Japanese horror

This is a portfolio piece I did recently, mostly just for fun, but also because I really love Japanese horror movies. The Hollywood remakes a little less-so, though they had their moments to be sure. Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to do a piece incorporating some of the various characters from the movies "Ringu"/"The Ring", "Ju-On"/"The Grudge" and "Dark Water". I always start by scribbling down my 'vision' for the illustration, the very first picture that forms in my mind.
They're not called 'roughs' for nothing! Next I worked up a few variations in an effort to work out which way to go... MORE COMING SOON

Zlatan!

It's nearly time... will he deliver?

By request - Belgium!

Rumour has it that Belgium is boring. But a few years back it was constantly in the headlines - if for all the wrong reasons. This cartoon was one in the long-running (sadly no-more) satirical series "ATT FELA ÄR MÄNSKLIGT" ("TO ERR IS HUMAN") that ran in Sweden's Dagens Nyheter on Sundays. Written and originated by Ola Westerberg, drawn for several years by moi.

Maurice-Mechan.com now online!

Please take a look at this blog's Big Brother, my new webpage! It's at Maurice-Mechan.com (don't forget the dash) and it features a whole lot more of my artwork than this blog does. I'll add new stuff to both sites as time permits, though, so please bookmark both! The quick link is on the right...under "Links", strangely enough.

Hollywood's darkside for "VIASAT MAGAZINE"

Fresh off the press, here is yet another illustration I was commissioned to do for "Viasat Magazine". This time the AD wanted a more serious look, to match the serious tone of the piece - murder in Hollywood. The magazine was running a story on true crime in Tinsletown, and the brief was to show the darker side of the glamourous Hollywood we know from the big screen. I sent the AD these first roughs:

She liked 3 and 4 best, so I was given the choice of developing the one I liked most. After a bit of deliberation I went for image 4. I felt the illustration had more potential - the dark world of murder juxtaposed with the bright Hollywood life outside, the police crime scene milieu, the Hollywood icons looking on..
To get the realism I wanted for the murder victim, I had myself photographed as I wanted the corpse to look in the finished illustration.


Using that photograph, I drew up another sketch upon which I built the final artwork:


The view out of the window in the final artwork, below, is actually a collage of photographic elements from various Hollywood street scenes - I took quite a bit of licence with the famous Hollywood sign, for example - it's not that big! I used a filter on the final image, so as to retain as much realism in the final artwork as possible and yet not have part of it looking like a photograph. I think it worked out well, and the AD was very happy with the final piece :