ScOttRa - Monster Art & More

Pennywise

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:33:00 +0000

"They ALL float down here. When your down here with us, you'll float too! "

Pennywise as portrayed by Tim Curry in 1990's "It."

A couple of interesting pieces of trivia:
According to the commentary on the DVD, Tim Curry's Pennywise was so unnerving that the cast and crew completely avoided him while on the set.

Richie's worst fear is a werewolf in this movie. Seth Green, who plays young Richie, would go on to play a werewolf in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Radio Times magazine in 2004 held a survey for the scariest programme aired on television, in which It came first. The X-Files came second. Others on the top ten list included Twin Peaks, Ghostwatch and Tales of the Unexpected. The Sci Fi channel annouced a 4 hour remake of the film which will appear in the year 2007 or 2008.

As always, you can order this, or any of my limited edition signed prints for $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below.

Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale Extended!

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:50:00 +0000

Hey all,
I've had a lot of requests to extend the sale, so I'm gonna keep it running until the 17th.

Thanks to everyone who has ordered!

R

Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale!

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:27:00 +0000

For a very limited time all prints will be on sale, buy one get one free!

When you place your order just enter in the comments section which print you would like to receive for free.

Remember this is for a limited time only, so act fast and spread the word!

Visit the store to take advantage of this offer!

Happy Birthday Boris!

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:11:00 +0000

Today is Boris Karloff's 117th birthday, sadly, due to illness I haven't had the time to do a new portrait for the occasion, which is a shame, because his is my favorite face to draw... But I hope you'll enjoy a second look at the various portraits I have done of Mr. Karloff.

Edgar Allan Poe

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:11:00 +0000

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

I have quite fond memories of my family gathered in the living room listening awe struck to my father as he read various poems and short stories out loud to us. His magical voice would turn the written word into something that even my young mind could comprehend, I may not have fully understood what the narrator of "The Raven" was talking about, but I understood that he was slowly slipping into madness.

My father would read a Robert Burns (my namesake) piece, or Kipling's "Gunga Din", and when he finished I would always beg him to read "The Tell Tale Heart," my first favorite short story.

Years later, my good friend Phill and I tried our hand at some spoken word performances, we took my father's video camera and headed off to the coolest cemetery we could find. I picked my favorite Poe poem "Annabel Lee" to perform, thank God that footage no longer exists. I must have tripped up on the word "sepulchre" about a thousand times.

Later in life as an adult, while visiting a friend in Richmond, VA. I took a walk by myself for a pack of smokes, and stumbled upon the house Poe lived in during his stay in Richmond, it was quite a nice surprise.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this weeks portrait! As always, you can order this, or any of my limited edition signed prints for $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below.

For more Poe, be sure to visit the work of Edgar Allan Poe online here.

And check out this animated short film from 1953. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell tale Heart." Narrated by James Mason, this UPA Production was the first cartoon to be X-rated (adults only) in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system, although watching it today its hard to imagine.

Sir Graves Ghastly

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:11:00 +0000

Anyone who grew up here in "El Mitten de los muertos" will remember Sir Graves Ghastly as portrayed by Lawson Deming on Detroit TV from the late 60's to the early 80's.

Here once again is Sir Graves Ghastly, my favorite Horror Host of all time.

Sir Graves and Adam West's "Batman" are my earliest tv related memories, I spent many, many, many saturdays curled up in front of the tv watching Sir Graves present everything from "The Bride of Frankenstein" to "Robot Monster." Its not an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't be what I am today if it wasn't for the Sir Graves Show.

I did a portrait last year of Sir Graves that I was never quite happy with, I'm much more satisfied with this one.

I hope you enjoy it!

R

And be sure to check out Keith Milford's wonderful site Sir Graves Ghastly.com. Keith has assembeled a virtual time machiene of Sir Graves video, images, and audio... fantastic stuff!

As always, you can order this, or any of my limited edition signed prints for $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below.

H.P. Lovecraft

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:11:00 +0000

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937)

I first was introduced to H.P. Lovecraft through my life long love of the work of writer Robert E. Howard who was one of Lovecraft's closest friends as well as being a "Weird Tales" contemporary and a contributor to the Cthulhu Mythos.

My interest in Lovecraft was later re-sparked by writer (and fellow seeker of Forbidden Knowledge) Phill Weber who lent me volumes of Lovecraft lore, and to whom this image is dedicated.

For a brief bio of Lovecraft short and tormented life, be sure to visit the Wikipedia entry on H.P. Lovecraft.

For more Lovecraftian goodness:
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society silent film adaptation of "Call of Cthulhu" is available on DVD and is highly recommended.
Be sure to visit the H.P. Lovecraft Archives.
Voices in the Dark has a nice collection of free H.P. Lovecraft audiobooks available for download.

As always, you can order this, or any of my limited edition signed prints for $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below.

The Shape

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 06:44:00 +0000

The Shape as portrayed by Nick Castle in John Carpenter's 1978 classic "Halloween."

The night HE came home!

John Carpenter's "Halloween" is the film that kick-started my lifelong love of Horror. Sure I was into Monsters at an early age, but Halloween was the first truly horrifying film I had ever seen, where the monster was just a guy in a mask, he could be anyone, and he could be real.

And the idea of Michael Myers still scares the shit out of me to this day. I'm talking the REAL Michael Myers here, not the ancient vessel of some pagan cult, or whatever the Hell Moustapha Akkad turned him into, I'm talking about "The Shape," "The Boogeyman."

When I was a kid, my neighbor's son's fiance was killed by Ted Bundy, and I currently live in a house that is half a mile from where someone was gunned down and murdered in the street, right in front of several witnesses during a gas station robbery, but at night when I'm working and get that creepy feeling that I'm being watched, I always expect to turn and catch a glimpse of HIM disappearing behind a tree, he has been burned into my subconscious.

In my reckless youth, there was a time when a friend and I planned on smoking some "whoopee weed" and watching "Halloween" but after waiting impatiently for the tape to rewind, we hit the play button and caught a glimpse of his face, I remember hitting stop, and just being filled with a real sense of dread and just wanting to watch cartoons instead... Luckily, it was my friend who chickened out and said he didn't really feel like watching "Halloween" after all...

My original relationship with the film was a troubled one. You see, my Mom had no problem letting me go see something like Bo Derek's "Tarzan, the Ape Man" with all the nudity, or letting me buy the tie-in Playboy, because it had "an article" on Tarzan that I really wanted to "read." (I can still remember the envy of my childhood friends.)

Being a child of the sixties, she would rather have me watch two people making love, then two people trying to kill each other..." Which was great for me, that is until John Carpenter's "Halloween" hit.

It must have been when it premiered on HBO because all of a sudden everyone was talking about it, like the entire world had watched this life altering film, everyone that is but me. Even my parents and their friend had watched it, (after sending me to bed early) I can still remember hearing them scream downstairs while watching it. At school everyone was talking about it, and it felt like if you hadn't seen it then you were just a little kid left behind playing with your Star Wars guys, among the prepubescent males at school this was what separated the men from the boys...

Hell, even the lunch lady asked me if I had seen it, and not wanting to be the only lame kid in school, I lied and said I had... I can still hear her voice "They have to make another one, they can't just leave him hanging like that." To which I replied "Umm, yeah, that was a big tree he was hanging in."

Needless to say I was caught...

When I finally couldn't take it anymore, I waited until my parents were fast asleep and I snuck downstairs and caught an extremely late night showing of it on good ole HBO, and it scared the crap out of me like no film has since. I was hooked, I still have the novelization I bought the next day at the local grocery store (I smuggled that into the house and hid it like the other kids did their Playboys! ; )

Later I would get to see the mediocre sequel on a double bill with "The Beast Within" at the drive in with my sister, its only worth mentioning because there was a guy in the audience with a Michael Myers costume and a fake knife who would sneak up on cars and scare the living shit out of people...

Anyway, sorry for this insanely long post!

I hope you all have enjoyed this flood of artwork, I wish I would have had the time to write a little something about each of them meant to me personally...

I hope you all have a fantastic Halloween!

R

If your interested you can order this, or any of my limited edition signed prints for $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, this is the very last day to take advantage of the sale!

Happy Halloween!

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 06:41:00 +0000

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

R

Dr. Sam Loomis

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:11:00 +0000

Dr. Sam Loomis as portrayed by Donald Pleasence in John Carpenter's 1978 classic "Halloween."

The part of Dr. Sam Loomis was originally offered to Peter Cushing and then to Christopher Lee (Lee would later say it was one of his greatest regrets that he turned down the part) both declined the role due to the low salary, and in my mind it was a blessing in disguise. As much as I love Cushing and Lee, I can't picture anyone other then the great Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis.

Named after a character in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" Dr. Sam loomis is the ultimate modern day Van Helsing obsessed with his duty of tracking down the evil he knows will strike again...

An interesting piece of trivia:
Donald Pleasence's daughter had watched Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" and liked it, thus encouraging her father to star in Halloween. Pleasence has said that this was the sole reason he took the part.

As always you can order this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 2 days left to take advantage of the sale!

Mother

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:11:00 +0000

"A boy's best friend is his mother..."

During preproduction, Hitchcock said to the press that he was considering Helen Hayes for the part of Mother. This was obviously a ruse, but several actresses wrote to Hitchcock requesting auditions.

In "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," it is claimed that Hitchcock tested the scare factor of various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop, by placing them on various days in Janet Leigh's dressing room closet and listening to how loudly she screamed when she discovered each one. The "winner" was the used in the film. After that prank, Leigh took the joke well and got on well with Hitchcock during filming, despite difficulties with the shower scene. The director later stated Leigh was one of the best actresses he'd ever worked with.

It is also said that Hitchcock was very uneasy about the morphing of Norman's face into Mother's at the end of the film. He sent out three different versions of the film during its initial release. The first version included the ending seen on all prints today, the second contained no morphing at all, and the third contained the trick at the end, yet also included it at an earlier point in the film. When Sam Loomis comes back to the Bates Motel to look for Arbogast, there is a zooming shot of Norman standing by the swamp, looking very sinister. The third version of the film included the subtle morphing of Norman's face into Mother's at this moment.

The voice of Norman Bates' mother in "Psycho" was that of noted radio actress Virginia Gregg.

Read the Bright Lights film journal article about "Psycho."
Take a virtual tour of the locations used in "Psycho."

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 3 days left to take advantage of the sale!

Ygor

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:11:00 +0000

Ygor as portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Rowland V. Lee 's 1939 Universal Feature "Son of Frankenstein."

The following is taken from Frankenstein Castle.

Like Frankenstein's creation, the broken-necked Ygor, a kind of monster himself, is a society outcast because of his crimes and his ugliness. Officially declared dead after being hanged, Ygor now haunts Frankenstein castle and is feared by children. To the villagers he has become a kind of ghost when he miraculously escaped the grip of death.

For Wolf Frankenstein (portrayed by Basil Rathbone) Ygor is like a Faustian Mephistopheles. He leads him to the Monster and convinces him to continue his father's experiments and to bring the creature back to life. But unlike Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein, Ygor is not interested in science; his only goal is to finish his bloody revenge on the villagers. This makes Ygor the true evil character in Son of Frankenstein.

And interesting piece of trivia:
Boris Karloff became a father for the first time while filming "Son of Frankenstein." When he was told that the baby had been born, he immediately went to the hospital to see his wife and child while still in costume. When he arrived, in full Monster makeup and clothing, he created a panic throughout the hospital.

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 4 days left to take advantage of the sale!

Count Dracula

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:11:00 +0000

Count Dracula as portrayed by Christopher Lee in Terence Fisher's 1958 film "Horror of Dracula"

In the late 1950s, the horror movie genre was in something of a state of decline. The genre really hadn’t been taken seriously since the early 1930s, when the classic Universal Monsters were in their heyday. However, that all changed when Hammer, a smaller English production company began a series of remakes of those classic Universal horror movies. Hammer’s first three productions were CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HORROR OF DRACULA and THE MUMMY. The impact of these three movies was instant, and forever changed the face of the horror genre.

In the UK Hammer released the film simply as "Dracula" but In the United States the title was changed to "Horror of Dracula" to avoid confusion with the classic 1931 version. This was a real concern since the Bela Lugosi version was still being booked into theaters (through Realart) until the Shock Theatre package of classic Universal horror films was released to television.

On several occasions, Christopher Lee complained about the contact lenses he had to wear for the shock scenes. Not only they were quite painful, but he could not see a thing. While running towards the vampire woman for instance, he even ran too far past the camera on the first take.

The set that was Dracula's castle in this movie is now a hotel in the Scottish Highlands and the internal decor is still very much the same.

Horror of Dracula was shot in just 25 days for less than £100,000. Christopher Lee was paid just £750 for his role as Dracula.

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 5 days left to take advantage of the sale!

The Graveyard Ghoul

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:32:00 +0000

"They're coming to get you Barbara..."

The Graveyard Ghoul as portrayed by S. William Hinzman in George A. Romero's 1968 classic "Night Of The Living Dead."

George Romero's first film is one of the most influential horror films of all time, spawning and army of imitators. But none has achieved the simple effectiveness of the original. Sadly Romero and company held a copyright on the film's working title "Night of the Flesh Eaters" and when the film was released and the title changed, the Walter Reade Organization neglected to place a copyright notice on the prints and the film fell into the public domain.

Night of the Living Dead premiered on October 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh. Nationally, it was shown as a Saturday afternoon matinée—as was typical for horror films of the 1950s and 1960s—and attracted an audience consisting of pre-teens and adolescents. The MPAA film rating system was not in place until November 1968, so theater managers did not prohibit even young children from purchasing tickets. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to the film. "I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them," complained Ebert. "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." According to Ebert, the film affected the audience immediately:
The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying.

Romero produced the film on the low budget of $114,000, but after a decade of theatrical re-releases it had grossed an estimated $30 million internationally.

Night of the Living Dead constitutes the first of five Living Dead films directed by George Romero. Following the 1968 film, Romero released Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005). Diary of the Dead is expected to be released in 2007. Each film traces the evolution of the zombie epidemic in the United States and humanity's desperate attempts to cope with it. As in Night of the Living Dead, Romero peppered the other films in the series with critiques specific to the periods they were released.

Since the film is in the public domain there are 100s of poor quality DVDs available, but if you haven't had the opportunity to see the Millennium edition of NOTLD on DVD, do your self the favor of tracking it down, it is the only release overseen by Romero, and is the cleanest print I have ever seen.

For more Romero goodness check out these links:
Watch "Night Of The Living Dead" at the Internet Archive.
Visit The Quadrilogy Of The Dead website.
Visit The Homepage Of The Dead.
Read the eFilmCritic Interview with George A. Romero.

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 6 days left to take advantage of the sale!

The Invisible Man

scottra0@yahoo.com (scottra) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:11:00 +0000

"All right, you fools. You've brought it on yourselves! Everything would have come right if you'd only left me alone. You've driven me near madness with your peering through the keyholes and gaping through the curtains. And now you'll suffer for it! "

Jack Griffin aka The Invisible Man as portrayed by Claude Rains in James Whale's 1933 film "The Invisible Man."

Following the success of James Whale's "Frankenstein" Boris Karloff was hurried back from England to star as in "The Invisible Man" but ended up in a contract dispute with Universal and bowed out. Director James Whale then offered the part to Colin Clive who had portrayed Henry Frankenstein in Whale's "Frankenstein", but Clive who had plans to return to his native England to see his wife opted to stick to his vacation plans. Next up was Claude Rains. Universal executives watched one of Rains' old screen tests and were unimpressed by the look of the diminutive actor, but Whale declared, "I don't give a hang what he looks like. That's how I want the Invisible Man to sound--and I want him!"

The film was a huge success in part due to John Fulton's invisibility effects. The scenes where Rains removes his glasses and bandages to reveal nothing at all where accomplished by dressing Rains in black velvet underneath the bandages and shooting the disrobing against a black velvet background. The technique remains effective to this day.

On the DVD short documentary, Claude Rains' daughter tells of a time when the two went to see this movie in the theater years after it was made. It was bitterly cold and his face was completely covered by a hat and scarf. When he spoke to ask for the tickets, the attendant immediately recognized his voice and let them in for free.

You can buy this and any of my Monster Art prints for a mere $25.00 buy visiting the store or by simply clicking the button below. Be sure to take advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale going on right now! But hurry, there are only 6 days left to take advantage of the sale!