Baltimore Con, Etc.

Hey all, here's a bit of an update. The Baltimore Con was a really rewarding weekend. A lot of great artists from the Autumn Society of Philadelphia were in attendance. It was my first time meeting many of them in person, and the whole group is a tour de force of talent. Moreover, a nice group of people took home some prints and sketches of my work, which is always a more than generous compliment. Being at cons as an exhibitor is sometimes an interesting opportunity to do things I wouldn't normally do in my studio, just because you have time to sit down and draw for hours on end while meeting people, and sharing your work with everyone in attendance. Above is just are some quick cartoons of Hellboy characters (the Johann was bought by someone, so I only had a picture of it, rather than a scan).

Another great thing that stemmed from the con, I have a few private commissions in the works- biggest compliment of all, and thank you to those who commissioned me. Below is a rough sketch of one of those works in progress- based loosely on elements from my George & the Dragon piece and Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. The other one is to be based on Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland- an epic classic of the American cartoon.


Last little thing, new monitor! Thanks to Mike Taggart! It's big, wide screen, and makes working even more of a joy than ever. Here's the new set-up, with secret project obscured. That's all for now, thanks!

Lunar Moth

This is a quick experimental spot that I did from a pencil drawing. I saw a picture of a lunar moth at the DeYoung Museum when I went out to San Francisco, and the image stuck with me for a while. I'd planned to use the idea in another piece, but really, I just wanted to draw a moth. So, I tried to find an image that would fit the moth idea, and that's where the Mayan carving (a moon symbol), found its way into the piece- another way of combining the rendered and the graphic, which is always fun.

I tried to limit myself on time and simplify the process to see what would come out of it and all in all, I like the way it came out, especially the grainy quality of the pencil and paper. Hope you like it.

CMYK!

Just found out that I have a piece in CMYK #42! I'm pretty excited, needless to say, but you can pick up the issue when it's out in newsstands this November. Later!

Lames.

I don't have an amazing studio, but in this new apartment of mine I managed to carve out a nice little spot in front of a window that looks out on S. 13th street and a nice tree across the street. I have space to hang work I like, space for storing supplies and paper, and desks dedicated to both drawing and digital work. Look, I can show you part of it!


Nice, right? It's no New York 20ft tall ceiling, frosted glass walls, robot servant filled studio, but I like it a lot. Then the drips start. It's puzzling at first- Water? What is this water? Looking up, I notice a very sorry looking and severe sagging coming from my suddenly damp and overweight ceiling tiles. I shove everything off the desk, lay down a lot of plastic and cover the many open outlets, like a small town piles sandbags to ward off the rising water. The inevitable happens and bam! the tiles fall and crumble to poisonous bits. Now, I have a view of pipes and forgotten wallpaper covered by dry wall. It only takes new tiles to fix but still, pretty lame.

St George & the Dragon

This is the finish for my "Dragon" themed illustration. I kinda hemmed and hawed at the end of the process, but eventually you need to settle on when you're going to stop working on a particular piece. There's a lot that I think is still nice and successful- the cracks, the mural in general, etc. Thanks to my friend Mike for modeling for this piece...I'm told that I'm not often the easiest person to model for..

St George

There's another collaborative piece in the works, following up The Fisherman's Wife, and the theme is "Dragon." I always enjoy putting modern elements in myths and so I took a stab at St George and the Dragon. The mural in the background tells a piece of the original tale, while the main elements are as if the story is told again, with a modern protagonist. Above are my sketch and final drawing.

Fisherman's Wife and Machu Pichu

I've been holding off posting my finish for the collaborative themed "Fisherman's Wife," but here's the finish. I added the fish bone in the bottom panel since the original sketch to try to use more of the space down there. Hope you like it and I hope to see all the finishes soon. I'll put up a link when more come in, but until then check out Karen Hagen's lovely and sensitive contribution.

This is the newest project that I just started the other day. It's a gift for friends who took me to Peru and though it's a long time coming, my hope is to eventually give them a nice framed image that they can enjoy as a reminder of the amazing trip.