Elliott Nessie!

Fear not, my friends. Elliott Nessie has arrived to take matters into his hands,...er claws...uh flippers.
Friend and fellow illustrator Trevor Zammitt has invited me to participate in a gallery show with the unlikely title "Who Framed Yeti Speghetti?", a sort of cryptozoological theme crossed with a murder mystery thriller. It opens this weekend at the
Genuine Artikle Gallery in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York.
I dove into my acrylics and conjured up this little beastie that I have christened: Elliott Nessie. The painting is 15 by 30 inches, and will have an asking price of $1500. So if you get a chance and you can get on down to the show, please do so and help us all solve the mystery of:..
Who Framed Yeti Speghetti?

Triptiskeletal Tattoo Tees at The Groman Store!!

Click on my Groman Store banner to pick up one of my new, Triptiskeletal Tattoo Tees.Each design combines the skeletal structure of 3 prehistoric reptiles with an ancient tribal tattoo motif. You have your choice of six colors and two different style shirts, Alstyle and American Apparel.Each shirt retails for $17.99 and are available only through MySoti.
All designs Copyright 2009 James Groman

Tyrannosaurus T-Shirt

Just finished this black and white Tyrannosaurus T-shirt design for my blog-store. This is the second dinosaur shirt design that I started, and the first one that actually got finished. The other one is a bit more complex, and will be finished and posted soon.I plan to have four shirt designs available in the next few weeks.
I have a number of dinosaur projects in the works right now, so stay tuned.

The Groman Store!

Howdy!
I have been slowly gathering up some fun, monsterlicious stuff for my online store, and just posted a couple new poster offerings yesterday. Both posters are 18 by 24 inches on heavy card stock. WAR OF THE COLLOSSAL FREAKS OF FRANKENSTEIN'S PLANET and BEACH BLANKET BEASTIE. Feel free to scuff them up and tatter up the edges, they look great that way!
For more monsterific goodness click on the banner ad in my links. We got Resin model kits, comics and posters with more to come.

Project: C.H.U.D.

The subject this month on Sketch-O-Rama is an old 1984 movie called C.H.U.D. At first I had trouble getting excited about it, but decided to use it as an excuse to do a sculpt. I have not done any serious sculpting in quite some time, and truley enjoyed getting back into it. What I ended up with is kind of a C.H.U.D. Madball of sorts. Not only did I use my sculpt to create my submission illustration for Sketch-O-Rama, but I am gonna cast up a few in resin for friends and family.

Redbull Skate Deck: FINISHED!

Here is my finished and vectored Redbull Skateboard deck, ready to go to the gallery. I did it rather quickly, but it's a style that I am comfortable with so I am pretty happy with it.

Red Bull Skate Deck Show

Man,seems like a long time since my last post. Like a lemming I joined Facebook and seem to be reconnecting to tons of old friends there, taking up some of my focus.
Well, I was recently invited to join a gallery show of skate decks sponsored by Red Bull. I sketched up a few different ideas, then narrowed it down to these two. Being known for working on the Madballs toy line, I am leaning towards the crazy ass bull riding the skateboard. But I am keeping an open mind, so anything can happen. I will most likely start the final piece this weekend. Should I paint it, Photoshop it or vector the sumbitch? I would like to start this weekend, so I gotta decide soon.

Hypernatural

I am in the midst of gathering up some of my early work for a book that I am putting together and ran across this pencil drawing I did for my Monster Hunter project. I realised that I never posted this one, so I thought that I would do that today to fill in the gap between postings.

Gorn Supremacy

Here is my last submission to Sketch-o-Rama. Our subject matter was Star Trek . What we have here is a cross between your basic Gorn,(an alien species that appeared on the original Star Trek series)and a Borg,(the villians of the series Star Trek The Next Generation)

Beach Blanket Beastie

Here is an interesting piece of art I did many years back as part of a series I was working on called 'Beasts and Babes'. The black line is a film positive transparency layed over the top of detailed marker and pencil color. The line work and color got a bit mis-aligned over the years, but this illustration has served me well. Not only did it inspire the sculpture for my best selling resign model kit of the same name, but it went on to become a popular 4 color, silk-screened t-shirt design produced by a local company.
Viva la Beastie!

Sketch-O-Rama: Vampirella!

This was a piece I did last week for our Sketch-O-Rama blog. I was a big fan of the old Warren Magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy and Eerie published in the 70's. These magazines showcased alot of awesome up-and-comers at the time as well as some old pros. Guys like Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Neal Adams,Alex Toth, Esteban Maroto, Alex Nino, Ramon Torrents, Sanjulian, Alfred Alcala,....I could go on and on. I was not as avid a follower of Vampirella at the time, but always loved some of these incredible artists renditions of her that popped up from time to time on the covers and interior art.
Also, Forrest J.Ackerman, the creator of Vampirella and publisher of Famous Monsters Magazine died on December 4th, 2008. Thats me in the photograph with Forrest J. back in 1992. I was on the west coast promoting a Halloween product line I created called Calvin Corpse and the Cryptville Characters, (that's the 18 inch Calvin Corpse doll I am holding) and was lucky enough to have met him at a local horror convention.

Masters of the Universe

Sketch-o-Rama has a new challenge, and boy if Jorge Lacera didn't deliver in spades over at the website. Go there and check out his take on the evil villian SKELETOR from the Masters of the Universe toy line. Here is my contribution to the cause: HE MAN AND BATTLE CAT. I decided to sketch this out traditionally with pencil and do some quick photoshop color, trying to keep it loose, emphasizing composition and lighting.

Watchmen Are here!!

Yes, I went and saw the Watchmen movie on Friday...and I liked it! I still consider it a property that is virtually un-filmable by modern man, but I did find the new film quite enjoyable for what it is.
We recently agreed to each do a Watchmen character drawing for our Sketch-O-Rama posting this month. Carlos has posted a way-cool Dr. Manhattan, and I have followed up with my version of the Comedian.
Here it is for shits and giggles.

Return of the Cyclops

I did some quick finishes on this last night. Been pretty busy lately so I have not devoted as much time to it as I would have liked, but I am still happy with the result. I piled on the textures and experimented with some different brushes in photoshop. Tried to keep it dark and moody, but that color would just not go away!!
Some of you may get a twinge of familiarity from the composition of this piece. Many years ago during an art history course I discovered the work of the Spanish old masters/modernist painter Francisco Goya. I was particularly taken with his infamous 'Black Paintings' done shortly before his death. This cyclops rendering is a tip of the hat to a painting he did in 1819 called 'Saturn Devouring his Children'.
Though my image is a bit disturbing, google GOYA'S image and you will see an image that will haunt your dreams and nightmares.

Cyclops concept

Howdy,
I did a few concept sketches for a friend of mine who needed a cyclops type creature for a project he was working on. I came up with a design that I kinda liked, so I decided to do a color exploration to try some textures and color. I got so jazzed while working on it that I started a larger, color rendering of this bad-boy full body, from head to toe. I am almost finished with that piece and will be posting it soon. Until then, here is the beasties head.

TYRANNOBOARDUS REX!!

For those that do not know, I went to the hospital a week and a half ago with viral Pneumonia, and was there a week. I am now home and slowly getting the use of my lungs back, and have been broken hearted at not being able to participate in the ALL HANDS ON DECK Gallery Show at American Greetings. It is now Monday, the show is up, and I am going every which way of stir crazy, waiting for the thumbs up from my Doc to get back to work. The Deck show looks absolutely awesome...(great work, Keith Corcoran and company!!) and I just could not help but try to be a part of it. I slammed through my deck today, using acrylics and prisma color pencils, chosen mostly to avoid anything with toxic fumes and vapors. Now I submit to you all the result: TYRANNO-BOARDUS REX.
I just hope it's not to late to get it in the show!!..
James Groman