-Dan dos Santos

Here’s a painting I just finished up. It’s for the book ‘Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues’. Which, in case you couldn’t tell, is the sequel to ‘My Life As A White Trash Zombie‘.

You may remember me mentioning in a while back that I was referencing Norman Rockwell for a piece I was working on, particularly to examine the way in which he flattened space to create a more graphic effect. Well, this is the painting that I was attempting to achieve that look on.

Sequels are always tough. They have to look good on their own, but also need to compliment the series. The first cover in the series was particularly successful, but also a bit of a deviation from what I normally do. So it was a bit tricky for me to maintain that same flavor in this piece. Very flat color, very flat space. I still don’t know if I was entirely successful or not.

My messy studio during some VERY long nights.

The job was a real rush, and I only had 6 days to complete it, concept to finish. The blues just would NOT dry in that short of time, so I added all the graffiti in digitally. Probably a wise choice anyways, since it is quite possible that I will need to rearrange things to accommodate the type (which will also be done in a graffiti style, primarily in the empty space you see).