The Haunted Paintbrush
Artists discuss the sources and styles that influence their work, whether it be representation or scenes from HPL stories, or just inspired by cosmic horror. Moyer (M), Carlucci, Dubisch, Denham, Rainey-Smith, Stout, Walls.
Art shown here is by Mike Dubisch "The Cthulhuanoid." ©Mike Dubisch, all rights reserved.
Lee Moyer blends classic painting, pop culture, and naturalist illustration - mixing intensity with impish humor.
His art has been exhibited at the Smithsonian and galleries in NYC, LA, and London. Among his acclaimed posters are world premieres for Stephen Sondheim, John Mellencamp, and Stephen King, as well as art for Tori Amos, Amanda Palmer, and the von Trapps. His work includes Laurel & Hardy films, Spider-Man 2, and Call of Cthulhu. In collaboration with Ray Bradbury, George RR Martin and Neil Gaiman, Moyer designed and painted three literary calendars that raised six figures for charity. His essay "The Elements of Illustration" and his Kickstarter White Paper are widely read. His work is featured in many illustration anthologies and annuals. Moyer's games The Doom That Came to Atlantic City and 13th Age are available now. His Small Gods series, a pop culture abecedarium, and several illustrated children's books are forthcoming.
John Donald Carlucci is illustrator and painter strongly influenced by artists such as Mike Mignola, Gerald Brom, Chris Bachalo. Darren Yeow, and Batt Dixon. His recent clients include Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke’s Hollywood Dementia, 20th Century Fox - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Strange Aeons Magazine, LoveCraft Wines, and The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. JDC is seeking to improve his artwork and technique every day. His only desire is to get better and better. To create is an amazing thing and to be appreciated makes it all worthwhile. With several projects underway, such as That Ghoul Ava comic with creator Todd Brown, JDC is looking forward to a busy and productive year!
Mike Dubisch has been bringing a Lovecraftian twist to his fantasy art, illustration and comics for a quarter century, beginning in his mid teens. The versatile artist has created Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons toys, animated DVD covers for the World Wrestling Federation, designs for animated movies, and characters for MTV. His work is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art. His Lovecraftian Graphic Novel WEIRDLING was published in 2007 to critical acclaim. Current projects include Zombies VS Robots:Diplomacy and Godzilla comics sketch variant covers, both for IDW, creature designs for film, including "Transcendent" for the 2013 Portland festival. See more at http://mikedubischart.webs.com/
Born in Portland Oregon, Shelby has spent most of her life in the North West. Her first professional job was right out of film school with a local film maker, illustrating a card game. From there, she's been illustrating for various magazines and websites. Including Strange Aeons Magazine and Monster Kid Radio. After several conventions over a few years, Shelby picked up her things and moved to Orlando to work as a show artist for Disney. While she may be paid to draw various Disney characters, she still draws Lovecraftian things on the side.
Liv Rainey-Smith was introduced to the art of printmaking at Oregon College of Art and Craft where she received her BFA in 2008. Since graduation, she has worked full time as a xylographic printmaker in Portland, Oregon. In 2013 she took the business name Xylographilia, which translates as “Love of Woodcut,” to reflect her passion for the art form. She is inspired by early European prints, folklore, fiction, and the natural world. In addition to her self-directed work, Rainey-Smith enjoys collaborating with writers and publishers.
William Stout was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on the way to Los Angeles in 1949. At seventeen he won a full California State Scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute (California Institute of the Arts) where he obtained his Bachelor's Degree. He began his professional career in 1968 with the cover for the first issue of Coven 13. While he is known mainly for his realist illustrations of dinosaurs (Michael Crichton acknowledged Stout's work as an inspiration for his book Jurassic Park), Stout's professional credits are numerious and varied, ranging from production design in film (he is slated to work on del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness), to fine art books, video games, magazines, and murals.
Perhaps most interesting to the Lovecraft fans in the room is Stout's journey to Antarctica and Patagonia in January of 1989. The profound spectacle of the "last continent" changed his life, leading to a 45 painting one man show "Dinosaurs, Penguins and Whales-The Wildlife of Antarctica." This effort by Stout to alert and inform the public consciousness as to the complex beauty of Antarctica and its past and present denizens, and to work as part of the international effort to make Antarctica the first World Park evolved into his book project, LOST CONTINENT-Modern and Prehistoric Life in Antarctica, the first visual overview of life in Antarctica. For his pioneering work in this field, William Stout was doubly honored in August of 1991. He was the chosen guest banquet speaker at the International Conference on the Role of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in Global Change (Marine Science Institute, UCSB ). Stout also received a grant from the National Science Foundation to participate in their Antarctic Artists and Writers Program during the 1992-1993 austral summer.
For three months Stout was based at McMurdo Station and Palmer Station. He made several dives beneath the ice, climbed the active volcano Mt. Erebus, camped in the dry valleys and produced over 100 painted studies as he carefully observed the white continent's rich abundance of life. Upon his return he drove over 1000 miles through central southern Chile, documenting the rare prehistoric forests there for his book on Antarctic life. In May, 1993, at the invitation of the National Science Foundation, Stout participated in the Boulder, Colorado gathering of all of the previous recipients of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, the first such gathering in history.
William Stout resides in Pasadena, California with his perfect wife; they are occasionally visited by their two brilliant sons.
Frank Walls is an artist and sculptor that has worked in the book and board game publishing industries for over 10 years. During this time he has created numerous illustrations for and designs for games like Talisman, Dungeons & Dragons, and Game of Thrones, as well as covers for Jeffrey Thomas, Jeff Strand, Shane McKenzie, and many others. He has tried to do nice art that matches people’s couches, but this just upsets him and causes him to create even weirder art. After years of doing solely digital art he has recently re-discovered the paint brush and that colored stuff in tubes.