Commissions Available!

Hi trading card fans!

I have some blank artist's proofs/returns/sketch cards or whatever you want to call them. Please contact me through email or send a message to the Bibliowhining Facebook page to make a request!

Here's what I have available:

Monsterwax

Spook Show (3)
Legendary Lovecraft (1)

Viceroy

Insectae (2)
The Deep (2)

Upper Deck

Marvel 3D (5)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (7)
Ant-Man (2)
Dinosaurs (12)

Thanks for your support!

Monsterwax "Legendary Lovecraft" Sketch Card Checklist

Just in time for Hallowe'en, Monsterwax is opening up orders for their "Legendary Lovecraft" trading card set, a cool project I'm proud to be a part of. Ricardo Garijo, Jr., carrying his late father's torch, brushed out a batch of beautifully rendered cards for the base set, capturing the spooky mood and otherworldly colors described in Lovecraft's tales. Though I'm typically not a fan of computer generated artwork, Garijo, Jr.'s is tasteful, painterly and organic. My foil inserts, in contrast, were tortuously scratched out with micron pens in a style emulating that of Virgil Finlay or Basil Wolverton. So you see the set offers something for everyone.

If Lovecraftian tales intrigue you but seemed too dense upon first attempted readings, the artwork and summaries on these cards will gently draw you in to the Mythos. Lovecraft's writing -- particularly the Cthulhu character and The Necronomicon -- has influenced heavy metal bands and cult classics like The Evil Dead, but it's no less highbrow than Poe's (in my grumbling opinion). One thing that impresses me most about his stories (though it made them pretty tricky to condense into card-sized snippets) is the intricacy of them --  every little detail means something. So when you're writing story summaries, don't leave out that seemingly throwaway bit about the rock the narrator kicks out of the way on a forest path, nor the direction in which the path is going or the direction in which he kicks the rock, or the material the rock is made from and the number of facets it has, because all of it will be INTEGRAL to the story's denouement every time. I wonder if he drew maps or created model cities to ensure the perfect continuity of his universe.

In addition to the six printed insert cards I did for the set, I'm creating some of the original art sketch cards, one of which is included in each box. Other top sketch card artists are working on the set, too, so there's no guarantee you'll get one of mine, but I thought collectors would appreciate a checklist of my "Legendary Lovecraft" sketches. I'll be adding to this list as I create more, so it's not complete yet:

LOVECRAFT PORTRAIT SKETCH CARDS

IN GRAPHITE
1. Young Lovecraft with glasses and pink background
2. Lovecraft with tentacle shadows and blue background
3. Lovecraft and Yithians with grey background

4. Smirking Lovecraft with carved monoliths and yellowish background
5. Serious Lovecraft holding black cat with pink background
6. 3/4 view of serious Lovecraft with glasses, bowtie and faint blue background
7. Lovecraft w/rats on his shoulders and red-orange tint
8. Lovecraft 3/4 view with cream/grey background
9. Sketchy Lovecraft with orange/grey background
10. Lovecraft with tentacle heart "frame" and yellow/grey background

 

  

IN PEN AND INK 

1. Lovecraft and fanged, winged ex-wife with pink background

2. Pensive-looking Lovecraft

3. Lovecraft reading Necronomicon

"AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1. Elder "fossil" discovered in cave
2. Men running from shoggoth
3. Penguins running from shoggoth



IN GRAPHITE

1. Elder monster close-up with yellow background

"THE CALL OF CTHULHU" SKETCHES

IN GRAPHITE

1. Cthulhu bas-relief (gray-green background)
2. Cthulhu and a couple tiny sailors

IN PEN AND INK

1. Cthulhu in the sea with wings spread

"THE CATS OF ULTHAR" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1. Three feisty-looking cats

"THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

 1. Colour rising from well with trees in background and pig corpse

 "THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH" SKETCHES

 IN GRAPHITE

1. Moon beasts (pink background)

IN MARKER
1. Shantak bird
2. Night gaunts

"THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE" SKETCHES

IN GRAPHITE

1. Brown Jenkins with classic yellow background

IN PEN AND INK

1. Witch with strangling hands

"THE DUNWICH HORROR" SKETCHES

IN GRAPHITE

1.  Henry Armitage's wife w/blue background
2. The "Horror"

IN MARKER

1. Pregnant Lavinia Whateley

2. Whippoorwills singing  
3. Wilbur shooting dog (Mars Attacks! homage) 
4. Wilbur holding Necronomicon

"THE FESTIVAL" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1. Wax mask falling off to reveal what should have been a face

"HALLOWE'EN IN A SUBURB" SKETCHES

IN GRAPHITE

1. Lemurs

IN MARKER

1. Flying vampires

 "HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR" SKETCHES

IN MARKER 

1. Herbert West injecting a rabbit/monkey creation

 "THE HORROR AT RED HOOK" SKETCHES

 IN MARKER

1. Mrs. Sudyam sacrificed ("Lilith" written in background)

"THE LURKING FEAR" SKETCHES

IN GRAPHITE

1. Martenses rising from the hills (red background)

 

 

 

 

"THE OUTSIDER" SKETCHES

 IN MARKER
1. Outsider looking in mirror

IN GRAPHITE

1. Outsider looking in mirror

"PICKMAN'S MODEL" SKETCHES

IN MARKER
1. Pickman's model gnawing on unfortunate human

"THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE" SKETCHES 

IN MARKER
1. Butcher shop illustration

"THE RATS IN THE WALLS" SKETCHES 

IN MARKER
1. Black cat scratching at pillar, aerial view

2. Swarming rats
3. Black cat scratching at pillar, side view

"SHADOW OUT OF TIME" SKETCHES"

IN GRAPHITE
1. Yithians holding books with blue background

IN PEN AND INK
1. Lone Yithian reading book with neon yellow background

"SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH" SKETCHES 

IN GRAPHITE
1. Bus driver Joe Sargent

2. Innsmouth creatures in lake

IN MARKER
1. Innsmouth creatures rising from lake
2. Lone fisherman with stormy sky

"THE TEMPLE" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1. Old-timey scuba diver

"THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1. Asenath Waite

IN GRAPHITE
1. Shub Niggurath with pink background

"THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS" SKETCHES

IN MARKER

1.Old Akeley sitting in balloon chair

IN PEN AND INK 
1. Dog with tentacle in mouth
2. Dogs barking

IN GRAPHITE
1. Tsathoggua with orange background

Viceroy Insectae and The Deep Trading Card Sets

Hi gang,

I just finished making sketch cards for Viceroy Trading Cards' new "Insectae" and "The Deep" sets. I've always enjoyed drawing insects, and it was fun researching and completing these nature sketches. For "The Deep," I limited myself to true deep sea creatures only. There are some weird ones, many of them bio-luminescent and translucent. Many subsist on hydrogen sulfide expelled from hydrothermal vents. Sounds like a great life, huh?

Here are some of my favorites from "Insectae":

flat bark beetle, death watch beetle, Jerusalem cricket, Mormon cricket, eyed click beetle, hickory horned devil

And here are some favorites from "The Deep":

tadpole snailfish, Dumbo octopus, vent clams, blind lobster, frilled shark, firefly squid

The above is just a small sampling. I did 40 cards for each set, and I still have proof cards to make. If you're interested in an original art card, contact me and we'll talk. I also put sketch cards up on eBay from time to time.

Secret Project Unveiled!

Monsterwax unveiled the project on which I've been working, and many salivate as they await our LEGENDARY LOVECRAFT trading card set, planned for release this fall. To promote the set, company president and writer Kurt Kuersteiner and I handed out promos and displayed my original art at the latest Philly Non-Sports Card Show. The set will feature all your favorite monsters, including Cthulhu, the Great Race, and Nyarlathotep, and summaries of the best stories to elevate it all beyond mere eye candy while introducing new fans to H.P. Lovecraft's elegant body of work. I created six inserts for the set, but Ricardo Garijo, Jr. did the lion's share of the artwork.

Monsterwax at the Philly Non-Sports Card Show, Spring 2013

I wrote summaries for many of Lovecraft's stories, and it wasn't easy! Every little detail means something -- I would gloss over the number of dots on a seemingly random rock, for example, only to discover that "insignificant" detail was the key to the story's denouement. Discerning, scientifically-minded intellectuals would be remiss to pass on Lovecraft, as would the heavy metal and Evil Dead crowd (and all who fall into the middle of the Venn Diagram).

Note in the above picture that my hair hangs in separated tendrils -- kind of reminds you of Cthulhu, huh?

The following weekend, I presented all my Lovecraft drawings -- plus some older published work and a few recent nature sketches -- at the Grooveground coffee shop in Collingswood, NJ. All of it is for sale, so definitely take a peek if you live in South Jersey or Philadelphia. My art will be on display for the entire month of May through the first week of June. I sold a few copies of "Mediocre Narcotica's Greatest Hits: Vol. 1" and "Flame Broiled: Diary of a Burger Flipper" at my art opening, so be sure to search for these titles on eBay or my Etsy store to secure your copy while you still can!

Yours truly at my recent art show

I'm going to do things a little differently this time and REFRAIN from posting all my artwork for free on this blog, but here's a little taste of what's to come in the Monsterwax Legendary Lovecraft set:

Lovecraft's Great Race (c) 2013 Chrissy Spallone

Thanks for reading as always!

What Chrissy is Doing

I've been writing for some other sites, so if you like my style you may enjoy checking them out.

Here's my profile page for Stereo Subversion, a music review site. I recently had my first album review published there (Lightning Love's Blonde Album) and will be writing more for them in the future.

I wrote a few satire articles for Campus Basement (nee 'Cuse My Campus) in graduate school, but some current events lend themselves well to satire. Here's an article I wrote about the NYC soda ban, and here's my profile page with links to all the articles I wrote for the site.

I've been making sketch cards for Monsterwax, a neat trading card company that makes non-sports card sets, usually with a horror theme.

A free original art card comes in each box of Spook Show cards, and I also sell some of the originals. Contact me if you'd like to buy one. Here are some of the cards I've done so far:

There are more cards on my Monsterwax artist page. I'll be promoting the cards at the upcoming Philly Non-Sports-Card Show in Allentown (not Philly) on October 20-21. That's all for now, friends! Thanks for reading Bibliowhining. And don't forget, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates!