Rick Melton Spills His Guts!

[stunner]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

Damn that must be tricky not having any reference to work from! And yeah, Ingrid works a treat, her and Cushing are my faves. How did the composition come about? Did you have to include certain/all of the characters, or were you given free reign . . . ?

Hi Jack,
The best thing about doing DarkSide covers is the artist gets total free reign. The worst thing is the money! Fortunately the originals fetch quite good prices so DS jobs are definitely worth doing although this month's cover (the attached Leatherface) is sticking. The trouble is, once you slap a lot of gore into a painting you are restricted on buyers and price. Also Leatherface was done much scrappier because of the nature of his character. Working without reference photos is OK but only if your punters appreciate totally original covers. I'd much rather see a Frazetta fantasy painting which he pulled straight out of his head than a Boris Vallejo woodenly posed underwear model with wings tacked on her back! I'm no Frank Frazetta of course but my favorite Arrow covers were the Bay of Blood / Inferno type ones which were all imagination. Of course, they were also my most hated! I think it's best to compromise like I did with The Beyond cover. I hate just copying stills like on Tenebre, they might as well just use the photo.

[stunner]

Originally Posted by Sobral

Wow, hadn't seen this before, really good. Would look amazing on a DVD cover.

I wish someone would pick these up as covers; I know I've probably asked for it but every job I've got on my books at present involves knockers! Here's Plague of the Zombies.

[Rik]

My 8 year old son was just sat with me while I checked out your last post on the Hammer thread, he spotted your Curse of Frankenstein pic and pointed out to me Count Dooku & Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars, I've no idea how he recognised Christopher Lee seeing as he looks nothing like that in the Star Wars films! He also said your paintings were really good(I haven't shown him any really graphic ones though, his mum would kick my arse), so you now have an 8 year old fan too, just don't tell his mum!

[stunner]

Hi chums!
Here's a couple I've cranked out in the last week or so. Vampire Circus you might have seen on The Hammer Thread, the other one I just finished 10 minutes ago. This is a book cover but even the author doesn't know what it's called yet so we've no title for it. Hope you like 'em!

[stunner]

Hi Chums!
I thought I'd fire this old thread up again and parade my latest Hammer Horror jobs for those of you who might have missed (or managed to avoid!) them. These are all long sold so please don't think I'm trying to flog stuff on here.
I'm still on a mission to crank out every Hammer horror film ever made. If I live long enough I'll get around to all the Universal's too, although I need to do these more tastefully to avoid upsetting the aficiado's.
Of course I won't and I will!!!

[platostotal]

Truly great COTW and COF, both will adorn my phone screen.

[stunner]

Originally Posted by platostotal

Truly great COTW and COF, both will adorn my phone screen.

Good to hear, Platostotal!
Both those flims along with Horror of Dracula are big favorites of mine so I gave 'em a little extra care. Nice to see it was appreciated!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by stunner

You should be sued for artistic license for this one .

I saw this for the first time recently it was so dull. A really cheap film that reused costumes and studio bound sets from 1,000,000 Years BC, then Hammer clearly had no idea for a storyline so didn't bother with one.

A rival with Vengeance of She for top spot in the competition for Hammer's worst film from their golden age.

Nice painting though Rick.

[stunner]

Originally Posted by Demdike

You should be sued for artistic license for this one .

I saw this for the first time recently it was so dull. A really cheap film that reused costumes and studio bound sets from 1,000,000 Years BC, then Hammer clearly had no idea for a storyline so didn't bother with one.

A rival with Vengeance of She for top spot in the competition for Hammer's worst film from their golden age.

Nice painting though Rick.

Oh man, you are so right (about the worst film bit!). Still, the guy in New York who's commissioning these wants all the Hammer's done in oil and Slave Girls had to be done so I made it as painless as possible!
I'm trying to get Swiss distributer Elektrocity to put the lot on their superb steelbook covers. Zorrow beat me to The Vampire Lovers which doesn't upset me too much. The fact it's been done so good does though!

[stunner]

Forgot to slip this one in.