THE RIFLEMAN! Chuck Conners Conceptual Art From The Late 90's

Here is a piece I did of actor Chuck Conners from THE RIFLEMAN, which ran from 1958 to 1963 on TV! This is a piece featuring the father and son team of Lucas McCain and his son, Mark! Done in the same vein and product line as the GUNSMOKE stuff, it wasn't used in the end. I like the original though. It was inked with a brush on tan Canson art paper around a 12" x 12" size and then it was colored in full color (instead of sepia tones) with pastels. The reason I did all this work on the tan colored art paper was so that it simulated an old west feel to it. Enjoy!

CHESTER And FESTUS From GUNSMOKE! More Conceptual Art From The Late 90's

Here's two more portraits I did for GUNSMOKE product, which was never produced, by The Mint in late '98-'99. Since I showed you Marshal Dillon in my earlier posts, now it's time to show you his sidekick/deputies...Chester Goode and Festus Haggen! Actor Dennis Weaver played the part of Chester Goode for the first ten years of the GUNSMOKE TV show and he was nominated for an Emmy in 1958 and in 1959 for his fine work on GUNSMOKE. He won the coveted Emmy in 1959. On the radio show version of GUNSMOKE, Chester's full name was Chester Wesley Proudfoot. When the TV was in early pre-production, Chester's last name was changed to Goode and Dennis Weaver gave him a physical limp, one which he never had on the radio show.

Chester was now suddenly gone at the beginning of the 11th season, which was weird because they never explained in the show what happened to or why Chester had in fact left (Weaver had left to pursue other acting opportunities such as McCloud), he was then replaced over time by Festus Haggen. Actor Ken Curtis went all out in portraying the great mountain man who helped Marshal Dillon on his latter adventures. He also added some comic relief in spots to lighten the seriousness of a given episode and played the part till the end of the series in 1975. Both of these pieces are inked with a brush on tan Canson art paper and then colored with pastels. A white colored pencil was used for highlights. I did these fairly big since I knew they were going to get severely reduced down in production and I wanted to keep the quality as high as I could. Also, as a little known tidbit, that all these pieces would have been burned in a hot steam press device that they had at The Mint. This device was kind of like a steam press for doing iron-on t-shirts and it burned any artwork to give it a weathered and old Wanted poster look to it as it would singe the edges. The thing about it was that you only got ONE change to do it right so your timing had to be perfect. Kinda like watching a piece of toast in the toaster oven. I honestly was scared to use it and thankfully they pulled the plug on the products so that I wouldn't have to deal with accidentally destroying my own work. I did have some test pieces to play with but I was nervous with them as well! Hahaha! Enjoy!

ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN - Ink Wash Painting!

Here is an ink wash painting I did of my interpretation of what the Abominable Snowman would look like. Did it with some Sable brushes on 11" x 11" sized 3-Ply Bristol Board. Needed to use the thicker paper to contain the ink and water as it did start to buckle a tad and the thinner paper I normally use would have fell apart on me. I've done many a snow monster or Yeti as a Scooby-Doo monster, but this design is my favorite simply because of the artistic nature of the piece. I really love how his hair came out considering there were no pencil lines or ink lines to map anything out as to where I wanted it to go. I just kind of eyeballed it and did it as I went, which is also strange to me that there are no errors on it. I've become so accustomed to doing work digitally or using Pro White to fix mistakes on my final artwork that this piece is a miracle of sorts for coming out perfectly in the end as a painting. I did use Pro White, but that was to add the snowflakes and wind streak effects of the storm. I also used a white colored pencil to add some highlights. I also notice that my snowman does kinda look like a long-lost relative of a Wookie the way his hair lays on the head, but I've always thought Chewbacca was designed after a Yorkshire Terrier's face, which seems like the true inspiration for this piece. It all goes back to Alfie...if my doggie was mutated!

MARSHAL MATT DILLON From GUNSMOKE Final Art!

Here is the final version of the GUNSMOKE prelim pencil sketch piece I posted a few days back. This was the final art for it and I still love it as I have the original here. It's a pen and ink drawing on tan Canson art paper and it was colored with pastels. A white colored pencil was used for highlights. Done for a proposed idea for The Franklin Mint, but was never used since they pulled the plug on the entire line of Old West products. Here it is from the Neely archives to be seen for the first time in almost 10 years! Enjoy!

BATMAN "Some days you can't get rid of a bomb..." Pen & Ink Wash Drawing

Here is a pen and ink wash drawing I did of Adam West as Batman from the 1966 Batman movie sometime, I'm guessing, around 2000-2001. It's about 8" x 10" on bristol board and I still have the original art here. It's one of my favorite things that I've done. Fans of the Adam West TV series will instantly know that it's based on one of the key moments of the film where Batman's running around the docks on the waterfront of Gotham trying to get rid of a bomb. What follows is one of the greatest movie lines ever...Enjoy!

JULIE BELL FANTASY BIKE - Conceptual Design Done For THE MINT in 1999

Here is the final art sketch I did for a Julie Bell pewter figurine sculpture in late '99 featuring one of her 'Heavy Metal' type of characters on a demonic motorcycle. Well, it's just the bike actually. We designed one thing at a time and getting the bike right was the more important of the two main elements. We were given free reign and a few artists at The Mint took a stab at doing it. I thought it was weird that Julie just didn't do the concept herself and then give it to The Mint and say, "Here, make this." I did around three to five sketches total for it and this was my favorite and the one that I think came close to being made. The sculpture was produced, but it's been so long that I can't remember how the final looked other than it had a 'Heavy Metal' style, half -naked, warrior chick straddling her cycle with her arm up in defiance of something. I think the imagery was based on a Julie Bell feel and not based on one of her actual paintings. It's been a loooonnngggg time since this was done so I don't remember. I'm quite happy with the drawing even now since I'm quite critical of my own work. It was one of those projects that I didn't mind sinking my teeth into. It's funny looking at it now as I think that it would have fit perfectly into the Ghost Rider movie that was out last year with Nic Cage!

DRAGON KNIFE - Conceptual Designs For THE MINT In The Late 90's

Here are a bunch of conceptual designs I did for a Dragon Knife for The Franklin Mint in late '98. This was before the computer age of digital coloring had taken off so I used markers, pastels, colored pencils and whatever else I had around at the time. Photoshop and any kind of digital art was only used by a very small handful of artists in The Mint at that time. I went digital in 2000 in terms of doing art. From these drawings (if and when they got approved) they then went into the next phase of development, which was making an actual full-size prototype. Most of these were sketched on tracing paper or vellum since they made a lot of changes and it was easier to fix on those two papers. From that point, I'd make a copy of each drawing and then color each knife in a variety of colors and schemes with different gems and metals depending upon what the art directors wanted. Some of the designs were just left in the sketch phase and some got fully produced. Enjoy!

ADRIAN PAUL as the HIGHLANDER...DUNCAN MACLEOD!

Here's some art from my sketchbook I did back in the late 90's being a HUGE fan of the TV show version of Highlander. I thought Adrian Paul was perfect as Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. He fit the mold of what I think the look and feel of a movie/TV hero should be, much like my father would probably say Buster Crabbe or Clayton Moore. There was a presence to him that made him stand out amongst the other immortals on the show. You knew he was the good guy. I even liked Duncan MacLeod more than the character of Conner MacLeod (who was played in the movie series by Christopher Lambert). Lambert was good with what he did, but I'm a Paul fan.

At any rate, here's a peek at the process I can go through. Here is the pencil sketch from my sketchbook and then I blew it up to 11" x 17" on a copy machine and then lightboxed it onto a new sheet of art paper as I inked the final piece. I still like it as a whole and the pencil version has a lot of energy to it. You can click on the art to enlarge it! Enjoy!

Unused Background Art From My Sketchbooks!

Here is a pen and ink sketch from my old sketchbook. I think I did it for a background for a Wonder Woman piece which I think fell through. I just found this background art and not any character art to go over it so I guess it did fall through or the character art is some place else around here. Came out looking dramatic and moody though...

Here's a sketch of a living room that I did for a Green Hornet comic waaaaaayyyyy back when. I was working out the set design first before I drew any characters to get my thoughts down on paper as to the room and feel of it. It never did see print since Now Comics who published the book went under. So who knows, maybe I'll use it for something else at some point...

COSMIC...SOMETHING! Abstract Pen & Ink Design

Kind of a dreary day here in PA weather wise, though it's busy creatively this weekend! I got a bunch of NEW cool stuff I'll be posting this week! So stayed tuned! Here's an abstract cosmic something piece or art! Started with a blank sheet and doing a dot-dot-dot-dot thing with a few black markers and wore down all the tips tapping this out. Came out cool though. It's got a lot of energy to it. I wonder if I should color it? Maybe I will at some point.

MARSHAL MATT DILLON from GUNSMOKE! Old Pencil Sketch Prelim!

Here's a pencil sketch of the great James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, the main lead character on TV's greatest show ever... GUNSMOKE! It's my favorite show of all time though I wasn't around when it had originally aired. I've got video tapes and DVD's of the TV show and audio tapes, CD's and MP3's of the radio show here. Great morality tale stories that had characters with real depth! The radio show version of GUNSMOKE (1952-1961) came before the TV version (1955-1975) and that was just as incredible with William Conrad playing the part of Marshal Dillon.

I did quite a few GUNSMOKE (and other old western TV show) pieces for The Franklin Mint in the late 90's for a proposed old west series of items that never got past the conceptual design stage. I still have most of all my originals that I did for these products. They are some of my finest work and I kept them since I loved them so much. A few are framed and hanging around the house here. This piece was a rough early pencil version of Marshal Dillon that I drew for one such product design. I'll post more soon! Enjoy!

JULIE NEWMAR as CATWOMAN! Old Magic Marker Painting!

Here is a magic marker painting I did over 10 years ago of Julie Newmar as Catwoman from the 60's Batman TV series. Guess is was in the late '96 or so. It was inked in black first and then 'painted' with all gray tone markers from 10% to 80% gray on 11 x 17 paper. Then white paint was applied to give it a look of an old worn photo. It also added a great effect to her costume which really matches the highlights that were actually on her costume. That's one of the things I really still love about this piece. I used to do a lot of marker paintings before the digital age and Photoshop came into my artistic career. This one is still one that I like. Maybe I'll do an updated version since my skills have vastly improved over the last 12 or so.

ADAM WEST as BATMAN! Pen and Ink Art!

Yes, I'm a big fan of the 1966's Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward! One of TV's greatest gems...especially the first season! Smartly-written for two audiences, great camera angles, set design and art direction. The movie that was made inbetween the first and second seasons was ok, and would be a five-star thing in my mind, if Julie Newmar was Catwoman instead of Lee Meriwether. She was a good fill-in, but Newmar owned the part. The George Barris designed Batmobile is still my favorite Batmobile as well.

Here's a pic of Batman ala Adam West that I did in the late 90's with a brush pen on 11 x 17 paper. I'm still quite happy with it and one of the reasons why is that the yellow oval around the bat on his chest was freehanded with a brush and came out perfect! At that time with my art I was trying to get everything perfect, which is insane really, and tried to do a lot of art with very little (if any) Pro White to fix any mistakes. It wasn't till I got into doing licensing art, which needed to be done faster and so I started thinking in terms of production and not doing fine original art. It's served me well over these years with Scooby so I'm glad I was able to get over trying to make things perfect since a true artist is never completely happy with everything they do.

CODI - Pen and Ink Dog Sketch!

Here is a sketch of a great little dog named Codi that I drew with pen and ink. I did this a few years ago as I dated Codi's human who was as cute as Codi was. I used Micron Pigma Pens to draw it and it's a great sketch that I still love since the hair has such a flow to it. She would actually sit and pose for at least ten minutes since she loved the attention. Now if I could only get Alfie to do that....Ha!