Christmas Cards by Visitations Creator Scott Larson

Christmas cards has always been a fun tradition. For many years I illustrated my own. Since we're so close to the holidayI thought it would be nice the artwork from them:

2007

Gouache paint on watercolor paper

2008

Gouache paint on watercolor paper

2009

This is a photograph of my Grandpa Larson from the 1920's

2010

Gouache paint on watercolor paper

2011

Ink on bristol board colored digitally

2012

Digitally created

2013

Ink on bristol board colored digitally

2014

Ink on bristol board colored digitally

2015

Ink on bristol board 

2017

Ink on bristol board colored digitally

Have a wonderful holiday!

Order a free PDF of Visitations 1 by emailing us here: visitationscomicbook@gmail.com

Designing Visitations Issue one

In a previous post I described where the idea for the first issue of Visitations came from. One of the things I decided I wanted to do with the series was to do things that normally weren't done in comics and make each issue unique. This uniqueness would be the approach to both art and page layout.

Issue 1 is an introduction to all the characters: Clayton Blackwood, Nellie McCullough & Kincaid, The Entertainer, The Piper Boy, Beast 666, and Santa Muerte. I would be doing the book in my usual art style but really wanted to highlight each character. The best way I thought to do that was to provide a two page introduction for every member of the ghostly team. The first page would be a normal comic book page with sequential panels. The second would be a splash page. This splash could also function as  a pin up and could be used for marketing the book and even for merchandise ( prints, posters, t-shirts, etc.) if people buying the book liked the characters. After each splash page the reader would be introduced to a new character.

Below is page layouts and finals for issue 1 for 2 of the characters

Order a free PDF of Visitations 1 by emailing us here: visitationscomicbook@gmail.com

Christmas With The Famous

This post isn't very "Visitationsy" but since we have entered the holiday season I thought that it would be fun to focus on something lighter for the remainder of the year.

When I graduated from American Academy Of Art I was contacted by someone who was looking to commission a number of paintings of celebrities for a book of holiday stories. The book,  Christmas With the famous, took over a decade to be published. When it finally saw print, only a handful of the hundred or so illustrations I worked on made it onto the cover. The book has no images within. However, I've been given permission to share them. If you are looking for a copy of the book, it can be found HERE

Order a free PDF of Visitations 1 by emailing us here: visitationscomicbook@gmail.com

That Toddlin' Town

View from my office window, downtown Chicago

Why is Visitations set in Chicago? There are a number of very good reasons.

Chicago has had a long history dating back to before there was a United States. First mentioned by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1679, Chicago has figured prominently in many important events. It was the transportation hub between the eastern and western United States with the it's first railway, Galena & Chicago Union Railroad,  and it's steamship and sailboat  shipping connections from the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes with the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Abraham Lincoln won the Republican nomination for President a the convention held in Chicago in 1860. In 1871, a Great Fire destroyed the city which the population completely rebuilt as witnessed, a mere 20 years later, by the entire world at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Union Stockyards revolutionized the meat packing industry and the Pullman Rail cars offered luxury to travelers. Organized crime became synonymous with Chicago  during prohibition with the infamous gangster Al Capone. During the 1940's the scientific minds at the University Of Chicago developed the Atom Bomb which brought a swift end to World War 2. More recently, former President Of The United States, Barack Obama, called Chicago home.

The history of Chicago has shaped the entire world in a very unique way.

In addition, Chicago has some great environments - from downtown to the lakefront. Art deco architecture permeates the landscape. The waterways of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan make the Chicago like no other city. 

There are a number of spooky, haunted places which fit right into Visitations. Cemeteries Graceland, Rosehill,  Resurrection and Batchelor's Grove. Downtown landmarks like the Congress Hotel, Holy Name Cathedral, the old Chicago Historical Society building, the Oriental Theater, and the Drake Hotel. The Biograph Theater and Lincoln Park also have their share of stories. 

Lastly, the reason I set Visitations in Chicago is because I live there and know it well. 

Order a free PDF of Visitations 1 by emailing us here: visitationscomicbook@gmail.com