Justin Gerard

Happy Thanksgiving! Bonus Monster

Added 2023-11-23 14:00:05 +0000 UTC

I've got a bonus entree for you this Thanksgiving! The "Undigestible Gruel," which lost out to "Chef Surprise" by 1, still managed to slime its way into our line-up this month.

While this one seemed really simple, it actually turned out to be a real fight. I think part of it was that, instead of working on this one in a single sitting, it was done piecemeal over a period of weeks, in a series of little 15-minute chunks. It ended up being a really fractured process, which meant for a lot of reworks as I just never kept a clear vision of it. Definitely better to do these in one or 2 sittings I think.

Either way, in spite of its chaotic creation, I like how this vile little monster turned out. He captures the horror I felt as a kid when casseroles (containing who knew what) would be served up at dinner. I made a tiny little GIF to show how it progressed:

I ended up changing the green slime goo to more of a translucent gravy. The slime was just wrong. In the animatic you can see how the lighting goes back and forth a lot. Shadow, Light, Blend... Shadow Light Blend... Shadow Light Blend. It seems messy, but there is a method to the madness. This cycle always seems to eventually pull me out of a spiral no matter how bad. It may just take a few reworks here and there when I run into some foundational problem in the drawing to correct for.