MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Newman

We've begun our journey into easily one of the best times of the year.  The month of October.  Leaves are changing, a brisk chill is in the air and, of course, there's Halloween.  Because of this I'm that much more excited to post this piece - a birthday commission for the son of a good friend of mine.  A painting of Alfred E. Newman.

This is in fact the first time I've ever illustrated the infamous character from the long-running and just as infamous, MAD Magazine.  And having the request to "zombify" him made it all the more enticing.

Being that he's a zombie I found the consistency of paint, and in this case acrylic paint, can coincide rather well with the texture of skin.  And skin that's, we'll say, not quite so fresh?  Even better.  One can loosen the grip on the brush more and allow the brushstrokes to just paint it themselves.

Having never illustrated Al prior the more I studied him the more character features began to emerge consistently from cover after cover of MAD.  Extremely specific features.  From the his well-known smirk & freckles to his slightly less obvious off-center eye. Something I hadn't picked up on before.  The guy's a peculiar subject.  But a consistently peculiar subject, I'll give him that.

I'm also excited to announce I've done something with this piece that I've NEVER done with any other piece of artwork.  Though you'll have to wait to find out what that is.  Don't fret though, I'll keep you posted.

Anyways, hope you all dig it (especially Cobey) and I'll talk with everyone soon!

- D

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