End of Summer Round-up

Been running around a bit too much to stay on top of this blog like I should. But the summer is over, so here are some highlights from the last while...

-My work for A Brain Is For Eating was featured on Muddy Colors, thanks to my good friend Dan Dos Santos!

...which resulted in these two young boys forever scarred.

-I did a second Graveyard Book illustration based off of another thumbnail that I really liked. 

-This illustration for Wall Street Journal printed incredibly large and I'm stoked about that. 

-Your smartphone is already obsolete for Scientific American

-And I did this on the side of all the rest of those things as a sample of more finished work aimed at YA publishers. Had a blast figuring this one out.

 Thanks for reading!

-S

A Brain Is For Eating, now available!

A Brain Is For Eating is now available for purchase at abrainisforeating.com!

And now you can also get your very own zombie food pyramid, to keep your undead well fed. Hang one in your kitchen by ordering here: http://www.zazzle.com/a_brain_is_for_eating_the_zombie_food_pyramid_poster-228237577427756599

Graveyard Book, The IMC

 I attended this year's Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA. It's a week long intensive, painting-based illustration workshop focusing mainly on narrative and adventure illustration. Many instructors are old friends, so it was a very fun week.

I also worked my ass off on this painting, inspired by Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Because of the fancy camera work by Irene Gallo and James Gurney, it became my most documented painting. Irene got some progress shots and Gurney caught me starting the paints in a very cool video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ZcVBo0S3o&feature=c4-overview&list=UUTIoOLzT1jbxAcPW99xn0zQ

 Hope you dig it!
-S

Spectrum 20

This year's Spectrum judges deemed this image worthy of inclusion.  

Pretty awesome to be included again, looking forward to seeing the book!

...and the book is available here {ahem}    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-waking-prince/id582084676?mt=8

More leaked zombie pics

Hitting crunch time on this, here are a couple newly finished illustrations for A Brain Is For Eating. Enjoy!
-S

Scientific American's Skeptic column

Scientific American has a great skeptic column, usually dedicated to the various ways the human brain can malfunction and create one effect or another. There are great illustrations that go along with each article, and the subject matter is an illustrator's dream. Juicy stuff like why our brains deny/distort clear evidence, or how the brain creates consciousness.

I was lucky enough to be tasked with illustrating the recent issue. The column was skeptical of a brain surgeon's assertion that, during a near death experience, he'd had a glimpse of heaven. Seemed a sensitive issue for my normally irreverent approach to drawing.

Pretty much two approaches to the same idea. The 2nd beat of the image would show you that the brain is the culprit. 

Playing off the evidence and hallucination ideas, I thought it would be fun to draw pink elephants. I found out later they are pretty  much exclusively related to alcohol induced hallucination. Oops.

I knew going in that this was my strongest idea. It wasn't as goofy as the others and the relationship between brain and vision of heaven was more subtle. Using color to tie the elements together is somewhat new for me and I'm glad it worked out as well as it did. 

A Brain Is For Eating -in progress sneak peek

"So remember these rules, and follow the lead of your big zombie brothers when its time for the feed" 

"When hunting for packages just say with a roar, it's braaaaains you are after and you always want mooooore!"

Stay tuned for more underaged undead in the coming weeks.

-S!

The Wreck of NFIP

quick ideas for sad and concerned fish

Rough value sketch, before picking a better fish

Color sketch with type placed

scanned finished paint, pre-photoshop

Finished painting with photoshop finishing touches. 

This was an overnight gig for The Weekly Standard. More of a feat of creating believable atmosphere than anything really clever, but super fun to work on nonetheless.
-S

Big THANK YOU to all our backers!

We hit and surpassed out Kickstarter goal for A Brain is for Eating! It will be a real thing, stay tuned for more brain-flavored fun.
-S

A Brain Is For Eating -Kickstarter campaign

I'm working with some awesomely twisted folks to created a children's book... written for young zombies. The content is right up my alley, even if it may be a bit dark for some (my fiance is fully creeped out, despite enjoying the artwork).  The illustrations are from the viewpoint of a zombie illustrator, so the humans and environments are very much secondary to the all important undead protagonists. People, obviously, are just packaging for food.

If you or someone you know enjoy young kids learning where to find and eat delicious brains, maybe pitch in and see if we can get this thing going. I'm completely biased since this is a hell of a lot of fun for me. Learn more here: A Brain is For Eating.

A brain is for eating
yes, that's what I said
They come in all sizes
and hide in the "head."

The package is different
some big and some small.
Some packing has two brains
and some none at all.

There are packages in boxes
that move on fast wheels.
But find one not moving
and you'll have many meals

If the package is old and lying in bed
you may not have long to make it undead...

Some exploration when figuring out a look for the story. Not a big jump from what I usually put in my sketchbooks.

Thanks!
-S

The Weely Standard- RNC edition

I got the opportunity to do a Weekly Standard cover! I'd heard their deadlines were kinda bonkers and this was indeed brief, but considering I got to draw elephants on a beach, it felt relatively painless.  The AD, Philip Chalk, wanted to mimic a vintage tourism postcard retrofitted for the recent RNC in Tampa, complete with hurricane warnings.
   
Big thanks to Philip for the fun gig, and equally big thanks to Chris Whetzel for helping a brother out and sketching the the convention crowd for me when I was running low on time.

The Jersey Devil

 My good friends, theater trio The Berserker Residents, asked me to produce a set piece for their camp-horror-sideshow "The Jersey Devil."  They needed an arch to frame their stage that kept the tone of the show. That tone being funny, yet dark and oddly entertaining.

The first handful of ideas ran the gamut of very literal scenes from the show to tragic takes on classic fairy tales, to scenes depicting the terrorized denizens of the Garden State.  The final illustrations of doomed circus performers seemed to capture the tone best.

Thanks for reading!
SB

A Doubletake

Another peek into my ongoing project.

To the moons, NASA

Fun assignment from Michael Mrak at Scientific American to illustrate the funding cuts in NASA's planetary exploration programs.

I was initially worried that the probe wouldn't read clearly, so i sent a couple other options. These two other sketches were well received but Mrak really dug the original idea.