Still Life

So far this semester is really flying by, it's amazing how fast a week goes when I am out of the house every day between going to school as a student and then teaching. On top of finishing off a very heavy last storyboard for Secret Saturdays, X-9 and finally getting Draw! 15 to the printers I am just beat down into the swamp. As a result I feel I really haven't "CLICKED" yet at school. I guess I miss my old routine and classes a bit. The new classes I don't feel the swing with yet, except my still life class with Joe Rupinski. She's awesome and really is the type of teacher I like, one who explains a lot! I mean, why else go to a class with a teacher? I have a teacher now who says the more he talks the less creativity I have. Wha-Wha-Wha-Whaaat? I don't agree with that at all.

Anyway the still life room has a large aray of still life set up, maybe 20? And you could paint most from several angles. I of course chose the one with the sun blasting through the window. I did a little skecth in pencil, then a study, which isn't finished and I will continue to work on it. I might do the final painting as a diptic, maybe on board. At this angle the sun comes in and eventually blinds you, so I'll have to work fast, and maybe finish from a photo at night? We have a few weeks to work on each one. this is still a work in progess as I adjust the composition.

Creepertins No. 2

The next installment of The Creepertins, which will be published in Delaware County Magazine in a few weeks.

PAFA Week 2

Well my second week is well underway at PAFA, in fact it's 2/3 over as the next classes happen Friday. This semester is a whole new mix for me, and I don't feel I quite have the new routine down yet. All new teachers, all new classes. I have two sculpture classes which is really new and I am looking forward to really exploring sculpture.

You know each semester there is that first few weeks where you try and get your wings, get the rapor down, the new energy flow, learn a whole bunch of new names. I have one sculpture class where we will draw blind conture drawings for about 45 min or a hour. The model we will sculp has here pose, so we draw her as we also sculpt her. Right now we are building our armatures and soon we will start tossing clay. The teacher Rob Roesch is a fun guy and is coming from a very different mindset. He's a very success non-figurative sculptor, and my whole thing is the figure, so it will be an interesting semester. I am trying to be open to his ideas and process even though his is not an esthetic that I really feel as I am not a big fan in general of abstract sculpture or painting, though I probably like abstract scuplture better than abstract painting.



The sculpture of my late dog Buster was done for the Introduction to Sculpture class taught by Stephen Nochella. This seems more my taste, our first homework assignment we had to do a sculpture that was supposed to be the "essence of an animal". Pretty broad and open, so I just decided I wanted to do a dog as I love dogs and then decided to do Buster who was a really cool do and a cool looking dog to boot. Next we will build larger versions of these sculps in plaster using chicken wires, burlap etc. So this was just the maquette. I haven't sculpted anything in over 20 years, since highschool, and this was fun.

Painting gave mixed results and I just wasn't in the right focus the other day in Figure Painting, so I wiped it out and will start over Friday, in my Still Life class I have a composition I am pretty happy with, I'll do a few more studies and then either do a final pastel or oil. I am so happy to be back at it again, I missed school during the break. I also started my Storyboarding class at Uarts last night and I feel i seem to have a good class. It's a long class, 6 hours, and I was beat when I got hoe as Tuesdays I teach at 9:30 in Delaware at DCAD (Figure Drawing) then have to scoot back up 95, try and eat something then hop the EL into Center City by 4 when the class starts. I won't be having much free time in the next month, but then things should smooth out a bit.

RAZOR BLADE INKING TECHNIQUE

Here is a video I shot to show how to do a cool inking technique.
http://www.actionplanet.com/Razor blade technique.mov

The Punisher

Here are a few pages and a cover I currently have up for sale on Ebay from my run on Punisher War Zone. I was and still ama bif fan of what John Romita Jr and Klaus janson did on that book and a fan of their work in general. When JRJR left the book they had Mike Harris come in a do breakdowns and then I did finishes sort of trying to match the Romita/Janson look to finish the storyline. I also got to ink some issues and covers by JRJR which was a lot of fun. i even put some zip-a-tone on the pages and went to town with textures. I like this character, I like the gritty edge you can get with him, he's sort of like Marvel's Sgt. Rock, Guns, grit and beard stubble, though there certainly isn't the "Make War No More" aspect to the stories like the DC War Books had in the 70's.


I haven't kept up with the character so I have no idea what's going on with him now and those movies based on the character were certainly Punishment to watch.

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was the first day back at PAFA and it went pretty well, it was a really light day, no drawing or painting, just talking and getting to know the teaachers and the class and what is required. I had Ron Roesch for sculpture and Carolyn Pryform for painting. I have to say it felt great to be back in school, as much as I did enjoy my break I'm the type of guy who likes to keep riding. I feel I was really into a great flow at the end of the semester.

Like last semsester I know this one will flash before my eyes just as quickly and soon the trees will be full again, the summer winds blowing---which I have to say I can't wait for. I seem to tollerate this winter stuff less each year. But I also want to live in each moment and enjoy the trip and the process along the way.

Today I also start teaching the Figure Drawing classes at DCAD, this week the animators. Next week we have a regular schedule and I also start at Uarts teaching storyboarding.

It also looks like Draw! 15 is in layout this week and will be out to the printer early next week which means a mid-Feb release.

Honorable at Mention Philadelphia Sketch Club

This afternoon I won an honorable mention at the Philadelphia Sketchclubs Works on Paper competition for the cover to my Sketchbook entitle "Betty and the Bug".


I enetered two pieces in the show, my Nike cast hall drawing and the Betty piece, the second as sort of a lark. But I guess it stood out as an unusual piece and caught the judge's eye.
It was a great turn out and the reception was really well attended, Robert another PAFA student also won a honorable mention as well for a great litho drawing he did. I caught up with some old friends and maybe made a few new ones. Echo and I both had a great time and the Philly Sketch Club puts on a great show!

X-9 Continues

Here is another page from the X-9 job, The return of Dr.7 which will appear overseas somtime this year.

ELEKTRA

Here is a drawing of Elektra the assasin that I did for fun and put up on my Ebay store. Some of my fave comics are from Miller's run on Daredevil. I miss those days in comics, I miss newsprint and dots, and zip-a-tone, etc. I usually dislike most of the slimey computer coloring we see in comics today.

This is in pencil on comic paper 11 x 17.

Thunder, Thunder, Thundercat H*****

This is another of the pin-uops I currently have up on Ebay for sale. This time something different, Cheetara the female Thundercat. I sort of have a fondness of this cheesball cartoon. It had a great voice cast and an awesome opening title sequence, maybe my fave after the old Spider-man cartoon and Johnny Quest...unfortunately the show was never as well drawn or animated.

I'm surprised it hasn't had a comeback yet like He-man.

Supergirl on the job

This is a drawing I currently have up on my Ebay Store for sale. I will be posting more sketches like this in 08'. Not always super gals, but maybe more comics mixing in with the fine art. I always liked this character, she seems so appealing to both girrrrls and men, and the babymen too.

Too bad they can't get a Buffy type thing going on with this character that doesn't have to do away with the cute girl angle. She should also have a cute pooch, maybe an animal rescue dog. This drawing is in pencil on comic board.

DRAW! MAG MESSAGE BOARD NO MORE

I have eliminated the Draw! Mag mesage board due to the it being basically eat'n alive by spam-porn-bots. I tried to keep up, ban people, ISP's etc., and it took 30 minutes a day to do that...and who has that time, so I gave up last year and decided why even keep it live at all, so as of today it's gone from the server. This blog will do for now and maybe in time I will bring back another message baord just for the magazine.

I have seen this happen other places and it's really a shame that this friggin' spam ruins everything and there seems to be now way to stop it. A fair amount of people are assholes in the meat world, but the can be mega-bigger assholes in cyberspace as they can fuck with a lot more people.

Creepertins #1

Here is the full first strit of The Creepertins now available in the newest issue of Delaware County Magazine. I'm working on the second strip now, which will be out in roughly a month. I did everything old school here, including lettering on the board.

DUTCH MASTERS

I just got back from seeing the Dutch Masters show "the Age of Rembrandt" up at the MET and man, was it just awesome, what a charge for the artistic soul and a learning experience too. I went up with my Fiance Echo and our school pal Mary and stayed hung out with my best buds Scott and Ryan at thier place.

It was friggin' blistering cold too...I don't know why, but it seems everytime Echo and I go to NYC it's the coldest day of the year....we froze our collective keisters off huffing it to the Met, but once we were there the art warmed us right up. And man, the Met was PACKED! We moved our way through the show, weaving, dodging vieying for space to see each painting, and what a great collection though I dissagree in the way they laid out the show. The paintings were displayed in the order of aquisition, not in order of date in which they were completed. I would have prefered that as I think it's great to see how each artist changed and grew and what was also being done at the same time.

I also saw these paintings with the new hungry eyes of a painting student, which I am now and it was revelatory, I am still processing it and will for weeks to come and I want to get back to painting really badly now. hard to believe school starts in a week and the breaks almost over. the New years rushing in and rushing fast. I also want to remind everyone that there is still time to also sign up for my class at the New York Art Academy and you can follow the link to the right. I look forward to the class and also to being in NYC to also get to spend more times at the art galleries there and see more of the MET at a slower pace.

I also want to give a heads up that I have several Ebay Auctions running now of my art, so you can also visit my ebay store from the link on the right.

And so it begins....

The holidays rushed by as they always do and now we are almost dumped into the new year running. I am buys here that's for sure. Between the various projects in house and those that are planned. It's seems so feast or famine now for me and has increasingly been that way since about 2000. I either have almost nothing in house, the last job finishing up with nothing new yet, or suddenly 5 jobs. All overlapping and compeating. It never used to be like that, but that seems the norm now, and the norm with many of my fellow artists too.

I think this will be a big year in a lot of ways, a big year for our country and really set the tone, good or bad for us for a long while. The Bush years have been SHIT! Everybody seems to feel the system is broken, the war was a farce that turned into a quagmire that we will long be paying for in ways more expensive than monitarily. I am not impressed by any of the democrats honestly, but I dispise all the republicans. The economy is gonna tank, if it already isn't. The real estate market, global warming, geeze. Everyone I know is tightening the belt and white knuckle squeezing the restraint bar for the ride down. But there are positives, people seem aware of these issues, and some seem pretty motivated, but the question is can enough people make collectively the right choices?

So even with these obvious negatives and dark clouds one always starts the new year with hope, hope we can overcome these problems. Last years was a bumpy ride. I lost a great freind when Mike Weiringo suddenly passed away. It was, and still is a shock, and I think about him just about every day. I also lost my dog Buster, again, suddenly. He literally died in my arms, so I hope this year has nothing like that.

I have some cool projects I want to work on, things like the Creepertins and a comic project with Greg Thompson, and of course get Draw! out more plus school. I'll be teaching more than ever on top of attending Pafa, so there won't be much downtime till the summer. But that's good too as I feel it's all positive work. I'm finishing up on what's to be the last storyboard I'll do for a while on Secret Saturday's. And working hard on my second X-9 story so by the time the school break is over I'll be ready to attack the new semester with a furry.