illustration

Christmas is Coming and I am not a Grinch

| Mister Kessell
‘Twas a stressful December evening in the Gingerbread household.

In the spirit of the season, I’ve decided to create some silly holiday doodles. Hopefully they amuse you as much as they amuse me.

This is also an effort to prove to my wife that I am not a Grinch.

I’ll be the first to admit that in the past decade I have displayed some Grinchy tendencies; Complaining about Christmas music in October, avoiding being trampled on Black Fridays like the plague, insisting that Diehard is a Christmas movie, stealing all the toys and decorations and roast beast from Whoville.

But I’m working on it.

The past few years have seen our Christmas playlists expand like my waistline after feasting on a bacon-wrapped, Yuletide Turducken.

Below is my current favorite. And yes, it is a polka.

Must Be Santa by Brave Combo

My wife and I drive through suburban neighborhoods admiring the decorations whilst listening to holiday tunes and sipping hot cocoa.

I own an ironically ugly Christmas sweater. Need I say more? Yes?

Well, bah humbug!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that we visited London earlier in the year and I acquired a reproduction of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I’m terribly excited to read it. I should probably go start that now.

I will be posting more doodles as they come to me throughout the month on here and through various other social media. Let me know what you think!

By the way, do you have a favorite Christmas song?

I’m always looking to augment and expand those playlists. I’d love some new suggestions. The weirder the better too.

Okay, talk to you later, I’m off to meet my friend Scrooge.

Some Art and Updates

| Mister Kessell

Forgive me followers, I have sinned, it’s been about six months since my last blog post.

I set myself some ambitious goals at the start of the year. But then I promptly forgot them, made some new goals, gave up on those, circled back to the first ones, fell into a creative slump, told myself that I need to just read more, got a second creative wind, decided to study French (pas pour la première fois), thought more about the original goals, binge-watched the second season of Mindhunter on Netflix, I had a turkey sandwich, and now I am here. Maybe just a quick nap first…

I’m not going to lie, the past six months haven’t been completely devoid of creative work, but I always feel like I should be doing more.

Sometimes I feel like I’m on the wrong path.

I’d like to share some stuff I’ve been working on recently. That hideous scene of eldritch horrors above is one of a handful of things added to my portfolio page. If anyone is in need of any Lovecraftian artwork for a book cover or to accompany any short stories, please let me know. I’d love to find some creative people to collaborate with!

I go through periods in which I focus on one medium to the detriment of all others. You could say I become obsessed. I recently decided again to work on this polymer clay maquette above, which I had started about three years ago. This is one of my latest goals, to finish this vulture goddess sculpt soon. We’ll see what happens.

A little time-lapse sneak peek.

The video above is my most recent work-in-progress, a follow up to probably my favorite piece from last year. Definitely the spiciest from last year. This is one of the last steps after the ink and watercolors have dried, the removal of the masking fluid. I should probably start the time-lapse recording a bit earlier next time, I’m just never confident enough that the piece will be successful.

Stay tuned for the finished piece and hopefully some other new weirdness.

À bientôt!

The Return of Pumpkinspice!

| Mister Kessell

pumpkinspice monster ink watercolor art

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the coffee shop…

I’ve been mulling this one over for a few years now and I’m very happy to finally bring this creepy guy to life while it’s still a viable flavor profile.  I had some trouble settling on a tagline for this imaginary horror movie.

“Revenge is a dish best served spiced!”

“In spice, no one can hear you scream.”

You guys have any suggestions?

It Came from the Basement!

| Mister Kessell

Forgive me if you’ve seen it already, but I nearly forgot to mention this here on my own blog. I have a new book available! Below is the description from Amazon:

It_Came_from_the_Bas_Cover_for_Kindle

” It Came from the Basement is an illustrated, inky homage to monsters and monster movies accompanied by a collection of thirty-one ridiculous rhymes to make you laugh uncomfortably in the night.

Darkly humorous, M. R. Kessell’s It Came from the Basement lies somewhere between Edward Gorey’s The Gashleycrumb Tinies and Tim Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy.

Intended for the monster kid in all of us.”

Available in print and Kindle format on Amazon.com

You may have seen here on my blog that I published a new creepy illustration and rhyme each day of October 2017 in celebration of my love of Halloween. I’ve spent the past few months cleaning up and compiling all of it into this weird little book.

I am self-published and totally independent. Please check it out or pass it along if you or someone you know is a Monster Kid too!

 

The Pack Rat

| Mister Kessell

PackRat-Fin-Reduced

Somewhere deep in the back of my mind palace, at the end of a quiet corridor, through a small hole in a wall, lives this little fellow, hiding from the world and hoarding his treasures.

This illustration is a combination of ink, watercolor paint and watercolor pencils.