I don’t often like to promote my own merchandise, it just feels dirty to me, I don’t know. But the image above has been added to my shop at redbubble, you can pick up a print if you so choose.
Or just enjoy it on your screen.
Of course I provide many, many illustrations on my website or on social media for free, you should, uh, not forget to like and subscribe.
For instance, have you seen the latest installment in my original Batboy series? You can find him on Instagram and Twitter, hopefully he’ll make you laugh.
I am holding out hope that everything will turn around in October. I know that it’s the season of cold and death and decay, but it leaves me feeling quite optimistic.
Maybe everyone will stay at home and watch horror movies all month. Or they will order candy apples in the mail and have cider delivered to their door. Maybe everyone would just wear a mask for once.
Even wild men wear masks
I have two different Halloween costumes planned, even though I doubt there will be a place to wear them outside of my own living room. Maybe this year we’ll have a Zoomoween.
I’ve said it before, at least Halloween won’t be canceled in my cold, dead heart.
Like usual, I have a handful of cool projects on the horizon that I can’t share with you just yet, but believe me, they’re going to be a lot of fun. Stay tuned.
I’m preparing a short story to publish on the blog next week that I’m hoping will get the goosebumps expanding and the blood pumping faster than usual.
In the meantime, did you know that I started a YouTube channel? There are some weird, new T-shirt designs over in my store. I also hang around on Twitter sometimes, stop by and say howdy.
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.
I want to share something a little more personal than usual. Above is an illustration I made for my wife’s birthday. She is both a leap year baby and a Harry Potter fan. This year we celebrated 9-3/4 by visiting London and I wanted to give her something to commemorate the trip in the style of J.K. Rowling’s illustrations.
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.
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 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!
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.
M. R. KESSELL 