The "Monster My Selfie" Portrait Sale Returns for 2022!

 

Hello Friends! (I hope I didn't startle you,)

They're baaaaack!!!!

They're back by popular demand! It's my #MonsterMySelfie Monster Portrait Sale! You can have yourself or a loved one transformed into a monster in a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork! With Halloween on the way, these make great gifts and decorations. I'm only taking a limited number of commissions with this sale & only the first few are guaranteed to be delivered before Halloween. So it's in your best interest to be an early bird that gets the worm! And I want you to get worms....err... I mean, the benefits, while they last!

For more information & to order your custom portrait today, just click here:

 https://philipabuck.bigcartel.com/product/monster-portraits

And be sure to tell your friends & enemies!

Spooky Tidings & God Bless,

Philip A. Buck

HALLOWEEN 2017: A Ghost Pup, Monster Portraits of Halloween Past & Jack O' Lantern Wonderment.

Dakota the ghost dog!

    Happy Halloween, boos & ghouls! May I present to you this petrifying pet portrait I recently drew! As some of you may recall, I had a special sale back October of 2014 called, "Monster Portrait Month," which was also know by its hashtag, "#MonsterMySelfie." It was quite fun & many monsters were made. Since then, I've had requests for a return of Monster Portrait Month, but due to many factors have never been able to do it again. Maybe some day! YET, a friend of mine named Heath just happened to catch me at a perfect time with an opening in my schedule. He requested this ghostly portrait of he & his wife Amanda's dog. You see, back during the original Monster Portrait Month, I had drawn monster portraits of both of them & Heath's hope was to surprise Amanda with the portrait of their pet as a way of completing their "monsterfied family," so to speak. He asked, if it was possible, if I could make their pup look like Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas. What a fun idea & project! I was happy to hear from Amanda & Heath that they really enjoyed the way the piece turned out! (By the way, Amanda is not only a good friend, but quite the artist! Check out her Facebook page & Instagram.)

Let's take a quick look back at the Monster Portraits from 2014!

Jennifer & Paul!

Mary!

Cooper!

Ashley!

Jonathan!

Patrick & Sarah

Heather!

Destry!

Heath & Amanda!

    You can see these guys bigger & a "behind the scenes" look at them by clicking the "Monster Portrait" tag below or clicking HERE.

    And while I have your attention, behold the jack O' lantern I carved this year!

Happy Halloween! #Halloween #jackolantern #pumpkincarving #pumpkin #happyhalloween

A post shared by Philip A. Buck (@philipabuck) on Oct 31, 2017 at 2:02pm PDT

Spook safely tonight! Until next time, God bless you!

Good Evening...

    For a little while now, I've had this silly idea in my head. So about month ago, I decided to make a comic strip out of it and use the opportunity to try out some new things in Photoshop while getting in some always welcome practice. Once I was done, I thought it'd make a neat gif (above.)

    Here are the original comic strip and some concept sketches below:

    I've been quite busy with some exciting freelance comics coloring work lately (which I can't share yet,) but I hope this dose of cartoony, vampiric news anchor goodness will hold you over until the next post!

    Did you have a good Easter/Passover? I surely did and hope you did as well! On my tumblr blog, PABDESK, I've posted one of my favorite film depictions of the story of Jesus, The Miracle Maker. The film beautifully combines stop-motion with hand-drawn animation (along with a great voice acting cast & score,) to portray the miracles of Jesus in a passionate a lovely way. Feel free to click the link here to watch and find out where you can buy a copy of the movie for your very own. Until next time, God bless, everybody!

Monster Portraits Month: Amanda & Heath

     What better way to wrap up the year than with the last two portraits that were commissioned in October as a part of Monster Portraits Month? Above are two cool friends of mine, Heath and Amanda. It was fun to finish this series of commissions with another couple that could have their drawings paired together.

    Here is a fast run through my process on these two. Above is one of the pages of sketches where I doodled out concepts. Even though I initially tried out other ideas, I just couldn't shake the thought of them as vampires (no offense intended! haha!) So once I settled on that, it was just a matter of finding the right approach and compositions. It took very little time to decide what type of vampires they would be, but you may be able to tell that I spent quite some time working out the relationship between the two drawings.

    I settled on this.  When presented together, Amanda's wings would be able to visually "connect" to Heath's drawing no matter which drawing was on which side. I used the talented Edward Gorey's take on Dracula as inspiration for the wings.

    Below are snapshots of the pencil drawings of Heath and Amanda's faces on Bristol board, the "monsterized" and inked faces, and then the finished pieces once they've been scanned and adjusted (only for values and clarity) in Photoshop. You can see how in between the pencilling and inking stages, I not only added their new monster features, but also made slight changes in an attempt to improve the likenesses.

    To see all of the monster portraits together on this site, click HERE. If you'd like to view them on my portfolio page via Behance, click HERE. For more how you can get your own original art or purchase products featuring my art by clicking the "SHOP" at the top of this page. 

    Thanks to all of you who continue to take an interest in my work and those of you who hired me or inspired me to make more. You have all helped to make this year even better! Your support means a lot! May God bless you as you finish 2014 and enter 2015!