My Sea ("C") Monster, Because Monsters are Cool!

If you haven't heard, monsters are all the rage.  If you are like me and grew up watching Jim Henson shows, you've always known that monsters are pretty awesome.  In recent times, I am not sure what has sparked the regained interest.  Is it Guillermo del Toro's monstrous creations in his movies?

Great Monsters in History

Is the the leaps and bounds that CGI has made with regards to bringing monsters to life? Regardless, I have jumped on the monster train.  Holy shit!  Movie idea: "Monster Train."  That will have to be another post.  Anyway, my girlfriend has also knitted monsters to give as gifts. They have monster hats, monster stuffed animals, monster shirts, monsters everywhere.

My girlfriend's knitted monster

As for me, I decided to go back to my pen and ink roots with my monster.  Below is my sketchbook sketch.  Clearly inspired by the hammerhead shark, but different.  I put a huge mouth on this guy, gave him glow head antennae thingys like those deap sea crazy monster fish, and a ray-like barbed tail.  I also wanted to stick to my artistic basics, namely establishing some perspective.  When you draw someone or something in three-quarter view, whatever is in the background, even slightly in the background, will be slightly smaller than what is in the foreground, so the eye, the socket, that side of the fish body all have to be slightly smaller.  I also wanted one of the eye-lamp stalks to pass in front of the dorsal fin to further establish some depth to this deep-sea dweller.  Here is my original thumbnail drawing.

Now here is the pencils and light ink wash to simulate the ocean.

Here is the same piece with some black inks.

Here is draft 3.

Here is the piece completely done.

Click the pic to larger / better version

I have to say that finishing a piece like this is a shot to the ego.  Not really "tooting my own horn," rather its more like knowing that if I set my mind to something, I can have it come out just like I want it.  I have never really used multiple colors or ink wash plush marker and pen to make a finished piece.  The water looks like I wanted it look, the sea monster looks like I wanted it to look.  In my mind it is a finished piece and came out looking exactly as I pictured it.  And I finished it in one night, which is important, too.  It this piece languished over days, it would end up taking me weeks to really finish it.  Be on the look-out for this piece to be a print available online, and I would like to sell the original art if anyone wants it.  And below are the tools I used.  And "mad props" go to Justin Stewart @Justin3000 who recommended the Uni-Ball double sided pocket brush pen, made Mitsubishi, available through JetPens.  I test any brush pen I can get my hands on, and this one has great resistance and push to it.  I like it.