Tuesday, January 01, 2013

He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes.

I was contacted a short time ago to do a piece of art for a UK publisher to be used in a book on Frankenstein. After doing a few unimpressive sketches for what would have become a painting/portrait of the monster, I decided to try to do a sculpt in the limited amount of time I had. Here are a few quick shots done with my ipad of the result. I intended to follow Mary Shelly's original concept faithfully, but since her description of the creature in the book is somewhat vague and limited, I found myself going a little crazy with some of my own interpretations of detail. I even added in a few motifs from Jack Pierce's landmark makeup done for Boris Karloff in the wonderful 1931 Universal film. The plan is to mold it, cast in resin and paint it up to be photographed for the book. I see this interpretation as an even more horrid, older version of the monster, perhaps after spending more time in the arctic after the death of his creator, where the ice and snow would have done even more extensive damage to his already scarred and ravaged flesh.

1 comment:

Martin E. O'Connor said...

Awesome piece! It was great to see you last month. I hope to had a great Christmas and New Year.

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