William Marchant

New Typepad and Wordpress Blog Designs!

Here are a couple blogs that I recently designed.  The first one is about "garage-saling," called "Garage Sale Gal" (that title might change though).  This one was setup on Wordpress using a fantastic template by Ignacio Ricco.  I just did the little illustration of a woman with her kids, carrying a bunch of garage sale "treasures" for the background and banner.

Check out this full blog at http://GarageSaleGal.Wordpress.com/

The second blog is 100% custom designed.  I built this one from scratch on Typepad, a platform that I have become much more comfortable with, in contrast to Wordpress, which I only have a free account and have never really utilized for all its worth.  "Sarah Drags Tim..." is a blog that talks about Midwest living and the great stuff there is to do if you just look for it.  

Check out this full blog at http://SarahDragsTim.com

Seoul Taco STL Website Launch!

Today, Looks Great launched the first of several websites!  

www.SeoulTacoSTL.com is now the online home of the first Korean BBQ Taco Truck in St. Louis!  I did everything you see on the site except for the logo...they had that done somewhere else.  

Seoul Taco is planning to open it's shutters later this month and I am honored to help create an identity for them in the area.  In addition to the website, Looks Great is handling ST's print items such as menus and business cards...check out Facebook for updates on those.

So go check out SeoulTacoSTL.com and let me know what you think of Twitter or Facebook!

Adult Swim, Before Cartoon Network!

This is one of those Golden Oldies that simply has to live on!

Why can't cartoons be like this nowadays...something the kids can REALLY benefit from!

 

St. Louis Artists' Guild Collectors Choice X

Collectors Choice X offers an opportunity for art collectors. With the purchase of one ticket, two people can attend two parties, plus receive one piece of art valued at $250 or more. Tickets are limited to the number of donated original art works. (You are guaranteed one piece of art for each ticket you hold.)

Opening Party & Silent Auction: Friday, May 20, 2011, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
6:00pm – 7:00pm (artists, ticket holders and VIP), 7:00pm – 9:00pm (open to public)

Catering St. Louis provides hors d’oeuvres, wine and refreshments while you review your favorite art pieces donated by regional artists.

Live music by St. Louis Classical Guitar Society.

Selection of Collectors Choice Art: Sunday, June 12, 2011
Doors Open 11:00am Art Selection begins 1:00pm

Names of ticket buyers are chosen at random and when your name is called you can choose one of the available pieces of art! (One piece of art for each ticket purchased.)

Live music by Barefoot Jones.

Tickets: $165

Read more about Collectors Choice

For additional information, please call 314-727-6266.

"Crap for the Crapper" - New Free Web Comic!

Crap for the Crapper is now a free web comic!  Well, that is if you think it should be free.  You can still "pay what you want" at the bottom right of the site...if you think I deserve a cut.  But if you think it should be free, then it is!  Hardcopies and ePubs are still available, and new ones will be published as hardcopies in the future.  But, under the new setup, I will be posting two brand new comic spreads each week.  Right now, The WG Part One is on its fourth installment.  Next up will be the premiere of the much anticipated Hammer'd.  

So please go check it out now and be sure to sign up for the mailing list and get new comics straight to your email inbox.  I promise I won't flood your inbox will crappy spam...just 1 or 2 comic spreads a week!

GO TO CRAP NOW!

 

How does he DO that?: The Secrets of Drawing a Face

Here's a GREAT video on one caricature artist's process.  He goes pretty in depth about his study of one particular subject, Conan O'Brien.  It runs a bit long, about a half hour, but it is totally worth it if you are interested enough to start watching!

 

VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE I GOT THIS FROM!

 

"Get Behind Me Conan" - Museum of Conan Art (MoCA)

This is one of my newest illos done for the the Fan Art section of TeamCoCo.com.  

Basically, I wanted to do something that would make Conan and Andy (Richter) laugh.  I thought of doing it like the White Stripes' "Get Behind me Satan" album cover since Conan is such a fan of Jack.  Giving Andy tits was, for me at least, the icing on the cake.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...and I'm VERY happy that it got on the site.  Now, hopefully I'll see it on TV in the near future when they come back from commercial break.

Go check out the other great stuff in the MoCA!!!  There's some really great stuff!

LOOKS GREAT! is the New William Marchant Illustration & Design

It became apparent to me that this site, WilliamMarchant.com, may seem a bit jumbled.  There's a lot that I do so there is a lot going on on my website.

In an effort to make things simple, straight forward, and clean, I am launching a re-branding of myself under the model www.LooksGreat.biz!  Looks Great (LLC pending) will serve as my main portfolio/resume website and WilliamMarchant.com will be converted to my blog.  While I do like this site, I really beleive that in the long run, Looks Great will be easier for new visitors to understand and navigate.

A link to my blog will be added to the new site soon, but I am still figuring out the best way to link the two sites...so I am just keeping them separate for the time being.

So go check out my new site and let me know what you think by voting for your favorite on Facebook!

MARCH 2011 St. Louis Illustrators Meeting A New Mobile Art Form

I specifically remember seeing the New Yorker cover to the left by David Hockney last Fall and saying to my girlfriend, "What the hell is that doing on the cover of the New Yorker!"  I then read that it was done on an iPhone and sent directly to the A.D. from the phone...to which I responded, "Who gives a crap?  It looks like shit."

Well, last night's meeting of the St. Louis Artists' Guild Illustrators Section gave me a whole new perspective on the medium.  Michael Anderson, architectural illustrator and Plein Air landscape painter, gave a presentation on his iPad about such "mobile drawings."  Anderson presented two programs/applications that he uses: Brushes and Sketchbook Pro.  (His iPhone, iPad, and Tablet creations are seen below)

I came to respect this medium, first, because of its Impressionist qualities.  Yes, the illustration for the New Yorker cover isn't the coolest illustration I've ever seen, nor is it a style that is particularly striking to me.  But it gets across an idea.  It is a picture of a spoon in a bowl on a table with a chair pulled in.  That's that...you have a picture of something that was created by a person drawing on a digital device.  While this may not seem too ground breaking, consider the alternative: A picture of a spoon in a bowl on a table that was drawn loosely with a pencil.  That's not too special either...it's been done.  But I beg a mainstream viewer to point to the last time they saw/heard of someone drawing the cover of a major publication on a freakin' smartphone.  To me, the method makes the picture become something special.

GOOD READS - From Dinosaurs to Amazing Grace!

My mom, the elementary school librarian, brought me a few new books to take a peek at yesterday...

The first was Judith Viorst's Lulu and the Brontosaurus, illustrated by Lane Smith.  I didn't read the whole thing--a lot of words this one--but, I paid close attention to the pictures.  It was good to see Smith going back to more of a hand drawn approach (just black and white drawings) instead of his usual computer perfected illustrations.

The second book was The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound: A Birdies Journal, by Sallie Wolf, designed by Micah Bornstein. This one has really great pictures. A mixture of sketchy drawings with watercolor along with a bit of "collaging" or handcrafted cutting pasting. The story is told through a bird's journal entries (if you couldn't tell by the title.) Very clever and a great read.

The third book was Jerry Garcia's Amazing Grace.  This book features the Amazing Grace lyrics by John Newton along with a CD with the song performed by Garcia, David Grisman, and Tony Rice...the band of Garcia's bluegrass days.  The pictures are Garcia's paintings and sketches, which really make the book something special, not just for kids.  

Besides the wonderful drawings, the best part of the book is the introduction written by, widow, Deborah Koons Garcia.  Fantastic stuff!

So go run to your library or local independently owned bookstore and grab these gems!