http://samspratt.tumblr.com/

It’s hard to blame Tumblr for the deal with Yahoo when their attempts at monetization were...

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:11:54 -0400

It’s hard to blame Tumblr for the deal with Yahoo when their attempts at monetization were selling digital stickers and push pins for your posts.

“Dwight Schrute: Bears, Beets, & Battlestar Galactica” - by...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:34:52 -0400

“Dwight Schrute: Bears, Beets, & Battlestar Galactica” - by Sam Spratt

With The Office ending tonight, I felt it was appropriate to bring back this illustration I did a couple years ago.

I doodle-ized a critter.

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:59:43 -0400

I doodle-ized a critter.

“Bond” - Portrait by Sam Spratt I’ve been...

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:28:58 -0400

“Bond” - Portrait by Sam Spratt

I’ve been going just a bit crazy bouncing between client projects for… well awhile now… but I’ve got a few days before things go back to insanity and a good ‘ol fashioned portrait of Daniel Craig seemed like a great way to refresh.

Art is just communication. Sometimes we sit around in a circle...

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:21:53 -0400

Art is just communication. Sometimes we sit around in a circle and have surface-level, vapid, but highly entertaining and fulfilling conversations with each other about why The Avengers would’ve been at least 372% better if every character were played by Ian Mckellen. Occasionally we escape and have an all-night one-on-one conversation with someone about the deepest complexities of our ooey gooey souls and feelings — earnestly saying things like “Man… looking at all these stars really makes you think about things… and stuff.” Many people even just talk to themselves revealing their most honest and personal truths… mostly in written form granted, but I’d be lying if I said things don’t get verbal now and then when I’m painting for long stretches. The point is: communication (art in this case) doesn’t “have” to be anything at all, you choose what to say and when to say it. A teacher can hate what you have to say and grade you accordingly, however arbitrary that may seem — but at the end of the day, you have the choice to be as “deep” as you want to with the things you say.

You don’t have to pick a side. What you say and what you make doesn’t have to all be profound or all be simple and surface-level. You’re a human, and if you’re human like me… some days you’ve got labyrinthian feelings and ideas that need to be unleashed in high concept personal artwork, some days you just want to paint something because you “like it”, and some days you feel that the Dowager Countess should be in a leopard pimp coat, Ron Swanson should have a chestache, or that robots should just be girls in awkward cardboard boxes.

Art doesn’t have to explore a philosophical concept. Art doesn’t have to be much of anything at all really — but personally? A balance helps. People have many facets to themselves and creating artwork is a great way to share these facets, all of them. There is a chance that your teachers are repressing your artistic freedom and trying to force you to do what you don’t want to — but, before you climb up on the desk, rip your shirt off screaming “FUCK THE OPPRESSORS” and start burning things down in some sort of occupy art school frenzy — consider the (good) chance that they’re doing that exact thing only to see if a bit of pushing can get you to share those other sides of you in the event that you might have something else worth saying.

I made no sacrifices as melodramatic or as biblical as...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:20:00 -0400

I made no sacrifices as melodramatic or as biblical as say… slicing open a goat on an alter and rolling in its blood… but several common aspects of life were given up, occasionally in extremes when I graduated from college, and a few I still largely keep out. While if you’re one of the special lotus blossoms who attended my NHIA lecture, you already are on top of this, when I left school, I was essentially asked what I was willing to give up to succeed as an artist.

Not what I would DO to succeed, but what I would GIVE UP.

I answered: everything. I would give up everything.

This vague “everything” ranged from sweeping changes to my social and personal life down to substances and content consumed to entire aspects of my personality. These things removed aren’t all HORRIBLE, EVIL, things, but especially for my first year trying to improve, they were some of the most distracting constants in my life that I knew I needed to ditch or change to try to make it.

ALCOHOL: I drank and partied a ton in college, less than some, but I was regularly pushed to the limits of my own stupidity. I removed that from my life entirely for about a year, and since then I keep such things very moderate — and only unleashing college-level stupidity on very special occasions.

LADY FRIENDS: My longest stretch without a girlfriend in college was about 4 weeks, I was in love with the idea of serial monogamy, I was a total sap. I still had and have relationships since I left, but they are either very distant and not something that eats into my time working, or very surface level and thus devoid of any of the emotional displacement of energy that makes most people go insane and want to velociraptor their faces off just thinking about their significant other. Easy, breezy, brief.

NON-LADY FRIENDS: In college, though they were ever-changing, I was constantly swept up in friend circles of 20-30-40 people who did EVERYTHING together. This is a fantastic, beautiful, crazy, dramatic, and worthwhile experience, but not one that a) allows you to get much done, or b) offers stability or independence. When I left, I cut it down to a core few, and since then, like most people do far younger than I did, It clicked that the quality few always trump quantity.

CASH MONEY: For much of my life, when I made money, I spent it. I never listened to my parents about saving it little by little, so when I left school, I decided they may be on to something, and spent my first year stingy as can be. Pinching the hell out of every penny. It sucked. It felt embarrassing, especially since when working at Gizmodo that first year, I was only making 20 bucks an illustration. But it paid off, I moved to New York with every cent I’d saved, I invested back into myself and my business, it’s gone quite well, and now I just don’t ever have to think about it. If I hadn’t been so extreme in my thriftiness initially, there are MANY opportunities, huge ones, that I would have missed later on that really built my career.

WASTING MY LIFE AWAY ON THE WEB: I was glued to the Internet long before tumblr existed, I wasted away my days on forums, blogs, writing fan fiction (seriously), and frequenting gaming websites, never getting anything done or learning anything new, just consuming content that never helped me at much of anything. So that first year out of school, I spent all of that time learning how social media worked and the pathways that information flowed through Internet instead of digesting cat picture after cat picture. I’ve eased up substantially since then, but I still keep things at a minimum, and the time spent is mostly to learn or share, not endlessly scroll through nothingness — I don’t do boredom.

DIAL DOWN THE DOUCHE JUST A NOTCH: I had always been told that I was very stubborn and set in my ways, thinking I have the answers and that the answers were set in stone. Stubborn makes it sound endearing so I long agreed with it. It’s a word many like to use, but if I’m being honest, being stubborn mostly just feels like being narrow-mindedness and egotistical. Though perhaps the least tangible, the biggest thing I’ve (attempted) to give up and continue to attempt to, is an ego. I was really riding high when I left college. Despite all of the distractions mentioned, compared to highschool me, I had turned my life around and thought I was on top of the world, ready to tackle its obstacles.

I think ego is very perceptual. Depending on who you ask, it varies in size, ex: A super nice girl at my last lecture made it sound like it’s non-existent, but I’ve encountered many who view it as a giant triceratops of one, and I think either is valid, though that girl definitely gets my favoritism for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t post my artwork and my thoughts if I didn’t at least have some confidence in them, (the crippling fear and self-loathing is less seen by people), but what changed a couple years ago was simply checking myself (before the wrecking of said self). What I mean by that is, I believe in being true to who you are — if you’re confident, be confident — don’t fake your way through being humble just because you’ll get less shit for it. It’s easy to be something that’s never disagreeable. But at the same time, your confidence must always come with rules, fine print, and a very unflattering mirror. Know who you are, what you’re good at, and what you’ve done, but never make it more than it is. Never put yourself above anything or outside the crossfire of criticism. For me, I needed very badly to just let go and understand that my knowledge is rewritten and expanded on a daily basis, my work has a million miles to grow, my viewpoints on the world will only extend as far as I’ve dared to look, and that a balance does exist out there where I can care passionately about what I do, feel empowered by sharing it, and not do so while being a ginormous twat waffle in the process. It’s not the search for false humility, but rather just understanding my place, my REAL place, knowing that it’s not that high, and communicating at least a vague awareness of it while I try to grow. Even writing this out makes me feel like a breakfast food/insult combo — this is very much so a work in progress for me.

IN CONCLUSION:

Sacrificing/giving up the things in life that are often viewed as just common place things or everyday indulgences, can actually give you a little momentum — it can bring clarity to what you’re doing. You don’t need to become a saint, it’s not some religiously-induced choice, it’s a personal one solely made to eliminate distractions when you have a goal in mind that demands your full attention. Since I was asked this question by a professor when I graduated, it’s now the same question I throw back at everyone who ever asks me what they need to do to succeed as an artist. The things you need to do to succeed are obvious: time, effort, passion, practice, knowledge. End of list.

But what are you willing to give up?

I’ve been on a binge of...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:20:00 -0400

I’ve been on a binge of back-to-back-to-back….to-back projects but had a break today during client approval so I started sketching out this little guy… I made it about 2 hours before workaholism kicked in and filled out my next few weeks with a few more “backs”.

Good news: cool projects. Bad news: no new artsiness for awhile.

Update: muscles.

Normally, I feel that whenever I answer questions here, whatever...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:20:17 -0400

Normally, I feel that whenever I answer questions here, whatever perspective I have to offer will suffice, but this one left me with a laundry list of opinions, most of which conflicted with one another. While it would probably be most expected for me to think that art can change the world, and it’s other professions that serve a more tangible purpose that would look down on art as a career choice – if I’m being honest, my gut feeling was that me deciding to become an artist and continuing to be one IS incredibly selfish and narcissistic. Even when I engage with people considering following a similar career path, my words of encouragement boil down to “I love what I do, it fulfills me immensely”. From artist to artist, that’s exactly what you’d expect, but suddenly I considered the possibility that all of my artistic “advice” was just perpetuating a cycle of selfishness – encouraging people to pursue things only to make themselves happy. Having an impact on the world was never even a consideration, I just… like making things.

Is what I do, is what all artists do, just for themselves? Are we really just choosing a path that puts a smile on our faces when we should be picking careers that tangibly assist people? I was at a loss. I knew that I lacked the proper perspective to answer this question in full on my own.

Thankfully, two of my brothers happen to be in fairly interesting careers that contrast my own as an illustrator: a Doctor and a Rabbi. While we sat around a coffee table in Manhattan eating Thai food — my niece running around in circles holding a Superman action figure, and my 6 month old nephew smiling in a dapper baby outfit while he happily filled his diaper – I broached the question to see what two people who respectively save lives and save souls, would have to say about this. However, unlike myself, they almost immediately dismissed it as absurd.

The narcissism and selfishness was one of the first things they tried to dismantle — saying every profession, no matter how seemingly noble by label, attracts people who do it entirely for themselves, a doctor being no exception. I argued back saying that in these instances though, regardless of the reasons FOR pursuing these practical professions, a doctor still saves lives.

Next on the chopping block, they dissected the notion that artists have no real impact on the world. There were a slew of very expected and easily rebuked statements thrown around. When I told my Rabbi brother that the impact he has on his congregation and community is deep, profound, instantaneously noticeable, and that I don’t have a damn clue whether anything I’ve ever made has affected anyone, he was just his usual humble self and in denial of that fact. But my other brother said something that if there were ever a statement that gave any sort of real answer to a question layered with so many existential onion rings, I felt this was it. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Sam, just look at history, Doctors, Engineers, and Scientists are the people who have an impact in the world and matter the most? If anything you could make a strong argument that these are the professions that are extraneous. Art pre-dates medicine, science, and engineering by very wide margins. Art has grown and expanded exponentially throughout history, it has transformed language and sold belief systems to entire nations. I gain more from looking at a beautiful painting or listening to good music than I ever do from how something is engineered. I mean even on a really basic level of what I do, without artists, what the hell would us doctors learn from? You have no idea how much the field of medicine relies on illustration.”

I didn’t have an argument for that. It was historically sound.

While I’m not sure that I have a definitive answer to your question, after filling my perspective and knowledge gaps from my brothers, I will say this: It’s a slippery slope to say that artists don’t impact the world. Art’s effects may not be as tangible as the aforementioned career alternatives, but it’s still around, broader and more widespread than ever, permeating ever facet of our human-made world. Its effects may not be as quantifiable as how many years a Doctor has kept a person alive, but as most doctors will tell you, quantity of life is not nearly as valuable as the quality of it, yet their job demands that they deliver the number over the experience.

Art demands nothing, we just make it. We express, we depict, and we rage on whether or not our impact can be put into numbers.

I'm on my way back to NYC already

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:49:23 -0400

But thanks so much to everyone at NHIA. It was a lot of fun on my end and I hope mildly helpful on yours. Some absurd talent among you and I appreciate you putting up with my oddities.

Also, If anyone happens to have a picture or two of the event, I’d love to have them.

If you live in New Hampshire or make a habit of road-tripping...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:20:22 -0400

If you live in New Hampshire or make a habit of road-tripping for art lectures, I’ll be giving one this Friday at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. It’ll be a brisk 40 minutes of artsy goodness followed by a Q&A.

Bonus: I’ll be sharing a process painting video that I’ve never shared online.

I will also be giving the same lecture tomorrow in front of my bathroom mirror, but that one is VIP only.

“Jeff Goldblum sketch” - by Sam Spratt Another...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:01:51 -0400

“Jeff Goldblum sketch” - by Sam Spratt

Another smaller sketch to break from my big painting.

Are you in love with that girl you always paint? She's hot...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:28:14 -0400

That said, Tara’s a good friend, you can see the paintings I’ve done with her here.

Peter Dinklage sketch - by Sam Spratt I’m working on an...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:43:03 -0400

Peter Dinklage sketch - by Sam Spratt

I’m working on an illustration that will likely take upwards of 100 hours to finish, but in the meantime, I’m determined to take breaks and do some smaller sketches like this. On a related note, this cello cover of the Game of Thrones opening theme song is awesome if you haven’t heard it.

As a freelance illustrator working primarily at home, you seem to have an excellent work ethic for all your projects. I have a really hard time establishing a work schedule and I'm experimenting, so I was wondering if you can tell me what your typical work day schedule is if it's not too personal to answer. Thank you for reading.

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:03:43 -0400

My typical work day schedule:

Wake up between 7:30am-8:30am
Get coffee and make the massive trek over to my studio (in a different room in my apartment).
Spend about an hour reading news while Daily Show/Colbert goes in the background.
Get more coffee.
With the exception of rare bits of food, bathroom breaks, and posting artwork/answering email, I pretty much draw from 8-9am until 8pm (I keep netflix shows on in the background, being able to blow through season after season of shows without thinking keeps my work flow from being interrupted. You would be amazed at how many series I have gone through, even bad ones).
Work out.
Eat.
Bathe.
Either work some more, write, or go out for my bi-weekly illuminati blood orgy/dance party.
Sleep.
Do it again.

Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt I illustrated...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:35:47 -0400

Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt

I illustrated the poster for the winner of Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s a gorgeous and refreshingly self-aware film that I’m happy to be a part of in some small way. It will be making its way around, but I believe the next upcoming screening will be at Sundance London — so you should see these plastered around if you’re in the area.

The feeling that we’ll never be “good enough”...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:32:00 -0400

The feeling that we’ll never be “good enough” isn’t something to remove, my dear grey-faced pudding-pop, it’s the cold, hard, and universal truth that pushes us forward whether we’re amateurs or masters of our crafts.

If I feel I’m good enough at any point in my life, I’ll be both a massive disappointment to the tiny angel-winged/shoulder-mounted version of me, and have effectively cheated myself of exploring my own human capacity. Like many problems that people face, how you use the struggle will determine its effect on you. It’s shockingly easy to let the abstract fear of never amounting to anything cripple you into a sobbing, fetal-position-assuming, ball of angst and pouting, but (though more difficult) turning that fear on its head and using it as the glorious fire under your ass to keep moving… well it keeps you alive and willing to attempt to make that life worthwhile.

I get embarrassingly giddy when I see artists 40-50 years older than myself and their work has evolved exponentially over the course of their lives, continues to do so, and that even near the end, they feel their work still won’t be good enough after their dying breath. You can see that as a morbid and depressing thought, sure, OR you can see it as a delightful and life-affirming reminder that most people are never happy with who they are and what they’re capable of — but we get to spend our lifetime improving our skills and subsequently — ourselves.

Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt I illustrated...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:05:10 -0400

Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt

That largely depends on how well you understand the program you...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:03:20 -0400

That largely depends on how well you understand the program you plan on drawing with. The technique, fundamentals, and general rules of drawing and painting can be tweaked then applied to any medium — digital isn’t an exception — the biggest shift is simply in learning how to use the toolset and do so efficiently.

When I mostly painted in oils, I knew the confines and necessities of the toolset — I knew going into a painting that I needed my paints nearby and I would group them together with similar colored tubes in their own bags. I would mix key color scales ahead of time on a glass palette so that I wouldn’t need to constantly be making new ones mid-painting. I would buy generally either a linen canvas and head to the wood shop to build stretchers to put it on or just use a wooden panel as my surface. I’d need it on easel which would need to be angled to the right so that my painting arm wasn’t obscuring the model, photo, or still-life I was looking at. I’d need turpenoid/turpentine, linseed oil, and walnut oil for mixing and changing the consistency of the paint, have my brushes arranged with different bristle types and sizes for different paints as well as certain brushes for lighter colors and certain for darker. I learned how much pressure to apply to get a smooth or scumbled/dry look, how to glaze color, how to hold a brush for the most control without smudging wet paint, how long to wait in between layers, how to use both dry and wet layers for different purposes and textures, and a million other tiny factors that make up everything that is “oil painting”.

When I started to move to Photoshop, some of those things were simplified and synthesized like color mixing, paint drying, and brush cleaning, some were just slightly tweaked like the transition of thinners and thickeners to opacity and blending modes, and others were completely unfamiliar like an infinite range of sliders and depth maps replacing my familiar sable and bristle brushes (though over time you can learn how to use brush settings to bring that organic and at times unpredictable nature of real brushes back into a synthetic environment) — but what helped me transition most was simply learning the tools and nuances that make digital painting its own thing. Hotkeys, selections, layers, workspaces, and so on are best grasped as soon as possible so that you can simply practice painting — not constantly be forced to learn a new way to do something as you go along. Not learning the confines of your medium puts up obstacles, moments of pause, hesitation, frustration, and reasons to get distracted. I find this especially key of the digital medium for me, because the thing I like most about it over other means of painting is that I can just sit down and start making shit.

I don’t have to prepare ahead of time, making sure I have the necessary supplies, that my brushes are clean, my paints are sorted, my colors are mixed, my canvas is stretched… these are all things that delay getting that first brushstroke down — and though many people like digital for many reasons, I just get excited about making things and this lets me START doing so quicker. Even when I spend over a hundred hours on a digital illustration, being able to jump right into the first second of it gives me momentum and the motivation to start and subsequently finish a good deal of things. Drawing and painting traditionally combined with learning the fundamentals of Photoshop early on (even before I knew it could be used for drawing) made picking up a Wacom pen click incredibly fast. Though in the 6 years I’ve been digitally painting I still learn new things all of the time, especially ways I can manipulate the tools of the software to cater to aspects of oil painting I miss, it’s those fundamental first steps of learning the confines of the toolbox that digital artists of every level still use.

It’s also important to mention that like traditional mediums, digital can be as little as one step of a mixed-media process –- learn the tools that apply to its purpose for you. I know artists who only use it to bring out highlights of an otherwise all-oil piece for print, others who only use it to overlay color, others still who do their linework in pencil and then paint value and color digitally, obviously many who use digital from scratch, and some who even use digital initially, print, and draw/paint on top of their lines. Digital art does not replace or make older mediums obsolete, it’s simply a newer one with strengths and drawbacks like the rest of them. As new-fangled as it may seem to purists, I can assure you that painting with pixels is shockingly similar to doing so with pigment.

“Mary” - Illustration by Sam Spratt I’ll spare...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:43:46 -0400

“Mary” - Illustration by Sam Spratt

I’ll spare you any debatably clever hijinks to trick you with today, BUT I do have this finished portrait of Mary I’ve been working on for awhile. Though I can’t say religion ever hit home on a personal level, it was those biblical portraits/vignettes (especially from the 15-1600s) that went along with it which got me hooked on painting.

My portrait of the Virgin should be done by tomorrow,...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:46:00 -0400

My portrait of the Virgin should be done by tomorrow, here’s a snippet. Also, on Tuesday I’ll get to reveal the poster I painted for the Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary-winning movie, Blood Brother, which I’m fairly excited about.