Strawberry Shortcake

It's with great excitement that I think I can finally announce my comic book debut! Coming to a shelf near you, premiering on a wednesday, I was asked to be the cover artist for Ape Entertainment's Strawberry Shortcake limited series!

(click for a larger view!)

This is the first time li'l Ms. Shortcake has graced a comic book in 25 years!

The best part? It's going to be a "Strawberry Scented" Issue #1 !!!

the process and people have been absolutely incredible to work with, and things have been smooth and enthusiastic. below is a quick sketch/comp and a preview of blueberry-centric #2 !

(click for a larger view!)

Very proud to be involved in both comic books as well as once again having an opportunity to make art for children to hopefully enjoy.

** UPDATE: we're a "Staff Pick" in Previews Magazine !!! Read all about it HERE!

thanks, and take care

pw!

Microvisions!!

I was asked to participate in the Microvisions exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. The small 5"X7" pieces will be exhibited at the Society and then auctioned off for the Society's Student Scholarship. They have raised upwards of $15k with the Microvisions over the past few years. I am very honored to be involved and I had a great time working on my little piece.

I am out in Seattle and can't make it to the exhibit but if you are in New York City certainly drop by the Society and check it out.

Ground control to Lt. Gagarin...

April 12th 2011 was the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight. That man was Yuri Gagarin, soviet cosmonaut, and his ship was the Vostok 1. I thought I would do a little portrait for the occasion. It has been a while since Gagarin made that first amazing trip and many have followed in his footsteps. Gagarin died in 1968 when is MiG 15 crashed during a training flight.

detail

A spaceboy and a shark zombie go walking into my online store....

I've been really interested in "animating" some illustrations lately, so I took a practice run. It's quite primitive and not all that exciting, but I hope to get better at this. Any tips or good sources I should look at are greatly appreciated.

While I was making the animated GIF file, I decided to throw a quick process of the drawing while I was at it. Hopefully, I'll be returning to these soon with something a bit more ambitious to show:

Secondly, I am very pleased to announce my online store in now open. I'll be adding more items in the near future, and all orders come with a free Eco-Sticker as a little thanks...as long as they last of course.

Here's the sticker : 

The URL is pretty simple and you can also get there from my website:

http://www.scottaltmann.com/store/

Huge thanks to Federico Piatti and Victoria Maderna for getting my webstore together. Not only are they awesome friends they are awesome illustrators too..check them out by clicking their names..do it!

Lastly, I am extremely excited about the release of "Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie" by the talented , Bill Doyle. I believe it will be released for iPad and ebooks as well, but it can be pre-ordered here: Shark Zombie!!

Here's a sneak peak at some interior art- 17 b/w all together:

Thanks for checking in!

S.

NYTimes illo-Cairo's Roundabout Revolution

I have a piece in the NYTimes Op-ed today. It's one of the most challenging and fun assignment I have done-big thanks to AD Alexandra for the awesome project and cool layout design.

The article is about the significance of the Tahrir square during the February Egypt revolution which ended president Mubarak's 3 decades of dictatorship. Read article here.

The ADs came up with the awesome idea of using the text to create a space in the page centre which would then be filled with my little people. I thought it would be cool to sneak a little concept in it and make the people cluster the shape of a lotus flower-as lotus has been the national flower of Egypt since the pharaohs, also one of the nick names of the revolution is "Lotus revolution".

I believe I drew over 1000 people within the 6 hours turnaround time yesterday. My hands went numb afterwards but I was quite happy with the outcome and really excited to see it in the paper today. YAY!

sketch1
sketch2

web version
print version with mock up text
the final!

close up1

close up2
close up3
close up 4

Qaddafi Duck

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

Suckerpunch

I watched Zach Snyder's Suckerpunch last night. Absolutely loved the movie. Here is a little movie inspired piece of Vanessa Hudgens as Blondie.

detail:

Thanks for viewing guys,

-Tin

PS: Big updates on my website! :)

More fun with Grayscale!

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

Keeping it safe baby!

This new illustration is for the March issue of PLANSPONSOR magazine.

Once again, big big big thanks to AD SooJin for distilling the dry and complicated business article into a simple yet fun art direction-"Keeping it Safe"!

Lolita & Wolfa

Hey guys!
So I'm not sure if this is successful or not. I tried playing with bolder strokes, but I'm not sure if it made certain areas too sloppy. Personally I am happy with the colors, but the composition needs a bit of work. :) Ohwell, just playing around. Let's see where I can take the style next.

And here is a piece inspired by Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

Black Swan

Hi Guys!
This image was inspired by Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. I tried to show the white swan being consumed by black feathers mirroring the dancer's delusions.  Two versions: One with text and adjusted colors and the original.

And here is a portrait of my mom. :)

Thanks for stopping by guys, 

-Tin

Meganckster

Portrait of my mentor and hero Robert Meganck. :)

Thanks for viewing guys,

-Tin

The Wrestler

I have recently worked with Christine Bower-Wright on this really fun project, The Wrestler for Hemispheres magazine. The article written by Kevin Gray deals with the current scandals overshadowing sumo wrestling and turning to an unlikely savior, Baruto, a big genial Estonian to restore this 2,000 year-old sport to glory.

One of the things I loved about this project is that I got to develop a couple of comic strips for it. Considering my love for comics as a kid played a big part in my decision to become an illustrator approaching the sequential art has always been a blast for me.

We wanted a simple image for the opener that referenced poster art could strike the viewer. Sumo wrestlers are massive so playing with the scale was a natural approach. We had to take into account as well Baruto's personality and actually portray him accurately. So in the end a big close up hit all the spots.

I suggested some designs to make the opener illustration go over the whole spread and played a bit with the type.

Note how amazing the art directors I work with are that they allow me to do these simple sketches, that is nothing else but a great ability on their part to see further from a loose drawing. And I do love them very much for that.

There were originally two comic strips but we only ended using the first one. Here is the process for both and the end result for the first one. I moved the fight scene from the second strip to the first one once it got killed.

Thanks for checking!