The Canine 10

Fellow Shiverbones artist and Canine 10 member Michael Bonfiglio has just completed his newest music video "Opposite Of A Miracle" and you can watch it here!

Let's Try Again

Back to blogging, it has been too long :)

A fun project coming out soon, I did the artwork for the debut 7" of the fantastic spooky surf band "The Primitive Finks"

Combining my love of records with my love of horror art, this was a dream project for me. This should be available in a month or so.

I am working on a visual guide to all of the Halloween postcards I have made over the years and will post a link to it after it is completed.

I just added some affordable random pieces of art to my Big cartel shop

some examples...

Surrounded!

This painting is the beginning of a new series of Hand Painted one of a kind Postcards. For the first time I am making these vintage sized instead of 4" x 6". The backs are now custom designed to match the limited edition postcards I do. This is a gouache on Paper and is titled "Surrounded".

I just listed this painting on ebay.

They All Laugh at you

June's Limited edition postcard has just been uploaded to my bigcartel store.

I have been wanting to do another card with some text and design elements, and this painting from a recent commission fit the bill perfectly.

This card measures 3.5" x 5.5" and is limited to 35 flat copies, and 25 embossed and gilded versions.

All cards are signed and numbered on heavy weight cotton paper with archival inks.

Flat cards begin shipping on Friday, Embossed will begin shipping on Monday.

I am also adding to the shop a few of the black and white line illustrations That were used in Mark Ledenbach's book "Vintage Halloween Collectibles" volume 3.

Updates in Halloweenland

The Monthly postcard for May is going to be a couple weeks out yet and will count as May & June. I am still catching up on a few past postcard orders and I don't want to rush things or cause any further delays.

A longtime friend of mine has listed a few of my out of print pieces from his collection on ebay. These end tomorrow, the 20th of May. The Two stand outs for me are the living Bogie, of which only 15 were made, and Postcard #4 from 2001 which had 100 copies printed and almost never comes up for sale. You can see his listings here sigmasix

Now for the big news....

Mark B Ledenbach has released the third Edition of his essential Vintage Halloween Collectibles, which was laid out by, and contains illustrations by yours truly. We worked very closely for three months on updating every page so the information flows better than the 2nd edition, as well as added hundreds of new images adding 50 pages to the previous edition. This culminated in a weekend of all-nighters when he flew out to my house and we went over the layout together. I am proud to be involved in such a massive reworking of the book, and I am really thrilled with the results.

Besides interior illustrations, I also created a postcard exclusive for the book which is limited to the Hardcover copies. 100 numbered Copies of the hardcover were printed and signed by Mark, and each will have a matched number limited edition signed postcard.

This is the image for the card, Which shows the two of us working during one of our marathon days of editing and arranging. The Wording is only on this image, not the postcard itself.

Copies of the book can be ordered through Mark's Website found here.

The Summoning Update

Copies of The Summoning have been mailing out all week, and all but the more complicated orders have been sent out.

I am pleased to announce I have finally found a proper paper replacement for the postcards. Starting with next month's card they will be printed on an extremely stiff and heavy 100% cotton paper. Thank you for accepting the lighter weight paper as I searched for the proper weight.

Speaking of next month's card, I will be using this image I recently painted as a commission for a long time collector.

"The Kettle"

Here are some images of my 1st Hold To Light Halloween postcard, "The Kettle" This was made as an exclusive edition of 30 for postcard dealer David Torretta. I had a hard time getting a decent shot of it with light shining through, but it gets the visual across.

In other news I added some Wacky Packages original art and a few older postcards to my big Cartel shop.

I am finishing up the painting for April's limited card and am really excited about it. The painting is a tribute to Samuel Schmucker, which is something I have been wanting to do for some time now.

Emergence Postcard Shipping Update

Just a note to let everyone who ordered a copy of emergence know, they began shipping today, and all copies will have been mailed by Tuesday morning.

I also uploaded some more fun Vintage Halloween paper items to my flickr account.

Have a great weekend! - Matthew

Shiverbones updates

I have just completed a secret project that I can't talk about yet, but in a few months I will be able to share the news. This was a massive undertaking and while I am very proud of the end result, it did occupy almost all of my time these last 3 months. In an effort to reorganize and better communicate with everyone, I will be updating this blog weekly again. The recent surge in demand for my postcards has led to longer wait times as I get all the sketching, embossing, packing & mailing done. I will keep this  blog updated with status orders so you can have a better idea when to expect your postcards.

The last 3 postcards I have released have all been experiments. The paper I used to make them in the past was discontinued, and that left me in a bind. I am still working on getting the "perfect" paper stock back in use, but i have resolved all of the issues with recent off centering and uneven edge cuts.

Starting with my March offering below, you can expect to see an improvement in the cards. Also beginning with March's card, the backs will state if the card was sketched or embossed to help clear up any future questions about the original state I mailed the card in.

March's card is "Emergence", and features some grizzled bats leaving their cave for Halloween night. I always thought bats were under used on Halloween postcards and am happy to release this one.

This is offered in 2 varieties: Regular and Embossed & gilded. I am taking a break from sketching on this round as I continue to catch up on the last few months of orders. Visit my big cartel site to place an order.

Thanks for looking & enjoy the slowly warming weather.

Books are Shipping this week!

Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered a copy of 10/31 vol. 5, they are to begin shipping out on Wednesday of this week, and will probably take about a week in total to get all the sketches done and have them all mailed out.

This book is also now available as a softcover and a hardcover at Blurb as well here.

I am also working on a rework of my main website as it needs massive updating. I hope that will be ready by February.

Happy New Year to all!

10/31 Volume 5 pre orders are now available

The Newest volume of my series of Halloween art books is coming soon. I added the 2 different limited edition versions of the book to my Big Cartel store as pre orders. As with previous volumes, there is a premium edition which contains an exclusive postcard and a hand drawn sketch inside. This is limited to 20 copies. There is also a version limited to 30 copies which also has a hand drawn sketch inside, but no postcard. All 50 copies are signed & numbered. I am expecting to begin shipping these in late November. The regular versions will be available through Blurb when they are completed.

New paintings and some bad news

Bad News first, I have had to drop out of the Ghoultide Gathering show this October. My schedule has been so tight I was unable to get any work done for the show. I am disappointed that I won't be able to see many of you and hope you won't be too let down by my need to withdraw.

Here are three paintings that will be part of Subtext Galleries "Ghosts of Halloweens Past" show opening 10/12 in San Diego.

 Tormentors In a World of Blue

Sirens (Which will be the cover of 10/31 vol. 5)

The Beast

Wood Cuts & Post Cards

As autumn approaches I am doing my best to create as much new Halloween imagery as possible. This week I am offering a wood cut print inspired by Spook Show posters and a new hand painted Halloween postcard on ebay. I am also planning to release Volume 5 of my series of Halloween art books "10/31" late this September. For now, the new imagery...

Wacky Packages Series 9

I contributed 6 paintings to the newest series of Wacky Packages stickers available now in places like Target, Wal-Mart, Toy's r Us and more. These are the 6 stickers...

Here are some original paintings used to make the Stickers...

and lastly some of my sketch cards for the set.

Return To Candy Land

A friend recently asked me to do a small painting in my "candy Land" style. I hadn't done a piece like this in over 2 years, but decoded to go for it, and it actually turned out to be fun to do. I certainly think the next one will be a lot bigger than 5" x 7" like this one, as it's size was the only thing holding me back. The painting is titled "Red Handed"

Also this week, I have started doing my return sketches for Cereal Killers 2, and here are 2 of the 6.

Now off for a little relaxation and vacation. Woot!

And More sketch cards....

If you may have noticed a drop in my Halloween art production over the last few months, it's because of sketch cards. There is yet 1 more set I worked on I can unveil soon. Here are some of my cards in the Mars Attacks Heritage series just released by Topps.

Cereal Killer Cards Series 2

I have randomly inserted sketch cards in the brand new trading car set "Cereal Killers Series 2" produced by Wax Eye. here is a sample of some of my cards. I was VERY Excited to be able to draw Barlow from Salem's Lot several times, as he was about the scariest thing I saw as a child.

Come And Get It!

I just finished the newest Limited Edition Postcard, "Come And Get It". This is limited to 28 copies and is available in a dark border for #1-9, and Orange for #10-28. They have the option of either having a sketch on the back, or being embossed & gilded. I will be placing them on ebay later today.

Of Crashes & Delays

Nearly 5 months since I have posted anything new here, I had not realized that so much time has passed. Most of that was spent working on Wacky Packages & Mars Attacks cards for Topps. As I got ready to begin working on Halloween art and backed up commissions again, My trusty Mac bit the dust. Thankfully I had uploaded all my files to a cloudy place, so none of my work was lost. I am in the process of downloading all couple hundred gigs of files so I can be working at full capacity again. The 1st limited edition which will be ready as soon as I can get my Lantern templates back is ... "The Menacing Moon" This is a cardboard Lantern limited to 10 copies. I will include a preview shot of the non lantern side of the piece.

I will be Attending Ghoultide Gathering this year in Chelsea, MI on October 5th & 6th and am beginning to get some work done for that show. I expect to have paintings, sculpture and limited hand made Lanterns and die cuts with me. More on that as it gets closer. I did 6 paintings for the New Wacky Packages sticker set due in stores this July, and will post some images as soon as I get the OK from Topps to do so. I also worked on a number of sketch cards for that series, as well as sketch cards for the upcoming Mars Attacks Heritage series also due out in July. Sketch cards I did will also appear in the Cereal Killers series 2 by Wax-eye set due out this summer. Finally, I have gotten another postcard sized painting done and listed on ebay titled "Tug Of War"

Happy Belated New Year!

I just finished up this years 2012 ACEO, at least it is still January for a few days. 27 copies have been made in total. This is similar in theme to 2009 & 2010 and is free while supplies last, just send me your address.