-00- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Divas of the Zombie Walk of Fame

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Constant Viewer, I hope you had a freaked out ghoulishly good time this Halloween weekend and I see we kept you entertained enough with the holiday countdown to bring you back for dessert.  Here's your last stops on the Zombie Walk of Fame with a few of the Divas of my zombifications...

Zombie Meryl Streep (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Meryl Streep has more Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations than any other actor in history.  As a matter of fact, this Hollywood starlet has been nominated for about every award under the sun including Cannes, Emmy, SAGA, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, New York Critics... you name them- they all eat Meryl right up.

My personal favorite role of hers however is in Death Becomes Her, where she plays- well, a zombie.  Enjoy this creepy clip from the film along with some process photos I took of my work this week...

-01- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Samuel L Jackson on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Zombie Samuel L Jackson (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Ohhhhh it's Devil's Night baby!  What a strange and fantastic Sunday!  I'll be removing my exhibit, BUY the NUMBERS with Charles Bennett from The DAC this evening and then getting my Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire on with the Wolfman later.  Aurora is making pumpkin fudge and we're only one day away from Halloween.  If the Mayans are correct, it's our last one so enjoy the horror and goulishness of it all!

-02- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Chris Farley on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Farley Zombie (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

I'll have what he's having...

Farley Zombie is one of the high points of this series as far as the expressions on my subjects' faces.  Every time I looked at the linework for this while it sat idle for the past year, I got tickled and giggled like a little girl.  Farley man, a true gem of my generation.  I remember classmates imitating line after line of the big guy's SNL acts and later, some of his movies.  He's lumbering along and getting gourged tonight on The Zombie Walk of Fame!

-03- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Charlton Heston on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Charlton Heston Zombie (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

If Zombie Apocalypse truly does befall our nation, we'll be happy we had today's star on our side.  Charlton Heston, one of the original mega-stars of Hollywood, was an avid gun nut and defended the 2nd Amendment vehemently through his life.  He even served as the President of the National Rifle Association for five years.  This courageous actor parted the sea, raced chariots, fought armies of humanoid apes and uncovered the national plot to feed people their own dead in a nightmarish vision of our cannibalistic futures.  When he turns though, he'll be just another piece of zombie scum with nothing but the double tap treatment to look forward to.

-04- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Jay Leno on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Jay Leno Zombie (2010-11)

We keep a-countin' down to Halloween here at DREGstudios! with The Zombie Walk of Fame.  Last year, I sketched out 101 celebrities with stars off The Hollywood Walk of Fame and gored them up; this year I've revisited them to start the coloring process.  Today's star is Mr. Jay Leno.  Leno has helmed The Tonight Show chin-first for nearly 20 years now.  I skinned him and ripped him up pretty good for you guys... enjoy!

-05- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Dr Seuss on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Green Eggs and Brains (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Dr. Seuss was one of my absolute favorite zombifications going through my Zombie Walk of Fame series and I took a joyous delight in coloring him this evening with rhyming verse flying through my head about Green Eggs and Brains.  I also shared the sketch and linework process of this illustration with my Countdown to Halloween last year.  You can CLICK HERE to see the preliminary work and also check out the much more thorough write-up I gave Mr. Theordor Geisel and his wild creations of verse and cartoon.

-06- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Billy Bob Thornton on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Biscuits, Brains and Mustard (inks on bristol / 2010-11

When I saw Sling Blade in the theater as a teenager, I was terrified by the opening sequence with the interview of Karl Childers played by Billy Bob Thorton.  The feature film originated as a short two year the prior (Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade) which was composed of Karl's monologue, only he was being interviewed by Molly Ringwald who didn't make a return in the full length film.  There was an underlying horror to the psyche of Thornton's character, which came out in a primal way through his logic and action.  This touching story of a simple man, who's character was woven with infinite layers of creation by the actor, was one of the best independent films of the 90's and one of my favorites of all time.

-07- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Donald Trump on the Zombie Walk of Fame

"Double Tap Donald Trump" inks on bristol (2010-11)

I really can't stand Donald Trump.  The selection process for the Zombie Walk of Fame series was stiff competition considering the 2,500 stars available to choose from on the Hollywood Walk of Fame spanning film, television, broadcasting and music.  In picking the vast majority of my 101 selections, I stuck with actors and television personalities (partly to contrast my Rock Star Martyr series, where I'm already tackling many of the famous musicians I've wanted to illustrate.) Only a couple of television personalities made the cut and that brings us to Donnie Boy here.  I'll be the first to admit that the real fun in these portraits is seeing how much I can gore up the subject but still have the star identifiable to my everyday audience.  So why include Trump when you despise every last word that come from his mouth? Easy, I wanted to see the look on his face at the receiving end of a cranial gunshot blast.

-08- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Pee-wee Herman on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Pee-wee Zombie (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Paul Reubens' comic creation of Pee-wee Herman has one of the strangest rises and descents from fame of any act to claim a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  HBO first picked up his act as a comedy special in 1981, which was much more adult themed than the marketed and manufactured children's show which the character of Pee-wee morphed in to.  Despite 22 Emmy Awards, Pee-wee's Playhouse was canceled in 1991 when to the horror of parents across the country, Reubens was arrested in Sarasota, FL after being caught masturbating in South Trail Cinema, an Adult Theater.  Figures such as Bill Cosby and Zsa Zsa Gabor publicly defended the actor but with little effect on the media kicking the dead horse of his career's teeth out.

-09- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Charlie Sheen Winning on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Zombie Charlie Sheen Winning (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

Last year, when I sketched out the Almighty Sheen for my Zombie Walk of Fame series, he hadn't lost his mind.  He had a sitcom, stayed on par with his own dope habits and was assuming some semblance of a normal life.  I've seen drugs break people, but not in such a permanent and perfect way.  I think everyone wants to let go and lose their own mind a little, which is why the Sheenmeister is here to stay, more popular than ever and a force to be reckoned with.  Charlie's now the incarnation of how the over 5,000,000 people who follow him on Twitter want to get hysterical. I branded the Twitter logo on his forehead this evening spontaneously and unplanned, just how he'd like it... along with the tiger gashes and a huge rock equipped with utensils.

Illustration Friday: Elephant Oil

"Elephant Oil" Acrylic and Spray Paint on Found Sign

"FUEL" is the theme for today at Illustration Friday.  I've got a brand new painting for you to preview as my entry this week.  "Elephant Oil" is a painting on a repurposed metal sign.  These pricing numbers for old gas stations were salvaged as scrap and I painted a slew of them with Charles Bennett for our show, BUY the NUMBERS which is currently on display at The DAC in Clarksville, TN through the end of next week.  Drop in and check them out live if you're in Clarksville!  The gallery is housing over 60 new works from the two of us!

Click HERE for The DAC's website and find them on Franklin Street to see the art in person!

Click HERE for pics from the installation of the BUY the NUMBERS show!

Click HERE for a stream of ALL of my Illustration Friday entries!

-10- COUNTDOWN to HALLOWEEN: Shirley Temple on the Zombie Walk of Fame

Zombie Shirley Temple (inks on bristol / 2010-11)

What do you do when you sketch and outline 100 zombies over the course of sixty or so days?  You throw them in a box in the corner of the closet for a year to get musty!  Last year, we counted down to Halloween with some creeeeepy process pictures of my zombifications of some of the 100 stars I picked from the Hollywood Walk of Fame for my new series, Zombie Walk of Fame.  I had sketched up all 100 and was posting the progress of outlining them all to build up to our favorite Holiday of Gorey and Gruesome Goodness.  We ended with a bang on October 31st of last year with my zombie portrait the original Hollywood Child Starlet, Miss Shirley Temple.  I felt it would be fitting to pick up where we left off, so she was the first of the series I colored today to start our new Countdown to Halloween 2011!  I'll post new zombies daily for you to dine your eyes upon as I start the process of coloring over 100 zombies for this upcoming series I'll be shopping around for a venue and publication next year!

In Memoriam: Ronnie Van Zant

I got a strange outstanding back-road history with Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Growing up in a small town peppered like a gob of mud on the buckle of The Bible Belt, southern rock is a staple... and southern rock comes first and foremost from the mouth of our dearly departed Ronnie Van Zant, the lead singer of Skynyrd who died on today's date in 1977 in a plane crash in Mississippi.  Here's my portrait for Rock Star Martyr, where Ronnie will be featured today on the anniversary of his death.  Ooh ooh that smell... that smell that surrounds you...

Click HERE for a stream of all of my Rock Star Martyr portraits and how I created them!

Click HERE for he Official Rock Star Martyr website and read Joebot's new article about the singer's legacy!

Click HERE for the Official Skynyrd Site!

Illustration Friday: Wagga

"Scattered" is the theme of the week at Illustration Friday today.  I wanted to share one of my Topsy-Turvy illustrations since they are indeed cure and medicine for the madness of my scattered brain.  This series in fact is what I finally found interesting enough to get me using my drawing skills seriously back in my mid-20's.  This guy is from my first Topsy-Turvy exhibit in 2006...

"Topsy-Turvy: Swagga" inks on paper / 2006

Click HERE for a stream of all my Illustration Friday entries from this year!

Click HERE for my TOPSY-TURVY Page and more about the series!

Illustration Friday: Frankenstein

Well, it's actually Illustration Wednesday as I play catch-up here at DREGstudios!  I've been on vacation to Phoenix, AZ this past week and have a long day of running, list making, and getting things back on track.  IF's theme this week is "Contraption," which made me think of the ultimate machine in Dr. Frankenstein's monster.  Here's the portrait I drew of the undead beast in 2009...

Click HERE for a stream of my Illustration Friday entries from the ENTIRE year!

Janis

Janis has been with me a long time.  One of my first memories from any genre of music was my father playing a cassette of Pearl in the car on his drive home from work.  I got off my bus at my father's small-town convenience store so our ride home was bonding time daily when my grandfather would relieve him from his shift.  Dad talked a lot about Janis which was rare for him to do with a musician or artist or any sort for that matter.  He despises celebrity worship to this day; however I think he was truly in love with Janis Joplin.

Janis Joplin (inks on bristol / 2011)

 If the sound of this woman's voice doesn't send chills up your spine exploding a nebula of emotions for you to soak up and bathe about in- well, you just aren't breathing.  Janis's voice carries her through generations... it's epic and immortal, guttural, depraved and devastating.  When you listen to it, take comfort that those notes will never be achieved again... you're hearing something unique and untamed for the first (or thousandth) time.

My illustration of Janis is for a special article coming soon to Rock Star Martyr based around the 27 Club which will also including my recent portrait of Jimi Hendrix.  Rock Star Martyr is an ongoing collaboration with Joebot this year as I draw these musicians for his articles which are published on their death dates.

Click HERE for the Rock Star Martyr Site!

Click HERE for a stream of all my Rock Star Martyr Portraits!

BUY the NUMBERS OPENING this Week!

Hey hipsters, if you're out and about this Thursday evening during Clarksville's Downtown Art Walk, you can check out my new series of recycled works with Charles Bennett.  It's a long story and history behind this exhibit coming to fruition from the materials used to the venue itself.  To make a long story short, our good friend Richard Hogan roped us in to do a last minute fill-in spot at The Downtown Artists' Co-Op in Clarksville this month.  For the most part, The DAC is a very high-brow establishment so we're gonna turn some heads at the opening Thursday!  Since we had about six weeks to get an exhibit together, we decided to up the ante with ourselves and make an almost entirely new body of work for the show involving repurposed materials with numbers on them.  I showed you several days ago a preview of some of the works we were doing at the time [Click HERE for the Preview!]  This blossomed into a collection of over 60 mixed media works to view at BUY the NUMBERS!

BUY the NUMBERS

New Paintings by Charles Bennett and Brandt Hardin

opens Thursday, October 6th, 2011 during Clarksville's Downtown Art Walk

The Downtown Artists' Co-op

96 Franklin Street / Clarksville, TN

Here's some pics from our installation of the exhibit last night!  Thanks to Richard & Mary Jo Hogan, Alexis from APSU interning at the Gallery, and Aimee Davidson for helping us get this thing up with absurd hilarity in record time!

We got a funny way of thanking Richard for getting us a gig at such a fancy venue!  He asked, "Are you guys EVER serious?" 

Richard with Alexis

Aimee and Charles hamming it up

Showtime!