Dylan Horrocks's Blog, page 12
March 28, 2013
New page: The Magic Pen
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March 22, 2013
Monster Manual Week: GELATINOUS CUBE!
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Today’s 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual sketch is the Gelatinous Cube. Unfortunately, there’s no illustration for it in the Monster Manual itself, but the gelatinous cube remains one of the iconic D&D monsters.
Essentially 10′ x 10′ x 10′ cubes of jelly-like digestive fluids, “gelatinous cubes are nearly transparent and are difficult to see.” Any unfortunate creature touched by a gelatinous cube risks paralyzation, followed by full immersion and digestion. Metallic and other indigestible objects are left behind, or even carried around inside the body of the cube for several weeks.
Sounds disgusting? National Geographic disagrees…
Buy this sketch:
The Gelatinous Cube
(ink, watercolour & coloured pencil on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
US $ 60 (+$5 postage)
March 21, 2013
Monster Manual Week: I’m taking requests
I’m having so much fun drawing monsters from the 1st edition AD&D Monster Manual, I’ve decided to stick with this theme for another week. But I know you all have your own favourites, and after getting way too many suggestions, I’ve decided to open it up for requests (aka commissions).
So here’s how it works:
1. Fill out the form below, telling me what monster you want me to draw.*
2. Click on the Paypal button and complete your purchase (price is US$60 + $5 postage).
3. Over the next week, I will draw your monster (in full colour!) and then post it to you.
4. It arrives at your house, where you put it in a beautiful gilt frame and hang it on your wall for friends, family, fellow gamers and potential future mates to admire and praise.
5. Many years later, you die alone and unloved, cursing with your last breath that hateful cartoonist whose horrible monster drawing destroyed all possibility of romance and happiness in your life.**
*As seen in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
**No responsibility taken for purchaser’s future happiness.
Note: the number of requests is limited.
DRAW MY MONSTER!
Monster Manual colour sketch
on A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches) 300gsm watercolour paper
US$60 (+ $5 postage)
What AD&D monster do you want?
Monster Manual Week: OWLBEAR!
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By popular demand, today’s 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual sketch is the horrifying (some might say ridiculous) Owlbear! As the Monster Manual explains, “the horrible owlbear is probably the result of genetic experimentation by some insane wizard.” Certainly, any other origin for this cross between an owl and (you guessed it) a bear is best not thought about. But however owlbears first came into being, “they are ravenous eaters, aggressive hunters and evil tempered at all times,” with “red-rimmed” eyes that are “exceedingly terrible to behold.”
The owlbear’s most dangerous move is its Hug attack, when it “grasps a victim and squeezes and bites it to death.” Frankly, once you’d been dragged into that feathery embrace, death probably couldn’t come soon enough.
The original Owlbear illustration was by David C. Sutherland III, who drew more than his fair share of 1st edition AD&D monsters. Here’s an interesting post by Dungeons & Dragons’ current creative director Jon Schindehette on redesigning the Owlbear for 4th edition. And here’s possibly the best Owlbear picture ever.
The horrifying OWLBEARHUG!
(ink, watercolour & coloured pencil on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
US $ 60 (+$5 postage)
March 20, 2013
Monster Manual Week: BEHOLDER!
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Today’s 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual sketch is the terrifying Beholder (the Eye Tyrant, the Sphere of Many Eyes)!
To be honest, I always found the Beholder more ridiculous than terrifying – but that’s probably because I don’t remember ever actually encountering one in the heat of battle. Their multiple eye stalks may look silly, but each one packs a fearsome power: from Charm Person to Disintergrate and even a Death Ray. As the Monster Manual says, “the beholder is hateful, aggressive, and avaricious.” In short: avoid.
You can see the original Monster Manual Beholder illustration (by US $ 60 (+$5 postage)
SORRY – SOLD
March 19, 2013
Monster Manual Week: the dreaded STIRGE!
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This week for my morning sketches, I’m drawing creatures from the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1977) – one of the first role-playing game books I ever owned.
First up is a monster I’ve always found especially terrifying (despite its low level): the Stirge. They usually attack in groups (of 3-30) and, as the Monster Manual explains, “they lay in wait for warm-blooded creatures, swoop down, and when their long, sharp proboscis is attached, the blood of the victim is drawn through to be eaten” (shudder).
You can see the original Monster Manual illustration (by David C. Sutherland III) of the Stirge (along with later versions) at Bogleech.
BUY THIS SKETCH
Stirges
(ink, watercolour & coloured pencil on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
US $ 60 (+$5 postage)
March 14, 2013
Sketch a Day (Cartoonist week): Jack Kirby
Two sketches today. Bear with me…
Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzberg, USA, 1917-1994)
Comics Will Break Your Heart
(pencil & watercolour on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
US $ 50 (+$5 postage)
SORRY – SOLD
This sketch tells the story behind the quote that opens Hicksville. It was told to me by James Romberger, an artist and cartoonist whose amazing graphic novel Seven Miles a Second (written by activist and artist David Wojnarowicz) has just been reissued by Fantagraphics.
In the 1980s, Romberger met Kirby at a convention in New York. Kirby kindly looked at Romberger’s work and then gave him a piece of advice: “Kid, you’re one of the best. But put your work in galleries. Don’t do comics. Comics will break your heart.”
Romberger followed Kirby’s advice for years, mostly exhibiting in galleries, while drawing comics for alternative and literary magazines – and occasionally for commercial publishers – on the side. When the first edition of Seven Miles a Second was published by Vertigo in 1996, Romberger mentioned in his artist’s bio that he’d once been told by Jack Kirby “comics will break your heart.” As soon as I read that, I knew I would have to use it in Hicksville. I’m grateful to Romberger for later sharing the full story with me and I urge you all to buy his & Wojnarowicz’s extraordinary book.
Anyway, after drawing this sketch, I felt so sad I had to draw Kirby again – but this time the young Kirby, on the eve of World War Two, when American comic books were new and he was one of the people carving its mythology out of nothing, at the beginning of his extraordinary career. So here he is…
Young Kirby
(pencil & watercolour on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
US $ 50 (+$5 postage)
SORRY – SOLD
There you have it. Having done two today, I’ll probably take a break over the weekend and return with more sketches next week (and, hopefully, some new Magic Pen pages too).
March 13, 2013
Sketch a Day (Cartoonist week): George Herriman
George Herriman (USA, 1880–1944)
The great gentle genius George Herriman, writer and artist of Krazy Kat.
(pencil & watercolour on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
Buy this sketch!
US $ 50 (+$5 postage)
SORRY – SOLD
March 12, 2013
ART SALE: Hicksville page 115
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Another page at half price, while I work at getting my online shop set up.
This one’s the original art for Hicksville page 115.
Sam is at Dick Burger’s birthday party, feeling awkward and out of place. I’m quite fond of this page. Some highlights include:
Cincinnati Walker’s first appearance (Cincinnati is one of my favourite characters. I’ve planned a whole story about her & Sam set a few years after Hicksville, which I hope to draw one day).
Stan Lee cameo in panel 1.
You can see where I fixed up a spelling mistake in Cincinnati’s name. Also where I had second thoughts and whited out a tattoo on her right shoulder.
OK, so if you want this page, hit the Paypal link below:
Hicksville page 115
(marker pen & white-out on ivory board)
430mm x 292mm, 16.9 x 11.5 inches
US $ 79
(including postage)
SORRY – SOLD
Sketch a Day (Cartoonist week): Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson (Finland, 1914–2001)
Writer, artist, creator of the Moomins. Go look.
(pencil & watercolour on 300gsm paper)
A5 (148 x 210mm, 5.7 x 8.3 inches)
Buy this sketch!
US $ 50 (+$5 postage)
