I apologize again for the delay between posts here. I have been fighting off a “self-induced” illness, basically stomach problems brought on as a result of an anti-biotic I was taking. I thought I had it taken care of, and it reared it’s ugly head once again. Still, a lame excuse for not posting.

As I was laying here in bed trying to get feeling better, I found a stack of trading cards in the drawer of my nightstand, filled with beautiful detailed artwork from one of my all time favorite horror artists, none other than Bernie Wrightson! I figured it was high time to do a little post here on Toon Academy for Bernie!

The first time I laid eyes on Bernie’s work was in an old issue of CREEPY magazine. At the time I had no idea who he was, and it wasn’t until much later on that I would re-discover his work through the gruesome and detail laden CREEPSHOW graphic novel. Still some of my favorite artwork ever!

Bernie is easily one of the greatest horror artists in history, if not THE greatest. I was very heavily influenced by his oozing, twisting, flesh dripping style, and I have been lucky enough to meet him on 2 different occasions. Bernie is a very personable guy, and is always willing to take time to visit with his fans. He was kind enough to look at some of my art the first time I met him, and I was finally smart enough to remember to ask him for a picture the second time I met him at Monsterpalooza.

Take a few minutes to visit his web site, he recently updated the look of the entire site, and if you get a chance to meet Bernie at a convention, you won’t be disappointed- make sure you take the time to stop at his booth and say hello. I have more autographed Bernie Wrightson merchandise in my art collection than any other artist, and I plan on buying much much more.

http://www.wrightsonart.com/

Please be advised that some of Bernie’s art can be a bit graphic, so if you are a younger Toon Academy reader, make sure Mom and Dad are with you when you visit his site!

Sorry for the lack of post from me last week, I will be posting more here ASAP!

I love reading about and browsing old Disney artwork, and looking at Kevin Kidney’s work, you’d think his stuff came from the past. Ah, but you’d be wrong. The piece above was just recently created by him, and obviously he has the same love of old Disney art as well, particularly Disneyland paraphernalia.

Kevin worked for Disney for years, and now is on his own creating all sorts of Disney souvenirs as well as wonderful tiki art, clay and paper sculptures. I dream of having a history so rich in Disney work as he has, and I often lose myself in his blog… just daydreaming… He shares his wealth of Disneyland history knowledge with photos and beautiful artwork. You really owe it to yourself to go check his blog out: http://miehana.blogspot.com/

I love monsters, and it goes without saying that I love monster art. Especially GOOD monster art. Having said that, you have got to check out the blog of the incredibly talented Robert Scott, otherwise known as SCOTTRA.

The majority of Rob’s work is done in black and white, and he has drawn nearly every monster and or horror movie icon you can think of. On top of all that, he is a very cool guy and I am lucky to call him a friend! Here are a few samples of his top notch work:

Check out SCOTTRA’s monster gallery here- show him some love and buy some of his prints while you are there!

http://www.scottra.com/

Illustration Friday is not only a stroke of genius on behalf of the people that created it, but it is also a great place to go to start improving your artwork and showing it to the world. The idea behind it is that on every Friday, a new topic word is posted, such as “Artificial”. It then becomes your responsibility to draw your interpretation of that word, post it on your own blog, then include a link to your art on your blog on Illustration Friday. Your art will then be readily available for viewing by countless other artists and creative types, who can leave comments on your art. Both Garth and I have posted on Illustration Friday many many times, and it’s not only a great way to exercise your creative muscles, but a great place to see tons of artwork from other people across the globe.

Give Illustration Friday a shot, you won’t regret it, and you’ll find it is also quite addicting!

http://www.illustrationfriday.com

Swing by the website for the Haunted Forest too- It needs to be updated, but since I don’t have the information yet to do the updates, you’ll just have to check it out as it is…try to stay on the path!

http://www.hauntedutah.com/forest.html

This blog is a great place to go to learn a lot of good artistic related stuff. Always updated, and filled to the brim with tons of great information, this has been one of the best blogs I have found for learning new things in the drawing realm!

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/

Alright, right up front let me point out that while I am a HUGE fan of Basil Gogos and his top notch monster paintings, it is a little disheartening to have such a hard time finding a good website for his work online. The site I am providing a link to here http://www.basilgogos.net/ made nice attempt at doing a website, but there is very little to NO content on this site, and they really don’t know much about Basil, as you can see from the screenshot above, which claims that Basil did the artwork for the Universal Monsters Stamp art that the US post office created several years ago. Actually, the art was done by Thomas Blackshear.

At any rate, Basil Gogos is far and away my all time favorite horror artist, and he painted some of the coolest covers ever for the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. Take a few minutes and do a search for Basil’s work online. His stuff is SO good! His use of outlandish colors works so well, and in my opinion there has never been another monster artist that comes close to matching Basil’s work.

I got meet Basil a few years ago at Comic Con, and I had him sign a copy of his book, as well as a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Basil was very humble and easy going. I hope to cross paths with him again soon.

Whenever I need to “recharge” my creative battery, there is no better place (in my humble opinion) than Disneyland. Everything about Disneyland is a testament to the power of the creative mind. Obviously with my love for monsters and horror, one of my favorite rides at Disneyland is the Haunted Mansion. I could spend most of my time at Disneyland going on this ride alone, and never get tired of it!

Since I don’t make it to Disneyland very often, the next best thing is to take a trip to the website “Doombuggies.com” - which is a stellar site devoted to anything and everything about the Haunted Mansion ride. You’ll find stories from past and present crew members at the Mansion, photos of awesome stuff like “behind the scenes” (see the first photo above) and more stuff than you can possibly imagine.

So take a virtual tour of the Haunted Mansion, then break out your sketch book and draw your version of what the 1,000th ghost should look like!!

http://www.doombuggies.com/

If you love skulls (and who dosen’t? we all have one!) then you’ve gotta take a look at the granddaddy of skull sites called “SKULL-A-DAY“.

This is an ongoing collection of all things skull related, and you’ve got to see it to believe it. Not too long ago, the site posted a new skull related item every day for a full year.

Bow down before the mighty skull! http://skulladay.blogspot.com