Batman Commission

Here is another commission I finished this week, this time the Dark Knight. I still have a few more to go so I'll be churning them out over the next few days.

BUSTER, gone 1 year

It was one year ago today that my dog Buster passed away, literally died in my arms, probably of a heart attack according to the vet. We had just had the last big snow of the season and both he and Shazam my other Australian Healer were running about playing. Like kids they loved the snow, especially Buster who right up till his last moments here in this plain of existence was still spry and full of energy, still acted like a dog 5-6 years younger.

I still miss his energy, his "always happy to see me personality". He was a great being, a great dog amongst dogs. Shazam as well as myself were pretty down for a while after that, but at almost 13 she's still getting on well, the fact that I adopted a new stray cat, Skavee seems to have helped here a lot and they get along well. A few of my friends even suggested that Skavee might actually be Buster reincarnated. I suppose anything is possible since Skavee basically walked in the house one night last november and acted, stayed like he lived here his whole life, but I think Buster was Buster and Skavee is another little soul who's moved into my life, so Buster is somewhere in the big doghouse in the sky where all great dogs go playing frisbee, eating bones and getting his belly and butt scratched all day long.

I was thinking that you can break down your life into strata, blocks of time like the strata of earth, rock and sediment layers, layers of DOG. each dog defines a pretty specific layer or chunk of time in my life. my earliest dogs Rusty, Skipper and Ginger, my first great dog I got myself Sabastion a shepperd/collie mix lived almost 16 years. that time period included me moving from Michigan to Philly, starting my career in comics, almost getting married (glad i didn't) and then buying the house I am now and overlapping with the era of Buster and Shazam whom i got the last year of his life. Buster's life covered another big chunk of time in my life where i had a lot of big and great things happen.

With Shazam still here that time is still running and sometimes I wonder how many more dogs would I have the fortune to be buddy/pack leader too in my life. I figured maybe 3 more, maybe 4 if I live to be an old man. I like thinking of my life in dog-time because dogs are really almost always happy.

A Commission

This is a commission I did yesterday for a fan who's been waiting for a while. This week being Spring Break from PAFA I'm trying to catch up on all the things like commissions which have been backed up a bit in the studio.

Still Life Final

Well I've stopped for now, I don't want to "kill it", so I'll let it set a few days and come back at it if I feel I need to. This by far has been the most complex painting I've done yet.

Still Life Progress

Spent the weekend painting a bit and cleaning up, preparing for the taxman. Still working away on this still life, it's by far the biggest painting I've done so far at 24 x 36 and I posted two details from it. I'm sure it will take me a few more days to work away at it, but I am having a lot fo fun on it. All of teh still lifes they set up at school tend to be pretty complicated and this one was challenging because of the natural light, but to me it was the most interesting.

My First Sculpture

Since it's Sunday, The Lord's day, I figured what an apt time to post this pic.

This is my first sculpture, which won first prize back in 4th grade at St. Bridgets in Detroit. It's a bust of Jesus which I did for the school art contest. My mom did help me a bit with critting me I seem to remember, and I didn't want her to work on it as I wanted to do it myself...guess I'm still like that in a way now. And face it, every parent helps their kid on school projects to some degree.

There was a controversy as I recall because they said I didn't do it, it was too good so my parents must have done it for me. They were going to disqualify me. I remember being very mad at that, it seemd like if you tried hard then you were immediately under suspicion because obviously a kid has to make stuff that sucks. Well, what can I say, that was pretty typical of the catholic school education I got. Some very conditional assholes. That as I recall was also the last year we had nuns as teachers, after that they were all gone and lay teachers came in. Jesus and I haven't been friends since....

It's unfired and crumbled a bit over the decades and has been with my Grandma since I did it, first in her home and then in her apt. Unfortunately her health has declined and she's entering an managed care facility. My grandma was my biggest booster as a kid in being an artist, and my parents were too. Grandma always brought me home tons of paper and pencils from Chrysler, where she was a secretary. You know offices toss out all kinds of extra paper, pencils, markers etc., but she always kept me supplied with a fresh stack of drawing paper and plenty to draw with. It's sad to hear of her decline in recent months, but unfortunately we all face the hand of time and the eventual decline in some reguards due to age. My parents recently were cleaning out her apt and took the sculp home and my dad snapped these pics for me. I think it's so funny to see something from that far back, from when I was around 9-10 years old or so and think about what I'm doing in sculpture class now.

Maybe I should do another bust of the man from Nazareth just for fun...

And Spring Break Begins....

Yesterday was the last day of classes at PAFA before Spring Break which starts this week. It was also the last pose of our third model in Carolyn Pyfrom's figure painting class and Friday's are uninstructed classes without the teacher. I am pretty happy with most of this pose, many little issues with edges, etc. but this one worked out much better and maybe it's because I was better able to concentrate on this pose as my personal life has settled down a bit from crisis mode. The chunks of glass in the peanut butter of life are cutting a bit less.

As always, it's a battle with the light in Studio 4 of the Academy’s historic landmark building designed by Frank Furness. When the school was built the new Hamilton Building where the bulk of the school is now, wasn't there, so as a result in the afternoon the lighting changes dramatically as the north facing skylights bathe the studio not in the once steady northern light, but reflect the changing sky colors of the setting sun, etc., like a mirror directly down into the studios, so if you have an afternoon class it's a big chase with the blues changing to oranges in about 1 hour. So you kind of have to pick a moment and try and go with it. Not always easy. I always struggle with making the model too idealistic, like a plastic surgeon, because of my billion years as a comic artist drawing idealized people I have to be careful not to give the model and extra few inches in the waste or shins to make them taller. That means I have to slow down and really play more attention. I guess the main thing is each painting is a building step on the path.

Still life again...

here is the still life I started a few weeks back at School. I'm trying to finish it at home using some photos I snapped at school before they broke down all the still lifes. I still have a long way to go on this baby....

Plaster Master

This week I spent another full class in the Plaster Room along with most of my class working on our sculptures for our Intro to Sculpture assignment "essence of an animal". This is of course based on my late pooch Buster,who died almost one year ago.

Slopping plaster over burlap and chicken wire is both fun and messy. I have another pass to go on this which
I'll do over break.

New Yorker Style Cartoon

"THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW."

This is a job I just finished yesterday, it was a job for an old client, Lunchbox, who I did the Dr. Direct comics with before. This time they were initially looking to do a series of direct mail cards for a client featuring a superhero. Then the client changed their mind and decided to scrap the cape for a faux New Yorker style cartoon. The jokes are pretty tame, the salesman waited so long to see the doc, he expired. I drew it up in pencil, scanned it in and then printed it out on watercolor paper and then colored it with watercolors to get that official "New Yorker" feel. The client was very happy with it, so that makes me happy and it was a fast, fun little job.

Figure Monday

Monday was off to a fast start this week, I was up early and out the door to PAFA and in early for my sculpture class. This was the second week of the actual clay slapping on the model. I made good progress but I will be rushed to try and finish it up for the last week of the pose before spring break. I have to say I really love pushing that clay around and now I'm pretty sure I will try and make sculpture my minor.


This was the second pass at the figure on this pose. Both of these picks were snapped with my cell phone camera as I forgot my canon at home. I think this one is going much better than the last one and I wish last week wasn't a snow day on the uninstructed pose...I'd be further along. Carolyn was very complimentary about the progress but really wanted me to go back in and explore the shadow side some more, which I'll do on Friday.

CReepertins Strip and Demo

I just finished the newest monthly Creepertins strip and I made a little step-by-step demo and edited it together in iMovie. Some stuff is a little fuzzy, I'm still trying to work out tech issues with my Powershot A80 and the lighting, but I think you should get the basic Idea. I'll try shooting on for my next X-9 pages to give people an idea about doing different types of styles too.

Models of Flesh and Clay

Well today I finally got to slop some clay around. Our model Crystal came in a struck her pose and I bought my block of white clay from the art supply and started slapping the clay on the armature...then the chair started to buckle, so with John the shop foreman's help I got some blocks of wood cut to support the sculptures weight. I had a lot of fun and look forward to getting back to this next week.

This is the next pose in my life painting class with Carolyn Pyfrom. This was the first pose with this model, who's quite cute to boot, something I don't usually say about a model. I battled the ever changing light of the infamous Studio 4, but I think this is off to a much better start. I did use a fair amount of palette knife in this stage after my brush bock-in.

Painting-Week 5

These are the paintings I have been working on in school the last few weeks, for some reason they seem a bit washed out here? Anyway they were both the last session this week on both of these paintings, in fact they broke the still life down. But I took a pick of the set-up, so I'll work on the painting and finish it up from that.I missed some painting classes on both of these so I hope the next sessions I'll be able to attend each one.

Chicken Wire and Paint

This was my first full week back at school after a huge pile of storyboard work. it was also a big week of change personally as my life suddenly took a turn I hoped wouldn't happen, and a very important person in my life has gone. But one must go on, and that's all that will be said for now on that front. the painting above is my second pass at it in Carolyn Pryfoms life painting class. As always I have a devil of a time painting in Studio 4 in the classic building. within an hour the light changes dramatically in the afternoon classes, shadows and tones shift from cool to warm as the sun sets and the light inside the studio become more dominate. I did quite a bit of correcting on this painting this week.



The two pics above are of the chicken wire armature I made of my late dog Buster I am sculpting for my class with Nocella. I did the clay maquette a few weeks back. I did this in one class as I had to make up for the two weeks I missed due to work. next week it's burlap and then plaster time!

this is one of the blind conture drawings we do in my other sculpture class every week before we work on our sculptures.

This is the chair and wire frame for the sculpture I will begin slinging clay at next week, again I did this in one class, busting my ass as I missed two weeks in this class to. It was a busy week, painting and constructing armatures and personally. I am glad tomorrow's Friday...and I usually don't feel that way.

Back in the Paint

I finally hit the paints again at school last week after a big break due to the storyboarding. I was niot having a good go at it the last time, I was just beat down and mentally distracted and didn't feel I could concentrate, so I ended up wiping out the painting 3 times and eventually just gave up. I think I blew all the cobwebs outof my head and this pose, done on the same board I wiped the original female model off of 2 weeks ago . I think this start is much better. It's in oil using a earth palette of Ochre, Mars Black and a red.
This is the block-in on the still life I did the study of two weeks back. I was originally going to do a diptic, but there isn't much time left for this assignment so I decided maybe I'll save that for another time. I roughed this out in one session and I can't wait to hit it again this week.

Rock and Roll baby!

This is a cover for the rock group Accents to Action out of Pittsburgh. You can check their cool music out on their myspace page. The leader, Chaz Moneypenny contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a cover for them and I said,"Sure!" They came across my art on teh web and liked my monster comic stuff.

They were easy to work with and I love music and understand the struggle of the up-and-commer myself. Down with Corporate Rock! Haha! They wanted the group to be depicted fighting a giant disco-ball monster. This was a one day job from start to finish due to the packed schedule I've had, but now I get a breather of a more normal work schedule. Go check these guys out!

Back to School

This will be the first day back to PAFA in nearly 2 weeks. I had to skip school to finish up that last huge,giant, monster storyboard for the Season-2 finale of The Secret Saturdays and it just require every waking hour it seemed. So besides teaching my classes I have had my tukus nailed to the chair drawing like mad. The reality is no work means no $chool. I guess many people in my position have to face this fact as well as having a life that's a bit more complicated.

I look foward to slinging the paintbrush, not the pencil for a few hours tomorrow as well as the annual open Studio Night at the Academy, where you get a chance to see what all the 3rd, 4th and MFA student's are doing.

War of the Worlds

Man, it's been a tough week. I've missed one whole week of school finishing up this last monster storyboard for the season finale of Secret Saturdays. I am still teaching, because I can't scip teaching, but otherwise I am in the studio grinding away. This only happened once last semester, the clash of worlds, and I hate for it to happen, but that's the reality of being a student and a working professional at the same time. I did manage to get to the gym a bit, which helped and I did go and see the opening of the Cecilia Beaux exhibition down at PAFA on Friday. It's a really nice show and some of the paintings are just amazing. Since it's at school I'll be able to go back and see it many times before it leaves.

The other good news is that DRAW! 15 should be at the printers now and I hope in shops sometime toward the 3rd week of Feb. Draw! 16 featuring Howard Chaykin and Jay Stephens is also in production, so we plan on caatching up this year.

Back to the salt mines!

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.