Pickman's Apprentice - Round 1
Challengers John Donald Carlucci, Nick Gucker, Shelby Denham, Liv Rainey-Smith, and defending champion Mike Dubisch compete in a race against the clock to create a masterpiece based on the audience’s suggestion! The audience chooses a finalist. Original pieces are silent auctioned to benefit AnimalAid PDX.
Last year's entry: "Deep Ones at a Science Fair," by John Donald Carlucci
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!
When not occupied whispering to insects and cataloging esoteric ephemera, Nick Gucker is typically perched at his art table conjuring up nightmare visions and freakish delights out of ink, charcoal and acrylic media. His art has frequently appeared in the pages of Strange Aeons Magazine, The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, Dark Discoveries and online publications including theLovecraft eZine. His illustrations embellished the innards of works by authors Cody Goodfellow, David Conyers and a few projects with Spectral Press in the UK. His paintings have been used for covers of books from Blysster Press, Sinister Grin, and others. Nick was the winner of the 2012 Pickman’s Apprentice Iron Artist challenge at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland and has had the honor of creating multiple pieces of artwork for the HP Lovecraft Film Festival posters and T-shirts. Nick has also designed images for Skurvy Ink T-Shirts, honoring the works of various genre authors. Nick was featured in a gallery group show in Ketchikan, AK in Oct. of 2012 and his Lovecraftian pieces were on display in the Providence, RI Art Club in conjunction with NecronomiCon 2013. Recent gallery appearances include group shows at Krab Jab Studio and Cloud Gallery in Seattle curated by Yvette Endrijautzki. In addition to his published work, Nick’s unique, one-of-a-kind custom commission pieces grace the walls and limbs of various and sundry patrons of the arts from near and far.
Liv Rainey-Smith's original art is created through xylography, the practice of carving and printing wood. Rainey-Smith draws upon both European and Japanese techniques to create her work and favors working with natural materials as much as possible. She finds inspiration in early European prints, esoteric traditions, folklore, weird fiction, and the natural world. She won the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist in 2025. Rainey-Smith's woodcut art illustrates The Starry Wisdom Library Catalogue of the Greatest Occult Book Auction of All Time, and accompanies her story in The Dagon Collection.
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.
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/