Chow 178:: Hallowe’en special: Universal monsters

[Photogr@fever]

okayyyy, so frankenbride...
I wanted to make her look a bit more modern and 'beautiful', the original bride is so old fashioned (not that that's a bad thing), I fancied making a younger bride; I don't know, it's still really close to the original, but hopefully not bad for a first timer!

[Adam Schumpert]

Originally Posted by etchesofthesun

Hi, Im just wondering how much freedom do we have in the redesign? I mean do they still have to resemble the Universal interpretation? Or can we just go nuts? For example, could i do a Pirate Dracula? Or maybe the wolfman playing in a rockband?- Cus he looks a lot like Brent from Mastodon..lol Thanks

Usually CHOW has been pretty accepting and open to each artist's
interpretation of the brief, which has allowed us all to push ourselves
creatively Also I don't claim any official authority to interpret
the brief only Posh and Daestwen can give you an official answer about
the brief or rules of CHOW

That being said...
What I took the brief to mean was that we are to redesign
these classic characters not rewrite who they are. What I mean is that from
a visual design point of view we should all push as far as our hearts desire
but the end result should still be the same character. Count Dracula should
be recognizably Count Dracula... Frankenstein should be obviously
Frankenstein... etc...

Think about it this way, there is a huge difference visually between Dracula
from 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula and 1931's Dracula that Posh posted
above, but both are still Dracula. That seems to be the challenge for this
CHOW we aren't coming up with new characters but reinterpreting classics.


Now as far as what I would think we could push... other than visual design I
imagine time period could be played with quite a bit. After all with just a little
tweaking the story of The Wolfman, The Invisible Man or any of the other
really could be brought to a modern day, taken back to the darkages, or
even set in a futuristic setting. However IMO I would really try to hold onto
the fact that these are Horror genre characters so they should feel more
horror than scifi or fantasy. However changing Dracula from an
Eastern European Noble to a pirate or the Wolfman to a rock-star might be a
bit of a stretch imo.

And actually all of these characters have already been reinterpreted in one
form or another over the years. You can easily find may different versions of
them all online. So the question is if you where deciding what Frankenstein or
Quasimodo or etc... looked like how would they look.

Anyway that is just my take on the brief which Posh or Daestwen are more
than welcome to correct in anyway.

[Raoul]

Whatsup

Heres my first take on the Monster from the Black Lagoon. I wanted to keep his cheesy rubber-costume look but at the same time make him a little more fishy. Got a long way to go (starting with learning how to color things...)

[lkjhgfdsa]

I'll probably give it a few more arms or some folded wings- just stitching flest together and seeing what will graft

[Danilo]

This time I wil tentate the egg tempera insted of watercolors. This is the inisible man, there is not much of character design, but i think the concept is important.

Photogr@fever> try to lighten up the leg on the left and darken the shadow beneth her chest, maybe it could work better

[Vampire Ninja]

This is a great top. I've always loved the universal horror. I think I'm gonna use Basil Gogo's paintings as my main inspiration


His work is amazing, he did all those old Universal Horror film painting tributes and some of the old poster work. It's either that or old Black and White paintings.

QUESTION: Do we have to do full-figure or can we do headshots? (I apologize if this has already been asked)

[bluefooted]

Wolfman sketchy thing

[Missile]

Second idea/s. Finding it quite hard to give Frankenstein a more unique appearance at the moment but I'm relatively happy with the poses for this one.

[mimer]

going for dracula, and since ive got 2 weeks, i figured id try for a cartoony look that ive been fiddling with on and off for a good while now, see if i can actually make a consistent character in this style. Heres the first dabbles.

[Lt_Action]

Closet Dracula

He's obviously a Dracula, but he'd rather people didn't know.

Here we see him replenishing his stash at the local clinic

[El Capohan]

Here's my idea for the Wolfman. I guess somewhat of a radical redesign (hopefully not subconsiously ripped off from something else though, I hate when that happens).

Basically, this incarnation of the Wolfman was captured and subdued by a classified government agency. The agency then proceeds to enlist the wolfman into their service on the condition of a cure for his lycanthropy upon completion of his duty. The agency also supplies him with a cache of Lycanthropy suppressant that reduces the effects of his transformation. Essentially allowing the wolfman to experience something of a middle-state between humanity and full-on werewolf. The end result is an agent with the enhanced strength and speed and highly acute sensory perception associated with Lycanthropy, yet retaining the sentience, reasoning, and moral compass of being human.

Dunno if I'll have time to finish/re-tool this one. But I'll throw it out there in hopes of some good advice as what I can do. (He's totally leaning to the left, so I think that's number one on my list of things to fix).

[Master_v12]

I thought id give this a try, this is kinda my idea. I need to work hard on those hands...

[RMick]

My take on Dracula - still in the early stages:

[Obilex]

Photogr@fever: the angle that her face is at is making that hair look off. right now it kinda looks like its going off to the side rather than the top, other than that i love it!

[daestwen]

Originally Posted by Vampire Ninja

QUESTION: Do we have to do full-figure or can we do headshots? (I apologize if this has already been asked)

You should read the rules.

In them, it stipulates you need to show at least 3/4ths of the character, so about down to the knees.

[Vampire Ninja]

Early Sketches:

I know we have to show 3/4 of the body, so I'm going to do that in another sketch, but this is my starting concept for the face.



I've pulled from Basil Gogo's style of sketch, with many quick scatched lines. I'm going to pull from his saturated contrasting color pallette.

[NPlaxco]

So many great starts Im gonna try to help out as much as I can!

MasterV12- Great start, love the pose. Cant wait to see where this goes.
Photogr@fever- Coming along nicely. I cant expand more on what everyone else has already noticed.
RMick- Its a strech and feels a little bit like 'Predator' to me. But I like that you're trying to reimagine. Excited to see where it goes.
Danilo- I appreciate the looseness and like the look of a different style but to be honest im not entirely sure what Im looking at here. Might wanna tighten it up a bit.
bluefooted- His face and shoulders seem akwardly placed. I see what your trying to go for, just wish I could give some advice on how to fix it. Maybe some of the anatomy masters here could figure it out.

Anywho, Im doing wolf man, gonna try and get a pic up tommorow of a WIP. And since we have so much time this has given me an opporunity to do some canine anatomy studies!! yay!

[Saleem]

another fun topic yea

[Claudio Grassi]

Very cool designs peeps! I went with Frankie Punk-RocKenstein.... @_@ yeah, I know..but I was bored

[Photogr@fever]

Danilo & Obilex: thanks very much for the crit, I'll work in it!

[AhChu]

Just dusting off the cobwebs, and getting some ideas out of my head for my remake of the Creature from the black lagoon.

[Vampire Ninja]

AhChu's Avatar
AhChu the smoking creature of the black lagoon is pretty funny.

[AestheticMachine]

maybe a bit better like this, seems fishy-er.
crits would be awesome, as always

[Photogr@fever]

Okay so I've worked a little bit more on the shading, and altered the hair, so hopefully it looks a bit more convincing!
I am dreading getting round to detailing all that fluff on the dress!

[kovah]

Going for count Dracula i think

[AustenFM]

Hell yeahhhhhh, I am on it,... for real this time!

Are we limited to only those Universal monsters listed? There are a few wonderful classics not on the list, for example, I really wanted to tackle the Metaluna Mutant . Just thought I'd ask if this was acceptable before i do anything.

Claudio Grassi - Top notch! love the idea!

[Nutter]

sketchy for Mr Frankenstein.

dunno which one i'll go with yet, just initial scribbles.

Ha, punk frankenstein is a cool idea great stuff Claudio

[Poshspice]

Originally Posted by AustenFM

Are we limited to only those Universal monsters listed? There are a few wonderful classics not on the list, for example, I really wanted to tackle the Metaluna Mutant Just thought I'd ask if this was acceptable before i do anything.

Yup, just the ones listed. There's nothing to stop you doing supporting characters in your image, but stick to the 9 in the first post

[wildcat0571]

What an interesting CHOW this week. Another great way to push ourselves yet again. Hmm...now who to start on first???

[kelly x]

90% sure I'm in, if not I'll be sure to vote... great subject and Posh, you have yours as your avatar, just noticed!!! 1935 Rocks!!! Also I love the lighting they used in the film, should be fun.