The good folks at Quirk books are coming up with another monster mash-Up book this September; Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. It was a dream project to work on all the interior illustrations. The beautiful cover art was created by Lars Leetaru.
This was a very rewarding project due to the fact that I was able to illustrate such a wide variety of cool miscellany: sea monsters, underwater sea bases, giant pirates, gynormous lobsters, and intricate underwater diving suits! It was pretty much the reason I became an illustrator!
Thankfully I can show two illustrations from the book, which comes out September 15. Many praises must be given to Doogie Horner and Jason Rekulak for having faith in me to get the work done. They gave me good direction and were enthusiastic about the artwork I showed them throughout the months it took to complete the title. Click on the title link above to reserve your copy at Amazon!
As some of you know, I haven't been the most ardent keeper of my blog. There's a number of explanations (excuses) I could pilfer from to explain my abscence-the biggest being my involvement in some book illustration projects i've been entreched in for the past year. A couple of them I can share with you, some I can't...
Last year I was approached by Quirk Books with an offer to illustrate a new addition to their Secret Lives series, The Secret Lives of the Supreme Court. It was easily the most extensive project I've ever been involved in; 35 two color illustrations + cover art. With some luck, and some patience from my enduring wife, I was able to meet the deadlines and come out of it all unscathed.
Here's a sample of some of my favorites from the series:
Antony Scalia
Clarence Thomas
Frank Murphy
Harold Blackmun
John Roberts
Louis Brandeis
Sandra Day O'connor
Thurgood Marshall
William Howard Taft
William Rehnquist
William BrennanThe process was pen and ink colored in Photoshop. Looking at the work now I have mixed feelings about it. I'm proud of some of the illustrations, and embarrassed by some of the others. All in all that's not a bad thing...it's good in some ways to feel a little unsatisfied, only because it can push you to get better in the long run.
Many thanks to Doogie Horner at Quirk Books, for guiding me through the whole process and pushing me creatively, as well as campaigning on my behalf for the project. And also many thanks to my wife Mary, who put up with my long nights and my fuzzy sleep deprived brain for so many months.
Next up; a peak at the cool Sherlock Holmes project I had the great fortune of working on!
Here's a sketch for a personal illustration project. I'm working on updating my portfolio and decided to take on some projects that would get my butt in gear. The concept for this illustration was kids who suffer from the heavy expectations of the adults in their lives. Next up: finished inks.
A rough sketch for a new illustration. I'll post the various stages of development as I complete them. I've been lying really low for the past couple of months after having completed a large illustration assignment for a book that's coming out in May of this year. I'll post details about that project soon. Now it's time for me to crack the whip and get productive-It's so easy to fall into the trap of doing nothing...
Howdy folks! Where the "F" have I been you ask? Well, pretty much in my studio, holed away working on a book illustration project which I can't divulge any details about yet. But I do have a funny tale to tell y'all about. A few days ago I got an email from a fellow out in North Carolina who had a funny story to tell about an old drawing I did some years ago.
Here's the skinny;
Hello Eugene. I work for a major corporation and my job is in R&D printing t-shirts. Every now and then, I get time to do some for myself and my friends. Well, a few weeks ago I decided to google some Tweedy pictures because one of my good friends bachelor party was coming up and we love Wilco. Anyway, I get to like page 30 on google images and there is your artwork. It's perfect for a t-shirt, so I edited it and increased the resolution for printing(about 300 dpi). I put it on a shirt and give it to him and I thought that was the end of it. Well, weekend before last my friends were going to see Wilco in Charleston SC (we live in NC) and I couldn't go but my friend went and wore your shirt. He worked his way to the front(like he always does-that idiot) and believe it or not, he could tell Tweedy kept looking at him. Then after a song, Tweedy stops the show and says "that is the most disgusting shirt I have ever seen. That doesn't even look like me". Kind of joking of course. Then he plays another song and after that one he still can't let it go. So he starts talking about it some more "I look like the Geico caveman, and my nose is bigger than that". After another song, he can't take it anymore so he helps my buddy onstage and asks the crowd what they think, smiling the whole time. He even tells my buddy to hold out the tshirt and then he puts his face beside it and asks the crowd. Anyway, he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. My buddy ends up stopping the show for 5 minutes because of your artwork and he gives Tweedy a hug and shakes Nels Cline's hand as well. It made my buddy's life. Here is an excerpt from a local newspaper about it: During the show, Tweedy noticed a fan in the front row wearing a shirt with an image of the singer he found unflattering. 'I look like the Geico caveman,' exclaimed Tweedy, who proceeded to bring the fan onstage to model the image for the rest of the house.
Charleston News Story
For some context, here's the image
Time to get some new promotional materials out there! I decided to create an image solely for the purpose of using it on a postcard. Plus I needed a project to get me back on track with my work. I'm using a large format card for this design so I don't lose too much detail.
Here I go with yet another take on the Joker-figured it's a good start to the new moleskine...
Once again I've fallen behind on my posts-but this time I have a good reason...
fatherhood!
My wife Mary gave birth to our beautiful daughter Audrey Olivia Smith, last November. I've spent the last 4 months figuring out how to take care of this new, amazing little person-as well as keep up with all the work I seem to want to pile on myself. I'm working hard on some new promotional materials which I'll post soon; in the mean time I've decided to post my submission for the new Beasts! volume from Fantagraphics. The competition is pretty fierce, over 200 artists submitted work, so my chances are slim. Although I don't think it's my best work, doing this project got me in gear and I'm ready to jump back into the fray of creating art again.
And here's my piece for Beasts!-
The Red Cap, here's the wikipedia entry for this little beasty:
A Red Cap or Redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous goblin, elf or fairy found in British folklore. They inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. Redcaps are said to murder travelers who stray into their homes and dye their hats with their victims' blood (from which they get their name).[1] Indeed, redcaps must kill regularly, for if the blood staining their hats dries out, they die. Redcaps are very fast in spite of the heavy iron pikes they wield and the iron-shod boots they wear. Outrunning the buck-toothed little demons is quite impossible; the only way to escape one is to quote a passage from the Bible. They lose a tooth on hearing it, which they leave behind.
Here's the finished illustration in color including a header-I've been informed that they are going to play with the format of the illo and split it up throughout the article. The font is Bahaus 93-a new favorite of mine. I painted the illo with Hobein Acryla Gouche..jpg)
I'm currently working on an assignment for StopOver magazine about the dominance of telenovelas in the lives of South Americans. Telenovelas are basically soap operas that have a finite number of episodes and are usually shown 5-6 days a week for about 6 months or so. "Ugly Betty" is a descendant of the Columbian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea (I am Betty, the ugly one.) A good deal of the article deals with how the majority of the public that watches these telenovelas have nothing even remotely in common with the characters represented in these programs; white, well-off, and generally disconnected from the everyday problems of the average person living in the modern cities of South America. The high drama format of the telenovela provided me with lots of fun imagery to work with, so coming up with thumbs wasn't dificult at all-
One of things I wanted to play with in the thumbs is the recent actions by Hugo Chavez involving the shutdown of Radio Caracas TV, one of the founders of the telenovelas, for reasons that range from the distribution of "pornographic" material (the telenovela) to political malfeasance. It's been reported that 70% of the Venezuelan people opposed this act.
I went with two very different ideas for the rough sketches - With the first I was interested in presenting the idea in a comic panel format (According to my dad, telenovelas started out as photonovelas, which were staged photos presented in a comic-book format. I didn't find this out until after the sketch was done). The comic panel format allowed me to show a number of different vignettes that represented the general themes of the telenovela, primarily being two people shacking up, and people freaking out about those people shacking up-not too different from our soap opera crap.
The next sketch took a little less complex direction but I think it got the idea over in a conceptual and simple fashion. I liked it because I thought a reader would be able to see it and get a pretty direct impression of what the article would be about. 
To my suprise the AD and editors decided to go with the first sketch - In a way this was my choice just because I wanted the chance to illustrate Hugo Chavez. Below is the finished drawing that is going to painted in acrylics. The header is just a comp to be done later in photoshop..jpg)
This week I'm working on sprucing up my promotional materials, starting with a business card. I wanted to create something that succeeds in getting my info out there without being overly "professional" and slick. Basically I was looking to make something that would be fun and hopefully catch someone's eye, almost like a mini postcard.
I couldn't tell you why I've been so obsessed with beehives lately, maybe it's there "Lynchian" creepiness...
Final Inks.
Here's a pencil rough for a cover submission I'm working on. Done with pencil on vellum.
My talented wife has a new painting blog called "painterpeople." Check it out to see some fine oil painting mastery! If you like what you see, and your pockets are fat, feel free to bid for one of her scrumptious paintings for a chance to call it yours.
Finally finished this piece intended for a possible postcard image. I'd say it took about 8 hrs on photoshop mostly due to the fact that I'm pretty green with the software. The digital process is definitely more forgiving, and it's certainly nice to be able to correct mistakes or change color schemes instantaneously. I can't say I'd use it exclusively, but it's nice to have another tool to use in the creative process.
If you haven't checked it out already you should mosey on down the internet speedway to Sam Hiti's "FIST-A-CUFFS." It's a tourney of epic porportions that pits artist's creations against each other and the outcome of the battle depends on your vote. Some great artwork, and funny "smack" talk, makes for good times. See it now! or forever know you have missed one of life's greatest pleasures!
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