Ghoul Queen is one of the few published Frazetta drawings that is so clearly rendered. It's like a blueprint for a Frazetta woman and an obvious choice for a sculptural interpretation. It was important to pare down the composition to its essentials. And having to decide what some of the ghoul pairs were doing behind her was something best left to the imagination.
As familiar as I was with Frank's work and this illustration in particular, it took a while for me to get out of my own way in order to see it Frank's way. I just couldn't seem to pull her proportions together. Then I realized -- it's the tummy. That's what makes the top and bottom halves of her work as a whole. I kept trying to slim her down. But once I gave into the belly, I knew I was on the right track.
The back view was all guess work. But if you look at a lot of Frazetta's work, you start to see certain patterns and motifs that appear repeatedly in his designs. The exposed spinal column on the skele-ghoul was just a little something to make the back view more interesting. (Not that her back view isn't interesting all by itself, mind you.) This piece really helped when it came time to sculpt my next Frazetta statue, Moon Maid.
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