Ole Scotty's Blog

Some more sketches: Dogs, monsters, ladies and kiddos.

2012-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

Been messing around in my sketchbook a little bit more recently. Here are some of my better looking pages.

I got to play chess with a class of 2nd graders and managed a couple quick candids. Their heads are awesomely shaped.

Also, Etta James passed away this past weekend. I did a quick sketch in her honor.

Thanks for peepin, more soon. -SB!

Aung San Suu Kyi

2012-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Here's a quick portrait I did for my rep of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Bit of a new approach for me, but it was fun to jump into.

Speaking of new approaches, Night Shade Books's AD, Dave Palumbo, asked me to do a handful of comic strip interiors a while back. I had my qualms about taking the gig since I've never really worked that way. I love Dave and the work itself was so bizarre, I went for it.

The only copy I have with finished lettering. And probably my favorite.

Oddly enough, this isn't the first time I've worked outside my comfort zone for sci-fi/fantasy work. A while back, I pinch hit for an interior artist for Tor. This time doing a couple ink drawings for chapter heads. Irene Gallo had seen some ink drawings in my sketchbook and must have figured I could handle it.

Work from a sketchbook. Who knew?

Thanks for reading!

PS. It should be noted that the comic strip interiors were for a book Sam Wolfe Connelly did the cover for. It's gorgeous and his first book cover. He's the star of that show.
It should also be noted that Dave Palumbo is a badass painter on top of Night Shade's art director.

The Waking Prince

2011-12-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

The project I've been showing snippets of here and there is now finished and available for purchase on iTunes ebook store. "The Waking Prince" was a 6(-ish) month effort and I personally think the book looks gorgeous. Here is a small sampling of some of my personal favorite images...

To see more, including some in full color, you can buy the ebook here.

And a big sloppy thanks to Zoe Soane at The Story Elves for keeping me in food and rent for the better part of a year. This project was a blast.
-S

Exposing myself, Vol.2

2011-12-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

My Photobooth library was getting overcrowded, so obviously it is time to share some reference shots. The majority were spent on a project I still can't fully share, but there are some sneak peaks here, as well as many photos of bed head and neglected shaving.

One project, The Silence of Eggs, had it's own personal collection of weird. Nailing just the right variation of psychotic focus took a bit of work.

Note use of tools on rare occasions when my face is not elastic enough.

And, by the way, I own these pants.

Corporate Dealmakers

2011-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

Without fail, if I leave my studio for any extended period of time, I will get a commission that I can't turn down.

On this occasion, I went to Altoona, PA with some artist buddies to check out Illuxcon. I have a not-so-secret interest in fantasy art and this convention is the premiere showcase for original genre paintings. While drooling over idealized yet heavily armored women and every variety of slimey monster, I received a call to do a cover for Larry Gendron at The Deal. I went from the dude staring at paintings to the dude sitting in the corner sketching. So it goes.

Lacking a scanner I was forced to take pictures of my thumbnails my ipad, send them to my laptop and work them up in photoshop. Not exactly my ideal creative situation, but it worked.

The topic was the top 100 corporate dealmakers. When I first talked to Larry, he was trying to find reference for the top ten, so I could put them on the cover. Considering the idea of doing ten likenesses while basically scrawling on napkins left me very scared. Lucky me, editors couldn't nail down the names and faces, so instead I got to go a bit more abstract (thank Jebus).

The idea was to show these imposing corporate character as getting ready for, or running into, battle. We agreed that a color scheme based off "300" could be a nice touch. My apologies to loincloth enthusiasts for keeping the characters in suits.

running, standing tough, walking

We settled on the standing and looking threatening option.

Pretty fun going really atmospheric, pulling out white suit highlights and really saturating the reds.

In other news, my long time ebook project wrapped up recently, so I should posting a lot more regularly. Thanks for reading!
-S

The bedchambers

2011-11-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a peak at another part of the series I've been working on. The whole project is wrapping around Thanksgiving, so I've been sequestered to my drawing table. Hence the lack of posts. Once I get my head above water again, I'll share some more. Stay tuned!
-S

More drawings and Dexter's mug

2011-10-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of posts. I'm still up to my elbows in graphite and really should stay there for a while. But, when the blog collects dust, I get progressively antsy. I am quite antsy. So, again, my apologies. At some point in the future, I'll throw a bucketload of drawings at you. Please bear with me till then and enjoy the handful I'm allowed to leak out.

Oh, and I made time a while back to produce a quickie Dexter portrait sample for my rep. Hope ya dig it.

Thanks for reading!
S

My awkward years, immortalized in pencil.

2011-08-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

I've been packing up my apartment to move from my current Brooklyn location to the hipster paradise of Williamsburg. My pants aren't nearly tight enough, and eyewear frames far too thin.

In the process, I found a sketchbook from middle school and early high school that somehow I've been hanging onto for.... 18 years? At the time I was taking weekly extracurricular cartooning classes in the backroom of a local Dick Blick. Being a very sedentary and sunlight-shy child/adolescent, my parents were quick to encourage anything that got me out of the house for an afternoon. I requested a bit of homework to add to the weekly comic pages (If I dig those up, I may show them as well) I was making, and this notebook was the result.

My instructor, who will remain nameless because he's since become an upstanding citizen, would make a list of complete ludicrous titles. My job would be to add a gag cartoon of some sort to each one. Here are a handful for your perusal (many were too blatantly vulgar to show. Trust)...

"The fat man with gigantic nipples standing on line for Star Wars on a cold night"

"Jerry and the Dog Sausage"

Top: "King Fatty Dumb Jackass in his castle eating gum" (apologies for the unintentional phallus) Bottom: "The animal kingdom bakes a cake for their friend, the loving manatee"

Top: "Giraff Whiplash" (sic) Bottom: "Morris the Cat arrested for beastiality" (sic)

Top: "Jerry the Gentile Giant" (sic) Bottom: "The Kitten Dog Fight"

"Exploding Robot Kittens"

Top: "The World's Fugliest Man Breaks Wind" Bottom: "Soil Trauser Aromatherapy" (sic)

Top: "Tina Tuna and Tom Terrific" Bottom: "Squirl Bread™" (sic)

Several things are instantly clear:
-my ability to draw animal anatomy was way more advanced than my human anatomy. Unfortunately, that isn't saying much.
-my love of Ren & Stimpy is very clear in the loving care I put into sausage and butt-acne textures
-the lists my instructor gave me were riddled with misspellings. I knew this at the time and thought they were funnier with the screwy spelling. I'm confident I am still right.
-while many are embarrassing, I'm pretty proud of a bunch of them. I will stand by the manatee, "giraff" and "squirl" any day.

And just to save my ego, here's some recent work.

Thanks for reading,
-S

Exterrestrial cephalopods and partying shrimp.

2011-07-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

My buddy, Irene Gallo at Tor.com, apparently REALLY likes when I draw tentacles. I've done about 4 or 5 tentacle-based illustrations for her and, honestly, that I don't mind that type-casting one bit.

The latest was a featured article about editing. One part stand alone story, one part tribute to a Tor editor. Originally, we wanted to do a rollover with the editor's head on the octopus body, switching back and forth to the full on cephalopod head. Because of time constraints, and Irene hiking in Iceland (God bless her), we ended up dropping the rollover likeness. But you can see it here...

The winning thumbnail with some value refinement, staying loose.

The very rough sketch, establishing a mood.

A bit more refinement, plus a layer with the editor's face. All bad tie and plaid pants were specifically requested to match his "style."

After approval, I keep refining to make sure everything works spatially, and try to correct the weight and solidity of the figure and tentacles.


Clean finished drawing printed onto watercolor.

And the final paint/post production effects.

I attempted to put a couple Easter eggs in there for those who looked closely. You can find three Hugo awards this editor (David Hartwell) won sitting on various shelves. Good luck.

And recently, I was given permission to show some exploratory work I did for Adfero. I was asked to help design a shrimp that looked friendly and healthy to represent the Gulf Coast shrimp industry*.
Making an insect-like crustacean look cuddly is an art in itself. I purposely didn't let myself look at Peter de Séve's blog knowing he had done something similar and far superior a short while back.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, though.

And one last drawing from my mystery project to hold you over while I got back to my cave...

Thanks for reading- S

*Mardi the Spokeshrimp was created by the Washington, DC public relations firm Adfero Group for an organization that wanted to promote the shrimp industry in the Gulf Coast of the United States. Playing off of the Canjun flair for creative ways to serve shrimp, Adfero named the character after the world famous Mardi Gras that takes place in New Orleans each year.**

**Sorry about the fine print.

Plant things, Hawaiian Frenchies and an ugly lady.

2011-06-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

I've been absent from the blog, but trust me, it's because I've been doodling up a storm for a large project I can't show just yet.

But here is the current state of my desk...

I promise I'll share more soon.

But it hasn't been all sketching, I did a quickie black and white painting (when does THAT ever happen?) for The Milken Institute. They were goofing on the Obama birth certificate debacle, and made the joke that even though the document is real, it's irrelevant since Hawaii was under French rule when he was born. Hence, the following....

Majestic.

And, in the first job that my rollovers ever directly produced, my old pal Eric Seidman at AARP Bulletin had me try my hand at creating an icon for them. The project ended up going in another direction, but it was a fun gig.

And in Baba Yaga news... she is very ugly.

-S

Baseball, audiobooks, Spectrum and lots of coffee.

2011-05-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

A little while back I had the luxury of a nice two week deadline for Library Journal. A fun crowd scene requiring a variety of faces in a theater enjoying audiobooks that was just complex enough to let me flex some rendering muscles and take my time.

With two days left to work up the final, I had to throw my relaxed pace out the window to jump into a overnighter for Wall Street Journal.

WSJ's illustration was on the growing lack of interest in baseball among America's youth. My goal was to show that disinterest through several generations. Having done all my rollovers, this actually came relatively naturally. I love the idea of one part of an image remaining constant while things evolve around it. (Speaking of... I found out that my Ada Lovelace Day rollover was also accepted into Spectrum 18! Pretty much the same idea-> Image below).
Having been what some would call "indoorsy" as a child, I had to do a fair amount of research about various sports equipment, uniforms, and heroes that would end up on posters. (Full disclosure: the extent of my baseball experience is signing up for tee ball as a child, going to games, hitting the ball, refusing to run, and sitting back down.)

50s/70's/90's/00's. None of the above had a part in my own childhood.

Luckily Derick Gonzalez at the Journal was a bit more knowledgable and helped me out. I will take credit for the ever-so-subtle upgrade from old school to new school skateboard in the last two panels.

Again... replace all sports paraphernalia with Batman: The Animated Series/ make the boy chubby and pale.

Lots of fun working this one up. Looking back, I kinda wish I used hot-press paper to calm the texture down. Still, I'm pretty stoked on how it turned out. Even better, it printed in full color (a gamble at WSJ) and by far the largest piece I've had in their paper.

So, one overnighter follows another now that my time was nearly up for Library Journal. I should say now that I know it's not exactly uncommon for an illustrator to do back to back overnighters, but hey, this was my first.

final approved sketch

Final and in context.

Even though I was dead-man painting at this point, I think it still stands up. Tried a lil something new keeping the headphones and media players unaffected by the darkness of the theater to pop a bit more.

And here is the Ada Lovelace rollover I mentioned that was also accepted to Spectrum 18.

-S

Qaddafi Duck

2011-04-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

The American Interest requested the following...

Who wouldn't jump at this opportunity?


They requested a mix of very goofy with menacing danger. A nice challenge to keep both Daffy and Qaddafi's likenesses intact while bending and stretching the face. I'll let everyone else decide if I was successful.


The approved sketch.

And the final art.

Lots of interesting challenges in this one. Mimicking the lettering probably took longer than any other part of the image but putting everything together was a blast. Big thanks to the kind folks at The American Interest for coming up with a ridiculous image and thinking of me to help bring it to light.

-S

More fun with Grayscale!

2011-04-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky enough to have an ongoing gig with the website TheStoryElves.com. They keep a blog with weekly tips for young writers and I get to add a bit o' flair with a drawing. Every so often, one or two of these blogs lends itself to me having a blast with the content.

For instance... "a young writer with a cast of characters patiently awaiting his direction." This, my friends, is what field days are made of.

...plus the added fun of seeing the same characters sent on their way.

And sometimes a simple image like this just works completely out of context.

Also, a high-class tarsier with a penchant for smoking jackets.

-S

Common Ground

2011-03-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

It seems like I hit a pocket of education-based commissions recently. No complaints there. It is admittedly fun to trick myself into thinking I'm smart enough to have my work in front of scholars. Like I sneaked into the teacher's lounge by proxy.

Then I read the paragraph I just wrote and reality comes crashing down.

Anywho... I was contacted by the American School Board Journal to create a cover for their March issue. The topic was the implementation of common core standards among US public schools. I had to convey the idea of unifying educational standards while raising them higher.

My initial round of sketches was pretty loose, as they've tended to be recently. When the art director leaves the solution very open ended I try to get as many ideas communicated without polishing them too much. My theory is that this will result in a quicker approval and more time to paint. However, after seeing Chris Whetzel's sketches, I think I may just be tricking myself into being lazy.
The art director chose the obvious best choice. I knew the large grad cap was the best, but I really wanted to paint the tall hat crowd. I knew it didn't really make much sense, I just really liked how ludicrous it was. Sigh.

A big thanks to Carrie Carroll for the opportunity.
-S

Spectrum Silver Medal

2011-03-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

In a feat of high improbability, luck, astrological alignment, wishes on a monkey's paw, and, I think, a possible gas leak at the judging.... I won a silver medal in the Unpublished category for this year's Spectrum Fantastic Art annual competition.

This happened.

I am beyond shocked and deeply honored.

The piece in question is this one here.

And the full video announcing the award winners can be seen here.

Creepin Baba.

2011-02-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my infatuation of the Russian hag, I've been compelled to keep playing with the design and feel of Baba herself. This piece was part experimentation in atmosphere and texture, part development of character. Honestly, I wanted to paint a creepy piece.

I had an idea in mind of an image of Baba Yaga, out in the woods in the snow (NYC had quite a bit recently, I was in the mood) in overcast conditions. I wanted to capture the feeling you get when you realize you aren't alone in a room and someone has been looking at you the whole time you've been there.

Some of the more coherent thumbnails I generated.


Rough value study and tightened drawing

The final painting was a blast. I think I did more variations in texture than any previous painting, and had no idea I'd enjoy it that much. Messed up dried brushes, salt, lifts, the works. I'm pretty stoked to do more of its like.

Oh, didn't see you there.

-SB

The Silence of Eggs

2011-02-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

A while back I was contacted by Sagoma Editore to do the cover and back cover for their upcoming book "The Silence of Eggs" or "Il Silenzio Dell'uovo" for those of you in Italy. I received a brief, in awesome broken English, describing a fictional biography of a 19th century poet obsessed with the silence of things. They wanted to push the bizarrely humorous nature of a person stubbornly preoccupied with an egg's silence... as if the egg was holding out on the poet and the poet wasn't buying it. Oh, and another goal was to have the feel of high class literature. But, you know... with an quiet egg.

I sent a couple ideas to see if I was in the ballpark of what they were looking for and quickly found out they really had no clue what they were looking for. Through a series of some of the most baffling art direction I've ever received, I produced a number of very loose sketches.

The interrogation chair and the duct tape make me stupidly happy.

Of course they picked the only one I was sure they would not.

Yay.

So... I was to paint an egg for the front cover, with a monochromatic background. Before I could moan about the mind-numbing boredom of such a choice, the client sent a request for the back cover. He wanted the same egg, but now crushed by a frustrated poet's fist. Somehow, without knowing it, they asked me to create a rollover like I'd done many times before.

Of course, just the right flavor of angry/desperate/insane took a couple tries to nail down.

And despite all the struggle I'm pretty satisfied with the final. Maybe it's my narcissism since that poet is basically me with a mustache.

-S

Baba Yaga, continued.

2011-01-18T08:55:00.000-08:00

A while back I flirted with the idea of starting a Baba Yaga project that got to the level of doodles, then I was distracted by a stray butterfly or something and it fell by the wayside. Well it's a new year, and while there are plenty of distracting insects flitting around me, I've set myself to keep the story of Vasilisa The Beautiful (Baba Yaga's story) on my plate irregardless of airborne bugs.

I've been very inspired by artists who commit themselves to developing a giant body of work on, or simply committing themselves to, a single story. Mark Summers created a beautiful series on Moby Dick that, aside from the jaw-dropping finishes, has a completely full sketchbook of research to accompany it (check out a similar sketchbook on Abe Lincoln here). Justin Gerard and Sam Bosma have both explored Tolkein's The Hobbit in depth, with some truly gorgeous results. And, probably the most amazing example, Petar Mezeldzija's Legend of Steel Bashaw shows the very top tier of whats possible when you work for years on a project you truly care about.
Anywho, now that I've compared myself to some badasses, I can comfortably underwhelm you with my own work. In a true eat-the-dessert-first fashion, I've been playing with Baba Yaga studies, knowing full well that, while she may be the most intriguing character in the story, she's definitely not the main one. Vasilisa will come later. First, I want to play with the gnarled knuckles, wilted skin and bad teeth of a Russian witch.
I gathered reference from a bunch of places, but the absolute best resource I found for scary old ladies is thesmokinggun.com's mugshot gallery. You can even narrow the search just "fogeys' to get a great gallery of disheveled grammas. Add a bit of meth-addict and you are 90% there.

Not your gramma's gramma.

Baba Yaga had to be menacingly inhuman but still female. I learned quickly that when you draw the extremely elderly, it's a fine line between the sexes. And, while the one dead eye look may be a bit cliché, I dig it.

Check back soon for some more wrinkly goodness.

Editor's Note: When finding links for Petar Meseldzija's work, I noticed that Steel Bashaw took 15 years to finish. See you all in 15 years, when this project wraps up.

Bitesized Blogpost 4: A Factoid

2010-12-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

I was invited to participate in a fun project illustrating a factoid, like one you'd find under a Snapple bottle. I ended up with "Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur."

Here is what I came up with...sparing you all the bad drawings of tigers I made before I found my animal anatomy book.

And here's a figure painting from last night. I'm not sure if I love or hate Yupo paper, but the results are always interesting.

...and that wraps up my bite-sized blogpost spree. Hope you all enjoyed. Now I must return to hibernation.
-S

Bite-sized Blogpost 3: Sketches and stuff

2010-12-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

I wish I could claim to draw these ladies this well outta my head, but no. Alas, I was soaking up some Gerald Brom paintings.

Lil bit of a sketch dump to kick things off...

And a figure painting on Yupo paper for yucks.

And lastly, a Stubby variant for Tor.com's zombie week that I was about 4 days too late in creating.

One more juicy morsel for tomorrow...
-S

Bite-sized Blogpost 2: The Deal

2010-11-30T07:54:00.000-08:00

While I was at the American Illustration party, I ran into an old acquaintance. Larry Gendron worked with my former boss/current rep, Richard Solomon, loads of times while I was Richard's assistant. Everytime it was a different hero of mine producing a great image for Larry's magazine, The Deal. Well, Larry was nice enough to let me show off my bit of art on the AI wall and told me he'd be in touch.

Wouldn't you know he had an assignment for me three days later. I received an email with an abstract detailing the unsteady financial future of colleges and universities. Larry encouraged me to push the "unsteady" aspect of the piece and have fun with it...

..so did. And Larry picked my favorite as well.

Left is the refined sketch with some PS value added. The right is a clean line final that I find I need for the more complex images I create. This is apparently old news for many illustrators, but I tend to do a lot of things the hard way.

Really happy with this finish (a true rarity nowadays) and I think it's simply because of the shine on the coins. How sad is that?

And in context...

A big thanks to Larry Gendron for the opportunity.

-S

Bite-sized blogpost part 1: American Illustration, Illuxcon and Fantasy artwork

2010-11-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

Due to fun/hectic/awesome/fortunate circumstances, I've been running all over the place and painting my pants off lately. Lots of new work to show and some I can't speak about just yet. I'll stagger them out in the upcoming days so all of my devoted readers (all three of you!) can get their Brundage morsels in quick succession, without too much caloric intake.

First up was the ever popular and always epic American Illustration party. This year I was fortunate to have my first ever spread in the book with two entries accepted (Cthulhu Santa and Valentine's Oz). Highlights from the party include getting an elusive compliment from my old boss and chum, Peter de Sève, hanging with Frank Stockton over fruity drinks, and having some beautiful arm candy in the form of my girlfriend. I also ran into some SVA students I knew formerly from my hometown of Danbury, CT. Keep an eye out for Brian Schiering and Jensine Eckwall.

Second up was my last minute decision to attend Illuxcon in Altoona, PA. The majority of my buddies from Racebrook were showing off their wares at this fantasy art convention and had invited me for two years now. I was convinced it conflicted with the AI party and I couldn't attend. Two weeks before, I realized I was mistaken.
With little time to spare, I jumped into world where "bags of holding" and "lamps of lighting" were not jokes and "making a saving throw versus dragon breath" makes complete sense.

I love dwarves and figured showing that I could paint armor and human flesh would be a plus. Here is the thumbnail, sketch and photoshop bump up.

A big, resounding thanks to Lars Grant-West for being a pal and taking a look at my sketches. He helped me out bigtime with the dwarf proportions, and his suggestion of the head tilt added loads of character. A second thanks to Donato Giancola for suggesting I go a bit more nuts with the armor decor.

I knew I wanted to have some monsters and recognizable ones at that. D&D is very specific in its creatures so I chose to do my rendition of a Mezzodemon (or Mezzoloth, if you are hardcore). I threw in a second monster inspired by the mezzodemon as a goof.


Same dealio, thumbnail with a bit of PS, and a refined sketch.

These were fun as hell to paint. The level of finish demanded for this type of work is a bit more than I'm used to, but it really was a blast getting in there and figuring it all out.

There is a third sample that looks to rushed to show as of now. I vow to return to it and give it its proper attention, without trying to cram it into an already tight deadline with other work. I'm looking forward to creating more work in this vein with more action and fully realized backgrounds. The fellas at Illuxcon make it look easy...

More tomorrow!
-S

I keep it real. Grayscale, bro.

2010-11-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished up a big fun project for very cool website that I can't talk too much about just yet. The site is directed toward a younger audience and set in a semi-fantastic world, the subject matter was right up my alley.
Even more fun was the idea of wanting most of the artwork to look aged, as if originally created on parchment. For me, this meant I had the opportunity to go nuts with my oldest and most trusted of mark making utensils... the exotic and mythical pencil. I can honestly say I had a blast working just in black and white, worrying simply about value, shape and line. I'm not too proud to say that color has slapped me around more than once, and it was, indeed, a pleasant hiatus.

Another cool thing about this project... they wanted a rollover. Nice to know they paid attention to my work enough be aware of the rollovers, let alone commission one.

The subject matter is pretty obvious. I used a fair amount of pug and shar pei inspiration for the main monster.

And the rollover offers an escape from the fleshy duo of horned beasts.

This door went through a couple iterations. Not big changes involving the actual setting or anything real complex. No... instead we had a long discussion about what silly creature should be hanging around this castle's entrance

I also had the opportunity to do a bit of character design. Firstly, a janitor. All I knew that the janitor didn't have to human. So I explored my options a bit. And, during that exploration, I unintentionally created an amazing stand alone photograph

Ultimately it was decided that the janitor should be a portly old codger.

I previously posted the secretary character I designed for this site, but again, I had to search for her. She also had no real description aside from a request that she be similar to "Roz" of Monster's Inc.

And lastly, a narrator character. Again, the description was "not necessarily human." I didn't offer the option this time. Rather, a gnome was the closest I came, with a host of scaled and furred options.

I think their choice was obvious. The little bugger looks so damn eager to read you a story. My girlfriend actually pointed out what it was that conveyed that emotion... while his arms are relaxed, his feet are clenched in excited anticipation.

Berkshire Artist Playtime

2010-10-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

For the 5th year now, I've been joining a cadre of intimidatingly talented artists at the Racebrook Lodge in the Berkshires. A week of cool folks and sick artwork. In between hikes and excursions to pick up organic pizza (do try the fig and prosciutto), we turn a barn into a working studio.
While I'd love to post pics of all the work created this week, I'm pretty sure most of it was under some super-secret nondisclosure agreement. I can, however, show some obligatory "artists just kickin't it" shots...

Jordu Schell being badass. (This is actually from last year. His creation this year was an undead asian man with bad teeth)

Top: A rare shot of me actually working. Middle: Talking shop with Justin Gerard (although it looks more like he's telling me to settle down) Bottom: Dan Dos Santos and I watching Michael Whelan work his voodoo.

Tony Palumbo, Winona Nelson, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo working in their cluster of awesome.

And, of course, Lars Grant-West's one-eyed/watery brained Frenchie, Mumpkin. And, Boris & Julie's much more dignified Izzy.

I got a good handful of work accomplished this year, thanks to an abundance of rain keeping us from wandering into the woods. I even got to bust out some oils and remind myself how much more comfortable I am with watercolors.

Now people won't just have to assume I'm a nerd when I draw in public. They'll know.

I now have a solid number of old lady samples. I'm ready for that retirement home gravytrain to come rolling in.

Thanks for reading!
S

Race to the top and a new studio!

2010-09-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still alive. Still drawing and painting. After a couple rough weeks of funerals, weddings and moving, I am now settled in Brooklyn. I have a brandspankin new studio, complete with four legged studiomates and even a bonsai tree. Domestic as all get-out!

Note killer wild horse foldout card above the tackboard. No biggie.

Studiomate 1 is a fearsome 40lb pitbull named Miga.

She worships me in a very literal sense.

Studiomates 2, 3 and 4 are now residing at The Brooklyn School of Inquiry until next summer. But for a few sweaty days, Lola, Chiam and Fozzy kept me company.

Lola and Chiam doin what they do best. Mainly pooping.

Fozzy, a sugar glider, is nocturnal. He spends his days in a pouch and his nights killing anything that enters his cage.

And here is a new piece for Kelly Carter at Delaware Today Magazine. The article was on "Race To The Top Funding" and her suggestion was to try to convey a group effort to get a child to succeed.

These were some of the quick idea sketches I sent. Very rough communication oriented sketches, which (unintentionally, but on reflection) break down to one ok, one good, and one worth painting.

I really wanted to push the lighting here... possibly more than I ever have previously. I knew I wanted the only pure white to be the very corner where the sun was shining to really push the heat of it. Once that was acheived, realistic color elsewhere wasn't as important.

The final result is among the more dramatic paintings I've created, but a blast to make. Thanks again to Kelly Carter for the opportunity to launch a child into the sun.

SB!

Paranormal Romance

2010-07-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Not all holidays are endorsed by Hallmark. When it comes to tweens and, from what I can tell, moms, a new Twilight Saga movie premiere is bigger than Christmas, Hannukah and the 3rd coming of Jebus combined. So I did my part to commemorate it.

I looked up the imagery associated with the movies and got 99% steamy gazes and emo angst with dramatic lighting and stormy backgrounds. Why not throw a couple other classic paranormal romantics into the same ridiculous posing and lighting?

The pose and lighting were the most important to get down correctly. I stuck to one photo mainly, with one or two others to help with the overly shadowy parts.

From here, I just needed to find appropriate characters to switch in then light them the same way. I settled on the Munsters and Micheal Jackson's Thriller couple. The trickiest part was getting their likenesses in lighting they didn't pose in. Netflix screencaps help a lot for this.

Add some paint, and align everything in photoshop and we are all set.

You can see the animated version on Tor.com here, where it is helping usher in their Paranormal Romance month.

-S

Sketch dump with fancy costume and tricky paper.

2010-06-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Been moving towns, and finishing projects and a myriad of other time-sucking things that keep me from my sketchbook. On the plus side I've been refocusing on more observational work and figure drawing. (See the racy nudey stuff on DAS )
I also had the opportunity to draw some dope burlesque models at an event my buddy, Frank Stockton (people have heard him for some reason), knew about.
He even did a lil ditty in my book. I think he dug my brushpen.

And here are some more straightforward sketchbook pages of my girlfriend's pitbull, and my family. Both enjoy spending time on the floor.

I spent some time playing with Yupo paper again. Still one of the strangest surfaces to paint on. I used the ugliest model I could find at 4am to do some lighting studies in watercolor.

Lastly, I had the chance to speak to a kindergarten class about drawing animals. After the talk, I did some requests out of my head of the more popular animals. You may notice the chimp looks a bit exasperated... possibly similar to how I looked when the whole class requested I draw a tiger out of my head.
...Then I requested some of my own.
Thanks for reading,
S

Flowers and Chipmunks

2010-05-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

Some more work from the book project I'm working on. Trying to play up the adorable in these paintings.
Also seeing how many flavors of green I can use at once without failing too hard. I had some opportunities to really play with light and value, which I think were somewhat successful.

More to show coming very soon. Thanks for reading!
-Scott

Then I chose to expose myself

2010-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

So I hit the century mark on my Photobooth library and figured I should pay a lil tribute to the beautiful convenience of Mac's built-in webcam application. I recently learned I'm not entirely alone in exploiting this for reference sake, as my buddy, Marc Scheff, recently covered the same topic. And while I don't go to the extremes of posing and lighting as he does, Paolo Rivera dedicates his wednesday blogposts to showing how limber he is in his reference.

So, in the interest of solidarity, here is how I spend a good chunk of my average day... posing spastically, alone in a dark room.

I've learned a couple things about myself in the process.
-I rarely adjust the light for any of these pictures to relate to what I'm painting. This usually is more from deadline constraints than laziness, but I should probably give a little more thought to it.
-when I'm trying to get a single hand just right... I pose my entire torso and face.
-if its over 65 degrees, I tend to forego a shirt.
-my hair is ridiculous

Lines and colors!

2010-04-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot! The nice folks over at Linesandcolors.com were kind enough to feature my work! It was an unexpected and awesome surprise to know some folks were paying attention to my work, my rollovers in particular. My article is here but make sure you explore the blog. It.is.awesome.

Thanks again to Charley Parker at Lines and Colors for the generosity.

New holidays, new art, new address, ole Scotty.

2010-04-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

So March was a very full month. Somehow between packing, moving from Queens to CT and unpacking, I completed a handful of paintings and still had enough energy to celebrate my birthday in style.*

First up was Ada Lovelace Day which praises women in technology. Ada was the first computer programmer back when a calculator would have been considered magic. The holiday is typically celebrated by blogging. My contribution was my first three-part rollover showing the past, present and future of women in technology. Click here to see it in motion.

Following that, I packed up and moved to beautiful Danbury, CT for my temporary summer digs and immediately got crackin on an Easter rollover. Irene Gallo at Tor.com had some specific requests which I was happy to comply with... "Bunny + easter egg : fade : Astronaut + 'Alien' egg and face-hugger." I think I can find the will to do that.

And in between all of these, I continued with what has become a nice break between rollovers. These images for the quilting lady are already fun, but after trying to make multiple image work with each other, its nice to have a single image answer only to itself.

-Scott

*Authors note: "celebrating a birthday in style" entails imbibing girlie drinks including, but not limited to, Smirnoff Ice and dessert wine, and staging a spectacularly unskilled game of Bocce on a sunny day.

Calling a turd a turd.

2010-03-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

I worked for Steven Brodner for a while when I first moved to NYC. Among the many things I learned while helping out in his Studio were two very wise quotes that stuck with me....

1: The most important drawing is the next drawing.

2: If the wine is no good, throw it out!

Both are basically his philosophy on work ethic. I'd watch him eat a stack of paper making sketches for a single likeness, most of which I'd drool over, but he knew his standard and wouldn't settle. He also was a believer in not falling in love with a drawing if it wasn't the right one.

Now here is a story of me not heeding this advice.

Normally when creating a rollover I have a plethora of imagery to think about and skew to my whim. Usually a holiday is associated with its own managerie of icons, mascots and folklore. This time, however, I was tasked to create something for the obscure "Pi Day" (aka 3/14) celebrated by math fans everywhere (or maybe just MIT.) So, what do I have for Pi Day? The irrational number starting with 3.14 and the symbol π. I had to relate it to something Tor.com would be interested in, so something scifi/fantasy/literary/comic booky. I thought something that was a classic riddle in stories could rollover to reveal the shapes in π. My buddy, Frank, mentioned the Mad Hatter's Riddle "How is a raven like a writing table?" which is a riddle with no answer (the Mad Hatter is mad). Seemed like a good excuse to do an Alice illustration.

My first clue that I was on the wrong track should have been that I'd never heard of that riddle.

But I went for it.

I tried to figure out how I'd like to show the scene of him asking the riddle. Something that wasn't too obviously inspired by Tenniel and Rackham.

Then I played with the shapes of π and ravens and desks to get them to be somewhat similar.
And I had the great idea of framing the drawing in cards. But ho! The cards are in order of Pi's digits!

I got to about this stage before I realized that the idea was bad. Very bad. Only a handful of people would understand what was happening, and the fact that the table and raven looked like π didn't actually mean anything.

So... even after committing to paint every-effing-one of those cards accurately, I knew it was toast. I had to start completely anew. (notice the creases from when I threw the painting out, only to dig it out of the trash to blog about the experience)

Now, with much less time to work, I rethought my whole Pi dilemma. In about three seconds I realized the word Pi was extremely accessible and had a much better idea involving the Pied Piper.

Moral of the story: Don't fall in love with an image if you know it isn't the right one. A pretty illustration that makes no sense is a bad illustration.

-S

Valentines in Oz and bloomin flowers.

2010-03-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

Another holiday rollover for Tor, this time addressing Valentine's Day.

A lot of these holidays are fun to explore because of the either traditional or completely commercial imagery associated with them. Valentine's has a great variety of love, religion, and hallmark-ish symbols and images to choose from. I figured the most fun to paint would be cherubs or cupids following lovers in a very saccarine sweet scene of whimsical romance. I could avoid doing anything using hearts or chocolates that would have been a lil obvious.

So... even picturing possibilities in my head, I started thinking of Rococo style painter, Fragonard. He is primarily famous for (what I consider) over the top romantic paintings. Rosy cheeked men fawning over plump women with enormous dresses in flattering sideways light, in the middle of a lush garden. Adorable.

Beautiful, and very very ridiculous. So, one goal was to attempt to reach that level of overthetop ridiculosity. I started figuring out poses that would be graceful and flowing to see what possibilities would lie in the shapes. I quickly found that the cherubs would easily translate to flying monkeys, and with such an opportunity, I had to make the rollover involve the Wizard of Oz.

Narrowing down the scene a bit more to what I really wanted to show, thinking what could possibly relate to the rollover image, I settled on a carefree lover's chase. Cherubs circling above, aiming arrows of love.

Some tracing paper and photoshop magice later, I had my translation to the world of Oz.

And painted the finish.

... and another heartwarming image to leave you with.

-Scott

Winter Sketch Dump

2010-02-16T04:07:00.000-08:00

Subway sketches and exercises from a sketchbook I just finished out. I keep a variety of pens on me and see what each is capable of, or more accurately, what I'm capable of with them. Hope you enjoy.

-S

Baba Yaga doodles

2010-02-11T11:08:00.001-08:00

Been shooting around ideas for a Baba Yaga painting. I knew nothing about her or her story aside from being a witch, Russian and living in the forest in a hut on chicken legs. So before doing any research I started going off that to see what happened, then slowly adding more educated images from looking up her folklore.

I figure posting this will get me to actually follow through with the painting in a somewhat timely fashion.

Also, after reading Sam Bosma's blog and seeing how much prelim exploration he does... I feel so damn lazy for doing just these so far.

Ol' women be quiltin ...in color!

2010-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

I've been busier than my blog would suggest. Stupid, lying blog.

These are some recently finished paintings for a children's story pitch I've been working on. The first two I showed the finished drawings for a while back and forgot to post the finishes. Well, now I'm fixing that problem:

And here are some even more recent images from the same series.

She likes quiltin.

And there is a quickie I did last week for Derick Gonzalez at The Wall Street Journal on blacklisting job applicants.

Because of a busy month of running around for funerals and social events (even a trip to Montreal that I really should write about, but haven't) I'm a little behind on a couple projects. But stay tuned for more nonsense soon.

-SB

A wintery mix of sketches

2010-01-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

-Scott

Belated Happy New Years!

2010-01-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010.

-Scott

Show me to your children....

2009-12-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

Or maybe don't....

Many thanks to Irene Gallo

-SB

Tor.com 1- Cthulhu Month

2009-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Another fun gig from Irene Gallo at Tor.com. Seems like I'm the go-to guy for messing around with their logo (at least for now, knock wood). Or, as she put it, I'm "the sucker guy." High compliments, people.

December is Cthulhu Month at Tor. So I was asked to have tentacles in the logo interacting with Stubby the rocket.

I probably had a lil too much fun getting nutty with the tentacles slopping all over the letters. They were obscuring the logo, so Irene suggested two tentacles. Still a bit too much, try one tentacle.
The one tentacle worked but we needed some grace to it. I worked up some quick gestural sketches and she picked her fave.
And now we have the gooey joy of a otherworldly horror reaching out to steal your sanity... in a website's masthead.

-S

Tor.com 2: Birth of a nightmare: Cthulhu Santa process

2009-12-02T13:23:00.001-08:00

I had just finished reading some H.P. Lovecraft, so his flavor of awesome was still fresh in my mind. Usually when thinking about making these I go through lots of failed ideas before connecting something random to something else that could relate in shape or texture. I landed pretty quickly on Santa's beard being similar to Cthulhu's tentacle mouth. After that, I just needed classic scene to befoul, like a child in Santa's lap.
My first thumbnail and loose drawing was just to figure out a pose and loose shape to play with. I knew I'd have to fit batlike wings in somewhere so Santa's chair became ornate to fit those needs. You can see I was playing with sizes and shapes still in the rough sketch from the doubled up legs on the child. From here I grabbed a bunch of reference of classic shots of Santa, Santa's lap, happy or screaming children, etc. I wanted it to read as the quintessential happy boy waiting to tell Santa how bad he wants a bb gun type thing. Old illustrators and Saturday Evening Post covers are a great place to start for that timeless imagery, google image search helped with the rest.
Then I refined the sketch to get the folds and figures believeable. The chair became important since drawing simple ornate carvings bores me, and reflect in the drawing. So I dropped hints of Cthulhu into the before shot, which was a lot more fun. Photoshop helped a lot in that I only had to draw half and then mirror it to get a nice symmetry.
Then I gather some reference for Cthulhu. Its a little strange to look up photo reference for something that doesn't exist, but in this case it was necessary. I had Lovecraft's prose to go by, but he writes in a very old timey way that can be interpreted different ways. So, seeing what some other artists have done helped understand what I wanted to do. Since the jump from before to after can't be too dramatic, I've found the best way to work is to use a print of the sketch and tracing paper to get the shapes equal. When the shapes match up, I retool them to be the after shot. Even then I end up tweaking and resizing a lot in Photoshop to get it right.
The before shot of Santa obviously dictated a lot of the after shot of Cthulhu. I had to pay attention to both my sketches and the finished paint to tell me where to go with value and color. Tentacles are always easy to play with, and matching the gestures of the beard and candy canes definitely added a nice touch. To finish off the rollover, I laid the after shot onto the before and erased out some of the wings to show some of the chair behind it, making the transition much smoother.

Tor.com is now hosting this image on their site during Cthulhu month, and you can buy it on holiday cards and baby onesies if you think your toddler needs exposure to the maddening abyss.

Thanks for reading!
-SB

Thanksgiving turkey... in spaaaaace.

2009-11-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

Tor.com and I teamed up for this lil ditty. Not sure if anyone noticed, but for those with eagle-eye vision and free time on T-day, there was a lil surprise for them in the logo. Their rocket, Stubby, became a delicious meal.

Normal Stubby:

Thanksgiving Stubby:
Happy Thanksgiving!
-SB

Cyclops step by step

2009-11-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

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'

2009-11-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-10-15T23:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-28T08:29:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

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.

New website, new work

2009-06-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, among other things, I've been workin on recreating my website in a manner that will let me show more work in a more accessible way. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. www.ScottBrundage.com

Below are some new samples of a series of likenesses I've been workin on. Dick and Bush were for an upcoming book interior for Oxford University Press, the others were me playing with Dexter, Wolverine and that handsome devil Clooney.

And here are some sketch book pages to keep you warm till the next post. I promise it will be less than 2 months from now.

Thanks for stopping by,
I love you.

-S

Reverie wrap-up

2009-04-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Instead of trying to recall exactly what I absorbed, I'll list some highlights of the last three days of Reverie...
-learning an impromptu lesson in how to use a Wacom tablet and CS3 to draw from life. Thank you, Dustin Darnault, for some tips.-Hangin out with a Greg, Irene, and Dakota, the red-tailed hawk, in a hotel room
-Watching Greg paint a full painting over 7 hours or so-Dinner with Ringling grads Dustin Darnault, Adam Volker, Erin Maguire, and... two more that I forgot names of (sorry). Ringling has a tradition of staggeringly beautiful sketchbooks. Take a gander at their blogs for proof.
-Character design demo/photoshop how-to by Bobby Chiu

There I am lookin pensive.

-Multitudes of lectures ranging from Winsor McCay's narrative style to how to create a contract to keep a movie studio from robbing you.
-7 or 8 artist "Thunderdome." For those who don't know, that means a competition where the artists create a piece on a theme and one wins. This theme was on hope in the midst of genocide generated by demand for materials in Africa that are used to create our ipods, cell phones and electronics. The artists were given an hour... ridiculous what they can pump out in an hour.
....And here are some sketchbook pages from the event, one of which is a Manchess cameo.

Reverie kickoff

2009-03-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've only recently acquainted myself with conceptart.org and really didn't know what I was getting into by attending Reverie. My buddy, Greg Manchess, made it sound like some sort of art orgy. Which makes me wonder how many orgies he's been to.

Irene Gallo, Manchess, Bryan Beus
(not pictured: orgy)

My travelmate, Bryan, and I met up with Irene and Greg before heading to the Reverie venue. Irene informed me about how Kindle and Kindle-like products will eventually be your ipod and book library. We had an earlier discussion about the possibility of reading children's books to kids off a Kindle, which I thought was preposterous. Irene told me it was very posterous. To the point that your child's book will record you reading it to him or her, so he or she can look at its digital pages and hear you narrating. Holy year 2000!

Then we hit the kick off party. Wowo. 7 open bars, 12 screens projecting digital paintings in progress, 3 djs, Android Jones projecting artwork onto a dancer, and models coming up to pose left and right.

No biggie.

Behind this group of artists was a dancefloor. And more nude models. Not sure if Bryan approved. Should be an interesting couple days.

Overdue update: New work, new sketches

2009-03-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

While finishing up some long term work with a private client, I've been neglecting this here blog. I apologize to my 3 or 4 loyal readers. It won't happen again.

Some images from one of the aforementioned projects that just wrapped up. A couple were sketches I posted previously, now painted.
And here are a couple ditties done for a very snarky running news website, www.twoangryrunners.com. Former D1 athletes are apparently overweight, bitter, and very funny. Lastly, here are some new and revisited sketchbook images...
I like fish and apes. What of it?

This weekend I'll be headed to Dallas for Conceptart.org's Reverie workshop. Expect sketches and pics in the near future.

My first bit o' hatemail

2009-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

I've been buried in some longterm projects so I've been neglecting this blog, but here are some quick jobs I did for Sue Foster at The Wall Street Journal.

The first was as spot for an article on mattress toppers. I got this while in Colorado meeting a client. I'm learning the busier I am socially, or the less I'm in the studio, the more work I get. Pays to have a life I suppose.
And more recently I completed a job over the New Year's weekend. Again, make plans to be out of town and boom, new assignment. This one was about the top 10 best and top 10 worst jobs. Mathematician ranked top best while Lumberjack was voted worst. Pretty straight forward.
I wasn't told, initially, whether it was vertical or horizontal, so some early thumbnails were landscapes. The idea came fairly quickly, and I decided the best way to tell the story was to keep it simple and direct. Some of the more oblique viewpoints didn't convey the idea as clearly.Less than a week after this was published I received a strongly worded email. Now, I may live in NYC, but I wouldn't assume that instantly makes me an elitist. But who knows? I use an iPod regularly and voted Democrat. And obviously, I raise a pinky while drinking a beverage. Regardless, here is the email:

"Your image with the mathematician/lumberjack, with the smug mathematician’s look and the defeated lumberjack was a classist attack on the working man. Images like this make it harder for the hard working men we all depend on to find a mate, to have a family and a rewarding life. They are looked down on, literally, in your image and as a result are disrespected and unwanted. The frowning tree practically demonizes the lumberjack. At least give these men an image they can be proud of. They deserve better, their lives are hard enough already.

I’m just curious, do you own anything made of wood?"

...How great is that? Another milestone reached.

Riding dragons, doodling the flu.

2008-10-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

For the last three years now, I've been joining a supremely talented group of artists and designers who work in the fantasy genre. By som strange bout of luck, I became the token editorial dude among a crowd of folk who spend weeks making chain mail and dragonscales look incredible.

Among some of the crew are Tor Books art director Irene Gallo, my buddy and ridiculously talented painter Greg Manchess, fantasy art legends Julie Bell & Boris Vallejo (Boris is still the only artist I've met that I kinda mumbled "holy crap I collected your trading cards" when I met him), and fan favorite Dan Dos Santos.

Other regulars and visitors include Arkady Roytman, Sc ott Fisch er, Jon Foster, Dave Seeley, Lars Grant-West, Eric Fortune, Anthony Palumbo, David Palumbo, Ben Foster and Rebecca Guay.

While there, I got a very quick turn around commission for the AARP Bulletin website. So, I spent Monday night drawing the letters F, L, and U lurking in a scary environment (as Eric Seidman at AARP described it "...if you let mold run wild in a closet for 20 years").

Being a tight deadline (10am, the following morning), he requested the letters be a bit more scary and dark, then let me go to finish.
Eric thought it was a bit too "inside of my uncle's stomach" for the readership of AARP and I needed to do it again. I was game, what's my new deadline? "2 hours." Cue me running to my desk.
I'd say it was a pretty good hustle.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera for the week, but here are some links to Irene and Julie & Boris's blogs and flickr pages. Enjoy.

Irene's entry, Irene's Flickr.
Julie and Boris 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Princely Amounts of Graphite

2008-09-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

A while back I was contacted by an author in Denver to help her develop a proposal for a series of books she had written. Since I tend to do quick turnaround assignments, spots, and people in suits playing money, this was a great opportunity to play with larger sizes, recurring characters and other things that wouldn't present themselves in a typical editorial gig.

I now have stacks of sketches on my drawing table and possibly a permanent graphite stain on my right hand. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites so far....

Color and Whiteout

2008-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Last year I was smart enough to attend the Illustration Academy in Sarasota, FL. Among many many other things I took away from it, I started giving myself a lot of permission to go nuts in my sketchbook. I've been sitting on these scans for a little while. I could describe some of the thought behind a lot of them, but honestly, there wasn't much. Again, my subconscious is a dark and smelly place.

Ballpoint Pens v. NYC

2008-06-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Its a cliche that illustrators draw folks on the train. But here are some of my sniper shots at unsuspecting New Yorkers. A lot of these are ballpoint pen, my weapon of opportunity, although some colored pen and some pencil sneak in. Oh, and some angry rat handpuppets too. Whoopsy.

Summer Travel Guide

2008-06-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

Sue Foster at the Wall Street Journal gave me a ring with a quick job for her "Middle Seat" travel section. All jobs for the Journal are quick, since she gave me all of Memorial Day weekend, this was actually relatively generous. The assignment was their Summer Travel Guide, something to describe all their valuable tips about navigating the airlines this season.They suggested an idea with a coach detailing tips to travelers. I think its pretty common these days for illustrators to have ideas suggested to them. Usually I see it as a challenge to one-up them and show I can think as well as draw. So while I followed my orders, I got a bit nutty with the perspective and put half of the travelers in pool gear. Obese pool goers. Genius, Scott.
My idea was a bit more conceptual. A tourist with a grey overcast city on one side of him, and a pleasant beach on the other. A hawaiian shirt with planes to bridge the gap. Maybe a bit off the mark, but I thought it would be fun.

Needless to say, they chose the crowd scene. I get a lot of work for my crowds, it wasn't that big a surprise. But I have no complaints, the finish reproduced great and I had some fun with color and perspective. Thanks again, Sue.

Humble Beginnings

2008-05-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Ole Scotty's blog, the official blog of Scott Brundage's illustration. I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon a tad late, but I couldn't sit idly by while everyone misses out on my witty commentary regarding my doodles and paintings any longer.

I thought it would be appropriate to start with my humble beginnings at art school. As you can see, I've taken the liberty to scan some pages from my college notebook. Around September I'd be the studious good boy, fresh from the summer with a real interest in taking pretty notes. This first page is mainly information with some drawing actually worked into the design.Actually looks kinda pretty. The semester would progress and I'd get a bit more comfortable (read:lazy) in non-studio courses and the doodles would start taking more liberty on the page. But I was still invested in recording information that my teachers were spouting at me.
... Then, mid semester comes along and the note-taking begins to take a backseat to my very important doodles.

Even occasionally throwing in a flamingo next to a guy reading the newspaper while suckling on an elderly woman's breast. I actually did pretty well in class. Something about paying attention while my hand did something else. Someone once told me that whatever I drew was my subconscious. This kinda scares me.Eventually it got to the point that there were barely notes. If you look closely, I actually wrote "read up to.." with no page number. Thats some focus.
Thanks for reading. Check back soon for much less important and current work.