Judge Parker

A stand-off----or is it?

Happy Anniversary--Judge Parker!

Today is the second anniversary of me taking over Judge Parker and the beginning of my 3rd year on the strip.

The strips has really moved all over in the two years and I am really enjoying the current storyline by Woody Wilson a lot since it gives me a chance to draw some action, assassins and sexy gals with guns--lots of fun to draw for sure.

I think this year I grew into the strip as my own after the first year of getting used to the characters and the flow and frankly just getting my feet wet. I had to hit the ground running and get used to the flow of a comic strip instead of a comic book and that did take some ajustment. I still think even though I love the classic strips I am a comic book guy and sometimes feels a bit cramped on the strip.

Unlike characters I was very familiar with like Batman or Spider-man, or even X-9, JP and crew were really new to me and I had no pre-existing indeas or feelings about them, they didn't live in my imagination yet. They do now and I feel I know them and that the strip is really mine to take in the direction I want artistically--although Woody told me that from the beginning. So off to year three and the winding road and endless run that are the comic strips.

Draw! 22 is Shipping Now!

Draw! 22 hits the streets today! You can catch a preview of this issue right here. This issue is crammed cover to cover with great interviews and step-by-steps by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Jim lee, Danny Fingeroth, Jamar Nicholas and myself. Grab a copy right now in print or digital from Twomorrows.com

Final Semester Week 8

The last few weeks have been a huge whirl---blur between my solo show, regular work and spring break. With the show hung and running till the end of the month I have now turned my attention toward my last run in the studio for the ASE and graduation. I have been accepted into the PAFA MFA Program, but for the next 8 weeks I will be totally focused on my last painting and keeping the Judge Parker Strip going.

Judge Parker

Showdown!

Judge Parker

Will our team be in time to warn April...

The Big Show

last night was the opening of my Solo Show at Rodger LaPelle in Old City. I posted a blog about it over on my michaelcolemanleyblog. It was a great night!

Getting Ready To Show!

Yesterday was the big move in and set up for my show at Rodger LaPelle which opens tomorrow night at 6pm. Of course the one day I have and must move my work from studio to gallery is exactly the day it decides to pour rain here in Philly!

But the show must go on a despite the bit of a slow-up at U-Haul and the rain I got my paintings all out of the studio and moved into the gallery with the help of my buddies Davis Golas and Will Sentman. I had blankets from U-haul covering the big paintings.

This was my first time with setting up a show in a gallery on a pro level, I've done it at school, but here most of the major decisions are mine to make, where and what to hang in what order and what to put of certain walls. The "cheek walls" in a gallery, a term I didn't know about before, they are the mini or little walls that stick out that are just enough width for a small painting in a gallery but cane be viewed 15-20 feet away. Here I was told to put some little gems to catch the eye.

When I arrived Rodger and his wife Christine were taking down and moving all of the work from the previous show and that gave me the whole gallery. I had 31 paintings to hang in all and to be honest, even though I don't think I could have actually painted any more or any faster I initially felt like "Crap! I don't have enough paintings done!" But after spreading them out and a bit of arrangement I think I had enough and the show will feel full but not overcrowded, nor underfeed. I also went about touching up the gallery walls here or there and in a way wish Rodger had let Dave,Will and myself repaint the whole gallery, but I went about hitting the trouble spots to my eye.

Lastly I had to make my final numbered check list with prices and then we were done, the paintings were in place and would be hung by Lapelle, and I could finally go home and catch a full nights sleep.

Solo Show

I have just wrapped up my last painting for the show at Rodger LaPelle this coming Friday and I will be picking them up from my framers and delivering them on Wednesday. You can see most of the paintings as well as size and prices on my gallery page. There are 4 more paintings which haven't been posted on the galleries website yet, but they should be up there by Wednesday. I don't think I have ever painted as much or produced more work than in the past 2-3 months as the time to get work ready for the show was really short. Most people have up to a year and I had just a few months. But the upside of painting 12-16 hours a day for several days in a row is that I really get deep into my painting trance.

Judge Parker

The plot as they say, thickens...

Judge Parker

This is the first time I've gotten to draw Sam's partner Steve in the strip since I started drawing Jp almost three years ago.

Final Semester Week 5

Between keeping up with the Judge Parker strip and working hard to finish the last few paintings for my solo show it's been a bust week. Last week was the big Open Studio at school and that kept me pretty bust but I did finish the big snow trolley paintings and have started on another. I think there will be many late nights for at least another week until the last painting is done for the gallery and off to the framer. This pic is a shot of the spray room on the 10th floor at school. If we have to do any sanding or spraying of any fixatives, varnishes etc., we do it here and you can see many people can't resist tagging the place up.

Final Semester Week 3 and 4

I finally caught a bit of a break here so I thought I would catch up on my posting here. It's been really bust the last two weeks at school, culminating with the school-wide Open Studio night last Friday evening at school. It's the annual one-night event where the school is open to anyone who wishes to come in and look into the studios, pull back the curtain as they say and check out what we are all creating in our studios.

Its a huge public event and we also had the monthly Studio 128 opening as well as the Tanner exhibit going on as well. I was told we had about 80o people come through the school that night, which is up from last year.

I had an even better response to my work this year than last year and several inquiries about my paintings, so I feel my show at Rodger LaPelle should have a good bounce. I had a great time talking about my work and meeting so many art fans, collectors, parents and enthusiasts.

In the meantime I am still working as hard as can be on the last few paintings I want to have for the show, I will finish up in another 10 days or so and then begin framing everything.

I also got to start my class with Scott Noel last week, there was finally one spot open in the class. This painting was the usual flat out sprint against the clock, or the sun. The light dramatically changed about half way through, but knowing how Scott has us set up I plan ahead, still these are great practice, win or fail.

This is a shot of Ewa an Lexi's work on their side of the wall in the hallway outside of our studio.

Here you can see a very creative shot of me by Ewa as I sit talking to m buddy Evan as the crowd thinned out and we all kinda' plunked down after he whirl wind stopped. I think everyone was really happy with the turnout and response to our work and the school in general.

Judge Parker

This Sunday was a lot of fun to draw....

Robin Hood Cover Nominated

I am honored that my cover to Robin Hood Arrow of Justice, published by Airship 27 is nominated for the Pulp Factory Cover of the year. The first cover I did for Robin Hood did win the cover of the year last year, so I am honored I that I have my second cover in the running for the award.

Judge Parker

Sam wants to make sure the Judge is safe...

Blast from The Past--First Marvel Job: Transformers

While going through the archives here I came across copies of my pencils for my first Marvel Comics Job circa 1984. It's ironic in a way, that my first job at Marvel would be a robot comic as the first job I was offered at Marvel on my first trip to the offices in 1983 was a comic to be inserted into a toy, but since I was still living in Ann Arbor at the time the editor didn't feel comfortable giving me the job. The next summer I landed a gig helping out on Robotech for DC and this lead me (samples in hand) back to Marvel to try and land work.

I ended up getting an issue of the Transformer to do since the samples were of that type of work, yet I really didn't like the show or want to draw tat stuff. but a job is a job, especially in the beginning so I said yes, then struggled to draw the robots between using the toys ( which I bought) and the model sheets for the show--which really had nothing in common. I had just turned 23 at the time I did this job and had just moved to Philly.

The job was hack inked by just about anybody in the bullpen who could hold a brush, so suffice to say my first job at Marvel left a kinda' bitter taste when it hit the stands. I was happy to have my first job but sad that the job was given the "Marvel Hands" ink treatment. But that was how comics were done then,I was luckier than my buddy Bret Blevins who had his first several jobs ruined by having them inked by Vince Coletta. Comics was a simpler and maybe more fun business then, less pressure to earn a zillion bucks an a lot more opportunity and variety of books for an artist, especially those trying to break in. these days it seems those types of books don't exist at the big two so now you have to go the independent way, maybe an Image book and probably plan on not making much if any money for a while. I've know a few guys who are now at the big two who came in just like that.

Sunday Figure Painting

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

As they say, "the plot thickens".

Final Semester Week 2

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

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

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

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

Things are not looking good for April...

Judge Parker

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

Judge Parker

Judge Parker--Happy New Year!