Creepin Baba.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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