Begley

Guitar straps for Black Sabbath

Ryan — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:05:40 +0000

In March I was asked by Heavy Leather NYC to create the artwork for custom guitar straps for Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath for their 2013 tour. The pen and ink illustrations were laser engraved by Artifact Publishing on Leather and Vinyl and then sewn and assembled by Heavy Leather NYC to create two one of a kind custom guitar straps.

Needless to say, it was a supreme honor to create something for arguably the two most influential musicians in metal history. Thank you to Rachael at Heavy Leather NYC for approaching me with this project and Dylan at Artifact for doing such an amazing job with the engraving and cutting.

Howl – Bloodlines

Ryan — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:41:39 +0000

I was asked last year to illustrate my third record cover for Providence based metal band HOWL. I’m really stoked that they’ve stuck with me since their first EP. They’re really good guys and I love doing work for them.

Early on we batted around record title ideas and once “Bloodlines” was introduced as a possible title, the concept came together pretty easily.

All the visuals were inspired by lyrical content and both the band and I wanted to have an image with a lot of elements that would take time for the viewer to soak in. I tried to have all the characters and elements interacting and overlapping as much as possible. The blood was one of the more difficult but fun elements to draw for the cover. Figuring out how it would flow and move throughout the frame and around the characters took a while to sketch out.

The band wanted a bright and vibrant cover and I thought it would translate best if we kept the colors in the same family. Once I settled on a specific red for the blood the rest of the palette was pulled from that.

This was a really fun project and I’m stoked that its finally coming out on Relapse in April. Thank you Howl and Relapse.

Here are a few photos of some rough and final pencil sketches before the ink drawing was done.

-R

New shirts on Shirts & Destroy!

Ryan — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:24:05 +0000

I’ve got three new shirts up on shirtsanddestroy.com thank you for your support.

Revolver Magazine Illustrations

Ryan — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:35:06 +0000

The new Special Issue of REVOLVER Magazine features some full pages of my illustration and design work.

This was a really fun project to be a part of and it was really cool to do some work thats featured alongside interviews with metal icons like like Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and of course, Kirk Hammett!

Thank you Jimmy at Revolver, you are the best dude.

Vaccine / Coke Bust split 7″

Ryan — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 04:10:55 +0000

I was commissioned to illustrate the new split 7″ from Massachusetts’ Vaccine and D.C.’s Coke Bust. It was a fun project and they were really cool and easy to work with. But, this wasn’t how I designed this. The specific concept was “A vulture eating a business man” so… there you have it. I liked the idea of keeping this pretty gritty and “punk” looking in keeping with both of the bands sound. And I was also looking at some Hitchcock movie posters for inspiration.

I’m posting this cover they way I illustrated and designed it which is not the way the actual record seems to have been produced which I wasn’t aware of and am a little disappointed by but oh well. There was some debate over the text and I handed it off. The end result (to me) throws off the composition and balance of the illustration and also compromises the concept a bit. My original is on the LEFT and the final cover is on the RIGHT just above. I wanted to post the original here because you probably won’t see it anywhere else and took a bit of time / thought to put together.

Great people, awesome bands, I had a great time working with them, just wish this had come together a little differently.

Illustration / Design

Ryan — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:29:29 +0000

Something new I drew for an amazing band. More info soon.

-R

New Thomas Hooper shirts at S&D

Ryan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:09:09 +0000

Thomas Hoopers new summer 2012 line of shirts for S&D are in the shop and were both really stoked on how they came together. We have them all for sale online at HERE and in our flagship store HERE.

Jim Phillips.

Ryan — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:05:22 +0000

I found this old bootleg screen print I made when I used to work at a screen printing shop, of Jim Phillip’s classic “Screaming hand” . Artists like Jim Phillips, V. Courtlandt Johnson, Robt. Williams, and Pushead drew me into skateboarding and punk at an early age. Its funny how much impact seemingly inconsequential things can have on you’re life. When I was 9 or 10 my dad took me to the local surf shop one day and it’s resonated with me for over 20 years. Im sure it seems juvenile to a lot of people, but 80′s skate / punk art has had immeasurable impact on the course of my life. I have no idea who I would be if I hadn’t gone to WINDS UP surf and skate that day and got my first skateboard.

Coffin.

Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:55:58 +0000

Section of something I drew this for the band “As I Lay Dying”

Details.

Ryan — Mon, 28 May 2012 03:45:07 +0000

Details of an ink drawing for Howl.