William Marchant

LIMITED EDITION Kings of Leon PIGEONGATE Tees!

Check out RockScratch.com for more info on ordering yours today!

 

 

A Fitting Musical Tribute to Shel Silverstein

I figured this appropriate because it combines two things I love: Good music & picture books...

A tribute album was recently released called, Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to Shel Silverstein.  It caught my attention because Silverstein is one of my favorite children's author/illustrators.  What really got me though was the musicians/bands that contributed to this album...such as My Morning Jacket and Dr. Dog!

Can't wait to check it out...

CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF ON AMAZON.COM

NEW Rock & Roll Illustration Series!

When it comes to the music I love (rock & roll) I have always been intrigued by the heart of the band...which, for some reason, many times turns out to be two key figures.  It just seems that as you look through the history of rock that the great bands seem to have these power duos... Lennon & McCartney, Plant & Page, or even Will.I.Am & Fergie (that is simply an example of a modern pop music group and I am in NO WAY putting them on the same level as the Beatles or Zeppelin).  So in a study of these power duos of the past & present, I am starting a new series of RockScratch illustrations called the "Rock Duos Collection".

The first two installments of this series are Jack & Meg White of the White Stripes and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.  Future additions will include duos from bands previously mentioned (except for the Black Eyed Peas...which I will not be illustrating) as well as the Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Black Crowes, The Band, and many many more.

Each work will be scratched on 5"x7" inked clayboard.  I feel that keeping them small makes them more intimate as well as more likely to be something you would want to hang on your wall.  Each will also be framed with a unique "roughed up" frame.  Prints of this collection will also be available.

Check back soon for more!

Check out the ROCKSCRATCH STORE NOW!

New RockScratch Illustration:"The Black Keys & Danger Mouse"

Ahh...what a beautiful day (at least in the midwest) for the release of the new Black Keys album Brothers.

In anticipation of the new album, I did this illustration which depicts producer Danger Mouse lighting the spark on a Black Keys rocket/firework.  The track "Tighten Up" off Brothers being DM's second collaboration with the Keys (the first being the entire album Attack & Release), I wanted to show the effect he is having on the band.  "Tighten Up" has the potential to appeal to a much broader/mainstream audience than the band has ever before...thanks in part to DM's production influence.  Sure the band has sold rights to multiple television shows and movies to use their songs...but for the most part, much of mainstream music listeners still do not know who the Black Keys are.  With the release of Brothers and the promotion of the single "Tighten Up," I personally feel that that is about to change drastically.

With that stated, this illustration is supposed to be reminiscent of my first Black Keys illustration from several years ago.  It is the same backyard scene, only the duo is no longer breaking out by themselves...they have already broken out...Danger Mouse is rocketing them to greater heights.

Prints should be available later this afternoon on www.RockScratch.com!

BUT FIRST, I'm gonna go buy the album!

www.LastCallSTL.com Launches!

I just finished www.LastCallSTL.com last week.  I did the band's logo a few years ago and now they needed a website.  The new features I implemented on the site are Flickr-linked slideshow and mp3 audio player.  Also, I played with a "moving" banner and footer this time...I wanted to make the site "dance" a little.  There are still several new photos to upload and the band is in the process of remixing their recordings...but overall I think the site is pretty nice.

The band is very very happy with the site...so I'm happy.

CHECK OUT www.LastCallSTL.com!

"Forever Young" - A Bob Dylan Children's Book

I found this book yesterday called "Forever Young," written by Bob Dylan, illustrated by Paul Rogers.  Here is a promo-video for it:

 

Picture Book Illustration: "THAT ONE BIG ONE"

I wanted to give you a glimpse of a children's picture book that I wrote and am now illustrating.  The full title is "Fishing for THAT ONE BIG ONE (my own way)", but my hope is that people will just refer to it as "THAT ONE BIG ONE."  I'm going for a long Lane Smith type title like "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" where people just call it "Stinky Cheese Man."

So far, I have the cover and pages 2-13 illustrated.  I am steadily building my portfolio as an illustrator and several of the pages from this book will be a major part of it.  I am meeting the right people and learning a lot...so hopefully it will soon pay off when I begin sending my stuff to publishers and agents.

The cover seen at right is not totally finalized, but it is very far along.  I am still playing with lighting to get the pages looking exactly like they do in real-life...but, the lack of natural sunlight the past few days (because of this grey/rainy weather) is making it difficult.

NEW CAMERA - Nikon Coolpix L100

After reading up on the proper way to photograph artwork, I decided it would be a good investment to get a good quality camera. I chose the Nikon Coolpix L100 and I am very happy with the purchase so far.  It does just what I need it to do: It takes detailed pictures of my works.  The 3 key things that I wanted were: Manual White Balance Control, at least 10 Megapixels, and a good zoom lens.  This has all 3 and so much more.  All the features are very cool.  I am still playing with lighting, but the Nikon L100 makes up for my mistakes...which is awesome.

I learned most of what I needed to know about photographing my art from a page on the Dallas Arts Review website.  This is a great resource that gives you the basics.

Learn more about the Nikon Coolpix L100

STL Cardinals Desktop Background

In anticipation of tomorrow's NLDS versus the Dodgers....I whipped up this Cardinals background for my computer and this other Cards image (which I'm using for my Facebook profile pic).  I figured I'd post 'em incase any other Cards fans need a good pick to use.

CLICK HERE for FULL-SIZE IMAGE

 

Hello Again!!!

For the past couple months this blog has pretty much sat dormant.  The reason being: I'VE BEEN BUSY AS HELL.  Well, I'm back...and while I am still busy as hell, I am going to make an effort once again to keep you updated with my happenings and ventures.

What I've been busy with lately is working at the Citygarden (the new Contemporary sculpture park in downtown St. Louis..its awesome, check it out if you haven't already), more RockScratches (which will be updated on this site soon), and I've been working on a children's book (which I will go into details about in another post).

So check back soon, I've had some exciting stuff happening lately and I can't wait to tell you about it!