With the recent passing of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, the world just seems a little bit darker. For this Featured Creature Friday I decided to make my last Memphis Monster Market exclusive a tribute to one of Tim’s most iconic characters- “Darkness” from the 1985 movie “Legend“.
It was directed by Ridley Scott and starred Tom Cruise as Jack O’ the Green, Mia Sara as Princess Lili, and Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness.
Princess Lily: You are nothing but an animal!
Darkness: [laughs] We are all animals, m’lady.
Apparently he wasn’t fond of enduing the make-up process and contacts (special makeup created by Rob Bottin who also did effects for John Carpenter’s “The Thing”/1982), but he completely transforms and delivers a “legendary” performance as the Lord of Darkness.
You can see my repair job on a Darkness statue for my friend Eric Crimmins by clicking HERE, and my work on Eric’s spider-head from “The Thing” HERE.
I did this acrylic paint maker paintings on a couple of the wood panels I’ve been using. I picked up these round and square wood panels at the Dollar Tree for about a $1.25ea. They’re inexpensive and are very versatile, take to a variety of mediums and techniques, and are beginner/novice friendly. The acrylic paint pens are opaque and can cover mistakes pretty easy.
I started off by tracing off the outline of his face onto some tracing paper with a black Sharpie, then rubbed a #2 pencil on the back to create some “carbon paper”, taped the paper to the wood panel, and went over the lines to transfer the drawing to the surface.
I like enlarging the image to fit the work surface. I finished off the details and cleaned up the pencil lines before using a dark red Posca marker to get the painting started.
Once I got the outlines drawn I filled in the face with a red Posca. I use Posca, IVSUN, Sharpie Creative, Artistro, GuangNa, and other acrylic paint markers.
I used a pink IVSUN for the tongue, and a dark red to fill in shadow areas.
I used an orange Posca to created some lighter areas on the face.
I filled in the background with a bold grey Posca, and I used an Artistro black marker for the lips and inside the mouth, as well as some shadows.
I used the dark red IVSUN and Posca markers to blend in some of the black in the shadow areas.
I used one of the GuangNa grey markers to shade in the tongue, teeth, and eyes.
I colored the teeth in with an IVSUN ivory marker and I then started stippling with the dark red, red, and ivory markers.
I like to blend a bit with my finger as I go while the paint is still a bit wet. I went back and forth with the reds, ivory, and an orange.
Worked in some highlights on the lips with grey GuangNa markers.
I started to stipple the background with a blue Sharpie Creative marker. I used a similar blue IVSUN maker to trim it out, and went over it all with grey.
I blended with my finger. I wanted the background to have a blue tint, but still be grey I did more stippling with a darker and a lighter grey maker on the the background.
I also did a bit more stippling here and there on the face with the reds, orange, and ivory. Once the painting was done I did some details with a black Pigma Micron pen.
and a white Gelly Roll pen. I also came back with the black and dark red markers to tighten up the shadow areas. Once the face was done I went around the sides of the wood panel in black with a larger oil based Sharpie paint marker.
Once the painting was finished I took it outside to spray some Kylon Workable Fixative over it. I like to spray light overlapping coats in a well ventilated area.
Once it was all dry I added the twine back to the panel and called this one done and ready to be part of this year’s Monster Market.
The Memphis Monster Market runs 10 days from October 16-25, 2026 at The Medicine Factory in downtown Memphis, TN. It’s a Halloween pop-up shop and is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year.
I’ll also be set up at the Memphis Monster Con in November out at the Agricenter. I’ll have some new art as well as whatever I have left over from Monster Market.
Tim Curry had an amazing career, and was well known because of his choice of roles. You couldn’t typecast him and he wasn’t just a character actor, he BECAME those characters – both with or without the elaborate make-up. He could sing and dance, make you laugh, or scare the hell out of you..!
His first professional success was in the London production of “Hair”, and since then he earned hundreds of credits as an actor on stage and TV as well as in audio books, animation, and movies.
For me he has these 3 characters who are the once I think of whenever I hear his name – with Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show being his most iconic.
Tim was born in England as Timothy James Curry on April 19, 1946 and died August 25, 2026 at age 80.
I was also sad to hear of Reggie Bannister‘s passing, too. He’s most known for the “Phantasm” movies and “Bubba Ho-Tep“, and was often referred to as “The Hardest Working Man in Horror”. I’d met him and his wife at HauntCon and ran into them at the San Diego Comic Con years ago, and both were incredibly nice. And like Dolly and Tim, Reggie passed at age 80.
It may not feel like fall outside yet, but there are signs that we’re creeping closer and closer to the Halloween season…cheers!
Lin