Hey, gang- Happy Monster Monday to ya- or should I say, “It’s just another Manos Monday“!!!
This week I’m bringing you pics of my sketchcards from the MANOS: The Hands Of Fate card set by RRParksCards. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of MANOS before- I hadn’t either when I was asked to be a part of the set. Apparently it’s a big his with the MST3K crowd. It translates from Spanish as plural of “hand” or “paw“, or “the upper or handheld stone used when grinding maize or other grains on a metate.” Also saw it as a boy’s name meaning “God is with us.” and having Greek and Hebrew origins.
In any case, for this card set Manos is a movie from 1966 about a family who get lost on the road and stumble upon a hidden, underground, devil-worshiping cult led by the fearsome Master and his servant Torgo.
I had been contacted by Richard Parks about drawing some Ultraman sketchcards for a set coming out later this year. While we were talking he asked me if I’d like to be a part of the Manos set as well.
When he told me about the premise of the movie, and that I only had to do a dozen cards I was in!
I sketched the cards out in pencil first. I normally use a BiC #2 0.5mm click pencil (that’s one above Torgo).
Sometimes I’ll go ahead and do a bit of shading/blending with a tortillon/blending stump. Works well if I’m just going to be doing pencils or if I want some of the pencils to show through the lighter markers. Oh, and I just learned you can clean the stumps by rubbing them on an eraser or sharpen them with sandpaper. Gonna try experiment with that next time I use one.
So after my pencil work is done it’s time to break out the markers.
I use a lot of Copics, but also have a good selection of Prismacolor and Letraset markers that come in handy when I need a color I just don’t have a Copic maker for. Copic is changing their refills- apparently smaller bottles. Not sure if the formula for the refill inks are changing. In wait and see mode, but luckily my wife bought me a crap-ton of refills for Christmas this year. They and the markers and pens I use are great stocking stuffers!
Once I’m done coloring I will detail them out with some black Pigma Micron pens (I normally use an 03, but for something this small an 01 comes in handy, too).
Then I will use a white Gelly Roll or Signo pen and a white Prismacolor pencil for my highlights.
When they are finished I spray some Krylon Matte Finish workable spray fixative on them and start on the next card.
Here are all 12 of my finished MANOS cards. Had fun drawing them, and got paid super-fast..thanks, Richard!
These are my two artist returns I get to keep from the set.
I currently have them for sale at The Cellar– 2737 Bartlett Blvd. in Bartlett, TN. If you’re interested in learning more about sketchcards, check out my previous blog post here.
That’s it for this Monster “MANOS” Monday. I believe you can find the movie on Amazon and/or Amazon Prime, as well as catching it on MST3K. Will show you all of my Ultraman sketchcards as soon as they are approved and the set is officially out. It was a lot of fun, too- and I did a several monsters for that set.
Lin
RRParks Cards website- www.rrparkscards.com
RRParks Cards Facebook- www.facebook.com/RRParks-CARDS