Pooches

I got a book on dogs, so I decided to draw some.

MASSIVE update.

Salutations, everyone! Here I am, another massive gap in between updates. But that's okay, because THIS update will prove to be fruitful. A lot of artwork has been made since that Spongebob piece, and I'm here to share it with you, my friends. As far as screen printing goes, the studio still holds strong, although recently it has been collecting cobwebs. I'm hot on the trail of a job at the elusive Whole Foods, I've been enlisted to create a gig poster for my pal's record label, to provide drawings for a CD cover, and a tattoo design to top it all off. Regardless of the mounting tasks, the screen printing studio still holds a place in my thoughts. I can only treat it as a hobby for now.So the two prints I've made since the Spongebob piece are titled "Another Robot," and "Brainworm." I've got 16 of the robot left, although they're on assorted paper. The above image is the nicest of the prints. Only 8 of the brainworm exist. The design for the latter was just a quick doodle I didn't really flesh out; I was just in the mood to burn & print an image. The robot piece, however, I had been thinking of for some time and was finally able to get it out of my system. I'm proud of the results, and it's always fun looking at a nice stack of 'em. I'm more than interested in selling/trading, let me know if yer interested!
Aside from screen printing, my summer internship at Applehead Factory has come to an end, but has also provided me with a great freelance opportunity, which I'm happy to say I received! I will be illustrating a story for the Teddy Scares franchise, and I can't tell you how excited I am to have some printed work. I submitted a test page to the gang at Ape Entertainment who publish the comic. It was no easy task, mind you, but it really has come a long way from it's meager beginnings. Allow me to take you on its journey...
I was asked to do a test page for the comic to see if I had what it takes. Comics are something I've always been interested in, and I always enjoyed the prospect of collaborating with someone else's story & characters. Behold, the perfect opportunity. This was my very first sketch of the test page.After some careful art direction, I revisited the sketch and produced this:After approval, I began to ink the elements of the page and piece it together. The pens I used for my first attempt weren't what I normally used, but I used the same pens for the line-up of the characters I did. It works better for simple character studies, but it was detracting from the details I needed. Needless to say, my first attempt was ugly and rushed. Bear in mind what you see is unfinished, but it's as far as I got before I turned around and started over.. and for good reason!A brief lesson in photoshop painting & a push for gathering reference and detail later, you have this beauty. I'm amazed at myself for producing the page. There you have it. Ape Entertainment likes it enough to give me a story, so I'm all set!
But the update isn't over. On Thursday night, I got a call from an old friend of mine who runs a small record label based in DC titled Underwater Peoples. A number of hometown familiars pepper the label's rap sheet of artists, so I was glad to have been contacted. The assignment was a gig poster for an upcoming showcase put on by the label and I was given total artistic freedom. The show has an acoustic set & an electric set, so immediately I set my concept up: opposites. I also wanted to do something that was more design-y and less rendered, so I took this opportunity to do so. Here are my sketches:I had planned on going with the "nature boy" sun & robot moon, but I pressed onward and made the other sketches after. After a few opinions, I decided with the smokestack factory type monster. (You'll notice I took the design elements of the sun/moon poster and added it to the finish.) A tight deadline lit the fire under my feet and I finished it in a fashionable amount of time.by the way, the thumbnail with the fish & sea critters who have been exposed to something apparently awful will become a promo in the future.
Yep.. that's what I've been up to as of late. I've still got a CD cover & tattoo to do, so I better get going. I'll leave you with one last neat collection of doodles.. a page I would immediately draw on whenever I was on the phone for the past couple weeks. Goodnight!

Dadmom Angrypants

BEHOLD. The first successful round of prints from the studio in the basement. Three colored homage to Spongebob. It's titled "CelluliteRobert Quadrilateral-Trousers," eight prints total. (I ran out of paper.)

Teddy Spooks & Other Updates

Hey everyone. Been a while, as usual. I've gotta get in the habit of updating this thing more often...

Things have been going pretty good so far this summer. I've been interning over at Applehead Factory, a local company that creates a well known franchise called Teddy Scares. They make everything from plushes to keychains, and--best of all--comics that star the gruesome teddies. They've provided me with plenty of good opportunities to meet people in the industry, and they're all around great people. I was asked to do a line-up of the characters to see if I meet the moxie of the other artists they have on board for the comics. It was well received, with only a few minor adjustments (not pictured.) If all goes well, I could be doing serious, professional work for them. Wooo! it's very exciting.
As far as other work, I was also asked to do some small caricatures for an independent film titled "The Best & The Brightest" which they were shooting in Philadelphia. The two lead roles played by Amy Sedaris & Bonnie Somerville were the targets of my caricatures, but in all honesty I don't really think that they look like either of them.. but it's what they wanted. Either way, it'll be cool to see these in the movie, because apparently there's a really clear shot of both of them, and my name will be in the credits! ...I hope. I'll let you guess who is who.

...And in other news, my roommate and I have finally set up a print studio in our basement, although it's currently in it's Alpha stage of testing. We pulled a few good prints using wax paper and a stencil method, but I'm much more interested in doing some serious screenprinting. You know, photo emulsion, tri-color prints, power washing, the works. Patience is key. Patience and money... I'll keep you updated on the progress.

HAZMAT EPISODE 2

Friends, you all remember the HAZMAT Clean-Up Posse, right? Well, May 2nd marked a great occasion for the trio, as I finished yet another installment of... THE HAZMAT CLEAN-UP POSSE! It's good for me to celebrate the completion of a comic because it always become quite the endeavor when I start one. Granted, this second adventure is a two-parter, but the cliffhanger will leave you desperately clawing for answers. In this episode, Our tenacious trio comes across a body of water that promises life. Grix, wanting to observe the matter further, foolishly activates his faulty X-Ray Scan Beam and accidentally obliterates an entire ecosystem. For the 4th time. Xeert, fed up, banishes Grix and the Posse splits! How well will Nometer and Xeert fair without the help of their lumbering robot?! I'm still deciding if I'll scan the rest or make copies of it or something. I dunno, I'll keep you posted.

Liquid Asset

This was a fun little project.. A buddy of mine just recently brewed his own beer and commissioned me to produce the label. (payment a free six pack.) He calls his brewery the "Bongo Zeptobrewery," aptly named after his cat, Bongo. This was only his first brew, so he followed a pretty safe recipe and had little room to get creative with it, but all in all it turned out to be a success and it's awesome seeing my label on so many bottles. (Okay so the print colors were a little off, but hey this was a first for the both of us.) It's called "Liquid Asset," and it's "An EZ American Amber Ale brewed during that special period between the Ides of March and Tax Time." It's delicious. My friend plans to brew more as time passes, and he wants to commission other artists to create labels whose subject matter is based off the mascot of this brewery, Bongo.
I'm more proud of the type layout than I am with the image, honestly. And here's me enjoying a bottle!

LHBURNS.COM

Friends, lhburns.com is finally live, although still in it's alpha phase of testing. Go ahead and check it out and check back every so often.. I definitely plan on updating it constantly.

Again that's http://lhburns.com TELL YER FRIENDSZ!!