Blue Moon Blog

Happy Halloween from the Blue Moon Crew and Frankie, our Hallow’s Eve pal for about a decade!

While making new decorations for Halloween, I did a quick sketch of this Igor-type dude with a fine black pen.  After scanning, I inked up his twin with the trusty Niji waterbrush. Scary, keeds!

Like yesterday’s Halloween decoration, this Jury From Hell was done with colored pencils, over a black marker line drawing on a wine-colored matte board.

We’ve been displaying this homemade Wolfman poster every Halloween for the last deacde. Done with colored pencils on black board, with a splash of white-out to make it pop. It’s measures about 4′ tall.

Our nice neighbor, Deb took our girls to the pumpkin patch on a day off school Friday. Once home, the girls were busy decorating their gourds in plenty of time for the holiday.

Laura’s Friendly Gourds: security gourd Mr. Cheddar; groupie Noodle; Li’l Fro Dude; Googly; Red Stem; and the totally pimped-out Smiley.

Emily’s Gourdy Band: (left to right) Cheddar and his son; Cooper on keyboard; Lead singer Fluff Guitar Man; on drums, Dino-Dude; and Booger-Man sings back-up.

We’re lucky to have built our house several years ago on a nice lot, half-wooded, half-open. Up here in Minnesota, one had better pay attention as the temps begin to drop: blink and you’ll miss Fall. The trees go from green to fall colors to off the tree in about a week. Peak time for Fall colors is about three days. I’ve learned to take it all in given the short time allowed. It’s a little chilly, but it looks awful nice in our backyard this time of year. This is pretty much the view from my studio window.

Continuing to get in the mood for Halloween, these three pieces complete the set of Pixilated Monster postcards I published in 1992.

The Muckety-Mucks are some of my favorites from the postcard set, having been developed in my sketchbooks in the mid-’80s. Glancing at the date, I’m reminded I produced this piece for the 2nd annual Halloween mini-comic (same as for Mummy Gumbo). I’ve a couple scripts written for Mucks children’s book, but it never fully developed, and it would have to wait now anyways, getting in line behind a few other projects. I’ll try and dig out some of those early Mucks sketches and post ‘em here before the Big Scary Day.

Similar to the Screamin’ Meemies (posted yesterday) these guys are all shook up, riffing off another old term. “Heebies Jeebies” is the name of one of Louis Armstrong’s earliest hits, and a historic and superb jazz recording to boot.

Easily the most violent of the ten cards, I was able to cut loose and get gross with these Zombies. Eew.

Rounding out the set are three cards I’ve posted previously on this blog: Funrunts, Husks and Space Waster. I’ve a few of these sets left, I think, and may make them available at our Blue Moon Shop here at this very site.

As Halloween is nigh upon us, it seems the perfect time to finally display the rest of the series of Pixilated Monster Postcards I published as a set in 1992.

I still like how this Mummy Gumbo piece stands out. Because of the dance poses (especially on the lower right — Tequila!), it puts me in mind of Pee-Wee Hermann, who’s Saturday morning show was still on the air at the time. All brush on this one, which was actually done in 1987 for a mini-comic collection and served as the catalyst for the eventual postcard set.

About half of these monsters are visual depictions of fun terms, in this case quite literal. This was done with a crow quill on craft-tint paper.

Here’s another group of creatures with a name taken from a recognizable term. Many of these monsters were cooked up in my sketchbook, sometimes trying to find the right look for a certain predetermined term, other times I applied a name afterwards. This one looks too busy to me now, but certainly conveys lotsa manic energy.

A spiky vampire of some kind, done with a combination of brush (figure) and crow quill (background and border).

Check back in tomorrow for the balance of the set.

While celebrating Independence Day, let’s be careful out there!

This is an older piece, done for a cover of a small magazine.

Thanks to all those who’ve served, and to the families of all those who’ve served. Their incredible and selfless sacrifices of many kinds afford me the life I have, the work I do, and allows me to do things like this little blog.

This illustration served as a cover for a small magazine, done in 1991. Executed entirely without holding lines, just hatches and crosshatching, it’s a style I wouldn’t use now, but seemed right at the time, and for the subject matter. I colorized the line art a blue/green for the blog today.