Ok, here’s what I really meant: The Im-Ho-Tep Ink Card

I spent some time tonight getting the ink I wanted to done, and I think getting some of my frustration out in that last blog helped.

This one below (I call it “Im-Ho-Tep”, again, 5″x7″, ink) isn’t what my original thought was, which had been Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein monster. I decided to shake that off and try a different one of Karloff’s characters, Im-Ho-Tep/The Mummy.

It’s for a 3-card set that I’m framing, and I still wanted a Karloff in the middle. To the right is the Lon Chaney Sr./London After Midnight, and to the left is the Dr. Phibes (check around on the site, you’ll see them).

I think what I really wanted out of this, and indeed out of all of the still life/portrait/from-a-photo inks that I’ve been doing, comes down to two things. One, I wanted to learn less from just popping things out of my head and more from a standing reference. Whether it’s shape, lighting, mood, whatever it is, working from a photo or from something here in real life will help me learn more techniques and maybe ground me in reality a bit more.

More than that even, I don’t just want to recreate what I see in the photo/object. I want to get the essence of what’s there, the reason that it’s a cool picture, or a classic icon, or whatever it might be. If I wanted to just redo the exact same thing I’d take a picture.

I don’t know if I captured the essence or not. I’ve certainly strayed from all of the photos I’ve worked with, and that definitely includes this one.

Opinions?