Sam & Max Blog Coming Soon!

Miraculously, I've managed to keep posting here fairly regularly for about two and a half years. I still have loads of material to post as long as people continue to show up and look at it.

I thought it might be worth creating a blog strictly for Sam & Max while Spudvision can remain a catch-all for any other kinds of art, especially Toybox which is the home of your very own host Starchie Spudnoggen.

I'm working on the format for the Sam & Max blog and will post a link here as soon as it launches.

--Starchie

Maybe a Print?

Here's a comp I did for Telltale's Sam & Max Season 2. We didn't choose it but I thought without the text it might make a fun print to do in the near future. As far as hyper-over-stated detail it seems to show some potential that hasn't nearly been tapped in this sketch.

Digital 8X10

--Starchie

Devils

Here are a few super quick character sketches from a couple of years ago when Telltale Games was thinking about Satan designs for the Sam & Max series.

Each 8X10 Digital

--Starchie

Off to ComicCon...

I'm traveling to San Diego any minute and will be around to sign stuff at Telltale Games booths #5364/#5365 from 2:00 to 3:00 on Friday and Saturday and at Symbiote Studios booth #4533 from 4:00 to 5:00 Friday and Saturday.

Traveling light but will bring along some original artwork and out of print copies of The Effigy Mound Sketchbook. If you're in the neighborhood come and wade through acres of brash, unrepentant geekflesh to say hi. I'll scrawl you a Max or a Guybrush or some damn thing. See you there!

--Starchie

Just a Few More...

On the "Tales of--" front, Telltale, a while back, put up a little "in progress' post for the Pre-Order cover art I've been working on. Ultimately I'll post a series of shots showing where it went from start to the finished cover. It should be done shortly. In the meantime, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island has been released to great acclaim and rejoicing.
And today, here are a few more character concepts from Curse of Monkey Island. Larry Ahern was thinking hard about the Guybrush design and had been pushing his proportions. The one shown here was me enjoying the freedom to stretch Guybrush around like silly putty.
Pen on Paper 8 1/2 X 11 each

--Starchie

Monkey Bucks

Here's a promo coupon I got to paint, probably for some early 90's LucasArts Adventurer edition. It's actually amazing how much of this kind of stuff I was trusted to do with little or no content notes from above, which made it tons o' fun.
I'll see if I can track down my activity pages with the art lesson and the Guybrush paper dolls.
Watercolor 4 X 9 1/2

--Starchie

The Curse

I have a buy off on my rough for Telltale Games "Tales of Monkey Island" cover. Still too early to post any of it as I'm in early stages of the illustration. In the meantime, here's part of my tiny contribution to Curse of Monkey Island. I believe Larry Ahern and John Ackley pitched me their idea of a LeChuck with a flaming beard so I was thinking his skull could be silhouetted in the fire. I think my Elaine is a variation on a design Larry had done, but I do sort of like something about my slender version of the Voodoo Queen.
Pen on paper 8 1/2 X 11

--Starchie

Cartographer's Cabin

I have a rough sketch for the Tales of Monkey Island pre-order cover in the pipe waiting for final approval. I'll post it at some point soon.
In the meantime, here's a color test done for Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge probably painted in 1990. In this game we had the luxury of being able to draw backgrounds on paper and scan them giving us a greater range. This was my first background test of a cartographer's cabin painted in gouache. Peter Chan was a fiend with color markers and we ended up doing a lot of the backgrounds in marker as it was much quicker than painting.
Gouache 5 X 9

--Starchie

The Dawn of Monkey Island

So I've been invited by Telltale Games to create an illustration for their Special Pre-Order edition of Tales of Monkey Island, a five episode series of adventure games coming this summer from Telltale. It's fun to get a chance to reconnect with Monkey Island since it was one of my first jobs at LucasArts, and I was fortunate to contribute artwork to various Monkey Island projects several times throughout the years.

I'm sketching the concept right now and I will plan to document the progress in stages. I'll have to wait until we are closer to the official unveiling of the cover to let you know what I'm up to but in the meantime I'll post some ancient concept art from the original games. Here's the sketch for my first Monkey Island cover done in 1990.
Pencil on Tracing Paper 8.5 X 11

--Starchie

Sam and Max X Two

It's been awhile and the San Diego Comic Con was quite the distraction. At the show Telltale Games was offering the disc release of Season Two with my new painting which is also available as a print. Also, included here is the cover art for a new Sam & Max game soundtrack from Season Two. The music is by Jared Emerson-Johnson. It invokes the old Touch of Evil era crime flicks with smart, effortless nods to other genres.

Based on a reckless threat on my part to post some of my high school artwork I've had some requests to actually see that through. I've dug some out and I'll post them shortly if only to remind you to "Be careful what you wish."

--Starchie