Salem Halloween Mugboard Design

Several years ago, the owner of a local theater hired me to produce designs for a mugboard.
For those of you unfamiliar with what a mugboard is, it is usually a plywood board painted with lifesized images of figures with the faces cutout, so you can put your own face through the hole and look like you are dressed like that particular character, usually for a photograph. They are an old, old attraction and have been used at carnivals, circuses and other attractions for many years.
The client in question runs a witchcraft-themed Halloween attraction and thought it might be fun to have a mugboard outside the theater to attract attention and therefore customers. They wanted something light, humorous and possibly sexy. They definitely wanted it to contain a witch and a Puritan in some composition that would lend itself to a mugboard.
I worked up rough thumbnail sketches and then developed (3) different designs with a sexy witch and a hapless, bible-hugging Puritan.
A final design was selected and taken all the way up to a final, color study before the client pulled the plug on the whole idea. This is the first time I have shared the work.

Thumbnail Sketches

Mugboard Sketch-01

Mugboard Sketch -02

Witch figure

Sketch 03

Final selected b&w design

Final color-study

Native Woman

A quick, (45-minute) 4.5" x 7" acrylic study on paper done from a blurry photograph I took years ago of an exhibit at the Plymouth Plantation Mayflower II kiosk.

The Bunghole

Finally got around to finishing a painting of the well-known Salem landmark  "The Bunghole" liquor store on Derby Street, that I started 3 years ago as a companion piece to the "Steve's Market" painting I did almost 11 years ago. (I move pretty slow sometimes). They are both notable for their antique neon lighting. This is acrylic on a 12" x 16" x 1.5" wooden panel.

Falstaff Painting

An old painting from college days. Oil on a 9" x 12" canvas panel. It's funny that I have ended looking more like Falstaff than I ever would have imagined.

Le Chat Bleu

A small 4.75" x 8" acrylic study 0n paper. It's of my cat Pyewackett. A Russian Blue.

Edwardian Couple

Another quick sketch done in gouache on paper. An Edwardian-era couple frolicking in the surf.

Newburyport Steeple

Another recent painting. This one is acrylic on an 4" x 12" x 1.5" deep canvas. It is a painting of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist church in downtown Newburyport, MA. It was painted from a photo taken at dusk.

Here is s shot of the painting in progress. I started with a thin brush and black liquid acrylic, drawing it like a pen and ink drawing and then gradually roughing in the color.