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Art and Illustration
I dabble in illustration! I've created artwork for both personal practice, as well as for clients.
2019
This is an illustration I did for Seth Torregrossa, of a local punk band for which he is the guitarist: Razor and the Boogiemen! The other members of the group are vocalist Razor Edwards, bassist Joey Collins, and drummer Megan Welch.
Four urban legends from modern Japanese folklore: Kuchisake-onna (also known as the "Slit-Mouthed Woman"), Hanako-san of the Toilet, Teke Teke, and Aka Manto ("Red Cloak").
I've watched "House", also known as "Hausu", multiple times, but it doesn't get much less weird or crazy with repeat viewings. This illustration is based on the film, which was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and released in Japan in 1977, and features many of the bizarre visual elements present in the movie.
The Beatles—(from left to right) Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr—in their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band uniforms.
Godzilla, the iconic giant monster character created by Toho Studios, surrounded by its many kaiju allies and adversaries: Baby Godzilla (also known as Godzilla Junior or Little Godzilla), Baragon, Anguirus, Jet Jaguar, Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, Gigan, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Biollante, SpaceGodzilla, and Destoroyah. For the background, I implemented a pixel art style.
Ash Williams from the "Evil Dead" franchise, standing on a large version of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and surrounded by Deadites—Cheryl Williams, the laughing deer head, Linda, Ed Getley, Henrietta Knowby, a flying Deadite, Bad Ash, and a skeleton warrior.
My favourite movie of all time is "Back to the Future", directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis and released in 1985. This illustration features characters from the film, including Marty McFly, Doc Brown, George and Lorraine McFly, and Biff Tannen, along with the flux capacitor, the DeLorean in front of the Hill Valley Clock Tower, and the Gibson ES-345 guitar that Marty plays during the Enchantment Under the Sea dance.
My second favourite film ever made at the moment is "The Empire Strikes Back", directed by Irvin Kershner and released in 1980 as a sequel to "Star Wars". I implemented multiple elements from the movie, including ten of the characters, some of the spaceships and vehicles, and the silhouettes of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in their duel on Cloud City.
My third favourite film ever made at the moment, often imitated but never duplicated, is the 1975 thriller "Jaws", directed by Steven Spielberg. For this illustrated tribute to the near-perfect movie, I incorporated elements such as the principal characters as well as shots from the film.
The Prince of All Cosmos from the video game "Katamari Damacy".
The month of February is designated as Women in Horror Month across much of the online horror community, and I couldn't think of a more badass character in all of sci-fi and horror fiction to celebrate that with than Ellen Ripley of the "Alien" franchise. I created the flame effect in Photoshop.
When it comes to my favourite movies of last year, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is definitely one of them, if not my absolute favourite. In this piece, which like many of my illustrations is a mix of traditional and digital art, features Miles Morales, Peter B. Parker, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Peni Parker and SP//dr, and Spider-Man Noir. I used color halftoning to create a dotted, comic-book-like pattern throughout the image, and I also implemented collaging.
2018
Christmas may have been over when I drew this, but "Gremlins" is watchable any time of the year. The creative narrative, the well-paced script, the likable characters, the darkly funny humour, the charming visual effects, and the mischievous little monsters themselves are all great. It's not just my favourite Christmas movie, but it's also one of my favourite movies ever.
I'm not particularly happy with how this one turned out, it was the holiday season, so I wanted to make a "Die Hard" illustration. For the record, while I think it's a great action movie first and foremost, I do consider it a Christmas film.
![Slashers [VHS filter]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ef34e4_88da454ef7424c069a0b4d157b8c0f86~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_160,h_162,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/ef34e4_88da454ef7424c069a0b4d157b8c0f86~mv2.jpg)
A collage of illustrations based on slasher horror movie antagonists that I've previously made, filtered through a fuzzy VHS aesthetic: Jason Voorhees from the "Friday the 13th" movies (left); Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Michael Myers from "Halloween" (top right); and Leatherface from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and Ghostface from the "Scream" movies (bottom right).
A collage of illustrations based on slasher horror movie antagonists that I've previously made: Jason Voorhees from the "Friday the 13th" movies (left); Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Michael Myers from "Halloween" (top right); and Leatherface from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and Ghostface from the "Scream" movies (bottom right).
The depressed, misanthropic insomniac who fuels his hatred by cruising through the most depraved and sleazy parts of New York City both day and night, as portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1976 film "Taxi Driver".
Oliver Tate and Jordana Bevan from the 2010 film "Submarine", walking with each other while holding hands.
The melancholy ghost, with that bedsheet look that haunting spirits sometimes take in fiction, from the 2017 film "A Ghost Story".
One of the newly hatched raptors from "Jurassic Park". I tried to experiment a little with this one (artistically, not so much genetically). I did this by implementing a less realistic style than usual, as seen in the exaggerated eye of the dinosaur and the overall lack of detail, and by adding a sort of lo-fi glitch effect.
The titular protagonist of Quentin Tarantino's 2012 Western film "Django Unchained", standing victoriously while wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar.
Kim Pine, Knives Chau, and Ramona Flowers, based on their designs in Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel series "Scott Pilgrim".
The Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Terminator from the "Terminator" films, and the OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001 known in life as Officer Alex Murphy from the "RoboCop" films.
Queen wouldn't have their legendary status without Brian May killing it on guitar, along with John Deacon on bass and Roger Taylor on drums. Freddie Mercury, possibly the greatest male singer of all time, being at the microphone also helps.
In the 1980s, a bizarre toy character named Freddie Freaker was used in commercials to advertise the hotline telephone number 1-900-490-FREAK, which is now defunct. I drew him in front of a bluish, vaporwave-esque background, a holographic background, and an outer space setting.
Two black cats and a smiling jack-o'-lantern, based on vintage die cut Halloween decorations.
The three dangerous Silver Shamrock masks, a television set displaying a Magic Pumpkin commercial, and a pile of insects of snakes, based on the 1982 horror film "Halloween III: Season of the Witch".
Three variations on the classic Universal Monsters—being Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Wolf Man—in colour, in black-and-white, and in a sort of pop art rainbow fashion.
2017
A digital art piece centered around the idea and evolution of moral panics. The characters represent the 1960s (hippies and flower power), the 1970s (punk rock, heroin, and poisoned Halloween candy), the 1980s (the Satanic Panic), the 1990s (video games causing violence), and the 2000s onward (social media addiction and online predators). This work received an Honorable Mention in the Digital Art category at the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
The jack-o'-lantern from the opening credits of the 1978 film "Halloween", drawn on an index card.
A tribute to the 2017 Denis Villeneuve science-fiction film "Blade Runner 2049", starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
A mashup of different incarnations of Jason Voorhees' hockey mask in the "Friday the 13th" franchise. It includes the mask designs from the film series ("Part III" through the 2009 remake, including two masks from "Jason X"), as well as the design from the Nintendo Entertainment System video game.
Sam, the mysterious Halloween-loving child from the 2007 anthology horror film "Trick 'r Treat".
Kanji Watanabe singing on the swing in the park, from the 1952 film "Ikiru".
Theodore Twombly and Samantha from the 2013 film "Her". In the film, Samantha is an artificially intelligent operating system who doesn't appear physically, so I created a visual representation of what she might look like.
A tribute to director Tobe Hooper (1943 - 2017), known for such films as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974).
A set of three variants for a logo commissioned by a local Life Teen ministry, which is a religious youth organisation. On the left there is a colour variant and a black-and-white variant, while on the right there is a chalk-style variant.
A tribute to actor Haruo Nakajima (1929 - 2017), known for portraying Godzilla in twelve films.
A tribute to director George A. Romero (1940 - 2017). This piece references the films "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", "Creepshow", "Day of the Dead", and "Monkey Shines". In a similar fashion to my "Eraserhead" drawing, I used the colourised version of "Night of the Living Dead" for reference, coloured those characters on the left, then selected them digitally and lowered the saturation to zero, making them appear black-and-white.
The Driver (Ryan Gosling), from the 2011 Nicolas Winding Refn film "Drive", and Baby (Ansel Elgort), from the 2017 Edgar Wright film "Baby Driver".
Indiana Jones holds a sword on a rope bridge suspended over a crocodile-filled river ("Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", 1984), while Steve-O crosses a tightrope over an alligator enclosure with a piece of chicken in his undergarments ("Jackass: The Movie", 2002).
The vampiric flying head of the character Catherine "Cathy" Kean in the 1981 Indonesian horror film "Mystics in Bali". The creature is based on spirits of Southeast Asian folklore, including the Leyak, or Leák, as well as the Penanggalan and the Krasue.
A piece created as a robotic companion for my friend Collin's "Dungeons & Dragons" character. Known as Archimedes, he is a mechanical servant and a Giant Owl construct. I took creative liberties from that basic description, including expandable metal wings, a cybernetic heart, and eyes equipped with apertures.
Kane, played by John Hurt, from the 1979 film "Alien". For this piece, the character and the background were illustrated with pencils, ink, and coloured pencils, while the blood was red paint.
2016
A poster for the 1987 horror comedy film "Evil Dead II", directed by Sam Raimi.
The character Eleven from the 2016 Netflix series "Stranger Things".
A piece made to be printed on the thank-you cards for a wedding between Marie-Michèle and Michael Lefebvre, my second cousins. They are depicted as Princess Leia and Han Solo from "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980).
A tribute to actor Kenny Baker (1934 - 2016).
A tauntaun from "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and a horse from "The Revenant" (2015).
Neo-noir film characters that can be related to the fable of "the scorpion and the frog", whose moral is that fundamentally vicious natures cannot change. This is actually two separate drawings, one of Travis Bickle ("Taxi Driver", left) and the Driver ("Drive", right), and one of the Narrator ("Fight Club", centre), that were layered and merged digitally.
A collection of imagery from the original "Indiana Jones" trilogy, including Marion Ravenwood; Willie Scott; Dr. Elsa Schneider; the Ark of the Covenant; the Sankara Stones; and the Holy Grail.
A drawing of a Brachiosaurus, inspired by the dinosaur concept art of Mark "Crash" McCreery.
A lineup of various characters from the video game series "Payday" and "Hotline Miami"; the characters are, from left to right, Houston, Richard, Dallas, Don Juan, Chains, Carl, Wolf, Richter, and Sokol. This piece was created for Gage McCann's birthday.
The fishing boat Orca sails the sea in a hunt for a man-eating great white shark; from the film "Jaws" (1975), which was released 41 years prior to this drawing's completion. The boat here is drawn within a shark's jawbone.
A mixture between Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro".
Rick Sanchez (left) of "Rick and Morty" meets the eccentric Warden (right) of "Superjail!".
Tyler Durden (left) and the Narrator (right) sitting on a curb at night; from the film "Fight Club" (1999).
The venomous Dilophosaurus from "Jurassic Park" (1993).
Fan art for the animated television miniseries "Over the Garden Wall", featuring Greg, Beatrice, Greg's frog, and Wirt in the foreground, with the Woodsman and the Beast in the background.
A wild Ponyta, a Pokémon, walking through a meadow.