The auction is live!

The auction is live! Please check it out for some fantastic books, artwork, jewelry and more. It’s a good cause so dig deep for charity to support not only these generous artist, but also the kids fighting cancer. 

Let the Kids Trick or Treat for St. Jude 

Rick Majewski - Revisiting Poland Print Donation

 Today’s auction preview is donated by Richard Majewski.

From his 2011 show “Revisiting Poland”, we have a one of a kind print that is 11 x 17 and comes framed for your enjoyment. 

There are only 2 more days to get your donations in and pick which auctions to follow. I will post more auction previews today and over the weekend so stay tuned.

Rick Majewski - Revisiting PolandPrint Donation

So many donations. So little room to write.

So many authors are digging deep to share, we have another fantastic book Sam and the Jungle Band, donated by DJ Corchin. This children's book will be autographed by the author himself has some really fantastic reviews out there. It is also illustrated by fellow donating artist Dan Dougherty.

DJ Corchin - Sam and the Jungle Band Signed Children’s Book

      

                                                                

  
This donation is so big it needs 3 separate links! We have several auctions consisting of 3 books donated by Grand Mal Press, that is 12 books all together! Simply amazing stories from almost every genre are on display. We have books from Nickolas Cook, Clifford Royal Johns, Craig Saunders,R Thomas Riley, Matthew Darst and so many more.

Grand Mal Press Book Lot – Haftmann’s Rules,Spiggot and Walking Shadow

Grand Mal Press Books Lot - Dead Dog, Last Stand in Dead Island and The Flesh of the Fallen Angels

  Grand Mal Press Books Lot - Mal Contents, A Strangers Grave and Dead Things

 

Rachel Renee Jewelry Donation

New auction page is live today. My beautiful wife, Rachel Bryant of Rachel Renee Jewelry has put up some of her custom jewelry. She will have a couple of auctions available, but today her Red Coral and Silver Earrings are accessible to preview.

Be sure to check out the auction page as 

                                                            it will go live in 5 days.

 Rachel Renee Jewelry- Red Coral and Silver Earrings

Iain Rob Wright and SalGad Auction Lot

Another donation today, this one is from famed author Iain Rob Wright of SalGad Publishing Group, Ltd  He has generously donated a signed copy of one of his best received works “Animal Kingdom”

Be sure to check out the auction as it will go live in 6 days.

Animal Kingdom – Iain Rob Wright and SalGad Auction Lot

My St. Jude's Donation

We have another auction up and ready to look at. It is my personal piece titled “Shaving a Pig” It was painted in gouache and is on 150 lb. Hot Press Illustration Board. 

Be sure to check out the auction page and click on that little like button to spread the word. 

Stephen Bryant - Shaving A Pig Auction 

  

The Donations Cometh!

The donations are starting to come in for Let the Kids Trick or Treat for Jude. Today’s listing is Rotten Volume Two Cover artwork by Dan Dougherty. The original artwork is11 x 17 completed using Higgins eternal ink on 120 lb Stonehenge archival paper. If you want to bid on this item the auction goes live next Monday so mark your calendars.  

Dan Dougherty - Rotten Volume Two Cover Auction

Facebook event page up for Let the Kids Trick or Treat for St. Jude

We have a Facebook event page up for Let the Kids Trick or Treat for St. Jude. Be sure to stop by, RSVP for the event and ask any questions you may have. Hopefully we have a great turnout this year.

http://www.facebook.com/events/493934360630543/

Let the Kids Trick or Treat for St. Jude

Let the Kids Trick or Treat for St. Jude

Hi Guys,

I am not sure about everyone else, but my favorite holiday of the year is coming up. I am talking about Halloween of course. This year I wanted to do something a little different for all my fans and some smaller fans.

I will be auctioning off a one of a kind painting of one my favorite movie series “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” All proceeds will be donated to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Not every kid gets to go trick or treating so I want to try and make it a Halloween to remember. If you would like to contribute, please let me know otherwise stay posted as the auction will go live this upcoming October. There is also a link at the top of the page just under my name.

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f87d4c2a71fca210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD

Stephen Bryant: Illustrator, Graphic Designer...ART DIRECTOR?

Hello everyone,

It has been awhile since my last post. Big news for all the SRB lovers out there, I have been bestowed the honor of becoming the Art Director for SalGad Publishing Group. No doubt those that follow my face book/twitter have been wondering who SalGad is and what they represent. It is a fantastic company out of the UK that is taking a new approach to print. They are aware of the shift away from traditional print books and towards digital copies, making it easier for new authors to have their work seen by millions. I think they say it best “Well, firstly, we are a group of young and enthusiastic people that understand the current generation’s reliance upon technology and “social media”.  While older publishers are struggling to adapt their old ways and outdated methods, we are fully prepared for the digital revolution of the book industry.”

This past month they have released two novels, Sam and Sea Sick. Both are by Iain Rob Wright and available for purchase on amazon.com. Both images were created by me and I will do a step by step blog soon for Sea Sick as I forgot to take progress shots for Sam.

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Sick-Horror-Novel-ebook/dp/B0093ZS5VE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346337994&sr=1-1&keywords=sea+sick+horror

http://www.amazon.com/Sam-Iain-Rob-Wright/dp/1478272961/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348245652&sr=1-1&keywords=Sam+Iain

 

The terror continues. 

A new novel Vicious, seen below, should be out shortly as well. Be sure to check out SalGad's facebook page to get update regularly. We have some great stuff planned. 

So big things are coming out of SRB these days so be sure to keep your eyes open because we have more covers coming for SalGad Publishing, Grand Mal Press, Tumblar House and we have a new comic book coming with hotshot illustrator/writer Dan Dougherty and Rafael Nieves.

SRB PRINT SALE! One Day Only

Hi guys, I wanted to let everyone know that we will be having our annual 4th of July Print Sale. All 11 x 17 and 8.5 x 11 prints will be half off. be sure to check out the store and get your prints before time runs out. SRB Productions, Inc. Store: srbproductions.miiduu.com/digital-art

Sam by Iain Rob Wright

Last week I started work on Iain Rob Wright’s new novel Sam and will be doing the full design and artwork for the cover. This is a book based around exorcism/possession, and if you know me personally, you know that I love this stuff. Wish I could share more but its tight lipped at the moment. Be sure to stay on the look out for my updates and be sure to check out his other books at: http://iainrobwright.com/

Animal Kingdom

For this blog, I decided to talk about the cover I did for Iain Rob Wright’s Animal Kingdom. The book was published by Grand Mal Press and is in stores now, but I've been getting a lot of requests asking how I went about creating the cover. It's actually quite straightforward, and came together rather voraciously once I knew the direction. Like all my illustrations, it all starts out as a sketch. I was originally asked to paint animals, specifically a monkey attacking the city. Drivers, pedestrians, pretty much anyone walking around during the night. The focus was on what would happen if a crazed guerrilla attacked a motorist. Just the fear someone would endure during the attack, their sight and their emotions consumed my thoughts. The first sketch was put the viewer behind the driver so we could see the initial point of impact. Thankfully this was accepted and I got to move forward.

For this piece I didn't do my normal fully realized drawing, instead I blocked in simple shades of black, whites, and grays. This allowed me to frame my picture for the details that were to come. One thing I had to keep in mind was that the top and bottom needed space for print, therefore they were left dark. I also had to remember that this story took place in the UK so the driver had to be on the right. This process only took about two hours at the most. Now that I look back at it, I am quite proud of the representation using the little amount of detail. Once this step was done I was ready to move on to the fun stuff, rendering.

Still just using black-and-whites, I started adding texture. The first focus was trying to get the glass of the windshield to look smashed as well as cracked. Since windshields do not crack cleanly when struck with a baseball bat per se, I needed to make sure that the fracture lines resignation from the central spot the skull struck the car. As I was doing that, I also added more detail to the guerrilla such as pushing the values in the face, texture in the hands, and really starting to make the fur look like fur.

After a couple hours of rendering, everything had been completed except the rain, which was my next step. It was actually quite simple adding white paint and blending it to look appropriate, tricky part was trying to get the rain drops to run down the windshield. Once that was done and everything was in place, the under painting had been completed as shown. Next was the finishing touches, oh and color.

Since I had already done a couple color studies, as well talked it over with the art director, I knew exactly where my colors would be placed. I went pretty traditional with the guerrilla and the red blood, but I wanted to give that photo filter, night glow/streetlight look so I decided to put the orange as my secondary light. After some fine tweaking we have our finished painting.

I hope you all enjoy this little walk through, this cover was a blast to do and I'm really really happy with the results. If anybody has any questions feel free to leave me a comment or if you want to buy animal kingdom please check out our store. Thanks so much for reading and I will see you guys later.

An interview with Stephen Bryant

Last week I got to sit down with the immensely talented Iain Rob Wright...and he interviewed me? I am not sure why either, but it was a great honor and I thought I would share it with you guys.

An interview with Stephen Bryant

Stephen Bryant is one of the most talented people I have met. He inked the designed for one of my books, Animal Kingdom and it blew my socks off. If anyone needs the service of an artist, then he is your main. Check out what he has to say below.


Could you tell us what work you currently have available?
Sure, some of the book covers that are currently available are Animal Kingdom, Alien Aberrations, Mal Contents, Drawn to Danger, Haftmann's Rule, and Darker Than Noir. For a full list you can check out my website as I have a hard time keeping track of the stuff that came out last year. Most of my work is available on amazon.com.

Tell us about your latest release.
Well my latest release is a design campaign for Jim Coleman Ltd., but no one here wants to read about that. They want action, horror, and suspense. So I will say my latest, and some say, greatest release is the cover for Animal Kingdom. It was a blast to do this cover and it was the first time I painted a full blown carnivorous gorilla. The biggest thing about this image was that I actually forgot the story took place in the UK. So mid final pencil I had to redo everything to place the steering wheel on the right side. Once I had the final pencil all set, the rest of the illustration just came together.

For someone unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your illustrations?
Oh man, I have never been really good with this question. It is why my resume is such a mess. My style is actually all dependent on lighting. The balance between black and white is first and foremost instead of any particular paint style. Due to the fact that I am partially colorblind, I have to make sure the my under painting is spot on, so then I can just add some predetermined colors and ta da!

What else do you have in the pipeline? At the moment I am working on a bad ass fairy tale book, which is all I can say about that. I also started work on a graphic novel title Traumatized. This will display my new pen and ink styling. Soon to be released is Dead Dog which is just such an awesome cover for Gran Mal Press. I went up and down with this illustration fighting it the whole time…it also didn’t help that I was in a cast.

What artists have had the most influence on your own artwork?
This is one of those questions that makes you have all kinds of flashbacks. If I had to pick some of my favorites, they would be (in no particular order) Tim Bradstreet, Alex Ross, Richard Krzyka, Jim Lee, Julie Bell, and probably Tom Herzberg my teacher. Tom showed me not only how to paint but also how to break an image down. How does something work, why does it work that way, and finally who is the image for? Allot of artist forget that. It really cool to be able to create a dramatic, ass kicking scene of Spider Man beating up Catwoman, but if the client asked for two mobster fist fighting and you draw superheroes…you got problems.

What was the last thing you read?
I actually just finished reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I am a huge Matheson fan and whenever I need a little inspiration I sit and read one of his short stories from Button, Button: Uncanny Stories.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?
Yeah I would like to make a statement to all aspiring artists...stick with it. There is a quote from Tim Bradstreet that has been running thru my head the last couple of months “If you don’t have the passion . . . that drive and determination, then do yourself a favor and go back to college. Get a degree and then call me, you can help me with my taxes.” Bottom line you have to keep pushing, keep challenging yourself. No one every got anything they truly wanted the easy way, and for those that did, it was a hollow victory.

For the full story, please visit Iain's blog at; http://iainrobwright.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/interview-with-stephen-bryant.html

Darker than Noir Cover

06/19/2011

Howdy all!! Long time no see. I decided to write a quick blog post pertaining to how the book cover for Grand Mal Press' upcoming novella "Darker than Noir" was created. The book is not set to be released anytime soon; however a preview, featuring the cover, is available to the public. As promised to a couple of fans, here is my process for creating the illustration. First off let me start by saying that this piece was created using Corel Painter XI, using a Cintiq 21 WX Tablet, and took a total of 22 hours.

In the first image we have the composition drawn using a pen and then scanned. Once the image was loaded, I was having a hard time determining how the face of the detective should look, so I shaded in an overall tone to help my painting which was also done on the hand. Since it is digital, drawing on the sketch does not hinder the painting, as we can just delete that layer once it no longer has a purpose. Now we can move on to the painting!!

Due to my eyesight, I start all my paintings in Black & White. I lay in my pure blacks, which has become something I love in illustrations. A sense of contrast between the pure black and white has sort of become of my thing. I know that many say there are no pure blacks and whites in the real world. I really dont care, it looks slick.

Once most of my tones are in place I start to work on the details, focusing on the shirt, glass, pistol, and the shades in the background. I still have not spent a tone of time blending or anything, just big simple blocks of tone.

After about 10 hours we have the final black and white version of the painting. The edges have been cleaned, horizontal slices have been added to give a classic noir feel, and we ghouled up the female character. I originally painted her as a clean upstanding woman who was supposed to consol our detective. Once it was in place it threw off the concept, so I gave her some scars. Originally there were mere drying mascara tracks, however it turned into skin peeling off and cracking. Allowing for teeth to be shown in their full glory.

Now that the Black and White painting is in place and everything looks tight, we went ahead and placed some color over the top just to get a sense of the color direction. I always have an idea in my head of what the final image will look like, but you can always surprise yourself with a color that you never thought would work.

After hours of laying colors and blending the blocked tones with a custom natural brush to give a slightly more realistic look, we have our final painted illustration. I hope you enjoyed this post and if you would like more details on the process, let me know. I will be sure to go into more detail on the next post!!

If you would like ask Stephen a question, contact him at: stephenbryant@srbproductions.net

How did you break into the comic book industry?

04/11/2011

How did you break into the comic book industry?

I received this question a couple of weeks ago and had to stop, sit back, and actually ponder regarding how I was capable to compose a carbon footprint on the comic vine.

It all started in senior year of art school. One afternoon, I was working on a project in the corner of the area with my headset on, as customary, trying to acquire as much quality as one could into a painting until the deadline, when one of my friends and fantastic artist Jen Brazas approached me. Tapping my shoulder and point at her recent comic purchase, she wanted to tell me, “Your style really looks like this guys. Do you do comic stuff?”

This hit like a sack of potatoes, I have never done anything directly connected to comics, in fact, till this second of time my main focus for art was going to be en route for magazines and newspapers. Curious, I went around asking people if they believed my style could transfer over toward comic books. The masses responded with a resounding yes!

Well, now comes the tricky part, getting my foot in the door. Not knowing what to do first, I contacted Douglas Klabua, who I had met previously at an event I volunteered for. I asked Doug if we could setup an interview. This was the turning point in my quest, as one day Doug would allow me to have my biggest break.

We discussed everything and anything from digital vs. traditional, time constraints, contracts, and comic styles. This was nothing but sensational, as he gave me so much vital information and a general idea of what a freelance comic illustrator must do to be profitable. He also mentioned that I should attend Comic Con that year.

It was a big investment for a college kid to partake in but I was able to scrounge up enough for a half table and a couple of prints. In order to draw some more attention, a painting was created to have something relevant to the show and the comic community. I painted a Watchman inspired image. It was a huge hit, selling out of prints the first day.

While there I was able to walk around and introduce myself to people, and as I was talking to someone who should stop by and see me, no other than Douglas Klabua. He was checking out the show and was to see myself take the initiative toward the convention. Doug took me around and introduced me to some of his friends and art directors. One being Joe Gentile, Art Director of Moonstone Publishing.

Joe loved my stuff and asked if I was interested in doing cover work sometime. Of course I said yes and the rest was history. So, how did I break into the comic industry? Networking and Exposure. It is simple thing but, in this impersonal world, sometimes a little face to face time can do wonders.

If you would like ask Stephen a question, contact him at: stephenbryant@srbproductions.net

The Painter XI Experiment Continues!

Displayed is Black and White character study. I wanted to create something for the kiddies. Well... that was the original idea and then things went another way. Enjoy!

I started out with a loose pen sketch.



After scanning and setting up for a digital painting, I added a dark tone to the image and then placed my darkest darks and some of the initial highlights.



The next stages, I pushed the values and started to put in various small fine points.





After working on the character for an hour, I decided to push the creep factor and add a teddy bear to the mix.



Next I lowered the eyebrows and lower the shoulder of the character to try to make the characters seem age and tired. Also, a cane has been added. This will remain hazy as I do not want it to draw to much attention.



Next, the fun stuff began I added details. The hair is cleaned up and brought into focus, as well as lighting detail added to the teddy bear just to convey some fur texture.



I will update the blog as I continue to add to the Corel Painter Experiment. Stay posted to see all the updates and check out the rest of my work at srbproductions.net

If you would like ask Stephen a question, contact him at: stephenbryant@srbproductions.net

Painter XI Experiment

For the next 9 weeks, I have decided to devote my time to learning to create digital paintings using Corel Painter XI. On this blog I will display all the steps to completion on all pieces created. The first image I decided to paint is a portrait of Michael Angelo Batio, one of my personal favorite musicians.


Shown is a quick sketch create using pencil, scanned and ready for initial blocking.



Next, I added a darker tone over the entire image. Afterwards I went in with a eraser and created some light highlights, no pure white created. Just a general idea of where the final highlights will lie.



Then I just added more highlights and shadows, really trying to push the contrast. Once I have some of my darkest tones, I start to blend and erase some of my sketch lines.



After several modification and tweaking, displayed is the final tonal value study.




Next I added color, cleaned up the image and here we are. Enjoy!

Stay posted to see all the updates and check out the rest of my work at srbproductions.net

If you would like ask Stephen a question, contact him at: stephenbryant@srbproductions.net

SRB Productions, Chicago, IL, Child Book, Fantasy Illustration, Greeting Card, Illustration, Product Illustrator

SRB Productions, Chicago, IL, Child Book, Fantasy Illustration, Greeting Card, Illustration, Product Illustrator

Rock & Roll Comics: Pink Floyd

With the upcoming release of Rock & Roll Comics: Pink Floyd on September 21, 2010 I thought I would take a step back and show some of the initial sketches. Shown are three sketches presented to BlueWater Productions. The sketch selected was #2; however my personal favorite was #3. That is how most of these scenarios go, as the clients will choose the sketch you like the least and spent the least time drawing.





After several drawing sessions, pushing away from the hourglass seemed practical as then more could be incorporated into the painting.




Once the comprehensive was approved, the next step was to paint the image. Approximately 35 hours of painting later, here is the final product.

If you would like ask Stephen a question, contact him at: stephenbryant@srbproductions.net