I keep it real. Grayscale, bro.

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

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