If These Walls Could Talk, They’d Scream ‘Meddling Kids!”
Once again we creep through the cobweb-covered secret passageways in the old mansion, emerging in the hidden, haunted art studio to work on four more Scooby Doo monster paintings for our client.
Beginning the process of painting a snowman in a blizzard.
This is my third round of watercolor and gouache portraits for the client’s rogues gallery, and I get to (mildly) re-imagine some classic villains: The Snow Ghost (from That’s Snow Ghost), The Ghost of Mr. Hyde (from Nowhere To Hyde), The Headless Spectre (from Haunted House Hang-Up), and the Mummy (from Scooby Doo and a Mummy, Too).
Keep in mind, this was the late 60s. Bucket hats were in.
The goal of these portraits, as agreed upon with the client, is to capture the general essence and likenesses of those animated monsters, but to present them in such a way as you’d expect the Scooby Gang to see them. Not as flatly-colored, cartoon characters on an animation cel with thick, black outlines, but as more traditionally painted images with brushstrokes and subtler colors and lighting. Although, after decades of seeing these characters chase Shaggy and Scooby across my television screen, it’s hard to avoid laying in a nice, thick outline every now and then as a nod to nostalgia.
Painting this flame is really about painting the effects of the flame.
It’s also been great fun rewatching these vintage Scooby episodes to get a better grasp of each villain before committing them to paper. I’ll be honest — these monsters not only scared me as a child, but the memories of those spooks have hung with me most of my life. It’s kind of comforting to be reminded that if I’m ever stalked by a mummy, there’s a better than fair chance I could defeat him with a lawnmower.
All-white bandages are boring, even on a monster.
This week’s video is a quick rundown of my process for these portraits, and a robust discussion of the source material. And, as has become the custom, we view the finished paintings in our own, custom-made, haunted gallery along with our favorite meddling kid action figure, Shaggy.
“Like, it must be the maid’s day off.”
You can view the video at the link below. Thanks for watching.