Drawing and Painting the Undead

Graphic artists who can create convincing, scary images of monsters are always in demand for graphic novels, comic books, and computer games. Here’s the book that shows how to concoct these visions of horror! Every technique that artists need to create a terrifying painted purgatory is presented in this how-to manual, as author Keith Thompson instructs on the creation of zombies, ghouls, assassins from alien planets, and many more hideous specters. He starts by focusing on the basics of human anatomy, instructing on techniques for rendering skeletons, organs, and muscles, and then demonstrates imaginative ways of distorting these features, turning the bodies morbid, making them menacing or just plain ugly, giving them an aura of decay. He offers examples and inspiration for artists on creating―

The Walking Dead

Ethereal Ghostly Apparitions

Shambling Zombies

Yakshini Spirits of the Himalayas

Vetala, a Spirit that Inhabits Corpses in Cemeteries . . . and many more
Thompson also shows how to create different effects in a variety of media, using standard pencils and paints as well as computer software. He suggests sources for inspiration and tells how to get the most from any new visual idea, starting with a preliminary sketch and developing it into a dramatically finished monster. More than 300 full-color and genuinely scary illustrations.