Bruce Campbell

Here's a painting I did of one of personal favorites, the great Bruce Campbell. If you haven't seen the Evil Dead films, especially Army of Darkness, then you really need to sign up for Netflix and get watching now. The reference for this illustration, incidentally, comes from Evil Dead 2, to be precise. Above is the final color version. Below I thought you'd like to see the black and white painting that lies beneath. I don't always work with this method, but sometimes you can create some great effects by painting entirely in grayscale first, then use a series of color, overlay and multiply layers in Photoshop to create some very cool effects. I thought the overall caricature ended up having a bit of a Graham Ingels Tales from the Crypt look. The wacky color scheme above shows the heavy influence of the great Basil Gogos, who painted most of the Famous Monsters of Filmland covers when I was growing up.

Tattoo You

This has to be one of the cooler tributes to my work that I can imagine. Tattoo artist Rich Pineda was asked to recreate my Bela Lugosi painting in
Ink. He did a fantastic job, and I'm really flattered.

New Store Open!

Recently, I've been getting requests for prints of my work, so I'm happy to announce the opening of my brand new Etsy store, where I will be selling signed, limited edition prints of my work.  Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MarkHammermeister

George Lucas Sketch

Sketching George Lucas. About 90 minutes in Photoshop.

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away." - Fahrenheit 451

 I was sad to hear that Ray Bradbury died today. I had what could be described as a "troubled childhood". No need to get into details, but when things were rough one place I could always turn to in order to get away from my troubles were with books. One of my favorite authors back then was Ray Bradbury, who introduced me to Martians and monsters and book-burning firemen and evil carnivals and so much more. Thank you, Ray, for everything. Rest in peace.