When I painted The Count, I wasn’t trying to reinvent anything. I was just chasing that feeling you get when the light falls right across a cheekbone, or when the paper tooth grabs a flick of red pencil just the way you meant it to.
It’s acrylic on gessoed hardboard. Then pencil—on top, in the cracks, around the eyes. It’s an old-school process. Drew Struzan did it better than anyone. If you know, you know. If you don’t, just think: every great movie poster from your childhood probably came out of that same method.
1. The Surface Matters
Gessoed hardboard isn’t fancy—but it’s perfect. Smooth enough for airbrush and detail, rough enough to grab pigment. No flex, no fuzz, no canvas weave to fight against. It holds the paint, then it holds the pencil.
2. Acrylic First, Fast and Loose
The acrylic work lays down light and shadow. No outlines, no safety net. Just value. I build shapes in tone—not line—so when the pencils come in, they sit on top like whispery scars.
3. Then the Pencil
That’s where the fun starts. Red pencil across the cheek. Blue in the shirt. Greys layered into black. It’s like dragging color across weathered paper—but it hits different when it’s over dried paint. You feel every bump of the board. The Count started to look back at me about halfway through. That’s how I knew it was working.
4. Legacy and Influence
I’ve used Drew Struzan’s technique here, because it’s brilliant. Airbrush first, pencil over acrylic.
No one did it better. But while the method is universal, the art is personal.
Struzan once said, “Even if you dare to mimic me, it’s going to turn out your way.” That’s always stuck with me, not as permission to copy, but as a challenge to contribute. To build my own world. Struzan already gave us Indy, Luke, and Marty—once, perfectly. The rest of us should probably stop repainting them.
So yes, I use the method. But I bring it to my stories. To The Count, to Cactus Jacked, to Old Man Ravenscroft and to whatever strange little corners the Pulpoverse reveals next. That’s where the real homage lives
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