Judge Parker Process

 Here is another process blog of one of the recent Sunday strips which shows my pencils and then my inks. I do leave certain things for the coloring stage on the Sunday strips since I color those myself. I am still envious of the old timers who had a lot more room to work with on the strips. Even at half a tier, if the paper carries the whole strip its cramped as the lettering in much bigger to read well. Many papers only carry the bottom two rows of the strip, but you can always read it on line at Comics Kingdom. Will there be a rekindling of a old romance between Needy and he old boyfriend?  I'm not telling....

Recent Paintings

 These two paintings are some of the most recent works I've finished in the past few weeks in the studio.  I'm making a big fall push to get a new body of work ready for the gallery and upcoming competitions and contests. Autumn is by far my favorite time of year and I will be back out painting plein air as well in the coming weeks.

The painting above is of a scene on Chestnut Street in West Philly and the painting below is from a recent evening painting session with my friends Will and Alina, we had a mini- the Dirty Palette Club painting session. We still try and get together at least once a month to paint together.

We set up a Fall themed still life in my dining room and spent a fun filled evening painting away.

                                                             Scarecrow 14 x 18 Oil

Judge Parker Process

                                              LETS GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD


In the current Judge parker storyline Abbey, Sam and Sophie are headed out in the RV for a family road trip as Neddy tries to sell her clothing line to Godiva a big-shot Hollywood star.

This week's Sunday strip looks like the road trip might be hitting a big snag for the Spencer clan. They may or may not be in Kansas---but are certainly in Tornado Alley.  Sequences like this are a lot more fun to draw as I get to do a little scale and drama. Above are my pencils with the boarders inked and below are the finished inks read to be inked, lettered and colored, which I did last night while watching Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex on Showtime. I enjoy both of those shows and look forward to the return of Homeland, though it will be a huge shift after last years dramatic end with Brody. The inks were done with Pitt pens and ink and brush on Strathmore 3 ply bristol.

 I'm still all old school when it comes to working on the strip as I enjoy having the original art which is really piling up! Maybe someday I'll sell some...

The stack of JP strips in my art cabinet where I store most of my original art grows weekly!

Plein Air Burlington 2014

Last week I took part in the 2014 Plein Air Burlington Festival, a week long painting event in Burlington New Jersey. I wasn't able to take part in the painting competition due to the fact I was down at the Baltimore Comicon that weekend, but I did teach a two-day plein air workshop that was a lot of fun.

Thanks to my friend Shaun Stipick who heads the event and the Lyceum in Burlington I was able to teach the workshop and paint at two different locations over the two day.  The first day we set up at the marina, I asked the painters what they would like to paint and that was the first choice. You can see my rig and my demo, which I never finished as I focused my attention on the students work during the afternoon.

 

 My friends William and Alina stopped by after Alina helped judge the show, she was one of the three judges of the PA competition. They both taught a workshop during the week-long event as well.

This is Michele's wonderful piece that I worked with her during the afternoon of the first day.

The next day Michele showed me around the town and a few spots as she lives and works there and knew the area well. We ended up at this great old power plant that was being torn down.

Chuck one of the workmen there was rally nice and very helpful as were all of the workers who passed bay and watched us paint.

I stared my demo and talked about how you handle such a complicated structure with careful observation, triangulation and simplification. Below is the painting where I left it as the sun had changed position too much.

 

Michele painting away and Shaun even got to show up and join us to paint

 

 

Here I am with Michele who was really great to work with and was so nice to bu me lunch both days. Michele did two great paintings and was a lot of fun to paint along with.

Saturday I returned to the Lyceum for the reception for the show and met a lot of the painters who participated. I think I made a few new friends and have been invited to paint along with a group of New Jersey painters. 

                             Alina talks with a few of the painters who had work in the show

                         Here are the winning paintings in order below, from first to fourth

Next year I will take part in the plein air painting competition itself and I think this show will grow in attendance and importance as a strong regional event. My thanks again the Shaun and Michele for a great week of painting!

Baltimore Con Followup

Last weekend I returend to the Baltimore Con for the first time in many years. The last time I attended was my first year back in school at PAFA, so it had been a long time, a long time that I had attended any cons at all. But starting this year I decided to try going back and testing the waters again. Baltimore was always my favorite, Marc Nathan and his crew do a great comic centric show.

It seems that I was missed from the convention circuit as well as I signed stacks of books and card and did a lot of commissions and sold art. I also got to see a few fellow pros in passing as I was swamped in drawing the whole time. Since I had so many commissions and was still on deadline  I skipped the bar hop this year and spent the evening working in my hotel room.

 I was set up at the Kids Love Comics booth along with my buddy Jamar Nicholas and we had a great time.

Cosplay was so much bigger this year than the last time I attended the con and that seems to be the way the future looks for shows.

 I did several of the sketch covers which are difficult to draw on because of the size and the surface get dirty pretty easy. But it also seems Darkhawk is still pretty popular so maybe Marvel should have Danny and I do another series.

It was a good time a a nice break from the studio here and a I look forward to coming back next year.