Cyclops step by step

I just finished this assignment for Michael Schick at Adfero. He contacted me through my agent, Richard Solomon, to come up with concepts around the idea of Ulysses poking out the eye of the cyclops. The trick being the cyclops represents a single bank regulator.
My first go at the sketches were attempts at portraying him as a hero with the giant cyclops looming. I threw in a more direct analogy with office workers and suits since, at this point, the assignment was still pretty vague.

Turns out, in this case, the Ulysses character was portraying large banks, and the crowds of people, small banks. Large banks being sneaky and clever to avoid regulation as the small banks stay under scrutiny. Luckily, even without that information they liked what I was doing. They rearranged some elements and made a frankenstein for me to riff off. They had the idea for the labels, which, while I'm not in love with them, definitely help the idea.
My first pass didn't have the body language and deviousness in the Wall Streeters I wanted and the crowd of small bankers wasn't working great.
Thank Jebus for tracing paper. After sending this sketch the job was put on hold for a month and I figured it dead. But no!They had me refine the cyclops a bit more, drop in the labels (mad respect for those who handletter well. Photoshop saved me here), and make the cyclops scoop some victims. The client dug it and I set to paint.
Procrastination was helpful for the first time in my life. Before I had any paint down, I got a call last minute to have the foreground hand break the border. And boom goes the dynamite. This is how the illustration will run. Here's a free tip to young illustrators: If work is slow, plan a busy social calendar. Without fail, everything will bunch up on the same weekend and you'll get a deadline as well.
After staring at the finish for a while I tweaked some values and corrected some anatomy to help the image pop some more. I thank my buddies Frank Stockton and Gregory Manchess for the feedback.

And thank you Micheal Schick for the opportunity to draw a big green monster.

-SB

Ole women be quiltin'

Here are a couple drawings from a book project I'm workin about a lil ole lady and her quilts. Pretty fun project, allows me a fair amount of freedom with the images, as long as they are cozy and adorable. I'm having some fun with lighting and the patterns on the quilting.


This outdoor one was finished right before being told we were switching to a square format for the book. Not a big deal, but I really liked the grandeur of the image. Some straight up influence from NC Wyeth and his cloud giant.

And I was sketching some old ladies in preparation. Here is one of my less ill-fated forays into Wacom/Photoshop drawing.
-Scotty loves you.

Hulk, Hutt, Hot dog.

Some recent sketches. The Hulk was inspired by the Marvel Mondays idea over at Doodles and Sh***

And this is your typical sultry female Hutt. Get some space wine in her and you'll be wearing a bronze speedo with a chain around your neck. And, of course, Bella the Boston Terrier.

-Scott

Rollovers

Lately, I've been devoting a lot of my time to some simple animations. Initially, I used them as a frontispiece for my website (idea completely stolen from my buddy R. Kikuo Johnson. He made something beautiful, I figured I could make it cheap and crude in my own way.)

The first one I did was relatively simple. A quick unexpected outcome to the first image.
Then I realized that there was a bigger possibility for using that relatively (like geologically relative) "new" format of HTML code to do things that one image couldn't. Typically, a pretty normal image followed by a more outlandish one acheives the desired effect.I started playing with making the change more of a transformation than an animation. The key was keeping the shapes and gestures very similar.
More recently I've been attempting more ambitious compositions, and leaning toward more scifi and fantasy themes.Check back for more soon.
Scott

iChest Touch

So last week, I had some minor heart surgery. Believe it or not, there is such thing as "minor" heart surgery. I now have an implanted pacemaker/defibrillator combo in my upper left chesticle.

No big deal. I get a lil scar and a little bump, then live my life normally.

OR SO I THOUGHT. I read the user's manual and find out some rules about this bugger. Apparently there are some severe limitations to go along with my device.
Here are just a few taken right out of the book...

I can not be within 6 inches of "magnetic wands like those commonly used in the game of BINGO."

Its a good thing I have a girlfriend, or I don't know what I'd do with my saturday nights from 3-5pm.

I can not let my device be within 12 inches of a running chainsaw.

What if I wanted to host a slumber party in rural Texas?

The device can not come within 24 inches of an arc welder.
Which means I now have no hobbies.

Thanks for reading,
-Scott

PS. In all seriousness, thank you to all who sent me well wishes. I appreciate all the love.

Mini Sketch Dump

Random drawings from my summer's travels to Mexico, California and Maine. As you can tell, I saw dinosaurs, polar bears, camels, alligators, skeletons and cruise ships.








-SB

Polishing Turds

A game I love yet rarely get to play with my aritst buddies is called, for lack of a better name, Polish The Turd. Simply put, one player scribbles, the next player must form an image out the scribble. Some folks at Drawger have brought it to a new level, but I've always kept it real on restaurant napkins and tablecloths, usually after several adult beverages. This was the result of a self imposed game. And now you know that.

Thanks for stopping by,
I love you.