“God  err… Morgan Freeman” - Portrait by Sam Spratt

The grandaddy of celebrities and narrator for all of life on earth was long overdue for a painting. I figured he should reprise his most fitting role.

Follow my: portfolio website,  tumblr,  facebook artist’s page and twitter. 

“Vanity” - Portrait Painting by Sam Spratt

Jocelyn, the female winner of my portrait contest, wanted to be Zombified and brought somewhere into the 1920’s-1950’s. I actually colored her originally with very pastel/flat tones to create something of a vintage illustrated advertisement—but found her appearance too classy/dark to be an advertisement—even ironically so. As a result, I went back into the black and white and started reworking my painting to be a bit more photographic in feel.

Connect with my: portfolio website,  tumblr,  facebook artist’s page and twitter. 

“Machine” - Male Portrait Contest Winner by Sam Spratt

Nikkolas, one of the two winners of the September portrait contest wanted something futuristic/robotic with it being identifiable as him. I always love doing portraits like this because outside of looking at his face for reference, the rest of it I get to fabricate entirely from my imaaaaggginnnatttiiiooonn. Female winner I *hope* to have ready for Monday.

Connect with my: portfolio website,  tumblr,  facebook artist’s page and twitter. 

“Ron Fucking Swanson” - Portrait Painting by Sam Spratt

Being a fan of high-quality comedy television and not watching Parks and Recreation might just be the second most blasphemous thing you could do (the 1st of course being not watching Arrested Development). If for some reason you are in the “yet to watch” category, I present to you Ron Swanson aka exhibit A on what you are missing (youtube video).

If you have “seen the light” and are already familiar with Swanson Greatness, I humbly give you my painting of him. Features include: High and tight Swanson haircut, Swanson body hair, Swanson mustache, Swanson mustache chest hair (not groomed, grows that way naturally), Tammy tattoo, Tammy 2 tattoo, Tattoo of the text from Ron’s Speech to the boy’s basketball team, copious amounts of meat, the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness, Food and Stuff grocery store desk sticker, and Mulligan’s Steakhouse apron. High-quality Archival Prints Available HERE

Connect with my: portfolio website,  tumblr,  facebook artist’s page and twitter. 

In tonight’s edition of “What does Sam do outside of art and tumblr?”—I go deep into foreign territory in the heart of the often frightening and primal world of facebook “Woo! Girls”. Despite years of research, my success at assimilation with the natives was… debatable.

How to Survive a Hurricane Power Outage as a Digital Artist

I hate fear-mongering and all this NYC “end of the world” preparation is nonsense.That said, I did use it as an excuse to assemble my own emergency art kit in the event of a hurricane power outage and I am forced to put down the Wacom and Photoshop for a bit. As crazy as it sounds, this could be my first time drawing with pencil & paper in over a year. Now I just need a small hammer and a glass case to put this stuff in that says “Break glass in the event of a digital art emergency!”.

Though it will probably only effect a few, what are you all doing to survive Irene?

“The Oatmeal + Sam Spratt Present: Bear-O-Dactyl”

• (Supplies are extremely limited, be sure to pick up a signed, archival print!)

Description courtesy of The Oatmeal:

“I teamed up with world renowned illustrator, Sam Spratt, the artist who brought my Tumbeasts to life (as well as a plethora of other awesome things) to produce a portrait of the Bear-o-dactyl. Painted in the style of Venus of Urbino, I present to you Sam’s masterpiece.

We had these printed up on an acid-free, archival, 100 lb stock and they’re sized at 19” x 27 1/4” (48cm x 66cm), so they’re significantly larger than my other prints. We’re selling a limited quantities of these, and each copy is signed and numbered by The Oatmeal. The prints are $50.00, with free shipping anywhere in the world. Details here.”

“You’re my Devil. You’re my Angel” - by Sam Spratt

This piece had been brewing in my head for awhile. I really wanted to explore tenebrism (dramatic illumination) as made famous by Caravaggio—but also execute a piece with surface-level “cool factor” that also has another tier of meaning. The idea behind the piece is the moment after you end a relationship with someone (a woman in this case), and how their once poised and angelic demeanor is instantly transformed by the rejection to reveal their broken, ugliest, and most hateful sides. It is the often seen phenomenon where the role/dynamic someone fills in another’s life, when changed—can never be diminished in a moderate/medium/grey amount. Instead, it always shifts directly from light to dark—with the most profound and extreme of positive emotions exploding into a fiery ball of hate. Title is a lyric from Kanye’s Lost in the World. Big thanks to Asylum who made his photos available to me to use for reference material.

If you like this painting, do follow me on tumblr (I follow back almost every person that follows me), or for the latest, I run a mean facebook artist’s page and a musing-filled twitter.