume are pretty much ripped right from a Don Spaulding-painted cover from the Silver Age Tonto comic, and highly influenced by this character design as well. I'm also liking this new tonal sketch style I picked up after my classes at Studio 2nd St. - I'm thinking I might run with it awhile.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

Fanart for "The Thrilling Adventure Hour"

2012-06-15T07:48:00.001-07:00

Much like Spider-Man, I'm very lucky to have a bunch of amazing friends - the lovely Janet Varney is one of them. She's an actress, voice actress, comedian and all-around amazing lady. You're probably most familiar with her as the voice of Korra in Avatar: The Legend of Korra. She also appears on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, most often as the adorable vampire (and recent mom!) Donna Henderson on "Beyond Belief". I thought, since Korra fanart is out of control, I thought I'd do my part to try and even it out by doing some of one of her other characters.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.