Pics from HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN art show

Had a great time last night at the Opening to my solo art show, 'HAPPY, HAUNTED HALLOWEEN' at GEEKS Comics in Whittier. Thanks to the folks who came out to get their Trick or Treatin' on early this year!


I actually spent more time talking about the individual paintings with people than I usually do. Seems like the attendance was more spread out than usual, with people coming in at various points throughout the evening as opposed to all showing up at the same time.


I took way less photos than I usually do at an event, and regrettably the ones I did take I wasn't too happy with. Thing is, my camera (or at least the settings I had it on) can take lame pictures sometimes. In this case, the lighting on the paintings was really poor. So, I picked a few pics to share here, after some tinkering around in Photoshop. I'd much rather show you photos that better capture the vibrant colors, but I thought I could at least share some here for the sake of the post.

"The Zombie of Frankenstein", influenced from the Hammer horror films as also Marvel monster magazines from the 1970s:

"La Catrina", actually a recreation of a tattoo design I was commissioned for by a lady a few years back:

Both of these, as well as Michael Myers 'Halloween' painting, were created by painting a canvas with only one color then drawing in an image in markers. I've seen old movie posters or paperbacks done in a similar style where there is one color for a background and a high contrast, black inked drawing in the foreground. Again, I don't feel the photo I took properly captures the intensity of the color, but I was really happy with the drawings, both done in different styles.

Always loved this cereal as a kid, "FrankenBerry":

Character drawn with flat colors, as he was originally seen on the cereal boxes. The idea of a bright pink Frankenstein could only be used on a kid's box of cereal! I also painted a BooBerry, but my lousy looking photo isn't worthy of sharing here...


My homage to Edvard Munch's seminal classic 'The Scream'. Mine is a mash-up with El Muerto. "El Grito"....

This was painted on a box canvas, which is about 2" thick, allowing me to paint on the sides and top and bottom. With this one, I wanted to capture the expressive nature of the original, without having to use the exact color scheme for every element. Some of the paint was squeezed right out of the tube onto the canvas, so it's fairly thick in certain spots. I may have penciled the Muerto figure, but I definitely painted everything else in here directly with the brush and paint. I very rarely do any paintings this loose, and I found the experience very liberating. It's like you're getting the image as immediately from my brain as possible, with no hemming and hawing about color choices or trying to draw things 'perfect'. There's a reason the artwork Munch and others of the time was called Expressionism...


Well, due to the fact that my computer is currently in the repair shop, I have to cut this post short. Sorry for any inconvenience! I'm finishing up this post on a friend's computer and I don't want to take up their time. 


My art will be on display at GEEKS Comics until Nov. 4, so please stop by and check out the art. And don't hesitate to add an original Javier Hernandez painting to your collection!