Draw!

Sunday Figure Painting

2012-01-30T06:10:00.003-05:00

This painting is from the Sunday Open Figure Session at PAFA that is run by my teachers Scott Noel and Peter Van Dyck. Every week during the semester a bunch of us students and Peter and Scott get together to paint the figure in a great communal atmosphere at school. Its much more informal than class and everybody just hangs loose, has fun and paints. You can ask for feedback, or not, just sit there and paint away and have fun.

This was my first go at painting a figure from life in a little bit since I have been doing landscapes a lot lately, but I always feel you have to change it up, and since I have also been working a lot with photography its good to go back to life. the paintings is in oil on museum board and roughly 24 x 36. The sessions run 12-4 and everybody chips in for the model so it only costs about $5 each. You can't beat that!

Peter decided to use this older paining as the canvas to paint over for today's session. He claimed that there were a few paintings underneath this one. He has a very casual way about doing these paintings and recommended a lot of use use museum board which is like mat board and throw a coat of gesso over it, its cheaper than canvas and I think he also feels this makes things less expensive but also less precious. Its interesting to watch peter paint and he seems to build his work up in sometimes a very loose and informal way, and then POW! Suddenly he pulls it all together. Peter will also use very odd or unique or "evocative colors" as Scott Noel world call them. In other words they don't seek to match exactly the colors as they see them in a literal way, but to interpret them in a more poetic way. It took me a while to understand this and then to work this idea into my own work in a natural way.

Here is Peter's painting after I would say and hour or so, I was pretty wrapped up in my own painting so I did not follow what he was doing as much this week.

Here is Peter's final painting and you can see how after a very loose beginning he had some "meat" on the canvas and then really started to build in a lot denser paint and work the cool warm to turn the form. Another thing that both Peter and Scott do is keep the value range very close. I tend to like a great value range in my work, and under the natural lighting we paint under the range will never be that great anyway.It was a great start to the semester and I really look forward to doing this every week if I can.

Judge Parker

2012-01-29T00:07:00.000-05:00

As they say, "the plot thickens".

Final Semester Week 2

2012-01-28T23:54:00.000-05:00

Week two of the semester rushed by but I feel was a solid hit on the bat. I got two paintings finished, the painting above of the westbound train to 69th street was finished last night. I have a month left until my show at the Rodger LaPelle Gallery so I will be stoking as much fire in the boiler as I can to keep at the easel every moment I can. In the meantime a spot opened in Scott Noel's portrait painting class so I will end up taking one class this semester, and in a big way it's fitting my last class will be with Scott who was my biggest influence as a teacher while in school and discovering his work was one of the reasons I choose the school.

Last night was also the opening to the Tanner exhibit at the school. It was a big opening with the mayor and lots of luminaries in attendance --in fact it was so crowded I only stayed a few minutes, snapped this pic and left. I'll go back and see it next week after the crowds are gone so I'll really be able to look at the work.

here is the fourth floor studio on Friday where Scott Noel's has his portrait painting class. You can see my friend Alina in the center there painting.

here is a shot of my easel and the studio with my painting The Squirrel hunter in progress. next week will be busy week and my brother graduates from temple so my parents will be in town to visit, so between that and painting and First Friday and the strip I will be jammed. But it's all good as they say.

Powerline

2012-01-27T04:26:00.002-05:00

These are two pages from a fill-in issue of Powerline I did around 1988-89 and I was sharing Al Williamson's studio along with Bret Blevins at the time. I think my issue was between issues by Grey Morrow. I was so pumped because Al inked this job and because of that I drew it at the old large size 12 x 18 which Marvel was doing for that line of books. that was a great time for me in my career and getting to work with Al was the best. he really slung that Hunt 108 pen at the time which was his pen of choice then. I learned a lot about how he worked by watching him ink these pages.

A Blast From The Past

2012-01-24T03:30:00.000-05:00

While going through the archives here in order to load up a bunch of work for sale on my Ebay Store I came across this cover I drew for a small press comic in the 90's called Retro 50's. It was a lot of fun to do and I even colored it. I don't know where the colored version is, probably on some old Syquest drive! I love drawing things from this time, old cars are a lot more fun to draw than new ones!

Final Semester Week 1

2012-01-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

This week was the beginning of my final semester at PAFA in the certificate program and like all things an ending must come. This spring will be very busy for me in my last run down to graduation and the ASE in may. In March in will have my first one-man show at the Rodger Lapelle Gallery, I'll be applying for grad school and I'll be attending two workshops out west. I will miss the school and hope to return as a grad student next fall, but if not I have to say that going back to school at 45 was the best decision I think I've made for myself in my adult life. In many respects I have rebuilt myself and my life and the course has been set and I'm well on my way to making some changes permanent. I've grown a lot as an artist, sometimes in surprising ways and I have made many new friends who are like family to me. In the short term I'll be painting my arse off in the studio to have a fresh batch of paintings ready for the show.

Luckily I have completed all of my undergrad requirements so I have no classes this spring, only four meetings with my critics and just one class to teach Mondays, the Illustration class in the High School program at PAFA. I'm sure the spring will shoot past fast but I plan on wringing out as much enjoyment as I can!

These are two of the paintings that will be in the show at LaPelle.

Judge Parker

2012-01-22T03:46:00.001-05:00

Things are not looking good for April...

Judge Parker

2012-01-15T01:13:00.004-05:00

The shooters on the loose...or are they?

Judge Parker

2012-01-07T23:38:00.001-05:00

Judge Parker--Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:02:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas from Judge Parker

2011-12-25T08:58:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas all!

Something Old

2011-12-24T17:29:00.002-05:00

While cleaning up my archives ( or piles as some call them) I came across this old piece I did in highs school. This thing is almost 32 years old! I think the assignment was to illustrate a word. Each figure is draw on a separate piece of paper and then it was pasted down and the work Comix was cut out of a sheet of yellow illustration board. I kinda' remember donig it and coloring this with those old Design markers, the kid that would get you high and give you cancer because of all of the bestine in them. The were inked with rapidographs and I think a 00 brush---what I was using at the time. I think you can see all of my big main comic influences at the time from Kirby to Adams and Buscema, I even put in a Captain Canuck head as I really like the book at the time. Looking on the back I bot a B+ I think because it's hard to read the word, which is really true.

Judge Parker

2011-12-18T08:58:00.003-05:00

As they say, the plot thickens....

Eduardo Barreto R.I.P.

2011-12-16T06:19:00.000-05:00

I was very saddened yesterday to learn from a fellow cartoonist that Eduardo Barreto passed away from a long illness. It's a great loss to his family and to all of us who worked with him and were big fans of his work. Eduardo Barreto was the artist I took over on Judge Parker two years ago when he was also slowed by illness, and like everyone else I came to know Eduardo Barreto's work first as a fan in the 80's when he was working on books like Superman and Atari Force for DC Comics. I came to become great friends with Ricardo Villagran at the time and through him I met many cartoonist from Argentina and south America like Jeorge Zaffino.

Ricardo Villagran and Eduardo Barreto from the san Diego Con a few years back

I got to meet Eduardo only one time, at the San Diego Comic Con along with my great friend and his one-time mentor Ricardo Villagran whom he assisted when he was younger. It was a good meeting and he was a very humble man about his work for a guy who was so talented and as we talked he very complimentary about my work. As a pro I was lucky enough to get to work with Eduardo when I got the chance to ink an Elvira job he drew a few years back a,one of the highlights for me in my career. His work was beautiful and professional and a joy to ink. You really get to see how good an artist is when you ink his work--and he was great! his work was so smooth and lush, so flawless you could have just shot the pencils!

Eduardo was one of many great cartoonist in a long line who hailed from South America, from the great Salinas who drew the Cisco Kid to Garcia Lopez, Luis Domingez, the Villagran Brothers, and another of their one-time assistants turned pro, the late Jorge Zaffino. These artists like Eduardo were all top flight draughstmen and gentlemen. When through circumstance I came to take over from Eduardo on Judge Parker when he became to ill to continue, I again became a fan of his work. He really hit a home run on the strip during his time on the Judge, and he set the bar high.A high bar for me or anyone to follow as soap opera strips require a lot of tough drawing and domestic set-ups that don't initially lend themselves to the drama of superheroes which both Eduardo and I cut our teeth on. He was the type of artist who did the hard things well and the great things great, his dynamic figures and inventive layouts, sexy women, bold blacks and brushwork added a dramatic splash to the often tepid comic page and revitalized the strip, he will remain an inspiration and he will be missed.

The END--Fall Semester 2011

2011-12-14T03:30:00.004-05:00

This lonely painting, discarded by some art student from PAFA at the trashcan near the former Occupy Philly spot at City Hall seems to pretty much sum up the fact that the semester is over and life rolls on.

The fall semester of my senior year has come to an end at PAFA, and with it also has come the end of my undergrad classes in the Certificate program at the school. I still have one more semester, Spring, which starts in January, but I will have no classes, just studio time and my three critics since I have completed all of my requirements for my drawing, painting and liberal arts classes. So in a big way "Schools out!" like the song. So from now until I graduate next May I will just be painting my arse off in the studio!

Peter checks his roster to see who has shown up for the last crit--and who's still a sleepy head somewhere-dragging ass to class.

As thr room heated up my fellow students drung themselves in, one-by-one to set uo their work done during the semester in class

My last class was last Friday in Life painting with Peter van Dyck and my last studio crit was yesterday with Celia Riesman. After my class on Friday I sat in on the last round of MFA crits at school on the 8th floor. Since I am planning on applying to the Masters Program I thought it would be good to see more of the work and the critique process and comments.

I thought there was some very nice work and frankly just some aweful work as well, but that seems to be grad school in my search around looking at schools. in fact I'd say there was 99% crap when I look at most grad schools, scribble and drips seems to pass for most when it comes to any form of drawing and painting, at least at the Academy we still have some real painters in the masters program.

You can see my line-up of paintings here to the right of Peter. I think I got two good paintings out of the class, one of which is in the current student show.

To break up the monontony of the average school final crit Peter had us pick a painting by each student and then do a sketch of it to try and analyze it and see if we could make the composition better.

Monday was the last class in the High School Art program that runs at PAFA. I have been teaching the Illustration class again this semester and we had a good crew turn out this time.I think I had the most ambitious class this time and they really worked hard doing comics and illustration. It's hard in one way since the class lasts only 2 hours but the students really came in and got to work and turned out some cool pieces. My two TA's Rob and Scott really helped too as we individually coached each student along the way. I'm impressed as some of the students had never done watercolor, or even comic before.

So with the semester done I am turning to cleaning up my house, catching up on chores and reflecting back on my time at school and I'm sure I will post many of those thoughts here, but I'll end by saying that going back to school and to PAFA changed my life in ways I could not have foreseen. I'm a much better artist and my life has been enriched by the friends and deep connections I have made there, I can't imagine my life without them and the experiences I've had, one is never too old to go back to school.

Judge Parker

2011-12-11T01:11:00.001-05:00

The worm turns....

Fall Semester Week 16--Small Works

2011-12-08T08:13:00.001-05:00

I've finished up my semester teaching at uarts and have one last crit in Life painting Friday and then my last studio crit Monday and the semester will be fully done. In the meantime I have been keeping busy by doing some small paintings as a way to keep the fires burning and to do some paintings of subjects I have wanted to do, so these may end up as studies for larger paintings. I guess with these tow paintings they are sort of a mini Blue Period. The sofa painting above is of the beat up blue leather sofa on the 4th floor in room 465, and I painted it the first class this year and it was in the last class painting last semester in Scott Noel's class. It's also made it into one of Scott's paintings as well as a few other students.

This painting is of a little blue house in Detroit I took a picture of when I visited last summer. It had a very forlorn character about it.When painting it I was overcome by the sense memory smell of Detroit from my childhood there. I was really working with that feeling and memory of how the city smelled when I lived there as a kid. I think this one for sure will be a larger painting.

Judge Parker

2011-12-04T00:43:00.001-05:00

April seems very worried about the guy following Randy....

Fall Semester-Week 15 THE END

2011-12-03T23:43:00.001-05:00

PP> Yours truly pimping in front of my painting.

Yesterday day was in many way the end of my time at PAFA for my undergrad as it was the last official instructed class I will have at school. I still have one more semester at school with my critics, but I have completed all of my required classes. So when I return in the spring I will just be painting my ass off, working toward some shows and the next and final ASE for me at PAFA.It really didn't strike me that the end was here until Thursday night as I sat working on the Judge Parker strip and burning the midnight oil. My last class was with Peter Van Dyck, but since I had already completed the painting in that class, submitted it and had it accepted to the last student show of the year,I had nothing really to do in the class. I am the monitor, so I set it up and just kinda' chilled there and also worked on coloring this week's JP strip.I am glad to be done with classes. As much as I love the school, and my teachers, I am ready to just fly on my own and do my thing--to just get on with it. It won't be long till I will be applying to grad school, but I look forward to a nice long streak of just painting. I was also very happy that this last show in 128 had all of my Dirty Palette buddies and good friends in the show as well. William, Lexi and Alina all had work in the show, which was a nice way to cap things off.

Alina and her smart looking watercolors

<{> Will and his painting featuring Alina.

Lexi and her painting.
The show also opened as the same night as the annual Student Print Show opened. Ihat show was packed and very well attended and I heard that sales were good. Yester

Now all that awaits next week is the last three crits with my critics and then the winter break begins!

52 Breakdown

2011-11-28T02:09:00.001-05:00

I have been asked by a few people to go a bit into my thinking process on the recent paintings I have been doing, so this post is about some of the process and things I think about when painting this commuter series. Now the first thing is of course the spark, the inspiration that grabs me and makes me want to paint whatever it is that I am seeing. I think that is different for every person, every artist, and I don't think there is anyway to exactly break that down. Even if I break down my taste into a play list, it won't be anyone else's exact play list--though we might like many of the same artists.

However, I do know that dramatic light events interest me very much as a painter. I love light raking across a zone, and area, be it a city block, grove of trees or still life, what have you. That morning I drove into the city on the way to school the light was so great that I just had to whip out my camera while driving and started snapping a zillion shots on the way down Market Street. I also feel strongly the better the photo the easier it is to work with the photo as a source for a painting. If you start with a photo with a great composition that starts you on the good path no matter what you do later or how much you use or discard from the photo. I should also go on record here as saying I have no issue with working from photos, some artists do, but I don't. My thinking and my way is to use the photo as the start but not the end and I draw from it as I would from life, I also work from multiple pictures when I can. All my years in comics and commercial art have given me plenty of experience working with photos so I think I can avoid the pitfalls the can bring. I am working for what works as a painting.

Later I went through the pictures and selected the ones that I thought worked best for making a good composition and painting. The ones I shot at the corner of 52nd street and Market came out great and I thought the light event outside vs the underworld of the EL and the stores was great. Cool vs warm, light vs shadow and the riot of detail was seducing and would be a challenge. I also looked at the big shapes, the abstract shapes of the picture to see the strength of the composition and to see if I could push it, play with it and make it stronger, to not be a slave to the photo ref, but to use it as a reference but not an empirical source to slavishly copy. I had been studying artist like Rackshaw Downes and Richard Diebenkorn. Both men are great painters and have aspects to their work I admire, I admire Diebencorn's sense of design and composition and the fact he makes every corner and space vital and well considered. I enjoy his landscapes and the earlier the better, the later more abstract works don't interest me.

One of the weaknesses of a lot of painters is the bottom or edges of their paintings,sometimes they are just rushed off or not as considered-- they just trail off or suffer because the artist is so in love with just the center of interest that the outer realm of the paintings just doesn't get the love--- but a great painter makes every corner or edge as great or as considered as the primary interest of figure, etc., there is no lessening of the charge of a great painting from corner to corner.

This is one of the things my critics and I have discussed more this year as this is such an important part of painting. To consider everything. Everything is important. So I spent many hours in the past year studying my favorite painters and looking at the way they dealt with the corners and edges of their paintings. It did cause me to think about landscape painting in very different ways. Two of these artists were Richard Diebenkorn and Rackshaw Downes. The RD boys as I call them. Now I much more of a narrative realist than Diebenkorn, but maybe not as literal as Downes. I am searching and think I'd like some place in between where I can nail some things down and then allow some things to become more abstract and allow the viewer to participate, this of course is all a big flow, a big process that goes from one painting to the next as I explore these ideas in each work I do. I have learned one thing about myself as a painter--I have no desire to spend months on a single image like he does or years like Lopez Garcia or Downes. I think that would drive me bonkers and I'd just lose all interest.

Now while I don't think you can break something as complex and highly personal as painting down to a formula, there are little 'check lists" I think I can make, a series of questions I should ask myself as a painter when working on any painting. Somethings as simple as, "Are all four corners of the painting the same?" "Are there more than 4 values in this paintings?" "Can I simplify something--is that detail really vital, or that, value can it be pushed closer to another value, and does that work?" "Am I being too literal?"

So with those ideas in my head my process was to break down the painting into the abstract design you see in my illo. I pasted the Diebenkorns in to show how I was trying to use his way of considering shape in the design and entire space. Even if i don't love everything about these paintings I do love how he uses shapes, and my thinking is i can take something froma painter who's work I don't love if I feel it works for me.

This overlay is to show the eye flow of how I hope the painting works. On top of this I am always thinking about color, paint handling, trying to use more paint in some areas and thinner paint in others to vary the textures, to not get too seduced by details too fast and often will paint over things if I get too busy or picky too fast. Sometimes these thoughts are very conscious and sometimes I am cooking and the ideas are all part of the flow.

1000th POST! Judge Parker

2011-11-26T23:17:00.001-05:00

The Derek-Sophie guitar lesson fallout continues...and its my 1000th post on my blog. Seems like only yesterday I started this blog, and my, how its grown!

Fall Semester-Week 14-Thanksgiving Break

2011-11-23T20:14:00.001-05:00

As the paint is drying on this painting as it hangs on my studio wall from my life painting class with Peter Van Dyck the oven in my kitchen is warming up for annual cooking event known as Thanksgiving. Today as I finished this painting up you could hear, see and literally feel people rushing about and getting out of town for the holiday break. I know I am looking forward to at least one or two days of just eating and sleeping like a big bear!The painting above grew out of my quandary and boredom of painting the typical classroom painting where the model is sitting on a box or chair and you nibble away at the painting as best you can with the amount of time you get per session or pose. For me the academic paintings or drawings can be beautiful, but too often I felt I didn't like the pose or lighting or both and didn't have enough time to get the painting to the point I wanted. Being in my 4th year and having produced these types of paintings from my first year I just found them boring to to and mostly unsatisfactory and frustrating in completion. Having been so excited about doing my commuter and landscape paintings I wanted to find a way to feel the same way about these classroom works. So what I did was wait until everybody set up and then looked around until I found a bigger image that captured my interest the same way I do a landscape and went for that.We now have just two more weeks till the semester is done and the winter break starts--I don't look forward to shoveling snow, but I will look forward to some more pure painting time and some downtime at home and the studio. Well it's time to get Tom Turkey ready for the oven--happy Thanks Giving!

Judge Parker

2011-11-19T23:55:00.001-05:00

Sometimes lessons are learned the hard way...

Fall Semester Week 13 Mash-up

2011-11-16T22:16:00.001-05:00

The last week has been really busy. i know i say that every week, but the last week was the reception of my show along with my buddy David Golas at Home Fine Art in Mount Holly, NJ. Then Saturday I hit the Brandywine River Museum to see the exhibit of the Treasure Island paintings by NC Wyeth and the exhibit on Howard Pyle as a teacher. I realized while driving out there with my DPC buddies Will Sentman and Lexi Thomas that I have visited the museum almost to the same week for the last three years. This I believe was the second trip this year alone. I just love going there, it's my Mecca. It's the root of just about everything I love as an artist and painter and the place that holds the heart of what I find great in American Illustration and painting. NC Wyeth made me want to be a painter and seeing those works is akin to a religious experience for me. Every year I grow as a painter and every year going back I see more and can learn more by looking at the great works in the museum's collection.

Here is a picture of several of the students working away in the after-school illustration class.Meanwhile back in the home studio I keep chugging along with Judge Parker while I still have to keep the front end of my week loaded with teaching the Illustration Class at PAFA and the Storyboarding class at Uarts. We are coming down to the last few weeks of both classes and the high school students in the Illustration class are starting to get close to finishing up their comics and illustrations they have been working on this fall. It's a good class and there are some really talented students here. I'll post some of the final works when they are done. At Uarts the class is on to the final project which is their animatic for the junior piece which they will be animating next semester.In the studio at school I am trying to get back to working in the last few weeks of the semester. Everything except for the class work is in a gallery at the moment.

I started this small still life last night to just get the juices flowing. I want to gear up for some heavy lifting in my final 3 weeks after the Thanksgiving break. It will actually be easier once classes are all done and I can put my head down and go over the winter break.

Here is a quick figure study done one week in class with Van Dyck.

Here is a pic of me along with the whole crew who came out to support Dave and myself at our opening.

Judge Parker

2011-11-13T11:47:00.001-05:00

Sometimes phone calls come at exactly the wrong time!

James Gurney Uarts Lecture and Demo

2011-11-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks to one of my students at Uarts, I found out that James Gurney of Dinotopia fame was coming to the school to do a lecture and a demo in the Illustration Dept. So after burning an all-nighter to get the Judge Parker Dalies in, I grabbed a bit of shut-eye and shot down to the school, arriving just in time to see a great talk by Gurney and a demo as well. I missed Gurney's talk the last time he came to the school and would not be able to make the talk he is doing down at the Delaware Museum of Art on Howard Plye as I have the reception of my show in New Jersey on this Saturday as well.

Gurney started off with a great talk about color which ties in with his book Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter. It was a great power point and he really dug into the subject well for illustrators and painters. Gurney is a great speaker and has his Rap down. He should, as he seems to always be traveling and visiting art schools and places all over the world as you can see on his blog. I have been following Gurney's blogs for a long time and visit several times a week, its a great resource for illustrators,painters and students of all levels and always fun read to see what he's up to and where in the world is James Gurney.

After the first talk he took questions from the students and then set up for his demo portrait of Mark Tocchet the head of the illustration dept using Niji water pens which he filled with various inks and watercolor pencils. Gurney also brought along a few sketchbooks and a few originals to show the students. They were all quite handsome and it was great to hear him talking about the same things I talk about to the storyboading class, including one of the assignments I have which is the reverse storyboard, where you pic a film and storyboard out the film to study the compositions, camera moves etc.

Gurney working on portrait of Mark the head of the illustration dept using caran d'ache watercolor pencils and Niji water brushes filled with different inks.

Here is the final portrait, it was great to listen to Gurney as he talked while he worked fielding question and keeping the audience informed and entertained at the same time,not an easy feat and something many artists can't do--talk and work and explain their process!

Gurney was a dynamo,after the demo he gave another great talk on composition with another great power point. I have to say along with the talk by Robh Ruppel at Illux Con this last week a lot of students are really getting the "Golden Nuggets of Wisdom"of painting,film and illustration. I'll be giving my report on Illux Con 4 this weekend.

It was great to see and meet James and I hope we can get him to come down to PAFA and do the same thing.

Judge Parker

2011-11-05T23:55:00.000-04:00

A little father, daughter heart-to-heart.

Fall Semester Week 11--deploy the Heat Shield

2011-11-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

Another whirl wind week flew by, culminating tomorrow with my annual trip to the Illux Con with the DPC. Its our 4th trip to the con and we all look forward to seeing a ton of great illustrations and meeting a lot of cool people.We also had our 4th Floor Open Studio yesterday at school. Each floor will be having their own open studio and then next semester in Feb there will a the big one which will be open to the public. But yesterday it was just us 4th floor kids and it was cool to tool about and see peoples work in progress. I've seen a fair share of people's work as I am the floor monitor, but some people I haven't seen a lot or any of what they are up to. The 4th floor is a mix too, we have undergrads like me as well as MFA1 and Post Bac students, so its a real mix of all levels of the school's student body. Of course the easiest way to lure fellow students is with food, especially salty or sugary food, so we set up a snack table and it seems within minutes the floor was swarming with artists looking for free munchies and cool art.

The Halloween costume contest

Home Fine Art Gallery

I also dropped off 6 of my paintings to the Home Fine Art gallery along with my buddy Dave Golas, for our show which opened today and will run till the end of November, the reception is next Saturday, so if you are in the area drop by! But that's not all, I also had the latest painting juried into the newest gallery 128 student show, which opens tomorrow and runs till the end of the month as well.

So, between all the painting and dropping off and running about and teaching and keeping up with good old Judge Parker I could use the Illux Con break just to catch my wind a bit. there are really only 4 weeks left till the semester is out, 5 if you include the crit week, which I won't have with having just the one class. Peter will probably just have us paint that day. It seems strange that good old Tom Turkey is only a few short weeks away, but I am sort of looking forward to the X-mas break and my final semester as an undergrad.

Judge Parker

2011-10-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Sam does a little cross examining on Derek...

Judge Parker

2011-10-23T17:11:00.001-04:00

Can Sophie make it home in time....

Fall Semester Week 9--over the Hump! Two-man Show!

2011-10-22T17:10:00.001-04:00

Well we are now officially over the hump in school with this being the 9th week of classes. I am over a bit of a hump as well personally as I just turned 50 on Wednesday--so it was really a hump week!! I spent my birthday painting away at school, enjoying a nice cake and good time with my friends. I put the finishing touches on my painting above, entitled Market Street. It's the final painting I will have time to finish before I have to go to the framer and get the paintings I need framed for the Emerging artist show I have next month with my buddy David Golas at Home Fine Art in Mount Holly. Our show opens on November 1st, and the reception is on the 12th. You can see images from the card we had printed up below.

Judge Parker Pencils

2011-10-21T22:30:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd scan and toss up some of the pencils from the past month of Sunday strips or so to feed the process junkies out there. I pencil tight where I want to nail the drawing but in general I find myself wanting to do more drawing when inking to keep it more spontaneous and fresh. my biggest regret on the strip is not being able to draw it bigger as I feel I could do an even better job, same with hiring models or shooting ref, but I just don't have the budget or time. My hats off to all the great of the past who did, I can see where it did help.

Fall Semester-Week 8 Vincent Desiderio and Juliette Aristides Workshops

2011-10-19T16:45:00.000-04:00

This was a great week and busy week at school, it was a great week to be a student at PAFA and reminded me of why I am glad I chose this place--as we had with two great workshops by two of the academies former students who have gone one to be come two of the biggest figurative artists and painters working today,Juliette Aristides and Vincent Desiderio. I was once again one of the monitors for Vince's two-day workshop, the 4th of his workshops I've attended here at the school. While being a monitor might crimp my painting time in the workshop it gives me more off-peak one-on-one time with Vince before, after and during the lunch break. Vince comes twice a year to do these workshops and I think that says a lot about him as a person, even more than about him as an artist. Vince charges you up, feeds your head with so much good art-talk and history, theory and his enthusiasm just fills the room and everyone there like a vessel that overflows with art and goodness. In the big Art World where there is a lot of nastiness and ugliness, jealousy and outright crapand BS its great to get the perspective both figuratively and literally from an artist in the battle every day. He really invests in each person and relates to you almost as a pier, no big ego, no attitude--he wants us all to join him. He takes the Modernists to the mat, as he lectures and demos on the formal, theoretical, conceptual and the technical narrative of painting. He's brilliant, plain and simple, but it's an honest brilliance, a well crafted and well well thought out and historical brilliance. Here is a bit from one of his discussions during the workshop. "Great technique is on the brink of collapsing under the weight of it's own daring. Like starring at a man on a high wire--is he going to fall? And he doesn't fall. He feels painting has to be a fruit-full ground, free of the neo-cons of "contemporary figurative crap" or neo-cons who do "conceptual crap". Vince is a painter who wants to see into the future, the possibility of where painting can go.Whatever the color or temperature of your light mass is it's going to force your eye to see the shadow as it's opposite.Even though I have heard him speak on the subjects of tonality, perspective and seen him do the demo's it never get's boring, it's like a prayer or an affirmation to see this and him working again. I think because I have done the workshops before I can understand better and concentrate on other aspects and not feel overwhelmed.Vince started by giving is talk and then his demo. he talked about the history of painting and how artists came to solve the problems of staying active and current while still having traditional skills.

Vince did a chalk talk where he discussed the four zones of light in a painting.

The Model of Tonality1. The incidence of reflection (highlight-which always has a shift to the cool)2. The light mass.3. The turning ( terminator)4. The shadow (which are neutral and like mirrors and who's color can change depending on the light mass.)

He also talked about local color and chroma which is the color of the light and how we must know the difference as painters.When you observe the model keep this model in your head to help organize what you are seeing--which is form with a capital F and that takes over from the analogue of perspective.

Then Vince did his demo for the first day after we worked from the model. and shellaced our drawings using amber shellac to seal in the drawing. Working in what essentially is like a warm grisaille, though not exactly that he did a demo in which he really loaded in the shadows and then loaded in the light mass and worked away from the incidence of reflection across the form toward the shadow, just warming the color before the terminator as the form rolls into the shadow,

Here is the final demo where Vince worked over a drawing by one of the students . The lucky student got to keep the demo to boot!

The next day after another talk and reviewing peoples work Vince did another demo, this time drawing on a piece of museum board, it was fun to just watch him draw a figure out of his head in a similar pose to the one our model had taken. After he finished i took the drawing and shellaced it.

The final state of the demo.You can really see how he moves the temp of the light as he moves across the form into the shadow. if you really study his paintings you can see even after he adds more color he still works this way building the light mass so the paintings have a glow.

Marie Manski who was the other monitor during the workshop with Desiderio.

Here is my painting from the worshop. I never get to really finish it the way i want--its always more like a drill to try and employ what I'm learning.

Now while this was going on in the Hamilton Building, across the plaza in the HLB Building Juliette Aristides was doing her 2-day workshop which was running at the same time. My friend Lexi was the monitor form that workshop and she sent me the two photos of the demos Aristides was working on. I wish I could have taken booth but I'm sure she will come back. Friday evening before the workshop Aristidies she gave a talk and slide show about her work and took questions after wards from the crowd.

Lexi and Will looking at art before Aristides' talk.

Peter van Dyck and his wife carolyn Pyfrom talk with Aristides after her talk.

Here are two of her demos from the workshop.

So it was a busy, a bit hectic and exhausting week as well as my Birthday--I just turned 50 today--but age isn't anything but a number!

Judge Parker

2011-10-17T00:44:00.001-04:00

Oh, oh, dhow down in the girl's locker room....

Judge Parker

2011-10-09T02:04:00.001-04:00

This week's JP Sunday.

Fall Semester-Week 6

2011-10-07T18:37:00.001-04:00

This week was a good painting week for me. I finished up another commuter landscape and got a few more paintings underway. I worked from a really old and small low rez pic from my old cell phone. I remember really being struck by the great light in this picture--so that's what I went for, pushing the colors as well. I think I was warmed up from doing that plein air demo last week at the gallery and kept the painting energy rolling.

This is the block-in for the painting I'll be working on for the next 3 weeks in mt Life Painting class with Peter van Dyck. I got to set up this pose so I got something a lot more interesting going on than a guy sitting in a chair.

This was a one-shot painting done today in the class with Peter. The models pose was only for today--so this was just a mad dash in the three hour class to get stuff down as usual. It's really just a attempt to get the light and atmosphere which was changing every minute as the sun rose from behind the convention center. I was thinking a little about Zhaoming Wu's approach on this and i used a big flat brush on it to keep from being seduced by details...

This is a series of comps for my Super Sad paintings. I might do this quite large, actually stapling the canvas to the wall and using huge brushes or squeegies or who knows what. I want to play with more pushed compositions as well. So it was a good week and I plan on keeping the paint brush to the metal as I have only a few more weeks till my show in Jersey!

Judge Parker

2011-10-02T14:46:00.002-04:00

This week's JP Sunday, Randy doesn't seem too worried about his stalker....

Gallery Plein Air Paint-out/Fall Semester Week 5

2011-10-01T23:56:00.001-04:00

Today I went out to the new gallery I am in Parke Schaffer Fine Arts in Wayne, PA which is having an open gallery every Saturday in October where two artists come out and paint live in the gallery. Today it was David Grafton and myself in the gallery, David inside doing a landscape and myself, outside in the brisk fall weather. I sat in the sun, but the wind was blowing pretty good today so towards the end I was getting a bit chilly, or my hands were. I attracted many onlookers throughout the day as i painted in front of the gallery and my mom and dad stopped out as they are in town to see my brother and his wife who just made them grandparents and me an uncle last weekend.I tried to find a set-up that I knew I could paint and that would stay in good light for the afternoon and that if the light changed ( which it did) I could manage the change. It was sunny when I set up, but cloudy when I got going--but then about an hour before the whole thing came to an end the sun came back out so I had to make many, many adjustments and chase the fading sun--but that's what plien-air is all about!

This is a shot of the gallery with my buddy Will sitting with my parents as parke shows some work to a few perspective customers.

David Grafton doing his painting in the gallery

Will and my parents.

Here you can see my painting in a few stages of progress. I wanted to keep it simple and many of the cooler views would have put me into parking lot traffic, but eventually i had to paint the cars...

Cars are no harder than anything else to paint and actually they are easier than things like trees since their shapes are simpler. I love the reflective colors as well.

a nice shot of my mom and dad, it was fun to have them at the gallery as i painted and they enjoyed the process and the nice lunch Parke was so gracious to serve us.

In school news another week flew by and I missed one of my classes but I did put the final strokes to this painting I have been hacking at the past few weeks. Its so frustrating at times that the lighting conditions change so radically from session to session, dark and cloudy to bright and sunny, so if you are painting with the spotlight on the model, one session it's bright and warm--the next darker as the sun outside is blasting in. This week we are coming starting a new pose. meanwhile I am working on a few new paintings in school, a night painting from the 4th floor lobby and another train painting in the studio so i can have multiple paintings in progress.

I fixed a few things that were hard to see in the lobby but I really want to do this with my night vision, not from a photo.

Peter also had his cute dog Sasha in class as he uses her in the animal drawing class he teaches. We bonded over some extra turkey bacon I had for breakfast.I also started teaching my Illustration class in the After School Program and we had a good first class. If I get a chance I'll post some work from the class in the next few weeks. So as you can see--fall is in full swing--and the time is flying by.

Judge Parker

2011-09-25T03:03:00.004-04:00

New bus, new problems...

Fall Semester--Week 5 US Artists in the House

2011-09-23T22:36:00.000-04:00

This week the US Artist show rolled into PAFA again for it's second annual 4 day show featuring galleries from all over the country bringing the work of top tier artists from the past and present. the event is hosted by the Women's Board of the Academy and it's always a good show and honestly a great opportunity to see lots of great art. As soon as I walked in the show today I was face-to-face with a piece by Norman Rockwell. there were several Rockwell's at the show as well as two painting by Dean Cornwell. From Arcadia to Principle Gallery and more, there was work by Sargent, Koch,Eakins, Mann, Sloan, Hopper and more.After my morning class with Peter Van Dyck along with my buddies Dave and Will we trucked around the show taking in, literally gorging our eyes on art. the show was smaller this year but i think there was just as much good work, maybe less contemporary or abstract work this year, but I saw enough of that last week in Chelsea. We all snapped away with our cameras and just ate with our eyes. Its always amazing and sort of shocking to find some incredible new artist you never even heard of before at an event like this. I was really stunned by this painting by Alexander Bower--it just jumped out at you. It seems 100-125 years ago there were so many great painters working that are out there in obscurity like ships in the sea waiting to suddenly be discovered again. You realize how high the painting skill was in that age.

I think this show being at the school is a great thing for us students and fans of great painting to be able to see so much great work in one space. I also spent time talking to gallery owners and art dealers. I hope I was laying seeds which might sprout down the road for me gallery wise and as I am learning more and more it's vital to meet and greet a lot of people in the fine art field.

I was very excited to see this excellent painting by John Koch who's work i have always liked but until today only seen in reproduction. There were so many great passages in this painting.

A great painting by Sloan.This show and last week's trip to NYC were really big art recharges for me. i have a great collection of books, but nothing beats looking at great paintings in the flesh!

What a great Dean Cornwell painting!

John Innes.

JS Sargent.

Jeremy Mann who's work I came to discover and love 3 years ago at the first US Artist show I attended. They already have the date for the show next year--which happens on my birthday weekend so maybe that will bode will as a good omen for me and the show next year.

Fall Semester Week 4 -Mega Post-DPC in NYC-Desiderio, Saville and More

2011-09-18T15:54:00.004-04:00

This was a good, busy week for me. I had been fighting a bit of a head cold so it took a bit of edge off in the beginning of the week and then just like last year, now I know I will have this annoying little cough for a month after. But despite that it was a good week for art. Along with my DPC buddies and a few other friends I hopped the Megabus and headed to New Your to see two openings by two renowned artists, Vincent Desiderio and Jenny Saville. We also tromped around Chelsea and looked at a lot of good, weird and strange art at a lot of galleries. We hit Gallery Henochwhich had their new season show up and represents David Kassan and Kim Cougan, one of my current favorite artists.

Alina posing between two painting by Lucong in Henoch--she'd make a great model for him!

We saw some great sculpture by Nick Cave in Mary Boone Gallery

We also hit Elanor Ettinger.which closed their old gallery and has opened up an new gallery on 25th street in Chelsea and another location up town. They gad several painting by Steve Houston who's one of my favorite figure painters right now.

One of Kim Cougan's new painting they were getting ready to hang for his show.We saw all kinds of things as we walked around Chelsea, from Lego sculpture to 3D paintings--which we all really liked.

Nick Cave's cool sculptures

Vincent Desiderio's painting that to me is his version of Sargent's Madame X

Yours truly with Vince and Will.

It was a fun day even though we had to jump around some off-and-on-rain showers, but the crisp fall-like air was great. It was great to see the new paintings by Vince, some of which he showed us last spring when he taught his workshop in PAFA. They were really spectacular, in some cases and I think this show was better than the last one I saw in Marlborough three years ago. It was interesting to see the textured surfaces in some of the paintings, Vince had talked about using both asphaltum and Rustoleum in working on the beginning stages of the paintings when I saw him last. he gave me a great critique and encouraged me to try using both--and I did many paintings last semester with the Rustoleum. There were several painting by Vince that had an almost NC Wyeth feel to them in design, paint application and subject matter--being paintings of old frigates or their masts. I think Vince is one of the most important figure painters today, he really demands attention with his intellect--his passion for painting--and his craftsmanship or as he calls it, his" technical narrative." His work challenges you to not only look, but think, its pretty or beautiful but not for beauties sake. Their are many paintings in this show of what appear to be asylums and almost circus freaks or something like Schlitze the Pinhead. I think all of this still resonates or is connected back to the theme Desiderio has been painting since his son Sam was born with chronic birth defects.Jenny Savilles another contemporary realist who's new show also resonates with Desiderios theme of suffering or "poetic discomfort' as I call it. We have several large canvases featuring the face of a young boy who's face seems to be a gigantic blow-up of almost a police or medical photo shot after a crime or before an operation to show the injury or abuse. It seems that all of these images are themes or images Saville has been exploring for a while, painting or repainting or revisiting them in a serial of paintings.

You can see Chuck Close in the middle of the picture as he moves through the crowd.

I like Savilles work, but I am also a bit repulsed at the same time, the powerful and lushness pulls me in, but the beat-up people repulse me too. I suppose that makes great art that you can't be impassive about. I think I like the drawings more, the large charcoal and pastel drawings of her "Madonna and Child" themed works head my attention the best. I am always a sucker for good drawing! Both shows were well attended, Chuck Close showed up at Saville's show just beforllee we left and I bumped into my teacher Alex Kanveski on the way out.We grabbed a burger and headed back to Philly and were treated to a beautiful sunset in the city. Everyone was inspired and we all hit the studio yesterday and painted away!

Judge Parker

2011-09-18T00:08:00.000-04:00

Here comes the romance!

Fall Semester 2011 Week 3

2011-09-12T21:19:00.001-04:00

The second full week of classes have come and gone and I'm heading full into the thrird week at school. I also started teaching my fall Storyboard class down the street at Uarts. I have 11 students in the class so it's a bit smaller than previous years, which in a lot of ways is better for me and the students as we'll have a lot more one-on-one time and the crits will be shorter.Last week we started the second pose in my painting class with Peter Van Dyck, we now have one pose on the instructed day and another one on the uninstructed class. This one we as a group came up with the set-up and pose. I decided to go back to a smaller size and paint on the museum baorrd as these paintings are so short you really don't get much going an you just will not have a finished painting out of these classes.

This is where I left the first painting. Though Peter encourages you to work on a large canvas i feel its a waste as you will only just start getting into the meat and then you will be done. I will probably paint over this and use it again at some point. i like parts of this, but mostly it's a wash.

This painting is the first go at the second pose on Wednesdays. I went smaller and I think that worked better, next week I'll hack at it again. I guess if I don't get what I want I wont care as the cost of the paper is far less than the canvas.

This is Peter's painting after the second session.

After the class was done we all lined our work up to talk about it.

Peter pointed out what he thought was working or which paintings there seemed to be a good sense of space and values. This week we have a new pose so I want to try something different than the previous work, maybe play around with the composition a bit more.

Judge Parker

2011-09-11T01:01:00.000-04:00

Is Sophie's new romance going to get of the ground with some hot licks?

Fall Semester 2011-- My final Year- Week 2-MEGA POST

2011-09-04T13:34:00.015-04:00

All hail the mighty Paint Brush!! This week was the official opening of the Lenfest Plaza and the grand social experiment that will be happening daily on the steps of the school. They opened the side door of former gallery 128 and grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs for the student body and faculty--almost a Noontime Nuggets Mixer.

We all sat at the new benches and ate as we enjoyed the beautiful summer afternoon. I would say the paintbrush or Paint Torch (it's official name) by Claes Oldenburg doesn't seem very popular to say the least with most of the student body. I think most everybody I know would have prefered it be something other than a paint brush and that there would have been a competition hosted at school and offered some of the great sculpture alumni or faculty to compete. I also think it just clashes with the Historic Landmark Building too much. It would have been great for Pennslanding or Love Park.

It looks too pop-camp for what I think should represent our school. Out of sync and out of date are what I feel about it in the end--though I do like the design of the plaza. I think however the fact we have a women's shelter, family court coming, drug and metal health facilities all within a block of school and a growing and aggressive homeless population means the plaza is going to be natural draw for a grand social experiment. The only real good is the fact it will be a tourist and art draw to our campus, however I think the idea that it will somehow boost the attendance at the museum or benefit the school in other ways is yet to be proven.

What has been proven is the fact that the cities skate boarders like it and the plaza--they already scuffed the paint dob ground sculpture within the first days of the plaza's official opening. It's only a matter of time before someone, some asshole will write on the thing. I wonder if the people who thought of this whole thing have really spent anytime of the ground in Philly, especially around city hall? This city is full of messed up people and assholes and jerks just looking to mess stuff up. Philly is a great city, but it's held back by there being too many ****ed up people living here and the stress of the underperforming/funded city and social services and the growing amount of underemployed and undereducated.

That being said progress is being made, and no one thing, person or event can totally define an institution like PAFA, overall it is the quality of the artists and teachers who work, teach, study there and the influence of their art on the art world that do, and even if I disagree with certain aspects of the plaza, or Torcho Brush, that beautiful summers day was I'm sure what the people who came up with the Lenfest Plaza would have had in mind, 100's of people eating,laughing and enjoying each others company on the plaza.

This was the first full week of school and so all the 4th floor was buzzing--what wonders of art are being created behind the yellow cutains?

Here is my painting The Morning Signal hanging at Parke Scaffer Fine Art.

Week 2 of my fall semester flew by, I only have one class but it was a busy week. I attended the opening of the Parke Schaffer Gallery, a new gallery in Wayne PA where I have five peices of my work for sale and I also did First Fridays, all with my DPC buddies. I did manage to finish another painting in my SEPTA series and plan out another which I will start this week.

You can see the final painting on michaelcolemanley.blogspot.com

Peter Van Dyck decided to not have the model sit on the couch, so we started a new pose with the model, and we'll have a separate pose with her on the uninstructed days.So this is where the painting of the blue sofa stops for now

The class is supposed to be a portrait class but it's really just a painting class. I'm 50/50 on this, I'm kind of disappointed it isn't a portrait class as I'd love to see how Peter handles the portrait.

It's more like his painting the interior class I took with him a year ago. I enjoyed that class a lot, so I'm looking at it as a second pass at that class. Van Dyck like Noel is all about starting your painting by building in these big shapes and pushing or almost inventing/reinterpreting changes in tempuature /color/value between the figure/objects or the inside of a room vs the outside or a passage of light--( it took me a while to actually understand this, I was very frustrated for a while, but I finally understood their language and point during on Sunday painting session.)

This is my block-in-we'll see how far I get by next week, below is Peter's block-in that he did with us in class

This paintings a is a great example of what Van Dyck is teaching us--notice how close the value range is here, no high key lights or dark, darks.

The big thing is keeping the values range pretty narrow. You paint these shapes, large and bold, thick paint, and then into these bigger beds of color you start to paint the smaller things, the smaller transitions paying attention to contour and shape, but also being ruthless and painting through or repainting some passages many times, often scrapping of most of what you did during the current session and revisiting it later in the next session. It's definitely not closed form painting!

Judge Parker

2011-09-04T01:40:00.001-04:00

Let's go buy a mobile home! I had fun drawing the salesman, I based him on my old insurance agent.

Robin Hood 2 Cover illustration

2011-08-30T21:17:00.007-04:00

Here is the final cover illo featuring Robin Hood and maid Marian for the fine folks over at Airship 27. This is my second cover for them, the first one which I did last year garnered my the Pulp Cover of the Year award. This cover was to feature Robin and Marian breaking into the castle, and so one I had my idea I had my two friends Will Sentman and Alina Osipov model for me. Will was the model for the first cover I painted and he has plenty of Ren-fair costumes which came in handy. I shot several pics but never could get the exact poses I wanted so I just used what I needed, mostly folds, drapery, from several poses and most of both figures are drawn from imagination. I don't want to be a hostage to a photo and time was tight so I could only get both together for one session.
Once the sketch was approved I got a nice heavy piece of old Scanner Illustration board and put 4 coats of gesso down.
Then I xeroxed my sketch enlarging it and taped it together to make a transfer.

Then taking a 6B pencil I coated the back of the drawing and taped it to the illustration board.
Then I traced it off on the board.

I decided to not do a color sketch this time and just went for it--I figured I had a strong idea of what I wanted, a two color world, the warm inside of the castle vs the cool night outside lit by the moon. I also was thinking of the great pulp artists like George and Jerome Rozen and of NC Wyeth as well.

I massed or blocked in the composition ignoring any detail, just concentrating on the shapes and color atmosphere. I still had my drawing and so working from that and the photos I worked in the details after the big masses were well established. If I got too picky I'd either mass it up or wipe it off and work back into the "bed' of the big shapes. Between session I would oil the painting out with some linseed oil and a paper towel. this kept the darks from sinking in and the colors vibrant. The only medium I used was some Liquin fine detail. I probably painted each face 4 times, maybe even more, I even took some yellow ochre and glazed over the inside of the castle and the figures once to bring them inside the warm of the castle interior. The idea of keeping one color inside vs outside I get directly from my lessons at PAFA with Scott Noel and Peter Van Dyck. I feel part of the way we achieve a believability and marry the figures into an environment is to keep everything in that same atmosphere. This was a lot of fun and went fairly fast once I got going, I really wanted to have that fun old pulp feel, so I wanted realism but only to a point. The folks at Airship love it--and a happy client is what's important here as well.

Gallery Opening--Parke Schaffer Fine Arts

2011-08-30T19:27:00.001-04:00

The new gallery I am a part of, Parke Schaffer Fine Arts has it's grand opening this Thursday. There are a lot of heavy hitters in the gallery like my friend William Wray and Aaron Westerberg. The gallery will also have artists in the gallery doing demos and meeting the public every Saturday in October, right now I believe I am scheduled for October 8th. Its a great looking gallery and easy to get too, right off Route 30 in Wayne, an easy trip from 1-476 in Wayne. the gallery is filled with all top tier talent that Parke, the gallery owner spent a lot of time recruiting from all over the country and I'm happy to be a part of it. I have five pieces in the gallery including the recently completed Morning Signal.
If you are in the area stop on by and support this new gallery and the artists on their opening in these hard economic times.

Drawing like the 1800's

2011-08-28T12:50:00.002-04:00

well about 10:30 last night hurricane Irene knocked out my power--of course on a deadline...but I guess I'm always on a deadline. So out came the candles and I drew for as long as I could that way on the next week's JP strips, but I could run my computer so soon I was done after roughing out the first few strips. It does give you and idea of what drawing by candle light must have been like--and it sucked!

Judge Parker

2011-08-28T12:29:00.001-04:00

Well despite the hurricane and my power being out I am still posting this week's Judge Sunday from a secret location...

Fall Semester 2011-- My final Year- Week 1

2011-08-26T19:02:00.004-04:00

Today was my first day of class in my fall semester at PAFA in my final year in the Certificate program. It feels good to get everything rolling again officially though I never really stopped painting over the summer. I have only one class this fall, portrait painting with Peter Van Dyck. Today was the first class and Peter had us dive right in. We have to have 2 classes every semester where we don't have a model but that didn't stop the class, instead Peter had us start by painting the space, the setup that we will paint the model into when she shows up next week. Working on some museum board that was coated with some acrylic medium I blasted right in on this piece, next week we'll work on it again and add the model.

Peter talking to the class about how the set-up the inner and outer worlds /spaces in the painting and what drew his eye as far as composition.

I love school but I am glad to be starting my final year, next year I plan on attending the masters program at PAFA, but I feel the urge to get my undergrad done.It's a mixture of feelings for sure. I honestly feel impatient with taking classes at this point. A lot will change in the next year, school, life, my studio, my daily routine and some friends will go away and some will stay, but that's life. I can now look back and see how far I have come in the 5 years I have been going to PAFA as a painter and also as a person and it has all been a wonderful experience, but every bird has to leave the nest.

PAFA Summer camp: Comics

2011-08-24T12:21:00.007-04:00

Last week was probably my busiest week of the summer bewteen my regular workload of the JP sytrip and teaching a week-long intensive comic book workshop for PAFA's Summer camp. The class was one week, 10-3pm and the ages of the students ranged from 9-13 and included a wide range of abilities. Like all workshops like this one there were a few naturals in the room, kids who just got cartooning and were off and running. There were a few who were on the fence or there because their parents sent them and one who just slept the who time or played video games. There was also a lot of happy campers, 27 to be exact, so luckily I had to great assistants Lexi and Leigh to help me a ton with managing the kids--they saved my bacon as they say.

One of the things I did this time was to do a group comic where I'd have the class come up with the characters and then draw the first panel and then the kids would take turns drawing the next panel. We did four of them: Chainsaw Duck vs Sasquatch, Hobo vs. a jewish teenage zombie, Godzilla vs everybody, including Superman, and an Emo Clown and a dog who walked upright. Like most comics drawn by the young--everybody died, was run over, cooked, eaten or plastered on the front of an ambulance. Kids love to kill or main or destroy their characters--death is funny at 12! Both the boys and the girls equally expressed their desire to run a talking dog over with a car on paper.

A cool caricature of yours truly...

While they took turns drawing on the group comic they also drew their own comics, Titles like Insurance Bunny, The Other Side of the Street (a comic strip series) or Wizards vs WWII. I got them to understand and play with design somewhat by drawing portraits then making caricatures from them, including these two of me which I think are awesome. They were probably the most productive class ever, the walls of studio 5 were plastered with their or as we pinned up each page. on Friday the proud parents came in to see the work of their proud offspring and there were happy photos and cheese puff and apple juice for all.

Daniel Sprick Workshop

2011-08-24T04:51:00.002-04:00

I posted about my recent workshop with Daniel Spick over on my Michael Cole Manley bog.

Judge Parker

2011-08-21T23:11:00.001-04:00

Looks like the mysterious stranger is gone, but is he gone for good?

Judge Parker

2011-08-14T01:59:00.001-04:00

Now that the old Judge Parker is off in NY we catch up with the New Judge Parker...

Judge Parker

2011-08-07T01:24:00.003-04:00

Sam leaves for home bidding the Judge, Connie and Angel goodbye...and thus ends the NY JP Adventure.

Robin Hood 2

2011-08-06T21:15:00.003-04:00

Here is the preliminary sketch for the next Pulp cover featuring Robin Hood that I will be working on this week. I'll post more of the "how-to" process once the cover is finished.

Judge Parker

2011-07-31T04:08:00.000-04:00

Sam is anxious to get back home...

One Week Intensive Comic Book Workshop at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2011-07-24T12:07:00.004-04:00

Last week I had a great time teaching a one-week intensive comic book class at PAFA. I had a great class of talented and eager young cartoonists who came in every day ready to learn and work. This always makes the class fun for me because there is nothing better for a teacher than to have eager students who like to draw! They also were a talented group of budding artists...who know, maybe some of them will be the next hot cartoonist or animator in 5-10 years?

As a reward for all of their hard work I drew a sketch for each of them the last day of class featuring any character they wanted. Next month I teach another class in the art camp they have at PAFA.

Judge Parker

2011-07-24T11:59:00.002-04:00

The judge's New York adventure winds down and Constance gets her promotion in the wake of her quick thinking and actions in her publisher's death. I will miss drawing these characters when we move onto the next story...

Judge Parker

2011-07-17T12:03:00.002-04:00

The rooftop drama is over...

Judge Parker

2011-07-10T21:59:00.000-04:00

It this the end of Judge Parker?

Superman-Batman layouts

2011-07-04T01:18:00.002-04:00

Here are several pages of layouts I did last year for Jerry Ordway on Superman/Batman Worship to help with the old deadline doom.

Judge Parker

2011-07-03T02:09:00.000-04:00

Is she going to take the judge's hand and climb off the edge....

Captain America

2011-06-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

Here are a few penciled illustrations that I did for Disney for a Captain America storybook retelling his origin. The illustration above is from Steve Rogers being rejected as 4F in the recruiting office and meeting the doctor who will introduce him to Project rebirth.

I did the drawing and then Disney hired someone else to digitally paint the book, which I hear is out in stores now, but I haven't seen yet. Stylistically the job went through many changes as it went through both Disney and marvel and many hands. its started out as being more of a retro-feel, then they wanted a Ron Garney feel, then---who knows. one of the gig issues you deal with at times on licensing jobs like this, which all storybooks or any art featuring any character for kids books, bed sheets or toys, etc., is that you often deal with people who are in charge of making decisions on stylistic choices who have no real understanding of the characters, their history or what makes then cool in the first place.

This was a fun job overall, really the big issue on this was doing a lot of research on locations and historical reference as this also covered a lot about immigration, Ellis island and NYC history, it just wasn't Cap punching Nazi's. In fact that had to be played down. I have great fondness for this character and the work Jack Kirby did along with a lot of work by Colan, Romita and Buscema, so I had that to keep the flames high despite a few bumps in the road on the editorial end.
This is the scene after the saboteur blew up the lab fatally wounding the Doctor who invented the super soldier serum.
I loved doing this one and drawing all the Kirby machines, some of the illustrations like this one were based on panels from old issue of Cap, but I had to do a lot redrawing and changes to a accommodate the script, book layout and some of these illustrations had a dozen or more layers as every figure and every foreground or background element had to be done on a separate layer so the painters could split the work up.

Batman Brave and the Bold Character Design

2011-06-29T22:07:00.002-04:00

here are a bunch of batman designs i did for an episode that had a spoof on comic con and the cosplay crowd.

More Lobo Layouts

2011-06-28T22:40:00.005-04:00

Here are two more pages from the Lobo job I laid out and you can see Jerry Ordway's awesome finished inks over them. Its always interesting for me to see what the final blend of our collaboration looks like. Jerry is one of the greatest finishers and inkers ever!
One of the harder things for me is where to stop the drawing, in other words to not go so far as to do full pencils. Artists like Gil Kane and especially John Buscema really had that down to a science. It took me a while to figure out what I was comfortable with, but doing storyboards for years did help that a bit. By doing the heavy lifting on the storytelling it gave Jerry a heads up and pick up on the deadline. No two artists think alike or always agree but Jerry never really change a ton of what I did, and if he did since his name was going on the book I didn't mind, anything he changed would still be to the good and the work looks great to my eye.

Lobo Layouts

2011-06-27T17:58:00.004-04:00

I'm posting a few layouts I did in helping Jerry Ordway on a recent lobo project. I laud the jobs out to help with the tight deadline and Jerry did the finishes.

Jerry would print these out and light-box them and make whatever changes he wanted and then go to inks.

Judge Parker

2011-06-25T23:59:00.003-04:00

Meanwhile back at Spencer Farms Abbey and Sophie keep up with the unfolding New York drama on-line...

Judge Parker Process

2011-06-22T04:02:00.002-04:00

I thought I would post some of my pencils and then the inks to show the process on the Judge Parker newspaper strip. I pencil as tight as I need and really focus in on the expressions and acting of the characters based on Woody Wilson's script. I also rough in very lightly the lettering and balloons and put them in using Photoshop later. But I have to plan then out to make everything fit in and the eye-flow of the balloons to work correctly. One of the bigger issues for me is that the print version of the strips which run in the paper are really small,ny dad clips and send me copies from the Detroit Free press so I see what the strip actually looks like in the paper.

Strips are run smaller than ever to cram as many on a page in the average paper, this means that everything is smaller from the lettering to the rendering, however the strip also runs on-line on the dailyink website as well as in a lot of newspapers who have an on-line comic section in their on-line version of the newspaper. There the reproduction is a lot better, bigger and in color. What this chiefly means is I have to draw the faces big enough so you can see the expressions well. I don't want to draw a big-head or talking head strip so its always an issue I have to think about as I lay the strips out as I want some environments as well, they are as important as the characters sometimes. The idea I usually work with is to have a good set-up panel that shows everything in a medium establishing shot--and then I can cut in. We need to see Sofie's room and bed and computer at least well once in the strip in a few days worth of continuity.

Most anyone can read strips they missed on-line now, but I don't count on that to cheat set-ups. The other thing I consider very important is choosing the angles of the face to show the expressions clearly, variety of head size adds some visual dynamics as far as layout, make sure the shapes and overlaps are good and to make the female's faces and hair beautiful, appealing and attractive.

The inking is the easy part of the job for me and always has been. I've been working on making the hair more "Dallas" as in the TV show. I started thinking a while back that JP is kind of like one of those 8o's soap dramas like a "Dallas" so I should try and make the women more glamorous in that vein. I also worked on making the hairstyles work more for me. I could never deal with Abby's hairdo. I couldn't get with how it was done, it seemed a weird holdover from the 50's with a 70's twist. So I started looking at real actresses with similar hairstyles to really work it out.

I'm also looking at the great strip artists I admire like Raymond, Drake Williamson and Starr, all of those artists made everyone great looking and had a lot of great textures in the inking. I'm mainly using a Hunt 108 nib, a NO 4 brush and Pigmas markers NO 2, 5, 8, for all the inking, and do any corrections in Photoshop. I use the blacks as simple patterns to focus or hold the eye or lead the eye here. I'm also keeping the set-up in Sofie's room lighter than the much more dramatic lighting going on with the Judge and the suicide jumper in NYC.

Judge Parker

2011-06-20T01:43:00.001-04:00

Judge Parker enters the Twitter age!

Remembering Al Williamson

2011-06-14T19:25:00.006-04:00

A boy and his hero.

It has been a year since I received the news that my fiend and one time mentor Al Williamson passed away, just a month after his long time friend Frank Frazetta also passed on, shifted into another reality.

I can never think of men like these artists, men, as nothing less than immortal, their art, their visions linked in a great chain still lives on in me and a zillion other people who were touched and inspired by their work. Their work still can inspire me at any second and it lives in me, literally is a part of my art existence, deep down in my art engine. The flesh may pass but what both of these men gave the world will be eternal. How lucky we all are that their art is still here as alive and vital.

It has taken me a while to process my feelings and thoughts on these two great artists and towering figures in the world of comics and the larger one of fantastic art. I never knew or met Frazetta, but I worshipped at his alter like just about any artist I know who was into comics and animation, fantasy art, etc. How could you escape him, he so influenced the art world that you would still get influenced by him through other artists who were influenced by him even if somehow you never knew his art.

That culture, what was then called sci-fi, or even geek culture is really now mainstream culture, and I grew up and into it in the 70's, from being a fan and aspiring artist into a professional in the 80's. Frazetta was a pillar for me, a giant, like Jack Kirby, always the top of the mountain and always there to inspire--his vision shaped my vision of the world like gravity bends light.

While I never met Frazetta in person and never got around to seeing the museum of his art, much now to my loss as its gone as the family appears to be auctioning off his work, I did get to met and know Al Williamson, and I am the better for it.

Al was a great friend and mentor to me in my late 20's, a figure who loomed large artistically to me and was a bridge to many great artists of the past as mentors or teachers can often be. He so gracious, kind and helpful too me in the stage of my growth as a young pro was the dream of what a big-time cartoonist should be. He had the life anyone could want as a professional cartoonist --success, great talent, family, home, studio--you name it--and for me he was a living, direct link or portal back to the classic era of comics, comic strips, illustration, American cinema and pulp/fantasy fiction of the last 100 years. He was also maybe the last hero I will ever have. AS you get older its so much rarer to have any heroes at all, life just produces less and less and it seems at times more heroes with feet of clay than anything else.
A pic of me in Al's studio.

Through my friend Bret Blevins I got to meet Al after Bret moved up to Honesdale, PA to share Al's studio. I would often truck up the North East extension taking the three-hour drive from Philly to hang out with both of them in Al's studio, a converted carriage house behind his home on Park Street.

It was like the Mecca of comic art for me, like a Camelot of sorts and Al was such a great guy; he was very charismatic, open and down to earth. He also had the greatest collection of comic and comic strip art ever. Foster, Raymond, Salinas, Robbins, Wood, he had it all, and collections and old newspaper strips clipped, it was like a treasure trove of art! He owned maybe the most important piece of comic strip art, The Bridge Sunday featuring Prince Valiant fighting the Vikings. Just look at Frazetta's EC cover and you can see the direct link to Foster for both men.

In the evenings I would stay late literally gorging my brain on the art in Al's collection, trying to learn the techniques and secrets of the masters of comic art. You can learn so much by looking at the original art and I did. I would drive out 17 miles to the little cabin I was renting on Duck harbor, my head so stuffed with art I couldn't take anymore--Drunk with art.

I think I learned more in the brief time, grew more in that time I shared with Al than any other as a cartoonist. I continued to grow obviously, but that was a hyper time for me and Al was also instrumental in getting me back in at Marvel Comics. He kept a Steve Ditko job on Daredevil that Ditko had done as a fill-in, but since it was breakdowns, loose, loose pencils, basically like those rough figures you see in a “how-to” book. Al didn’t feel comfortable working on such loose work, but I said if he kept it I’d tighten up the pencils for him. He did, talking it over with the editor, Carl Potts. Then I proceded to pull out my Ditko and Wally Wood comics and tighten up the pencils and then Al and I both inked the job. When he sent in the story carl raved over it and Al gave most of the credit to me, and that got me in at marvel working for Potts as a regular inker which lead to my regular work penciling and inking at Marvel. That’s the kind of guy Al was.

You could never meet a bigger art geek for the classic strips than AL. And the great thing was Al would be there showing you this stuff he had collected and he was right there with you, geeking out over it too! Many a day I would drive off and come back with Donomite Donuts and coffee and then Bret, Al and I would sit in a circle in his studio just going over art and talking...those are some of my most cherished memories. "Foster was the greatest" was often heard and repeated, along with a tape of classic films cores featuring Korngold, Max Steiner, Newman and more. I don't know how many times the scores for Captain Blood or Sea Hawk playing over and over and over. We'd all laugh and get a big joke out of it. I tried to introduce Al to new stuff, and he liked some, but he still loved his old scores.

Here is a pic of Al and me taken by Bret, Al is sitting with his coffee and looking at probably some Hal Foster or Alex Raymond or something else from his library.
Al might have been in a tie with Fory Ackerman for being the original fanboy, for Al was such a huge fanboy deep down still 12-years-old, and I think that is part of what made him a success and so good, he really loved the great stuff and he could just link up to it and go, and did for a career that last 50 years. Who is so lucky to do what they truly love for that long?

I miss those days and I miss Al with his big laugh, but looking at any of his work brings it all back, and in that way maybe we artists are a bit luckier than most—our art makes us immortal. So here’s to Al and Frank—the immortals who I hope never fade as long as anyone enjoys great art, fantasy and adventure.

Judge Parker

2011-06-12T00:43:00.001-04:00

The roof top drama continues...

Judge Parker

2011-06-05T02:04:00.001-04:00

Can she hang on?!

New Process Article Spotlight

2011-06-04T00:23:00.002-04:00

My works was spotlighted in Al Gury's article in the June issue of Artists & Illustrators Magazine.

Judge Parker

2011-05-29T10:42:00.001-04:00

The rooftop drama in NYC continues...

Fairly Odd Parents Storyboard

2011-05-24T13:00:00.007-04:00

When swapping files off my laptop I came across these storyboards for a series of Fairly Odd Parents shorts I did for Nic a few years back featuring the Power Pals and the Crimson Chin. The CC was voiced by Jay Leno and I designed the Power Pals for one of the TV episodes I boarded on. These boards I think were for a series of shorts for their website, but I never saw the final cartoon.

Judge Parker

2011-05-22T00:15:00.001-04:00

The rooftop drama continues in NYC...

Michael Cole Manley.com is Live

2011-05-21T13:11:00.001-04:00

Michael Cole Manley.com is Live
My new website MICHAEL COLE MANLEY.COM is now live. This site separates my fine art from my commercial work and give that art a permanent site on the web. I had been wanting to do this for a long time and felt the ASE at school was the perfect time to finally get it rolling.

Pulp Cover Of The Year!

2011-05-16T13:40:00.001-04:00

I just received the actual physical award for my Best Pulp Cover of the year in the mail for my cover to Robin Hood, King or Sherwood.

The 110th Annual Student Exhibition--The Big Show!

2011-05-15T14:02:00.007-04:00

Well this was the week of the big show, what we students in our third and fourth year work towards all year, hanging our wall at the annual Student Exhibition and it was a great, fun and very tiring experience. I had a lot of great reaction to my work as well as contact with local galleries and sales. It was great to see it and experience from the inside with my friends and it was great that so many of my friends also came by to support me.

The event unfolded over two days, the first was the Preview Night where the big wigs and art collectors pay a white china price for dinner and the opportunity to come in and buy artwork before the show opens to the public. It's hosted by the Women's board of the Academy and it's a lot of fun but also a different atmosphere than the Friday opening which was open to the general public. That night I talked a lot more to people about my art and got a lot more comments, the show was also packed and well covered in the local media.

Two days of standing for hours on my feet did take it's toll though...

I also attended the Spring prize Ceremony on Friday before the Women's board lunch where I received my first place award for the Susan Macdowell Eakins painting competition.

But next week it's back into the studio and painting again, I have plans to do a lot of painting over the summer.

Judge Parker

2011-05-15T13:56:00.000-04:00

Judge Parker

2011-05-08T14:52:00.001-04:00

The rooftop standoff continues and so our boys night on the town is interrupted!

That's a Wrap--Spring Semester 2011

2011-05-07T20:08:00.004-04:00

And so the third year of my undergrad in the certificate program is written into the record books. My painting are all hung on my wall for the Annual Student Exhibition or ASE and my postcards and new business card are at the printers--all the "i's" and "t's" are dotted and crossed. The last few weeks have been a real whirlwind between finishing the paintings and framing them, then getting them hung and staying up with the strip. It was like having 3 jobs at the same time, but for now it's all done and things can get cleaned up around here and I can meet and greet the buyers, patrons and the public next Thursday and Friday when the show opens.

Here I am posing in front of my wall with everything hung except the final big Super sad painting which we had to use the lift for.

Having this experience of hanging my fist ASE wall was made a lot of fun and way easier by having my friends also hanging along with me. For Joel and dave it's thier swan song at school, for Jane and myself it's our first. We all helped each other hang our walls and it was a much better and easier experience doing this than if I had done it myself. Will and dave really helped me out with my wall and it made the process fun, artists really should work more in groups, I saw many a solo artist fretting over their wall but we Dirty Palette members, Jane, Joel, Dave and Will were there to help each other out. It's funny in a way to suddenly see the work hung up in the museum, all those months of hard work condensed in a gallery space. It all seemed to fill the studio up, but it seems so much smaller in the huge cavern of the museum.

the studio needed a good cleaning after the wall was hung...

Jane and I give Joel a hand with his wall.

Here is a picture or Rachel Constantine with me and my winning painting in the Susan Macdowell Eakins painting competition, rachel was the judge for the show and you can see Alina with her second place painting below.

This is the last painting I did of the semester and its a abstract piece done for Mike Gallagher's class incorporating a few of the assignments into one. I will be straight, I am not a big fan of most abstract art. The paintings I like by Diebenkorn are the ones that look more like Edward Hopper--the later for more abstract ones really leave me cold for the most part. I am not a fan of big color field paintings or splotches of running paint. That type of work doesn't sustain me, hold me. I find most 'modern art" depressing and boring or stunts, but I tried to put that aside and do something honest in this vein.

It's much harder for me as I have nothing familiar to use a a judgement or guide. In figurative work I have many things I can see, things I know that I can use to judge and guide the work by. In abstract work like this--not so much. There are happy accidents along the process just like in figurative painting but there is more of an internal judgement as opposed to a external factor like observation of a figure or landscape to react to. Its in rustoleum on cardboard keeping with the theme so far in class this semester. The heaviness of the paint which was caked on very heavy in multiple layers cause it to actually start to slide around and I went with it. In the final crit people seemed to react to it well. I was honest and I worked on it hard but somehow I still feel this type of thing is a cheat, i just can't believe in it in the way I do as a figurative artist.

I grew the most as a painter this semester and that was the best thing-- my critics all seemed to agree here and the year is ending on a high note here, but I can't wait to get back into the studio this summer and get back to painting every day.

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 14, THE END is Here.

2011-05-01T17:46:00.003-04:00

The spring semester is basically done for me, just one more crit with my critic Celia Reisman and then I'll be submitting a bunch of work to the Spring Prizes at school and start hanging my wall for the ASE on Tuesday.

I have to say it feels great to be almost done, done. I wish I could have finished up another painting or two--but that's always the case. I feel my wall is really strong and I hope it brings me some sales and gallery offers after really pushing myself as an artist and spending the money to frame them and all the hard work this year. I really feel this was a good year for me as a painter and I can see the growth---though I turn forward and look at the Art Mountain I still have yet to climb. I had a great time with my fellow DPC buddies as well and I can't tell you how much it is vital and important to have such a great group of friends to support me at school.
the painting above of my friend Alina was the last official painting I did for my ASE wall. She was so busy herself I had to work from a photo which brings with it a whole host of problems, but it's so hard to try and get anyone to sit for a portrait this time of year when everybody is just jammed with work. I have to say that taking that portrait class at Incomminati with Kerry Dunn last winter along with help from Scott Noel and Renne Foulks helped me lick a few nagging issues. It is a great thing to try and stretch out my legs and really push for the gold and apply the lessons and thoughts I've been exposed to this year. My third year at PAFA has been my best so far.

This painting in rustoleum on cardboard is for mike Gallaghers class and base on the other painting I did for that class a few weeks back. the assignment was to make a painting based on the first, but from my memory. I did this really quickly, in only a few hours. After I was done it started to remind me of one of my favorite books from childhood, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.

Judge Parker

2011-05-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

Looks like the Judge and Constance are not the only people on the roof...

Judge Parker

2011-04-24T12:21:00.002-04:00

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 13

2011-04-22T20:46:00.004-04:00

There are only two weeks let in y third year in the certificate program at PAFA. The heat is one full blast as everybody is rushing to finish things for the spring Prizes and then the final show for the ASR. I am in good shape, I am just working on a few more pieces for the my wall even though I do have enough now to hang already, but I'd like to get a few more pieces done for the show like the portrait of Alina above. i will still be working away at it and I have another portrait I'd like to try if I have time.
this big boy is kinda' slipping away from me. I have only two full sessons in on it an Mike Gallagher's class and only one more pose with the model, so I will be working hard to try and get as far as I can, it's 5 x 4 feet so it's a lot to cover in just class time. The rustoleum on the wood is more slippery and so I am getting used to that.

This is the final painting I'll be doing in Alex Kanevsky's class, again we are running out of model time, just one more pose, but I snapped a pic of the setup so I should be able to pic at it after the class is done. It's a real mix in a way working on all of these paintings as I'm trying different things in each--I just wish I had a bit more time with the models, but that's them's the breaks every semester.

Dran From PAFA

2011-04-19T18:14:00.001-04:00

Some pictures from the Chestnut Hill Academy show

First Place! Susan McDowell Eakins Painting Competition

2011-04-18T00:03:00.006-04:00

This weekend I participated in the third annual Susan McDowell Eakins painting competition at school. It's a two-day event open to all 2nd-4th years students. Started by Al Gury who's the head of the painting Dept it is named after the wife of Thomas Ekains who's probably the most famous and infamouse painter from the academy. She was quite a fantastic painter herself as this portrait of her hubby, Tom clearly shows.

The judge this year was Rachel Constantine, a former PAFA student a a great painter on the rise. Here I am posing with Rachel and my painting.

Our position or easel was chosen by lottery so everybody had an equal chance at a good spot and since the group numbered 16, a good spot was pretty much had by all.
After two days of painting from the model from 9am till 4pm, Rachel came in at Al's request to judge the show.
The DPC was well representd this time around. Will, Alina and Lexi all took part in the paint-o-thon--and as I predicted Alina won 2nd place with her great painting and Lexi took an honorable mention. I was so happy for Alina as she has really worked hard and made big strides as a painter this year.
Here is a lineup of all the contestants this year. Since the competition happened later in the semester and so close to the spring show we had fewer people participating. Afterwards we all had Pizza and chatted with each other, Rachel and Scott Noel and Peter van Dyck popped in as well.

I am pretty exhausted from the lack of sleep pulling the double duty plus working on the strip at night but happy with the win and 80% happy with the painting, you always wish you had an little extra time, but that's the challenge I guess. looking back over the last two years at the previous paintings from the same competition I can really see the growth in my own work. Even if i hadn't won that is the most important thing, to really see the growth after a lot of hard work.

I look forward to the competition next year.

Judge Parker

2011-04-17T01:28:00.002-04:00

It looks like the relationship crisis might be over for now....

Drawing Award!

2011-04-17T01:18:00.005-04:00

This has been award week here and the studio, I won the Pulp Cover of the year Award this week and one of the three drawings I had in the show took 3rd place in the Drawn From PAFA exhibition at the Chestnut Hill Academy for my drawing of Veronica and Mike. Last night a group of us from school who had work in the show rolled out to the Chestnut Hill Academy for the opening of the show. It's a very good show which really illustrates the breadth and dept of drawing at the school and the Chestnut Hill Academy is a really ritzy place and it has a great mural by Violet Oakley in the library!
Much thanks goes to Dan Brewer for hosing and curating the show.

Pulp Cover Of The Year!

2011-04-17T01:11:00.003-04:00

I am honored to say that my cover painting for Robin Hood King of Sherwood won the Pulp Cover of the Year Award this last weekend at the Pulp Factory Awards in Chicago!

Judge Parker

2011-04-10T00:10:00.003-04:00

Here is this week's JP Sunday including the pencils for it before I went to inks and colors.

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 11

2011-04-09T16:04:00.010-04:00

It's only four weeks till the ASE at school so I am now trying to finish up a few more paintings for my wall. I have been posting a little less frequently and feel bad about it but time is a precious commodity around here these days. But I'm actually in really great shape, I have plenty of work to choose from for my wall and my two big anchor paintings are done. Now I am just trying to do a few more things to add to my wall, smaller paintings that I think will balance out nicely my variety and range as a painter. I knew this semester would fly by, but it has flown even quicker than I imagined.
I am posting a few pics of the last painting in the rough stage so you can see my process. Big shapes first as always and working with the rustoleum on the cardboard seems to aid me in this way of working. I am doing a very large painting on panel with the rustoleum and don't like the feel as much as on the cardboard.
here are my paints and I find paper plates are really the best palettes for this.the rustolem tack-up pretty quickly, not as fast as acrylic and certainly not as slow as regular oil, but the fact that it will set up dry to the touch in maybe 10-15 minutes allows me to work wet-into-wet and even re-wet or rework certain passages as the terps will loosen it back up.
I also like working with this limited set of colors right now. Some artists find it very inhibiting and this semester I have experienced a few ways of working with really very different palettes. From the uber-chromatic palette that Nelson Shanks uses at teaches at his school Incamminati, that has direct ties to the palette and color theory of Henry Hensche. There is a lot of cumulative info here from a Facebook group of former students and fans of his work. There is some more historical info Here and Here.Then I have employed with these paints something closer to the Zorn Palette which is a palette that is a low chroma palette. It was composed of a blue derived from ivory black, a low chroma yellow (yellow ochre), and a high chroma red (vermillion, or cad. red light). It is said Zorn didn't use a blue but it was clear that he did employ a blue as many tubes of cobalt blue were found in his studio upon his death. I am not a huge teckkie when it comes to palettes, some people really go crazy for it, but I think it's great to experimnet with ways of working like this, The Rustoleum yellow is more chromatic than a yellow ochre so it allows me to get a much more vibrant yellow. I think I am learning more about color, building and mixing, about temperature vs value and it is great for "keying" and certain light or atmosphere in a painting. The downside is the gloss which can throw me off when painting at times and like this week in class, make seeing the painting a real battle because of the glare. I think I will have to employ a matte white or non-gloss when working on wood vs canvas or cardboard or paper.
And at the same time I am cranking away of the Judge Parker Strip and a few side comic projects to keep the wood in the fire to pay for it all. Here is a stack of work from the past two or three months.
I have missed going to the Sunday Sessions at school which are run by Scoot Noel and Peter Van Dyck who has a nice interview up on the paints Perceptions blog. The drawing by Scott Noel above was done at one of the last sessions i was able to attend. It's a great chance to work alongside both Scott and Peter and see how they employ the ideas and concepts they teach in class. It think it's honestly such a rare occasion for teachers and artists of this level to openly work in such an open and jovial and communal atmosphere.

This is one of the many teaching drawings Scott does in his first and second year drawing class. I love these drawings so much.
Here is a shot of Scott's palette and rig from the current painting he's got going on the 4th floor at school. I love seeing the path of an artist's thinking on their palette, especially when you can relate them to the work they have going. I think this is one of the things that makes PAFA so great, to be able to see and share the experience of an artist of Scott's level building his painting almost day-by-day before your eyes. I definitely directly employ the ideas and concepts I see both of these painters use along with the ideas I get from the Zorn palette and what I learned at Incamminati. I say mix it all up and make a stew of you!

Philadelphia

2011-04-05T05:47:00.004-04:00

This is a painting that was the result of a critique of my work in my studio by my fellow students at PAFA. in my drawing class with Mike Gallagher we all had to review each others work and then write a review of each others work. then Mike wrote a paragraph with basically combined everything into sort of a statement and we had to produce a piece based on that.

So this is what I came up with, it's in Rustoluem on cardboard and I call it Philadelphia.

Judge Parker

2011-04-03T00:13:00.002-04:00

Sophie learns the secret to wooing boys from Abby. In this Sunday I got to draw a little more of the Spencer Farm and really play with the color.

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 9

2011-04-01T21:09:00.003-04:00

It was a busy week painting for me in school. I finished another painting for my wall and started another even bigger one in my class with Mike Gallagher. This painting is on another wood support but this time we didn't have time to prime the wood with oil or use canvas so I just shellaced it. I have never painted on wood before like this and there is some distortion going on since the support is so huge and the class is really cramped.

I am posting in this blog on my process on doing my last painting which for now I am titling Bagman. Like the first painting I worked from a big sketch in oil on paper. This idea or image came to me in a dream and i dashed out a quick doodle the next day, then I actually dressed myself up in trashbags and filmed myself walking about my living room, much to the horror of my cats. taking those screen grabs I did another oil sketch on paper. this was my primary guide to the larger painting. I would only refer back to the photo ref after I had worked on the painting for a while and gotten the feeling I wanted.

like the last painting I worked on a support of canvas stretched over Luann, then one coat of acrylic gesso and then I primed it using Windor-newton Oil Primer. hen that dried I borrowed the projector from the school library and projected my sketch and roughly traced off my composition which you can see below.
Then using shellac I covered the entire canvas sealing in the drawing. It's not so clear from this photo, but I could still see the drawing. the main reason I wanted the shellac is to get that under-glow to come through the painting. Since the support is rigid and very solid I won't have to worry about any cracking of the shellac like I would on a regular canvas.
Here is a detailed photo of the main figure from my first strike at the painting. One of the things I try and do is to get as much done on a painting as I can in the first strike, the first session. I think then I have the drive, the passion, the paint lust and that for me is the most important part of the painting process. Especially on a large painting I want to go in high energy and strike it fast. Then I can always go back and adjust things, even repaint them entirely.
Here is the oil sketch that was my guide

Here is the painting after about 5 hours straight. The canvas is 4 x 4 so I massed in the large areas with a big palette knife and my biggest brushes.

The biggest struggle is the struggle I am searching through as a painter. I am trying to work looser but not slap-dash. I love Sargent and Rockwell and NC Wyeth, Vince Desiderio, and Fechin. Great drawing and great painting with detail and design working together to give you a feeling, more suggestion than literal. I don't always get it or am not sure, and that's a spot you don't solve until something feels right. I think that because i am a very flexible artist style wise by training I will be in this place for a while.

After the first day I hand my critics come in and give me some great feedback, especially Scott Noel and Renee Foulks. I spent two more days adjusting and repainting passages and areas.
The first strike of the painting above and the final painting below. I'll let it sit and go back at it with fresh eyes in a bit after I jump onto some more paintings this week. I think I'll do some smaller paintings next week in the rush to the ASE. I feel really pumped up now and on a roll and I want to keep that energy rolling off the brush.

Judge Parker

2011-03-27T23:28:00.001-04:00

It's time for a little mother, daughter talk on Spencer farms...

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 8

2011-03-26T13:16:00.004-04:00

We tipped over the halfway mark this week for the spring semester and I have picked my classes for the fall semester which will start my final semester as an undergrad at school. This time next year I will have applied to the masters programs for my terminal degree. As much as I do love being in school and at PAFA I really do look forward to the day when my classes will also be done and I can fully move on into the next phase of my art career.

The study above is for the new pose in my class with Mike Gallagher which will be the last pose in his class. All of my classes are either starting the a new pose or just ending one this week. I will have tow final in class paintings and one outside painting to do on top of my "wall" for the ASE--so I am gonna be a painting fool!

I am very aware of the time I have left to do my paintings for the ASE, so I must be very diligent and apply even more pressure for the next few weeks to get what I want done and ready---then the summer, a little vacay--and then back to the studio full time.

Here is the newest support ready to roll, it's 4 x4 canvas mounted over Luann panel and cradled on the back. I oil primed this one so the surface is really nice! this one will get started on today.

Since my buddy Ricardo is visiting for a while he often comes down to the school to hang out while I am there. He came down recently and gave my friend Will Sentman a few pointers on the study for the illustration he was working on--a great benefit you get knowing a guy like Ric!