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| Ben Chapman as The Gill Man in his cave layer. I colorized it from a black-and-white frame grab. |
I enjoy re-creating my favorite monsters
in rubber, but sculpting the clay, making the large heavy molds and or painting them takes time and space. One
night Tattooed Steve came down to my house and showed me how to colorize photos on my computer. I still like sculpting the
creatures for real, but colorizing pictures from old black-in-white movies can be fun too..
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| I like colorizing some pictures flat and natural, others lush and attractive. |
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| Tattooed Steve favors flatter, less vibrant colors always. |
And the best part is I get the color
schemes right from the people that had acted and worked on the films like Ben Chapman "The land creature" himself.
One of the wildest facts I had found out was the 1954 "Underwater
creature", played by pro swimmer Ricou Browning, had a completely different suite from that worn by
Ben Chapman for the "Land Creature" scenes and, unlike the soft moss green of Ben's suite, Ricou Browning's underwater
suit was painted a bright yellow which photographed better in black-and-white under water. Another reason
for the many differences is the suit had to fit skin tight and fit the size of the actor playing the part, and Ben Chapman
was 6 foot 7 inches tall and Ricou Browning was 5 foot 11 inches. The differences in detailing, the different
shape of the faces of the Gill Man mask, everything, becomes obvious if you see them standing side-by-side, but in the
context of the movie where only one suit is on screen at a time, most audiences don't notice it.
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| Ricou Browning's different Gill Man suit painted yellow for better visibility under water. |
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