William Marchant

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!

DECEMBER UPDATE: W Marchant Ilustration & Design

My blog hasn't been updated for a while so I figured it a good idea just to explain why.  Why is because I've been busy as EVER!  While I've gotten only rejection letters back from a few of my picture book submissions...the design side of things has been great!

One thing I've been busy with is a lot of renderings and other design for a company in New York called Populate: Drawing People In.  I can't really talk about the projects I did for them because each involves 2011 ad campaigns for some major companies.  But I will say that a major soft drink company, a leader in dress pants, and a technological giant have some really cool campaigns coming soon and I am glad to have had a hand in pitching them! 

Other projects that I can only "mention" are the work I did for the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)...but there is some neat stuff going on there too!

Some stuff that I can actually talk about, for one, is all the stuff I've been doing for MSI (Motor Service, Inc.).  I've been handling a rebranding of their company since early this year, which has included everything from new business cards, to truck decals, to merchandising items, to carbonless forms.  It has been a well-rounded project to say the least.

With all this design work, I feel lucky to get away from the computer screen every now & then...and some recent t-shirt screen printing orders I've gotten have helped that! 

Also, in whatever spare time I get, I have been developing a mini-comic or zine that is nearing completion (that's the cover above).  I will be targeting some underground comic stores and indie bookstores to sell some of these things so look for them soon!  If you want to pre-order a copy just shoot me an email.

And the last thing is always my side project RockScratch...I'm always adding new stuff there so check it out.  I'm running a 20% OFF Holiday Sale...so now's a good time to take a look!

Well, I think that covers most of what I've been doing lately...I'm going to get back to it, but have a happy Christmas season!

Bis dann!

Recent Commission Work

Here are some commissions that I have been working on the past week or so.  An abstract landscape, a dual portrait of John Bell and Dave Schools done on scratchboard, two rather large scale close up portraits of Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix, and a cartoonish painting of some ducks.

Drop me a line and let me know what I can do for you!

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!

My First Batch of Screen Printed Posters...

I just finished with my first screen printing run...and for a first attempt, I think they turned out alright.  An experienced screen printer will see the obvious mistakes that I made, but the posters will look okay to an average viewer.

For my first run, I chose to do posters for the Black Keys concert I'll be going to on June 10th at the St. Louis Pageant.  The printed posters are seen at left...I did 15 black and 5 blue (and I completely botched 10 others).  I wanted to do something with a lot of detail and a couple different colors just so I could see how well it came out.

Rather than laying out instructions on the screen printing process (which you can find like I did by Googling "how to screen print") I'd like to offer some general ideas that I worked through. 

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!

Art St. Louis "Seeing Red" Exhibit Now Open

Who's Your Audience? is the Third Work From the Right

The 54 original artworks featured in this multi-media juried exhibit focus on the color red and/or address the theme of "Seeing Red," i.e. annoyance, frustration, and related issues of heated emotions, controlling anger, etc.

Join me at the Opening Reception this Saturday (May 16th) from 6-8pm!

555 Washington Avenue, #150 • St. Louis, MO 63101-1239 • 314.241.4810

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT ART ST. LOUIS

Work Explanation: "Do You Realize?"

This is a scratchboard & gouache work that I did a few years ago.  It is a portrait of Flaming Lips leader Wayne Coyne...but more specifically, it was greatly inspired by their song "Do You Realize?"

I depicted the two major qualities that drive Coyne as an artist...he is both a child and a space cadet.  So, as my illustration shows, he is floating in space with a bunch of stuffed animals...pretty straight forward.  BUT...if you really look at it (especially while listening to the song) it sort of "floats" and elicits thought.  I do not mean to be pretentious in the slightest way (something I absolutely hate!), but my goal was to further direct the viewer/listener to the powerful meaning of the song.

Do you realize...?

CLICK HERE TO BUY THIS ON ROCKSCRATCH.COM

Michael Halbert - Scratchboard Illustrator

I unrolled the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning and there on the front page is a man that I have been seeing every month at the St. Louis Artists' Guild Illustrators Section Meetings, Michael Halbert.  Halbert is the ink/scratchboard artist responsible for creating artwork that millions of people hold in there hands on a daily basis around the world.  Halbert is known for his work creating beer labels for brands such as AB Inbev's Michelob line and Sam Adams' new Barrel Room Collection.

As a beer "connoisseur" myself, I have mulled over these labels one time or another and have appreciated the intricacy with which they are composed.  However, I never knew it was one man, let alone a man from St. Louis (Fenton area), who created such works of art with scratchboard ta boot (one of my personal favorite mediums).  I guess I just pictured a team of graphic designers piddling around on a computer until they got the label looking to where "corporate" was satisfied.  But instead, it is a hard working illustrator working from his home studio...much like me.

Click Here to Read the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ARTICLE

Click Here for the STL-ILLUSTRATOR BLOG ABOUT HALBERT

Click Here for HALBERT'S WEBSITE

"Whose Your Audience?" Selected for Art St. Louis's "Seeing Red" Exhibit

My gouache & scratchboard work "Whose Your Audience?" (shown at left) was selected to be exhibited at Art St. Louis's "Seeing Red" show.

Works featured in this multi-media* juried exhibit focus on the color red and/or address the theme of "Seeing Red," i.e. annoyance, frustration, and related issues of heated emotions, controlling anger, etc. After the ASL Gallery presentation, portions of this exhibit will travel to Third Degree Glass Factory and St. Louis County Library, Sachs Branch (July-August 2010).

Juried by St. Louis artists Philip Hitchcock, owner, phd Gallery, St. Louis, and Janice Nesser, Assistant Professor, St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley, and President, National Women's Caucus for Art.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EXHIBIT INVITATION

Art St. Louis • 555 Washington Avenue, #150 • St. Louis, MO 63101-1239 • 314.241.4810

www.ArtStLouis.org