Welcome to this Saturn Saturday‘s art blog post about my latest Sandworm painting.
I worked on this one during the latest MSCA Sat-Art-Day out at Casey’s Art Box in Germantown, TN. This was the second Sat-Art-Day the Mid-South Cartoonists Association has had at the new art store out off of Poplar Pike– just around the corner from Germantown Community Theatre.
For this project I started off with a 3.5″x7″ wood coffin panel from Trekell art supplies online. I had bought several on sale last year. I cut a piece of typing paper to the shape of the coffin, sized the reference drawing to the shape, traced some guide lines with a Pigma Micron pen on the tracing paper…
…I then flipped it over and sketched some graphite on the back of the paper with a yellow #2 pencil, flipped it back over, taped it to the coffin panel, and transferred the lines to the board by tracing over them. I removed the paper and started to color in the background with an orange acrylic Sharpie Creative Marker.
I then started working on the sandworm. First some medium blue around the mouth, and then reds in the mouth and eyes.
I filled the inner sandworm with a lighter blue.
Then worked on the body and tongue with a light and dark/charcoal grey, some of my IVSUN markers. I bought a set of them on Amazon when I bought the Sharpies. I picked up another set of Sharpie Creative Markers at Walmart yesterday- an earth tone set this time.
Added a bit of shading with a medium grey on the body and facial features. The IVSUN markers have two tips to work with- a fine nib and a brush tip.
I had a great time working on the panel while talking toons and techniques with MSCA prez Kevin L. Williams and the Art Box owners, Casey and Melissa Smith (you can hear my interview with them on Drawing Funny Ep. 77).
While I was there I picked up some Golden 100 acrylic primer and extender. I had seen Trekell recommend it in on of their art blogs for prepping the wood panels. I’m going to experiment on a scrap piece and if I like the results I’ll try it on my next panel. Have also picked up a few acrylic paint pens at Casey’s Art Box before, too.
Once I got home I did some shading with the charcoal grey and I did a bit of stippling with the light grey to add some highlights.
I did more stippling with red, orange, and yellow to give the background some texture, and used some yellow on the teeth and eyes.
I used a black Pigma Micron pen (03) for the black line art, and a white Gelly Roll pen for the fine highlights.
Worked back and forth with them and my white IVSUN marker for the details and tightening up the shading. The brush tip end of the IVSUN marker was great for blending highlights.
After the sandworm painting was complete I took my wide oil based Sharpie paint pen and colored the sides of the coffin panel and then let it dry overnight.
The next morning I took the panel outside and sprayed it down with some Krylon Workable Fixative. I used light overlapping spray strokes to coat the art piece.
You can see this one and the other panels I’ve done (Count von Count, Beetlejuice, and Nosferatu) at this year’s Monster Market at The Medicine Factory in downtown Memphis.
It’s a week long Halloween pop-up shop that has all kinds of horror, sci-fi, and monster merch for sale. I’ll have original art, prints, stickers, and more for sale again this year. Hope you can make it down to it. It’s a lot of fun to attend, and it’s a free event.
Have a happy Labor Day weekend!
Lin
Monster Market 2025
October 10-16, 2025
The Medicine Factory
85 Virginia Ave W
Memphis, Tennessee (downtown)
Opening Night Party
Friday, October 10, 2025
5:00PM-10:00PM