well, i had a pleasant Friday last Friday, you guys. Simon&Schuster threw a little Zombie Valentines party for the Zombie In Love book that i did the pictures for! It was the best! They had copies of the book and all these little zombie treats and valentines all over the place. Kelly DiPucchio flew in the for it as well, so we were able to hang out in person, which was sweet. She wrote the story. Nami and Sonia put the party together. they are amazing. Nami was the editor and Sonia the art director for the book.

Zombie In Love doesnt come out until this August, but we had this little Valentines party anyway. And i am glad. Here are some photo memories for you. i will remind you about this sweet book in August as the release date nears! And of the ART EXHIBIT that will be happening at Gallery Nucleus. More on these things later.

some memories…

my hand signing the first book. Kelly’s signature looks like a space orbit.

The party room.



This is Kelly DiPucchio! I am happy that she got to come to this sweet party. I super enjoyed illustrating her words.

They made a life sized zombie dog for you to hang out with. they put it on the bag of a HUGE GREEN TIGER. …That we are supposed to not notice i guess. we are also not supposed to notice the human foot on the tiger’s ear.



Sonia made these chocolate eyeballs. they were made of concentrated Oreo i think. They were incredibly popular.




Human fingers. (carrots and almonds is the secret, you guys.)



Some cookies…

And here are all the books stacked up like zombies strolling the streets!

and that’s it!! So August is when the book is out! get ready! And happy Valentines Day, you guys. And thanks, Nami and Sonia and everybody at Simon&Schusterrrrr…..!

You guys! This Saturday is the Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Show in LA. Artwork inspired by Twin Peaks. An amazing list of artists that i feel honored to be showing with, including David Lynch himself! I cant wait to see what that dude does. He designed the SITE for it.

It has been awhile since i did a little making of sort of thing, so let’s do it for the piece that i have submitted to the show! It is called “Concentrating On The J’s”, taken from one of my favorite scenes in the Twin Peaks series. A pleasant forest scene with Agent Cooper and his friends. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and see how it all went!

1. i started out by watching lots of clips and gathering many images from the internet. i love this stage because i get to experience the show again. I also get pretty addicted to reference in a sort of procrastination way.

2. i doodled little thumbnails of the piece and the characters and elements for the painting. just blue pencil on copy paper.

3. i scanned everything and composed it all in photoshop and added rough value ideas. i like to just use the initial doodles all loose like that so i can keep the energy of those dogs. and loose is better so i don’t feel too committed to the renderings. then i printed them out and taped them all together because my printer only prints little normal sheets of paper. you know what i mean.

4. with a hard 4h or 5h pencil i traced the image lightly onto rough watercolor paper. arches probably. pretty loose still.

5. i like to start painting back to front, starting with the background sky because it gives it the basic color mood and makes me feel like i just accomplished a lot of painting. even if it is just a color wash.

6. i do the wash by covering the space with light color and water so the whole surface is wet, then i can touch the colors to the wet spots and the colors run and spread in sweet ways. i really like when there is texture and color variation like this. especially when there are lots of sloppy watermarks…

7. adding the ground, i paint around some areas like characters and main objects. so the colors can be more vibrant with those. and not all yellowy… in this instance.

8. all of the background washes are in there with the characters left out..

9. the back level of trees come next. i just paint simple stripes for those.

10. i dont stay in the lines as you can see. i’m pretty sloppy at this stage. it’s ok because the lines will make everything tighter later anyway. but my paintings are never super tight as it is. it’s how i do things, you guys.

11. all the background trees are in. sweet job.

12. the closer trees are next. so i paint those darker. darker stripes, everyone.

13. there they are. and then i add the basic branches. i wanted it to sort of look like a wallpaper pattern.

14. now that the background colors are all done, i get to do the character and object colors. an enjoyable part. i paint the little dude in the tree like a little cherry. (i know he’s not in this scene in the show. but there he is in this painting anyway.)

15. here are Agent Cooper and his buddies with their loose colors all in there.

16. Ok. time for the linework. i make sure i have the printout there to remind me how i did the lines the first time. (that’s another project in the background. don’t look at that project.)

17. i mix an alizarin and burnt sienna color for my linework. but it varies depending on the object. the bark gets pretty dark with the lines.

18. i go over lines a number of times if the values are sweet. and give an extra thick outline to the characters silhouettes to pop them.

19. after the lines are in, i go back and punch up the values where it is needed. and that’s it!

…and here is the finished painting like a magical spell!

“Concentrating On The J’s”

THE END

So go see the show! there are some amazing artists with work in this show. Daily Dujour and Hi-Fructose did pieces on it. I will not be able to attend unfortunatley, but i highly recommend you go check it out!

AND if you havent seen the GREAT SHOWDOWNS EXHIBITION… you SHOULD. I’ll be painting the CONTEST WINNER SHOWDOWN soon… i’ll let you know how that goes..

That was a very enjoyable show. I was so happy to see so many people come out for it and try the contest and raise beverages together. so great. i super appreciate all of you being there.

This is totally it! the GREAT SHOWDOWNS exhibition……

so that’s it! come hang out with us!

and if you want on the PREVIEW LIST email Gallery 1988 HERE. and watch the Gallery 1988 blog for updates.

sweet.
…scottc.

You guys! i am super excited to be a part of the Twin Peaks 2oth Anniversary show on Feb 12 and 13th in LA! A week after the GREAT SHOWDOWNS exhibition.

Twin Peaks was one of my favorite shows of all time, so it was the greatest pleasure ever doing a painting for it. i will post the painting closer to the show. But in the meantime here is the awesome site they have for it! twinpeaks20.com David Lynch did the design! David also has work in the show which should be the best thing on earth.

And here is the flyer. A sweet sweet group of artists.…

Hi, everyone! Do you live in Spain? Well, then you should pick up the latest CINEMANIA! There is a little article about the GREAT SHOWDOWNS inside. I am sure it is an incredibly interesting read. You will probably love it.

in the meantime, here it is on your computer…

Awesome. and REMEMBER Great Showdown Print Set #3 available tomorrow! (only onnnneeee)

gang! this is the deal.

In preparation for the GREAT SHOWDOWNS exhibition on Feb 4th, a few of the print sets from previous SOLD OUT series will become available each week on TWITTER. starting tomorrow! I will be letting everyone know exactly when during the chosen day and ask some sort of super smart sounding question that you will have to answer. you will need to email me at scottlava@gmail.com with whatever answers need to happen. And we will need to use PAYPAL for the transaction. And then i shall send the sets to you. These are the last ones that exist! super rare like crazy. (and note: prices include shipping)

it will be an experiment and will be very exciting.

week 1 – Jan 19th
Print set series #4 – $80 each
(only 4 left!)

week 2 – Jan 26th
Print set series #3 – $90
(only 1 left!)

week 3 – Feb 1st
Print set series #2 – $100
(only 1 left!)

Print set #5 is still available! so get those here!

Ok! so report back here to see what set is available when. awesome. and COME TO THE SHOW on FEB 4th! and get on the Gallery 1988 preview list if you want!

sincerely, scottc