Sean Lewis Illustration

Post Grad Life

2012-01-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

I've been in school without breaks since Kindergarden and living my life for the first time without it has allowed me to realize a few things about myself. Namely that I am not a productive person. I need a deadline or a reason to make something and I get very little satisfaction out of producing something solely for myself. Instilling passion and drive into your everyday life is a noble pursuit and I think with time and maturation I'll hopefully get there. So if you have a project in mind and think I'd be a good fit, feel free to contact me, I'd love to hear it!

That being said I haven't totally been sitting on my bum. I've done a few drawings for friends, recently designed a friends record, I'm in the midst of painting and designing another friends record, had an old painting that I spent a long time touching up in a show (above), making and designing mixes for friends (above) and just spending a lot of time with my great friends who I'd probably go crazy without.

The future hopefully holds a collaborative project I'm really excited about. A road trip through the good ol' USA, and fingers crossed, teaching english in Japan starting in the summer.

I hope everyone who drops by here occasionally is doing well and is finding satisfaction in whatever pursuit they're after. It's hard and confusing figuring out what you really want out of life and I'm really struggling with that at the moment. I think that you end up learning a lot about yourself though, and end up having much more to say and offer other people. All the best everyone!

Somewhere On Your Stolen Bike

2011-11-28T17:38:00.014-05:00

This is a painting I did in the spring for the Romance of the Wheel show.

Nobrow 6: The Double

2011-11-08T12:52:00.007-05:00

So this was a really exciting opportunity. Nobrow, which is based in England, publishes incredibly beautiful books, contacted me to be a part of their most recent issue. It was kind of awkward timing because I was out of the city all summer and working pretty demanding hours so I had to do this on my down time on the computer. I had to pick up my Dad's tablet from home and work on it in the maintenance shop at night.

It's a different process than I'm used to because they needed a specific colour scheme and the colour separations for their printing technique. It was a fun challenge and it was fantastic to be a part of!

You can preorder it here. It's twice the size of their previous editions with one side dedicated to sequential stories and the other for the two page spread illustrations.

Time in Muskoka

2011-06-25T10:10:00.006-04:00

Hey people who read or look at stuff here, I just wanted to share a few things that've happened the past while. The wonderful folks at Squidface and the Meddler did another interview with me about my thesis work. You can check it here! A neat publishing company called Fiddleback did a feature about Blood Meridian covers and included my stab at it as well.

Also just heard from 3x3 that I received Gold for my Black Bart and George Gordon paintings and a Distinguished Merit for Ed Gein! Congratulations to Jennifer Phelan and Anjo Chiang for their awards, such talented ladies! You can check the full list over student winners here.

It's been an exciting year and I'm looking forward to the future and a few opportunities that have popped up recently. It's going to be a little quiet here for a while because I'm out of the city for the next 2 months working in Muskoka but things'll pick up again soon after. Thanks to everyone for the support and enjoy your summers!

Romance of the Wheel!

2011-05-25T14:55:00.007-04:00

Here's all the info and a wonderful poster drawn and designed by Jessie Durham and Dmitry Bondarenko WHO TOTALLY RULE. Myself and a ton of others will have work in it so come on and see it!

Aileen Wuornos

2011-05-11T19:57:00.000-04:00

Born into an unstable home Aileen was abandoned by her mother as a child and raised for a time by her grandparents. From an early age she became sexual active with multiple partners and at 15 was thrown out of her grandparents house. She lived in the woods and supported herself through prostitution. She later hitchhiked to Florida and it was there that she murdered 7 men whom she claimed had sexually assaulted her while working as a prostitute.

The Kray Twins

2011-05-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

Growing up together in London’s East End, Ronnie and Reggie were one of the most violent organized crime leaders during the 1950’s. As teenagers they were relatively successful lightweight boxers but became more known and feared for their violence outside the ring. They rose through London’s underground and became prominent nightclub owners. They were huge fixtures in the night life there and were affiliated with many celebrities at the time, most notably Frank Sinatra.

Andrea Yates

2011-05-11T19:49:00.000-04:00

Suffering from postpartum depression and dementia Yates lived for a time in a small trailer with her 5 children and husband. They were devoutly religious and “would seek to have as many babies as nature allowed.” The pressure of their growing family proved to be too much for Andrea and after multiple failed suicide attempts she drowned her 5 children in their tub.

Ed Gein

2011-05-11T13:05:00.000-04:00

Raised and sheltered by his religiously fanatic mother, he was teased for his effeminate demeanor. Ed went on to dig up the bodies of women at the local graveyard and later murdered two women. When the police raided his home they discovered one of the most horrific crime scenes any have witnessed with skin stretched over furniture, skull bowls, a body suit stitched from skin and many other body parts used in disgusting ways. He was the influence for many horror movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, and Buffalo Bill’s character in Silence of the Lambs.

Phil Spector

2011-05-11T13:01:00.000-04:00

A famous music producer throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, Phil is most famous for his recording technique called the “wall of sound”. Suffering from intense bouts of paranoia he was known for violent mood swings and famously pulled a gun on The Ramones. Spector later shot and killed his girlfriend and appeared in many courtrooms with an assortment of ridiculous wigs.

George Gordon

2011-05-11T12:59:00.000-04:00

A drillmaster and eventual brigadier general for the Confederate army. He became the first nation wide Grand Master of the Klu Klux Klan.

John Torrio

2011-05-11T12:54:00.000-04:00

One of the head mob bosses and booze smugglers during prohibition era American. John Torrio immigrated from Italy when he was a child with his mother after the death of his father. Raised in New York City he helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit and mentored its successor, Al Capone.

Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski)

2011-05-11T12:52:00.002-04:00

Considered a mathematical child prodigy, Ted Kaczynski attended Harvard at the age of 16. After completing his PHD and a short time spent as a professor Ted moved to a remote cabin where he attempted to become self sufficient. It was from here that he started a mail bombing spree that spanned over 20 years. Spurred by the destruction of the wilderness around his home he used bombings to attract attention for his cause. He sent a letter to authorities claiming to stop the bombings if the Times or Washington Post printed his manifesto. It was through this letter that he was eventually apprehended.

Black Bart

2011-05-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

Known for his gentlemanly demeanor when robbing stage coaches, he was most famous for leaving poems at a few of his crime scenes. His criminal career resulted from his troubled history with Wells Fargo. The company approached him when seeking to buy his land where he had a small mining business. After refusing their offer they cut off his water supply and ruined his land. He went on to target and rob only their stage coaches.

Pablo Escobar

2011-05-11T12:46:00.000-04:00

Rising from one of the poorest regions of Colombia, Pablo went to become one of the richest men on the planet through his vast drug trafficking empire. Notorious for public assassinations on politicians, bribery and extortion, Escobar had almost complete control over his country. Despite this he was championed by the poor for his financial support from which many came to rely on.

Thesis

2011-05-11T12:25:00.000-04:00

Hello! I'm gonna post all the images I did for my thesis this year! Here's a short explanation about what they're all about.

A series of paintings that describes the turning point of various infamous outlaws. Each image dissects the reasons behind why these people abandon societies rules and carve their unlawful paths through life.

It was a pretty great year and I ended up winning the medal for illustration! It's incredibly flattering considering how amazing everyones work was this year. Garry Ing is a fantastic designer who did the website for the illustration department and you can check that out below!

www.ocaduillustration.com

Creative Type 3!

2011-04-19T13:15:00.003-04:00

This is my submission for the Creative Type show this month. It’s probably the longest I’ve spent on a painting and it was pretty fun and draining! Don’t usually work this large and I have to say it’s really satisfying. Looking forward to expanding the scale of my stuff in the future! The words come from a sample used in The Books song, “Be Good To Them Always”. A wonderfully bizarre tune that has Nick Zammuto singing along with samples of various people constructing quasi apocalyptic lyrics. Probably one of the most creative bands working today!

Phosphorescent

2011-04-17T12:15:00.005-04:00

This is a shirt design I did for the band Phosphorescent! Great band that I’m psyched to have gotten to work with. They've got quite a few records out but I was particularly floored by their most recent album Here's To Taking it Easy. It's a dusty country rock record which is pretty different than Matthew Houck's previous output of quiet introspective folk. Really impressive how well realized the sound is now that he's decided to let loose a little. AND THAT PEDAL STEEL! Saw them live a bit ago and if you ever have the chance take it, they were fantastic and a lotta fun!!

FOR SALE HERE!

Here's a taste if anyone's interested.

Phosphorescent - The Mermaid Parade by createspark

Back To Beyond

2011-02-26T13:50:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone. Long time no post. It's tough cuz I'm kinda holding out posting everything I'm working on until the grad show. I'm busy making new paintings and doing lots of changes with already completed work so it's a busy time!

During the winter break over the course of two days I completed these 6 small paintings. I was pretty proud how fast they all came together! If you're in the Junction (Dundas West and High Park ave) in the next two weeks make sure you drop by Chuck Akudu where you'll see these! 11 other artists including:

Dave Bell
Abbas Rizvi
Julian Altrows
Ivan Zoric
Corey Smith
Alex Christiani
Galen Milne-hines
Caitlin Taguibao
Adrian Forrow

Jim Mezei

All have work up! Sorry for the lack of updates but come April things'll be boppin' a lil more.

Squidface and the Meddler

2010-12-05T14:52:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! The wonderful folks at Squidface and the Meddler did an interview with me recently and I thought I'd share it here. It's a great site and they really take the time to present the work and interviews in nice ways! There's some info about the current show I'm part of, Cavalcade and a sneak peak on one of my paintings for thesis! Check it all out here.

Cavalcade!

2010-11-25T14:00:00.004-05:00

We've all been hard at work trying to make this mural show as awesome as possible! Hope some of you who read my jibberjabber made it out to the opening! Please feel free to drop by any time during the shows duration and check out all fun/improvised collaborations that are goin' down! Some of the murals have already changed pretty drastically.

Above is the center of my mural with one of Adrian's lil' characters getting pampered.

Cavalcade

2010-11-03T11:29:00.004-04:00

Hey guys, sorry for the super long stretch of inactivity. Good news is lots of exciting stuff is happening right now! A show with tons of talented folks will commence next week, we will be creating a collaborative mural that will stretch the length of the entire gallery!! Make sure you come out to the opening on November 12th, unfortunately I wont be there but lots of way cooler folks will be. On the 11th of December make sure you come around again for the closing show and check out the mural again as we will all continue to further develop each section of our mural throughout the shows running time! Then join us for a super fun after party at the White House. All the info is up on that card above.

Also I'm now neck deep in all things thesis and I'm already really excited about the direction things are heading with it. I'll make sure I post up some sketches and stuff but I wont be posting any finals until they're all done in May. I've got a lot of other stuff running parallel with Thesis so I hope to have a bunch of other images posted here very soon. Thanks for your time!

The Wheel Has Turned One Full Circle

2010-09-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

Bay of Skulls

2010-07-11T18:15:00.001-04:00

Drawin around

2010-07-11T18:12:00.002-04:00

Blood Meridian

2010-05-31T16:15:00.005-04:00

These are two images I did inspired by Cormac McCarthy's incredible and insanely gruesome book, Blood Meridian. The first was my submission for Carla Poirier and Jacques Lane's amazing type show a little while back.

Old Man Winter

2010-05-06T15:59:00.002-04:00

This is Old Man Winter, I tried to make it look like everything that passes behind his shirt turns into a winter scene. Ended up being pretty hard to pull off so let me know if it looks like that's happening or not!

Loose Paintin' and drawing

2010-04-26T01:44:00.001-04:00

Hey yall. Here are some more sketches and paintings I did in the good ol' moleskin (I swear they've changed their paper!) I think I'm gonna try to expand upon the Blood Meridian fake cover and spend more time on it I'm pretty obsessed with Cormac McCarthy.

I should also note that I have a site here although the domain name is weird so I'll deal with that soon. Also this piece was chosen for the AI site!

Material Culture Productivity

2010-03-23T16:36:00.005-04:00

Some collaborative doodles done in material culture class. Mostly done with Adrian with some additions by Jessica and Jacque in the second one. Kevin also included a few touches of genius in both.

Ali Farka Touré

2010-02-25T22:45:00.008-05:00

I've been stupidly unproductive lately so I decided to sit down today and just play around. Ended up doing a young portrait of the wonderful late guitarist Ali Farka Touré. Colours look effed

Broken Shines

2010-02-13T20:58:00.002-05:00

Started up another blog where I'll be posting stuff I find really inspiring. It's gonna be over here hope you guys enjoy it!

Moleskin

2010-02-04T01:11:00.002-05:00

The Wilderness of Manitoba

2010-01-24T12:13:00.006-05:00

The Wilderness of Manitoba- A Take-Away Show (Wood and Wires Video Series) from Adrian Vieni on Vimeo.

Very exciting! I recently got to design T-shirts for a very talented local band called The Wilderness of Manitoba. Keep an eye and an ear out for these guys, very wonderful music and people!! http://www.myspace.com/thewildernessofmanitoba

Over burning fields and bodies

2010-01-11T12:05:00.007-05:00

my winged children, all will fly over the mountain wall to the lid of the sky, and slice its belly full wide with their warm knives -not the pin-pricks of starlight- but to bathe in the bright blood of the world above.

Such badass lyrics

Laziness

2009-12-21T13:31:00.001-05:00

Started up a new moleskin, sorry I don't have anything more substantial to show, but soon!!

2009-12-08T14:03:00.045-05:00

Aaaahhh! Real Monsters!!

2009-11-24T20:13:00.004-05:00

Affection

2009-11-17T17:42:00.005-05:00

My portrait of Kevin and Jenn.

OCAD Wallspace

2009-11-04T00:49:00.008-05:00

Here's some pics of the wallspace Jessica and I did together at the beginning of the semester! Sorry the lighting is really bad!

Wrap it in a sheet

2009-11-02T23:49:00.005-05:00

Hey guys! So I kinda took a different approach with this painting and I can't really tell if it works or not. I was going for a more subdued, light colour scheme and giving it a more unfinished look. I think I like how it looks but maybe the tones are all a little too similar. Anyways I'd love to get some feed back! I should have made the sheet more tangled up like the sketch!

Last Pages of the Moleskin!

2009-11-02T23:45:00.002-05:00

Ididit!

2009-10-26T19:47:00.004-04:00

Moleskin 5

2009-10-12T13:53:00.001-04:00

Vampire

2009-10-06T23:47:00.003-04:00

Here's a civil war vampire with oddly shaped eyes for y'all!

Moleskin 4

2009-10-05T15:02:00.002-04:00

I'm gonna try and update FAR more often from now on!! Make me feel bad about it if I don't!!

Moleskin 3

2009-09-28T23:41:00.003-04:00

moleskin 2

2009-09-28T23:39:00.004-04:00

moleskin 1

2009-09-28T23:36:00.004-04:00

Floatin' down river

2009-08-01T19:13:00.004-04:00

Colour and brightness is completely off can't even make out the details in the face... think I need a new scanner, photoshop can barely make it better! Did this in a pretty decent amount of time, I need to buy more panels!

Shirts are done!! EDIT

2009-07-27T18:13:00.009-04:00

So I got a picture of the T-shirts I did for Fleet Foxes and I'm insanely pumped that they are done! I feel flustered and don't know what to say because I'm so excited about it.

The shirts are available to order from the Sub Pop website,

http://www.subpop.com/releases/fleet_foxes/shirts/ff_green

http://www.subpop.com/releases/fleet_foxes/shirts/ff_blue

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also this image along with the ones below (one of which is another fleet foxes design I did for them) all got selected to appear permanently on the online gallery of American Illustration which is a huge honour! Exciting times!!

unfinished

2009-06-25T00:37:00.004-04:00

So apparently boosting the temperature on preview does a pretty good job of getting the colours right on my pictures! yay!

Television criticism sketches

2009-06-25T00:33:00.004-04:00

Maybelle!!

2009-05-09T16:04:00.002-04:00

For my mom, late birthday/mother's day present!

movie poster

2009-04-29T16:42:00.003-04:00

Sorry about the bad scan and compiling of the images!

Prezez

2009-04-16T16:32:00.006-04:00

Last project for Paul! Acrylic on wood

48 Laws of Power

2009-04-10T13:45:00.005-04:00

The First one is Law # 46, "Never Appear Too Perfect" and the second is Law # 48, "Assume Formlessness". They're both Acrylic on wood, really happy with how they turned out!

CLINT

2009-03-22T16:25:00.000-04:00

Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?

2009-03-03T00:52:00.006-05:00

And here are the spot illustrations!

Nuclear/Solar Power

2009-02-28T12:27:00.005-05:00

These are drawings I did on photoshop about nuclear and solar energy. I was going to use the drawing like I normally do and colour underneath but the graphic blocked in colour look ended up looking a lot cooler. Hooray for photoshop brushes!

2009-02-05T11:57:00.001-05:00

Respect, Fullfill, Protect

2009-02-05T11:54:00.006-05:00

Comp stuff

2009-02-01T00:26:00.003-05:00

Might do more work with these...

Kiss

2009-01-17T18:53:00.003-05:00

Preacher

2009-01-17T18:08:00.003-05:00

Deadwood inspired

2009-01-17T15:07:00.001-05:00

Gladstone Hotel

2009-01-16T14:50:00.004-05:00

Art Show at the Gladstone tonight, very excited and I'll post all the drawings I did for it (two previously posted) soon!

Stroking the 'stache

2009-01-13T13:56:00.003-05:00

Second Year CD Design cover

2009-01-02T23:28:00.001-05:00

Second year CD design

2009-01-02T23:21:00.005-05:00

This is an old project and a bad picture but this is a cd design I did for the Califone album Roots and Crowns. I don't know why this is underlined...

Painting!

2008-12-22T23:08:00.003-05:00

Number one done! I went a little closer to my reference than I would have liked so that's something I'm gonna watch out for from now on. I'm more focused on just getting my skillz leveled up.

MACGRUUUUBEERRRR

2008-12-17T00:09:00.000-05:00

MUSTACHE TIME

2008-12-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

YOU GOIN' DOWN DAN AND IVAN

Holiday!

2008-11-19T20:57:00.002-05:00

Art Theft

2008-11-19T20:49:00.003-05:00

tree guy

2008-11-05T00:42:00.001-05:00

gutz

2008-11-01T02:28:00.003-04:00

DIGITZAL

2008-10-29T21:37:00.004-04:00

First assignment

2008-10-18T16:31:00.007-04:00

So I'm kinda happy with this. I got lazy particularly with the colours in the second panel. I'm also not a confident painter so I'm trying my best, hopefully I'll get better!

(the assignment was to take 3 classified ads and make a story out of them. The first was "Shemale massage for men", the second "Anyone who witnessed an accident between anautomobile and a bicycle on Jarvis street contact...." and the last "Widower - 60's, 5'6" seeks female 45 - 62 for a long term relationship.)

End of summer pt. 7

2008-09-04T17:12:00.005-04:00

potential final? Any suggestions send them my way, still waiting to hear back! I think the patterned lines need to be thickened which I've already done on some other colour tests. Any colour suggestions as well for different colour T-shirts?

End of summer pt. 6

2008-09-04T17:07:00.002-04:00

funky colour test and another quick sketch.

End of summer pt. 5

2008-09-04T17:00:00.005-04:00

sketches and tests. Very rigidly drawn aminalz

end of summer pt. 4

2008-09-04T16:52:00.003-04:00

This was one I started but ended up leaving because it was waaay too much of a rip off of jessica's pretty painting. The other I just ended up not liking, but I stole the text and put it in the other Fleet Foxes drawing I did. The last was one I was working on until Robin contacted me, inspired by the few sketches I did earlier.

End of summer pt.3

2008-09-04T16:44:00.002-04:00

End of summer pt. 2

2008-09-04T16:37:00.006-04:00

The rest is Fleet Foxes stuff!! (!!!!!)

End of summer pt.1

2008-09-04T16:04:00.004-04:00

If I try putting more than 3 pictures things get funky so I'll put them on multiple posts.

Fleet Foxes Colour

2008-07-30T13:04:00.003-04:00

I didn't make any colour changes but I re did the type, hope you guys like it more! It's on Fleet Foxes myspace too! http://www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

MORE BEARD

2008-07-26T11:51:00.005-04:00

I'm trying to figure out how I should colour this or if I should at all... thoughts? I also sent this to the singer of the band...was that dumb?

Drawings for shirts!

2008-07-21T21:00:00.005-04:00

Enoch 2

2008-06-05T18:41:00.003-04:00

Deerhunter

2008-06-05T02:51:00.002-04:00

Their new album is unbelievable!! www.myspace.com/deerhunter

Enoch 1

2008-05-29T12:26:00.004-04:00

portraits

2008-05-16T16:45:00.005-04:00

One is my grandpa and the other is very loosely based on one of David's faces

Children!

2008-05-04T23:04:00.002-04:00

interesting film

2008-04-28T16:32:00.002-04:00

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm

This was a movie shown to me by Kevin, whether it is actually factually correct I can't really decide, but at least it makes you think. I think you guys should watch it though, it has some loading issues sometimes so keep reloading if it says it's less than 2 hours long. Enjoy it and prepare to feel a little disconcerted.

Hippy Study

2008-04-19T14:13:00.004-04:00

This is a drawing/painting I did lastnight after a disastrous turnout with another drawing I was working on. Although the colours are a little wonky and it's pretty much copied from a picture, after painting Nathan Shineywater (member of brightblack Morning Light) I felt a lot better!

Wolf

2008-04-17T09:49:00.001-04:00

This is my drawing of a wolf which I did before seeing Sam Weber's awesome drawing on his site...after that I felt kinda bummed with mine.

Beast!

2008-04-11T13:42:00.003-04:00

First time with oils, Jessica helped...a lot.

Day of the dead

2008-04-09T18:54:00.003-04:00

These are two finals. The first was for a ink assignment we had to do, and then the second was for the end of the year where we had to digitally enhance one of our pieces from the semester.

Johnny Cash

2008-04-08T00:40:00.000-04:00

Bad but good boy Cash.

FREAKS

2008-04-08T00:39:00.000-04:00

He lost some toe :(