Hey, gang- I’m back for another Monster Monday. This time I’m sharing how I did my recent Tracy marker painting.
It’s based on Tracy the gorilla from the Filmation’s “The Ghost Busters” live action TV show which starred Larry Storch and Forest Tucker, and featured Bob Burns monkeying around in a gorillas suit as Tracy.
Bob and his wife Kathy were big fans of horror and sci-fi, and were film historians and custodians of amazing Hollywood movie props and memorabilia including the original “Time Machine” and 1933 “King Kong” armature puppet. They both had a cameo in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” movie (on the street when Kong escapes in NYC), and also were mentors for make-up masters and fellow monkey-man like Rick Baker.
Kathy passed away in 2021, and Bob passed last year in 2025. I got to meet Bob a few times at Wonderfest in Louisville, KY and ran into both of them at the San Diego Comic Con (above).
I started off drawing in pencil on a small round canvas. I used a yellow #2 pencil on a mini stretched canvas I picked up at Five Below. Once the pencil drawing was done I filled in the solid black areas with a Posca acrylic paint marker.
Then I filled in the grey areas of the face, hands, and chest with a grey Posca, and the propeller beanie cap with a yellow one.
I filled in the background with an orange to give it more of a Halloween feel, but wasn’t crazy about just a solid colored background- so I took a lighter orange Ivsun maker to add a texture to the background.
I then went back and forth with black and different shades of grey on the fur.
I then started doing more details on the face and hands, and added some highlights with light grey and white Ivsun markers.
I used an .03 Pigma Micron pen for the black line work, and a white Gelly Roll pen for finer highlights like in the eye.
I finished the highlights with a white Prismacolor pencil, and then took the finished piece outside to spray a protective coating of Krylon Spray Fixative. It’s best to do light overlapping coats and spraying outside or in a well ventilated area.
I’ll have this Tracy painting and other original art at this year’s Memphis Monster Market downtown in October.
Don’t forget- my “Featured Creatures” art show is going on now through August 2nd upstairs at Playhouse on the Square in Overton Square.
Take care, and I’ll scare ya later!
Lin