PENICKart Scribbles

Remembering Childhood Pranks

2012-01-10T10:02:00.002-06:00

I just finished chapter 2 of the Steve Jobs biography and as interesting as Steve Jobs is, I have to say, I find Steve Wozniak endlessly more interesting. And funny. I guess I just identify with Woz more; I laughed so much during this chapter, reading about some of their pranks.

I love pranks. I grew up in Alabama and didn't have any of the tech type skills that Jobs and Wozniak had, but I had the same penchant for pranks.

I remember that a friend and I figured out one time that you could call a flower shop and order flowers for one person and have the bill sent to another person's address. I find it hard to believe that it could work but I remember specifically picking a delivery address on my street and we were floored when the flower truck actually showed up!! We laughed ourselves silly because we knew that 1) the person receiving the flowers would have no idea why they were being delivered, 2) they wouldn't know the person they were from (most likely), and 3) the person getting billed would be so confused and pissed when the bill showed up. Hahahaha, that was fun. We did it a few more times but it got boring because we never really got to see, firsthand, the results.

Then there was the X-Lax gum incident, where a girl in our class dared my friend Lewis and I to replace the gum in a Chick-lets package with X-Lax gum. They looked exactly the same. We were dared so we had to go through with it (no 'man' could shy away from a real dare). We were so gleeful, meticulously opening the Chick-lets gum package, discovering that the X-Lax gum really did look exactly like the Chick-lets gum, and then replacing them and resealing the package.

Then we gave the devious pack of gum away on the bus, to a kid named Bailey. We offered it up and a few kids declined. We, of course, had real Chick-lets gum to help sell the idea that we had gum to give away. Bailey took the gum and Lewis and I hunkered down in our seat, laughing our asses off. We did it! We would peak our heads up every few minutes to see Bailey chewing, renewing our laughter fest. Then we looked up and he wasn't chewing anymore. That was unexpected. We asked him what he had done with the gum. We were still chewing our own, so we were afraid he had thrown it out. He answered "I swallowed it" and our jaws must have dropped. Oh my god! This was turning out even better than anticipated.

Well, Bailey wasn't on the bus the next morning. We thought that was funny. Not as funny as the day before, but funny. Then, close to lunch time at school, I got called out into the hallway where the principal was standing with Bailey's mother and all the other boys from the bus. My amusement turned to utter fear. I was in big trouble! Bailey didn't really know us so I guess he couldn't name us specifically as the culprits. The other boys were cool enough not to rat us out, so there we all were, standing in the hallway, getting lectured about the dangers of laxatives. Bailey had been shitting his brains out all night. He was going to be okay but what we did was very dangerous. I felt really bad but couldn't believe we had gotten away with it! My parents would have killed me if they had found out.

A couple of days later, on a Saturday morning, I pulled my bike out of the garage in order to ride to a friend's house. I noticed a bunch of older kids hanging out on their own bikes down by my mailbox. That was strange. The mailbox was on the left side of the driveway - the direction I needed to go in. Instinctively I turned right instead. Most of them followed, calling out to me in angry tones. Uh-oh. Luckily I had a ten speed, which was fast. Most of them were on dirt bikes. I liked speed too, so I was comfortable flying around corners on my bike. I took the long way to my friend Ron's house. A couple of the guys had gone another route to try and cut me off but I was going so fast I beat them to the cut-off corner. I flew into the driveway and back yard of Ron's house, my adrenaline pumping hard. I didn't know exactly why, but these older boys were out to give me a beating. From the safety of Ron's back yard I asked why they wanted to beat the snot out of me. They said I had tried to give the X-Lax gum to one of the guy's younger sister. I denied it, big time, but they were right. I had. I had to watch my back for a few months after that. I guess that was my first real lesson in tactical paranoia, hahaha, something the infantry would later teach me much more about.

There were so many other pranks. Relentless calls to radio stations requesting the dumbest songs, ring and runs, firecracker pranks, rotten eggs in mailboxes, flaming poo, etc... We tried to get our school bus to overturn once. That one took coordination but, surprisingly, the kids were game.

There was a particular turn on our bus route where the two adjoining streets were both going downhill. It felt, everyday, that the bus was really listing as we turned that corner, so we got all the kids to jump from the uphill side of the bus to the downhill side of the bus right as the bus reached its peak point of listing. It didn't work but to this day I can't believe we actually convinced a busload of kids to actually try this. The bus driver was pissed, obviously, but that was nothing new.

My friend James and I rigged my house with fishing wire a couple of times, putting taught lines of it from furniture to furniture, cabinets to cabinets, etc... in the dead of night so that when my parents or sister got up they would walk right into them unexpectedly.

My friend Steve and I got to go to a Commercial Art competition in high school along with another classmate, Jason. The three of us were put up in a hotel room in Ft. Worth, Texas. Jason stayed out later than Steve and I so we moved all the furniture around, turning the sofa on end and placing it just inside the door to the room. We put toothpaste on the bottom of the door handle so that when Jason showed up he would get toothpaste all over his hand. That really distracted him. We could hear him through the door, hahaha. "What the hell?" Then the door opens - it's so dark in hotel rooms when you've got the curtains closed and the lights off - and Jason walks right into the upturned sofa. Bam.

I almost got hospitalized from one of the firecracker pranks, or rather the repercussions of the particular prank. We thought it would be really funny to throw a string of lit firecrackers on top of a passing car, so we did. The car had a couple of older high school kids in it and it scared the hell out of them when the string of firecrackers started going off right over their heads. We laughed ourselves silly. About fifteen minutes later that same car came down the street again. We were so caught up in our own mischief, wanting to throw another string of firecrackers on top of the same car, that we didn't even think about them having any. The car goes by, I throw our string of firecrackers, and didn't notice the giant M80 the guy threw out the car window at me. By the time I did notice it, it was too late. It went off right by my side and tore me up pretty good. I had a slight burn scar on that side for a few years. It must not have been quite as close as I thought it was, because if it had been a couple of inches closer I'm sure it would have done some major damage.

My life eventually took me to New York City and Chicago, two cities that I love dearly. The more liberal mind set suits me. Looking back, though, I have to say, growing up in Alabama was a lot of fun and I treasure the experience and what the place had to offer.

How to THINK you're getting work done without actually getting any work done

2011-10-27T18:16:00.002-05:00

I love Google SketchUp. Seriously. Some purists might consider it a cheat, but I don't. I think it's using another tool to help the comic book artist. Our job is already one of the most difficult jobs there is in the storytelling world (we're the actors, the directors, the cinematographers, the editors, the set designers, the concept designers, the continuity person, etc...). Utilizing whatever tools you can to help is just smart business to me.

Anyway, I'm no 3D wiz, but I can stumble my way around SketchUp okay and I continue to learn how to be more efficient when making my models. Regardless, it's a time suck to be sure. My hope, however, is that by making models of locations that I'll come back to over and over, I save time in the long run. Oh, how I hope. Anyway, below are a few of the models I've put together for RECOVERY INCORPORATED.

This first batch is Mia's home, a penthouse loft on the upper east side of Manhattan. I built the building but cobbled together most of the other parts using all of the awesome models you can find on Google's 3D Warehouse. Mia's pad is a pretty cool place, indicative of the lifestyle she leads. It's large and open, accessible only through the regular elevator, the service elevator, and the stair well. Only her closest friends and family know the code to access the penthouse floor. The biggest part of the loft penthouse is devoted to her own in-home dojo, decked out with all the proper equipment. And to contrast that physical part of her life? A zen garden in her bedroom.

Next up is her office. She has the first two floors in a corner building off Broadway on the upper west side of Manhattan. The lobby, where her cousin Jackie works as her assistant, is lavish. It suggests to potential clients that she is good at her job, hence the ability to afford such a place. Up the stairs and to the right is her office, which is considerably more low key and sparse. It's nice but she doesn't spend an over abundance of time there. Still, it is up to date technologically. She may not be a techie but she's always on the cutting edge; it behooves her to be due to her line of work.

Last up for now is a simulation of the Mount Sinai Medical Center on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, where Mia's mother is in the hospital. I will eventually be able to use this model for other things, replacing the building but keeping the general street and traffic. This saves a ridiculous amount of time when it comes to pencilling and inking, believe me. Like I said above, it's offset by the amount of time it takes to build the model, so it's a wash at the moment, but once I get to use it on a few more occasions my time savings will creep into the positive.

And one more thing: so you can see how such a model winds up in the book, here's an inked page showing Mia at home and a page of my "pencils" showing Mia out front of Mt. Sinai.

Two posts in one day! How about that?

A Tale of Two Spielbergs

2011-10-27T08:26:00.000-05:00

I have long believed that there are two Steven Spielbergs. There's the guy who can make films like Schindler's List and the guy who makes films like Jurassic Park II. One is a filmmaker who has an intimate understanding of story and character, who puts his all into his films and sacrifices nothing en route to making some of the most powerful films on the American landscape. The other one doesn't seem to care much at all about story or logic and is just having a romp at the moviegoer's expense, which brings us to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Not many people are fans of the most recent Indiana Jones film. I personally think it's got some fun moments but it is a stinker. I just read an article with some quotes from Steven Spielberg regarding the film. He told Empire Magazine this:

"I sympathise with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin.

"I didn't want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in - even if I don't believe in it - I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.

"I'll add my own touches, I'll bring my own cast in, I'll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that."

Jeez. He kind of throws George under the bus, doesn't he? Frankly, I think it's a load of crap. I feel compelled to express this because, as a storyteller, I'm a little surprised that Steven has so completely missed the point.

That MacGuffin would have worked just fine if the rest of the story had been told well. Aliens are somehow less believable than the Ark of the Covenant? Or the Holy Grail? Or the Shankara Stones? I don't think so.

So what made Indy IV so stinky? Well, here's another quote from the esteemed filmmaker regarding the nuclear explosion and the lead-lined refrigerator:

"Blame me. Don't blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying 'jump the shark'. They now say, 'nuked the fridge'. I'm proud of that. I'm glad I was able to bring that into popular culture."

Proud? It's hard to believe this is the same guy who made Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Amistad. I admit, I thought that scene was pretty funny, but I'm aware (at the same time) that it was completely ludicrous. When The Fonz jumped the shark on Happy Days it was an event that signified the show had crossed a line, a line you don't want to cross. It's a line that disengages the audience and causes eye-rolling. It became a saying to signify that your show or film no longer has any credibility. Why would anyone be proud to trump such an event? And yet I guess it shouldn't be a surprise; Spielberg has tried to trump it before. Remember the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the mine car makes the leap across a huge chasm and lands, with everyone still on board, safely on the tracks on the other side? Ugh. The fridge and the nuke is much more egregious though. I can't believe I'm having to say that, but there it is.

And the worst part about Indy IV? The fridge and the nuke is only the tip of the shark jumping iceberg! How about the giant ants? Or the sword fight on the hood of a jeep? Or (and this is the best/worst one to me) Mutt swinging on vines faster than the speeding jeeps? And we're not even done!!! How about driving a jeep off a cliff only to land in a tree that ever so gently lowers them into the water!? Or said jeep going over not one but three massive waterfalls and all of our heroes staying in the jeep, safe and sound, after all three!? That's what made Indy IV suck.

Or how about the climax of the film, where our iconic hero just walks out of the giant hole as it fill up with water. And once they're out, they stand on top of a hill and watch as the aliens return home. That's how you end an Indiana Jones film!? By having the hero walk and stand!?

And if all of that wasn't enough, how about the progression of events between Indy, his son, and Marion. There was so much potentially to explore between Indy and Mutt. It would have been much more interesting if the tension between them had continued to build until the climax of the film, or at least the third act break. Mutt sure wasn't very angry at his father for abandoning them. Even if that wasn't exactly the case (Indy didn't know that Marion was pregnant), it could still seem that way to Mutt, especially if his mother had never told him the truth. Indy also gives Mutt lots of good 'life' advice during the film only to completely reverse his thoughts once he finds out that Mutt is his son. Really? Just for a funny line? That undermines Indy as a character.

I've heard people moan about the aliens, the MacGuffin of Indy IV, and have been able to more or less ignore it, but when I hear the director, a man who's dedicated his life to storytelling, lay the blame of Indy IV openly on that MacGuffin, I have to finally speak out. So there it is, on the record: the MacGuffin in Indy IV is just fine. If you still don't like it, that's fine, but don't say that's why Indy IV stank to high heaven, 'cause it's not.

Oh, and just to clarify, I know, in the end, that there are not two Steven Spielbergs. And how do I know? Because the two met on one film in particular. Minority Report. Spielberg captured some of his best and most exciting storytelling in this film, and yet it was also more or less devoid of internal logic (my term for a story's own set of rules). John Anderton, Tom Cruise's character, comes up on a redball (meaning he's going to commit murder) and yet he still has access to the police building later? He uses his old eyeball to get in. I've been fired before. The first thing they do is restrict your access to the building. They don't even wait for you to get out. His wife is also given Anderton's service pistol with his belongings, which she then uses to rescue her husband. Service weapons are issued, not owned. And then there's the entire logic behind the precogs. It doesn't make any sense. I'm not even going to try and explain why; it'll give me a headache.

So who's up for seeing Warhorse? And how to feel now about the knowledge that Lucas is working on the story for an Indy V? After all, we've already "nuked the fridge".

Business As UnUsual 0030

2011-10-19T12:23:00.000-05:00

People liked the last one much more than expected so I thought I'd follow that up with a possible dud. If you don't see it as a dud, then bless you. :-)

Business As UnUsual 0029

2011-10-17T17:03:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0028

2011-10-14T15:16:00.003-05:00

A new strip finally. I've been swamped with other work latey, hence the delay. I hope the wait was worth it. Cheers.

Business As UnUsual 0027

2011-09-14T16:12:00.003-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0026

2011-09-12T14:26:00.001-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0025

2011-09-09T12:36:00.001-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0024

2011-09-07T11:52:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0023

2011-09-05T12:16:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0022

2011-09-02T13:08:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0021

2011-08-31T17:33:00.002-05:00

A Sunday strip on a Wednesday!

So here's the lowdown: In an effort to build up some material and a cushion for myself I'm only going to posts strips on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the time being. This will change eventually, once I've got a better cushion in place (say six month's worth). The strip, however, will continue to be drawn as though it were an everyday strip, so there will be six dailies for every one Sunday strip even though they're only going up three days a week. Are you confused? I know I am.

Business As UnUsual 0020 Bonus strip!

2011-08-28T02:32:00.000-05:00

I know, technically it's Sunday, but it's my strip so if I say it's a bonus Saturday strip, that's what it be! Nanny-na-na-nee-ha-ha! ;-P

Business As UnUsual 0020

2011-08-27T23:07:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0019

2011-08-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0018

2011-08-25T09:53:00.000-05:00

The attitude is my wife's (well, mine too really) but the "event" happened to me, not her. Twice.

Balance is a big theme in my life and will be a constant in the strip. This one just happens to illustrate the idea very effectively IMHO. :-)

Business As UnUsual 0017

2011-08-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0016

2011-08-23T17:18:00.001-05:00

The comparative commute. I used to do the commute my wife does so I'm familiar with it; that's why I appreciate my non-commute so much nowadays. You never know how long it will last.

Business As UnUsual 0015

2011-08-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

Today and tomorrow's strips are two of the first ones I drew, around a year or so ago. I had so many different ideas for how to start the strip that it sort of paralyzed me for a while. I don't know if where I began the strip is the best solution but it's started and that's what counts. The next two week's worth of strips will be important in the long run because they kind of establish a "day in the life of" for Art and Abby. Things will change, of course, but this is a good starting point.

I now think starting with their wedding would have been the best place to start but that'll just have to be in a flashback now. Oh yes, there will be flashbacks. I might call them waybacks. Only time will tell. :-)

Business As UnUsual 0014 - Now with more Color!

2011-08-20T19:18:00.000-05:00

I got adventurous and colored it. I'd like to color them all but there's just no time for that as long as I have other commitments. Maybe Sundays if I'm lucky.

Business As UnUsual 0013

2011-08-17T13:06:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0012

2011-08-16T10:38:00.000-05:00

I really like this plant and imagine that I'll have to revisit it from time to time.

Business As UnUsual 0011

2011-08-15T15:47:00.002-05:00

Business As UnUsual 0010

2011-08-12T00:59:00.000-05:00

Business As UnUsual - Now with even MORE bacon!!

2011-08-11T01:32:00.000-05:00

Business As UnUsual - Now with more bacon!!

2011-08-10T00:22:00.000-05:00

Yet another Business As UnUsual strip

2011-08-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

First of the Sunday strips. I debated for a long time whether or not to color the Sunday strips. I went with black and white because it's faster. Who knows, if it's ever successful enough to have a printed version I'll color them.

Another Business As Unusual again

2011-08-07T06:09:00.001-05:00

WARNING: mature themed content! Please prescreen in you have any ideas of letting your children read this strip. Thank you for your attention.

I started a Tumblr blog for Business As UnUsual, which you can find here.

I'll post another week's worth or so here on my main blog but after that these will only be posted on the Tumblr blog. I'm going to try and make a real go at this thing and the only way for me to be able to accurately track stats on the strip is if it's only viewable in one location. So please head over and follow along if you like it.

Also, as this strip clearly demonstrates, the strip, while it may look like a typical, kid friendly strip, is not. Well, most of the time it is, but every once in awhile my screwy sense of humor needs to go mature places. So that's that.

Another Business As Unusual

2011-08-02T22:56:00.000-05:00

Just one more for the moment.

A few more BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL strips

2011-08-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

I figured I better put up a few more so you can at least get a vague hint as to what the strip will be like. Comments welcomed!

Business As UnUsual

2011-08-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

Like most Americans, I grew up on some great comic strips. Peanuts, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes. I've always had a great love for well done strips but only thought about trying one out about a year or so ago (plus or minus six months). Once I put my mind to it I came up with my idea almost immediately. I started filling up a notebook with my ideas and worked up a few sample strips. I've got enough written ideas to go for about six months and can come up with more ideas very easily, especially since it's so close to my own life. I can't promise that I'll get these out with any regularity right now, but I'm curious to see what people think of my idea and its execution. So here they are to introduce themselves: Art and Abby Normal.

Glade TRC3263827

2011-07-25T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well here it is: the last ship I've had to design for INSURRECTION. Designing stuff has been one of the best parts about drawing the story. Concept designers have a great job, but I like mine better. Visual storytelling allows me to wear many different hats: director, actor, cinematographer, editor, concept designer, etc...

I made this in Google Sketchup. Anyone who uses the program will immediately notice how shoddy my work is. :-) I do okay with sketchup but what I'm learning is that the more you preplan, the easier your job will be once you're in the program. My problem is that I usually start working in sketchup with only a rough sketch or vague idea to go on, hence all the patchwork and makeshift techniques. Still, I don't worry too much since all the stuff I do there is only as a guide for my drawings.

I know this sounds like sucking up, but serious thanks to Google for creating this program! For comic book artists it is the best thing since sliced bread (and by sliced bread I mean Photoshop).

By the way, if anyone recognizes the number I used as the registration ID I'll be impressed.

First submission for PLANET PULP!

2011-07-24T16:28:00.001-05:00

I was recently invited to join in on the fun over at PLANET PULP, which is way way cool because it's one of my favorite websites/blogs. They celebrate all the fun, silly stuff I grew up loving. So this month's subject matter is G.I. Joe. The first thought that came to me was... well, I don't want to spoil the strip, so read it and you'll know. :-) And then be sure to visit PLANET PULP and see all the other great stuff that's there to see. If you're like me, make sure you've got some free time.

A few commissions

2011-07-22T15:17:00.001-05:00

Just what the title says. I've got more to do but I have to get INSURRECTION off my plate first. For anyone who's actually reading it, I apologize for being so slow but I'm trying to do my best, especially with this giant climactic battle. Anyway, hopefully these will be found to your liking in the meantime.

I've got some really great things lined up for the near future, by the by. Can't wait to share as I'm really exciting about it all.

First up is Black Cat.

Next is Wolvie (as I call him). I've never really been able to draw a Wolverine that I'm happy with. This one is about as close as I've gotten. I won't give up though; someday I'll get him. I really like John Buscema's and Marc Silvestri's take on the character but I think Barry Windsor-Smith's take in Weapon X is my favorite version of ol' Logan.

Rogue, from the early nineties. With the big hair.

And the White Queen. This is some strange fantasy version of her; clearly not any existing version. I just sort of made it up as I went along. It's probably my favorite of the bunch though.

The commissions are all done 11x14 inches on 500 series Strathmore bristol board and inked with Japanese brush pens. The White Queen has a little bit of Photoshop silliness thrown on in the background.

While I'm at it, here are a couple of sketches I did. These are smaller, 5x7 inches. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a huge fan of the CLONE WARS animated television show. I actually like the show better than most of the films (not the first two - episodes IV and V, but the rest). It's so much fun and isn't bogged down by all the family history. Anyway, here's Asajj Ventress and Anakin. I would LOVE to draw a CLONE WARS comic book, so if anyone knows the editors at Dark Horse...

I can't stop! Since I'm posting these, here are a few more CLONE WARS sketches from my 2010 sketchbook:

I could draw this stuff all day. Okay, back to work...

INSURRECTION, Issue 4

2011-07-16T02:45:00.000-05:00

I just finished a page tonight that I hope I never have to repeat. 3 words: epic final battle. I've got several more pages of it too, but this one broke the ice. I'll share it later. Meanwhile, here are pages 1 and 2.

INSURRECTION, Issue 3

2011-06-18T17:56:00.000-05:00

I just finished the second page of issue 4; it's my favorite page so far of the mini-series. Can't wait to share that one. Meanwhile, here are a few pages from issue 3. Can't show too much as it's not out yet.

INSURRECTION mash-ups

2011-06-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

What the hell's a mash-up? I dunno; I thought I heard the term somewhere but I might be making it up. I didn't want to share pages from issue 3 of INSURRECTION and chance spoiling things so instead I made a "mash-up" of my favorite panels. I liked the results so I did the same for issues 1 and 2. I did them as a large wallpaper basically, 2560x1600.

Indy sketch cards

2011-06-13T00:29:00.000-05:00

These were as fun to do as anything I've done in recent times. I plan to do many more of them.

INSURRECTION, Issue 2 inks

2011-05-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

I've posted this stuff on my DeviantArt page. It gets hard to keep up with all these "social media" sites, hahaha. Oh well. Issue 2 has been out for a bit and I'm just starting on the last page of issue 3 now.

All the pages from issues 1 and 2 have been inked at print size, meaning I print them on 9x12 2 ply bristol board and ink them at the actual size they will be printed. For anyone who doesn't know, most comics are inked larger than they reproduce, usually around 150% of the final size. I inked them small to help with my speed. I tend to put too much detail into larger pages, so working at the final size kept me from doing that.

It worked. The trick, then, was to apply the lessons to larger, normally sized ink pages, done on 11x17 2 ply bristol board. I went back to normal sized inking on issue 3 and I think the lessons have stuck pretty well. I'll share some of those pages in a bit.

I also do a lot of "post" work in Photoshop. I try to plan ahead and know what I'm going to want to do digitally, then ink areas according to what I'm going to do later. For example, I kept the inking on the rocks (on this first page) simple because I knew I planned to add some texture to them digitally. Explosions, planets, textures - these are the kinds of things that I find to be much more time efficient with Photoshop. I can also get textures that would be nearly impossible to get with paper and brushes and/or pens.

More INSURRECTION stuff

2011-04-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

I have a few colored pages on my DeviantArt site so I'll put them up here along with a couple of extras.

I finally finished the art for issue 2 and will post a few of those pages soon. I was wiped out for a couple of weeks with a bad cold so the issue is shipping a couple of weeks late. It's worth the wait though. the story gets very interesting in issue 2 and it's got a great ending. If the ending to issue 2 doesn't hook you then nothing will.

Just to be clear: when I talk up the book, I'm not referring to my art, I'm referring to the story. I didn't write it so I'm a fan like everyone else when it comes to this, the only difference being that reading the script is my equivalent to reading the comic. Blake Masters and Michael Alan Nelson have gone a great job of creating a world I find very interesting. I'm a huge sci-fi buff - I grew up reading sci-fi novels - so this is right up my alley. They also do a great job of letting the visuals do the heavy lifting in the book. That is a really nice thing for me and really helps to keep me invested in the story. If you read a lot of comics you'll find that a lot of writers feel the need to have dialogue in almost every panel, backing up or reiterating what is happening visually. Masters and Nelson aren't afraid to have entire pages without a lick of dialogue, which makes me want to ensure I do the visuals justice. It's a brave thing for them to do and I really appreciate it.

Darrin Moore, the colorist on the book, has done a great job. I really love to color my own work so it's hard to let go of these responsibilities. If you're not a top tier artist at Marvel or DC it seems to be a real crapshoot as to what you're going to get color-wise. A lot of colorists get jobs coloring because they know programs like Photoshop or Painter, not because they understand color theory. Darrin has done a great job. His work compliments my work quite well; it never dominates or confuses. Two issue in and I feel totally comfortable about what's going to come back from him. I'd work with him again in a heartbeat and let me tell you, that's a great feeling of relief. I hope, from the pages below, that you'll agree. There are some especially good pages from issue 2 that I can't wait to share.

And finally, I read the script for issue 3 last night and it just gets more and more interesting. Another good ending. The only real shame about this book is that it's only 4 issues.

C2E2: Year 2 in Review

2011-03-24T01:37:00.000-05:00

So this was the second year Reed Exhibitions held the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). Last year was okay; it was the first year I ever had a table at a convention. I mostly ran around handing out page samples to different publishers. That paid off so this year I decided to keep my butt planted at my table the whole time. I'm glad I did because it was pretty amazing.

The show sold over twice the amount of tickets than the year before (they sold something like thirty five thousand tickets?). Friday and Saturday were nuts. Just nuts. The floor was swamped with people. Sunday was a little slower but I was ready for a slower pace by then. There was a great vibe to the show and the word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive. I feel confident that the it will just continue to get bigger and better. The staff was great; best I've seen at any show. Hats off to Mike Negin. He was in charge of Artist's Alley and was a constant presence all weekend, always checking to make sure we had everything we needed.

Met lots of interesting people. Stephanie, from Nova Scotia, gave me some great advice about web comics. Got some great advice about podcasting from a group of guys - I can't seem to find the business card they gave me at the moment. Their podcast has everything to do with nerd stuff. Or was it geek stuff? Met a few vets as well. One of them was an even bigger buff about World War II planes and than I am.

Costumes ran the gamut, as usual. Some of them were awesome for all the right reasons and some of them were awesome for all the wrong reasons, hahaha. Either way, they were all great. I commend them all; it takes moxie to dress up like some of them and go out in public. There's a great collection of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/c2e2/ The Monarch's henchmen from The Venture Brothers were my favorites.

Meanwhile, my goal for the show was to try and get a lot of work done (I'm behind on my work due to being sick for a week and a half) but I learned quickly that it was completely unrealistic. There were just too many people and the whole point of being there is to be social. I did do a few sketches that I was pretty happy with and I've got a list of commissions to start on once I get issue 2 of INSURRECTION finished.

I've learned a tremendous amount from these past two years and I'm really looking forward to next year. I'm hoping, actually, to attend another show later this year. Maybe Baltimore. I'll have lots of friends there and everyone seems to really love that show. Emerald Con in Seattle is the other show people really seem to love but it's too close to C2E2 currently.

It looks like there might be some nice opportunities coming out of the show this year as well. More on that if and when any of it becomes a reality. Meanwhile I've got lots of work to do. I don't know how I'm going to finish issue 2 of Insurrection on time but I'm going to try. STRIP MAGAZINE UK, the magazine I'm illustrating RECOVERY INCORPORATED for, is officially hitting the stands in May of this year. I'll be doing the cover for the third issue of the magazine so I'll be squeezing that into my schedule as well.

Back to work (when will I sleep again???)...

More from Issue 1 of INSURRECTION

2011-02-06T09:53:00.000-06:00

Just a couple more pages. Gotta keep the work coming or the blog gets to smelling stale, like old cheese.

I'm having a ton of fun working on this book. What? Oh, I hear Recovery Incorporated calling...

INSURRECTION

2011-01-05T09:38:00.000-06:00

On top of RECOVERY INCORPORATED I'm now doing a four issue mini-series for BOOM Studios entitled - yeah, you guessed it - INSURRECTION. It's a sci-fi story, which I love, so I'm really excited about the whole thing. I grew up on science ficiton. Star Wars, Star Trek, novels by Larry Nivel, Jerry Pournelle, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Arthur C. Clarke, Heinlein, comics like Akira and Appleseed, etc...

I started out by doing some concept material. Not much, just to get the looks for the main characters down:

Once we got these going I did a refined version so the people doing the covers would know who I was basing each of the characters on:

I like to base characters off of real people if I can; it helps to make each one unique in character. It's so easy, when drawing comics, to just draw one body and head type for males and females. I don't want to fall into that trap so I look to actors or sports figures to help them become individuals. I won't necessarily try to always make the characters in the comic look just like the actors but I'll try to nail down the general idea. Also included here is the uniform idea for one of the two major groups in the story.

Next it gets a little more fun. Ship design. These are for a ship we see briefly in issue 1:

The FTL nacelles are a little too Star Trek like, so they'll be changing, but you get the idea. Last up for the concept stuff is a page from my sketchbook. My editors gave me a hint about something coming up in issue 2 so I did a page full of sketches. Not sure if any of them will make it through the process, but I had fun doing them.

Actually, now that I've read the script for issue 2, I'm pretty sure none of these will make it through. Oh well; maybe they'll still show up later.

Here's pages 1, 3, and 5 of issue 1:

The first issue comes out in March (early March I think). Okay, now back to work...

RECOVERY INCORPORATED, pages 2 and 3

2010-12-13T02:00:00.002-06:00

RECOVERY INCORPORATED is a comic my friend Dean and I are writing together and I'm illustrating. It's 8 pages a month and will be appearing in the forthcoming magazine entitles STRIP Magazine UK. You can see their blog here: link

It was originally going to hit the shelves in November 2010 but the publishing date got pushed back to February 2011 to avoid competing with all the other titles coming out around the holidays.

I should have copies of the first two issues with me at C2E2 in Chicago (March 2011). It's shaping up to be a great magazine and I feel really lucky to be a part of it.

Interesting big about page 3: it originally had more panels showing what was happening outside of the closet but my editor felt it would be a little more appropriate to keep the 'camera' in the closet and 'suggest' what was happening outside. I'm so glad it was suggested because I think this is a far better solution. My old teacher, Will Eisner, would be proud to see me using text as such an essential part of the storytelling. :-)

I also like seeing the shot of Mia (stuck in the closet) bigger. I think it's funny that this super cool chick is stuck in a closet, twiddling her thumbs, until the old man finishes using the bathroom and falls asleep again. It's the side of cool spy stuff you don't usually see.

Currently I'm hard at work on Chapter 2 and loving every second of it.

Pages are inked on bristol board with brush pens mainly, then scanned and colored in Photoshop. Panel borders, captions, balloons, and speed/motion lines are done in Manga Studio.

To find out what happens next you'll have to get ahold of the magazine or wait until the collected version comes around. A clue: the magazine was originally going to be titled ACTION MAGAZINE. :-)

Operation Desert Storm, Part 4

2010-11-19T10:56:00.000-06:00

Finally, some color! I was getting so antsy to start adding color to this piece. So antsy, in fact, that I didn't finish the grey toned art before I started coloring. I'm usually pretty linear in my work process but I'm never a hard-fast anything. "Don't confine me, man."

The entire illustration was created using Photoshop CS4 and then CS5 (upgrade time!).

My process here is pretty simple: I lay in flat colors to start with, just like when coloring a comic book page. The flat colors, like one flesh color to fill all of a person's flesh tones, allows me to go back later and select it easily with the magic wand tool. Looking at the first image here, however, I'm already not doing what I'm talking about, hahaha. Sometimes I jump ahead and finish off certain elements, like the yellow ribbon.

Just goes to show that no rules are ever iron clad. I usually like to keep my color layers to a minimum but I wanted to keep some editability on this one so I colored each object on its own layer (and/or layers). Yes, I think "editability" is a made up word, but I like it. Having the ribbon colors on its own layer allows me to go ahead and add my shadows/highlights now since all I have to do to "grab" it later is go to its layer.

After putting so much time and effort into the grey toned drawing, I want to keep the colors simple. When this is the goal I usually tend to get all my shadows done quickly by adding gradients. I will use a slightly darker version of the main color of the item and a nice shadow color, often in the purples or blues. I use the gradient tool, switching between multiply and color burn to slowly build the darks. In my mind highlights are what really make things 'pop' on an illustration, so that's where I want to concentrate my efforts. The darkest darks are often next to the lightest lights so I tend to lay in my shadow gradients originating from where I know the strongest highlights are going to be.

Shadows in place (and greatly defined by the original grey toned work), I go back in with the main color (the yellow of the ribbon in this case) and bring certain areas back to the original yellow and then beyond that into highlights. I use brushes for all of this, either ones I've made or ones I've found, all doing their best to replicate the look and feel of traditional brushes/mediums. Like the gradients, I build up the highlights slowly, keeping my brush on a low opacity - usually between 5 percent and 30 percent.

Now, back to the bigger picture. In the beginning I mainly want to get the basic "normal" colors for things in place. I can adjust the colors once they're all down. I know on this poster that I want that desert tan to dominate the palette. You can see on the American flag that it shows through, or tints the colors of the flag. This will carry through with the rest of the piece.

So after a full day's worth of work I've got the basic tan in place, the flag and ribbon finished, and flats in place for the 747 and departing soldiers, the F-16, the Apache, the gas masks, the destroyer, the camels, and the burning oil wells.

Another day finishes off the F-16 and the Apache, adds more detail to the burning wells, and adds flats to the couple hugging. I'm totally not flatting like I said I would. I think I'm so curious to see how some of it's going to turn out that I can't stop myself from jumping ahead.

I finally get smart and get my buddy Rob to help me 'flat' a few of the elements while I move ahead and finish off the couple hugging and the soldiers getting on the plane. Rob flats the map, the combat scene, and the parade. I also get the basics down for the explosion. I'm making a conscious choice to keep as many of the colors as possible in the warm range - reds, oranges, yellows and browns. Cooler tones are kept low key and largely desaturated; they will also be tweaked later to add some warmth to them.

It's worth noting that at any point during the process I may see something in an element I've already finished and go back to work on it some more. The changes to any one element will be continuous throughout the entire coloring process. Here's a shot of the F-16 at 100 percent (full sized):

Day the next: I add some elements to the explosion, color the missile and it's smoke plume, finish off the tank (I obviously flatted it some time early and forgot to mention it), finish off the camels, and spend the rest of the day coloring the destroyer (my favorite part of the piece).

By this time in the process I'm getting loopy from lack of sleep. To be honest and forthright, this poster took twice as long as I anticipated. Because of that I felt a lot of stress for the three weeks that I was over my original deadline. I failed to anticipate the amount of extra time that would be needed for working on something this large. Had the finished piece been something like 9x12 inches (say a magazine page) it would have gone quicker, but the extra size exponentially increased the detail (at least it seemed like it to me). Lesson learned. I kept many late hours in an effort to get it done as quickly as I could and it really kicked me in the rear once it was all said and done. I need a nap just thinking about it.

So, a few hours of sleep later, I'm back on the job, finishing off the gas masks, the parade scene and the combat scene. I've also started tweaking colors to add the warmth I mentioned. I also add a color layer over the entire piece to not only add more warmth but to add a sense of cohesiveness to it all. We're getting close.

And finally I'm caught up to that last missing element: the local Kuwaiti people that the poster needs. It may seem like a small element; it's certainly not one of the more glamorous elements, but I think they're vitally important because these are the people who were directly affected by Operation Desert Storm. Never mind politics; any time your home is a stage for battle your life cannot help but be profoundly impacted. I also added the text that will eventually be on the piece. It's not the final location; I was just throwing ideas around at this point.

Here's a random close up of the medic in the combat scene:

And the finished poster. The last significant change was to add the Kuwaiti flag over Kuwait on the map. I would have preferred to keep it orange but can understand the client's desire to have Kuwaiti's colors represented.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the greatest challenge of the illustration was to design it so it would work 'as is' or with an optional portrait added, allowing a veteran who buys it to personalize it. Did I succeed? I still don't really know. I'm happy enough with it. I think it looks really cool with the portrait added but I like seeing the American flag when it's absent. Whatever the case, it is what it is. I'm really proud of the finished product and happy beyond belief to be done with it, hahaha. For the record, the optional portrait is not my art. It is to be done (or has been done in this case) by someone else.

Now back to comics...

Operation Desert Storm, Part 3

2010-11-13T04:27:00.000-06:00

It wasn't my original plan to save all of the human element until I had finished the technical element but that's the way it worked. I needed to shoot some reference for the human pieces and that kept me putting it off for awhile. First up (the easiest reference to shoot) was of the couple saying goodbye. The client wanted to have the woman's back to us, allowing her to be anyone - wife, girlfriend, mother, sister. Different vets left under different conditions; keeping the woman 'generic' allows for the broadest interpretation (pardon the pun, har har).

The line art already finished is ghosted behind what I'm currently working on so that I can ensure I'm getting the placement I want. It also helps for avoiding tangents - places where edges touch. Tangents tend to draw the eye and in a successful illustration you don't want the eye going anywhere you (as the creator of the image) don't want it to go.

One of the things that sold me on drawing this digitally is that I could use Photoshop brushes to ensure a great variety of textures; something much more difficult to do with a pencil and paper. One great example is on the woman's hair. I was able to create the hair with a minimum of effort thanks to the right brush.

On the flip side, working digitally means that I'm working very large. I tend to always draw/paint digitally with my image at 100% in Photoshop. Zoom out and the line you lay down won't be as accurate and it also develops some squiggles sometimes. I mentioned that this file was really big. 18x24 inches at 450dpi. This next image is an example of what it looks like when I'm drawing at 100% - this is the 'actual' size of the image.

Unfortunately that size tends to require more time to finish things. It's a tough trade-off. The textures I was able to get into this poster are great (I'm happy with them anyway) but the time addition has been a real pain. I have definitely learned some lessons on this project.

Once I'm finished with the initial line work I change to a more painterly approach and start 'painting' in grey tones.

Next I add the remaining 'departure' elements - the yellow ribbon and the soldiers getting on a plane, bound for the Middle East.

Not all soldiers got there via chartered plane, but a lot did. I can tell you, it's a slightly surreal experience sitting on a plane dressed in your BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform) with nothing but a hundred and fifty other guys dressed exactly the same way. There's a brief scene of this in Jarhead, a fantastic movie that I relate to greatly, as I'm sure many veterans do. Unlike many hollywood films, Jarhead is, from my personal experience, a very accurate portrayal of life in the modern military. But I digress...

Here's another image showing the poster at full size.

And now the poster with these elements in place:

Gas masks. Man, I hated those things. If I thought I might die from some kind of poisoned gas though, I'd have that thing on is a second. The gas mask is only the start of it though. In the army we referred to such things as NBC warfare (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical warfare). And to be fully protected you had do don your MOPP suit (Mission Oriented Protective Posture suit - to this day I still don't know what the hell that means). They are hot. They don't breathe. Once your gas mask is on your face will get hot. You will sweat, and when you sweat a bead of perspiration will eventually run down your face. It will itch like crazy and you know what? You can't scratch it.

You know what else you can't do? You can't eat in them. You can drink water from your canteen (there's a connection tube that connects to a little thingy on the top of your canteen) but that's it. Drill Sergeants and Platoon Sergeants like to have fun and torture you by making you wear them for hours at a time. Again, watch Jarhead; you'll have a slightly deeper understanding of those scenes after reading this. Maybe. Maybe not. But again, I digress...

Let's move to a happier subject: the homecoming parade. Operation Desert Storm was the first major military action by the US military since Viet Nam ended. One of the things that really scarred a lot of Viet Nam vets was the lack of support they received when the returned home. It took a lot of years but we eventually learned how damaging such treatment can be. When soldiers returned home from Kuwait a great deal was made to show that we had learned our lesson. The ensuing celebrations were as much for the Viet Nam vets as for the Desert Storm vets and for that reason it was a significant event and is, therefore, an important part of this poster.

Yet another image showing the full-sized drawing:

And the gas mask and parade elements integrated into the poster:

The next section I put off for as long as possible. The combat scene is arguably the most important part of the poster. It's where all the 'glamour' and drama are. It is the fears of the departing soldiers realized. It is the life-changing moment for that generation of soldiers. That's not really why I put it off so long though. I put it off because I knew it would be the most difficult.

I found a good piece of reference but I had to change some elements not only to make it mine but also to make it fit the time frame correctly. That meant adding a lot of elements for which I didn't have photo reference. When I draw comics (and work from my head the vast majority of the time) this isn't really a big deal. When you're trying to draw a photorealistic illustration, however, it means a lot of work. It helps - a ton - to be so familiar with the equipment. I entered the army not long after Operation Desert Storm and therefore used all the same equipment they used. The uniform, the rifles, the LBV (Load Bearing Vest), the gas mask and it's container, the boots. It's all the same. I actually wore my desert boots just last week. Still, I had to add a lot of elements from my head, and it took me for-ever! I was right to be afraid of it.

Yet another full-sized image:

And the medics now being covered by Me, Me, and Me. Wanna see the reference pictures I took of myself for the scene?

How does it feel to want, hahaha? Sorry, old joke.

Once again, having finished the line drawing, I move on and add the tonal elements.

Behind them, largely cropped in the above image, is an explosion. Here's a view of the entire combat element:

And the combat scene integrated into the final poster:

Technically this isn't the end of the grey tone work. There's one element left to add - a couple of Kuwaiti locals - but by now I was overly antsy to get started with the colors, so that's what I did and that's what the next post will cover.

Oh, I mentioned before that I'd show the Destroyer. I hadn't prepared any jpegs of it last time, so here it is. I think it might be my favorite part of the poster. I used Google SketchUp for most of the tech pieces. SketchUp is Google's free 3D software. The best part about it is that people, once they finish a model, can upload it to Google's 3D Warehouse where people like me can download them and use them for reference. I turn the model around in three dimensional space, alter the lighting and camera to get the shot I want, then render an image I can use in Photoshop as the basis for my underdrawing.

These models, even when they are elaborate and impressively detailed, are still far from the detail of the real thing. I spent two days doing nothing but adding details to this destroyer. I think it was worth it.

See you next time in living color.

Operation Desert Storm, Part 2

2010-10-26T08:05:00.000-05:00

Often, when I do color work, I don't spend much time doing any real greyscale work but for this poster I decided it seemed appropriate. It's a good practice and usually pays off in the final color piece; it allows you to very accurately nail down your tonal work. I was taught in school that your illustrations (or photos for that matter) should always have 'black' blacks and 'white' whites, meaning that your piece should cover the complete tonal gamut. A common mistake by artists who go straight to color is to end up with a piece that's all middle tones. The results often look muddy. All this technical stuff aside, I just thought it would look good for the subject matter at hand.

I originally thought I would do most of the greyscale art with paper and pencil but convinced myself to try working digitally to see if I could replicate the look and feel of a traditional pencil drawing successfully in Photoshop.

I started with the camels because it seemed like the easiest element to experiment with. When I moved on to the burning oil wells I quickly became convinced that 'digital' was the way to go. My goal, from the day I started working digitally (ten years or more ago), was to create work that didn't look or feel like what people normally expected with digital art. I've spent a lot of time finding or creating brushes in Photoshop that don't look digital (at least to me). Hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks this. :-)

Happy with the results I moved on to the tech, starting with the Abrams A1 tank, then on to the AH-64 Apache helicopter, the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the USS Arleigh Burke-Class Guided Missile Destroyer.

I tried to save jpegs at different points of my progress, not always when I finished an element, that way some of my nitty gritty process can be revealed.

You'll notice on that last image that there's suddenly some background there. Once the main tech stuff was finished I moved on to the American flag, the map, and the basic background texture that I wanted. I forgot to get some close ups of the destroyer; I'll get some added later.

The poster, when printed, will be 18x24 inches; not huge but a good size. My photoshop file is 18x24 inches at 450dpi. It's pretty big. This poster is the first time I've ever had a file get so large that I couldn't save it as a normal photoshop file. I had to use the large format file that photoshop has - a psb. Fun.

Next up: People.

Operation Desert Storm, Part 1

2010-10-20T17:11:00.000-05:00

I have recently been commissioned to produce a poster commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. That might sound odd to a lot of people, especially those who have not served or don't come from a family history of military service. I can understand that. Let me say right off the bat that I do not condone war. It is a horrible thing any way you look at it. This blog is not for debating the pluses and minuses of warfare and it's attachment to human nature however. It is a blog for art and the silly things I notice about life.

The poster is to be aimed at vets of the operation and of the first Gulf War in general. So why would someone want to celebrate such a thing? Let me explain briefly:

I am a veteran. I served with the 101st ABN DIV for four years as an infantryman. I was lucky enough to have my service years squeeze between the first Gulf War and September 11th, 2001. I did not see combat. I can, however, understand what such a thing might do to a person. It's the kind of thing we trained for constantly and if my country had called on me to go into combat I would have done so without a second thought. It was my job.

For those who did serve during Operation Desert Storm, it was surely a life-defining time for them. When someone is told that they are about to be sent overseas into a hostile environment where people you don't know will be trying to kill you, I can only assume it to be a harrowing piece of news. You fear you might never return to your family and loved ones. All the things you thought you might go on to do in your life are potentially out the window. That's a lot to deal with mentally. For those men and women to make it home alive must be an amazing thing. To say that they value their lives more than most of us can ever imaging might be an understatement. These are the types of experiences that stay with a person, burned deeply into their memories. It is something they carry around with them every single day for the rest of their lives and this is why a veteran of the experience might want something to help them honor that part of their lives. I respect that deeply; they are, all of them, brothers-in-arms.

Now, on to the ARTWORK itself. Most people, when they think of an artist sitting at home and working on art, picture something like this:

This has largely been the case historically. A nice, large drawing surface, paper, pens, pencils, inks and other supplies all around you. One light, two, three, a window to keep you from staring at a blank wall whenever you look up from the task at hand. I spend many hours at my drawing table. In todays increasingly digital world, however, this is becoming more and more of a common image:

This is my computer set-up. The monitor on the right is a Wacom Cintiq and it allows me to draw directly on it (with a stylus) as I would on a piece of paper (with a pencil). I spend more time now at this desk than I do the other one. I actually look forward to getting over to that good old fashioned drawing desk when I can. It's nice to rest my eyes from the computer screens from time to time. Yes, that's Jane Krakowski on the other screen. I was watching episodes of 30 Rock while I was working this day. And yes, those are M&Ms on the desk and yes, they are bad for you and I shouldn't eat them. They probably have something to do with me weighing more than I'd like to. I'm eating bananas now instead of M&Ms thank you. And the brownies my wife made last night.

So the first thing that happens when you get an illustration job is to get as much information as possible from the client. From there you start gathering reference and thinking about layout possibilities. It usually takes a little while for the nebulous mass that is my brain to start forming ideas. Sometimes I have to sit down and start scribbling to see if that helps. Eventually those ideas will start coming to me (most commonly when I'm on the toilet or taking a shower - two places where I don't usually have paper and pencil, or my computer for that matter) so I rush to the computer first chance I get and start laying those ideas down. You end up putting together different possibilities, passing them on to the client, and making adjustments based on their feedback. Like these:

For this poster the client wanted to loosely portray the emotional story of the soldiers that served during this time period, from the pain and fear of leaving loved ones and venturing into the unknown, through the difficulties of combat to the undeniable joy of returning home. Mixed with that are elements of technology that help represent all the branches of service involved.

An extra element for this poster is the option of a vet having their portrait inserted into the poster. It's a cool idea to allow the poster to be individualized like this but at the same time it's a huge challenge. The poster has to have room designed into it for this possible portrait and yet still feel like a balanced composition if the portrait is not added. Will my poster accomplish this? Time will tell.

So after going back and forth a little this is what we ended up with:

I'm very happy with what we've come up with and look forward to seeing how it develops. Next entry: Getting Underway.

Desert Music

2010-09-22T19:37:00.001-05:00

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA has long been my favorite film. It was originally released in 1962 and had suffered several edits during those early years. In 1989, while I was a student in New York City, Robert Harris and James Katz set about restoring the film to it's original 216 minute glory. Lost footage was found, dialogue rerecorded for certain bits, etc... The first screening for the restored masterpiece was held at the Ziegfeld Theater on 54th St. And this is where I come in.

I was lucky enough to be taking some film classes at the time and was invited to the screening. A couple of friends and I showed up early, waited in line, then hustled down to the fifth row (give or take a couple of rows) and claimed our territory. I had no idea what I was in for. I wasn't familiar with David Lean at the time, or with T.E. Lawrence, the film's subject matter. What I witnessed over the next four hours was something of a game changer for me. I was astounded. Blown away. Moved on a deep level. Robert Harris was at the screening and answered questions for an hour or so after it was over, but I don't know if I heard a word he said. I was lost, overwhelmed by what I had seen.

As a person who has spent his career learning to tell stories well, this film is one of the greats. It is so daring and powerful in it's storytelling. Lean never wastes an inch of screen space. He holds shots for unusually long times, all to heighten the effects of the storytelling. His cuts are purposeful and sometimes startling. I could go on and on and on. If you're into storytelling, watch it. Many times.

While I haven't seen much of the world I have been fortunate enough to spend some time in Egypt during my Army years and as luck would have it I just happened to be in T.E. Lawrence's neck of the woods. I've seen some of the desert that David Lean captured on film and I can attest first hand that the film does an amazing job of capturing that desert. It is old. It is hot. The rocks have been baked by the sun for thousands and thousands of years. It is nothing but tans and browns. In the day it can be as hot as 135° Fahrenheit. It almost never rains and yet, for all that harshness, it is amazing. Awe inspiring. Like the Grand Canyon, it helps one to understand one's place in the universe.

Loving movies I naturally love movie scores. I grew up on John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. I love them both and yet neither of them boasts the score that sits atop my favorites list. That score, if you hadn't guessed, belongs to Maurice Jarre and his amazing score for LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. I had it with me in the desert and listened to it on several occasions. The version I had on CD, the only one available at the time, was from the original recordings. It was, and is, a great CD.

99.99% of the time I prefer original recordings to re-recordings. A re-recording? Yup, a re-recording. From time to time a score will be re-recorded for one reason or another. Someone licenses the work to record and sell a body or work, or maybe the original tapes were lost or destroyed and a re-recording is the only way to present the music today. No matter how good it is though it's never the same as the original. When a composer in on site to supervise or even conduct, you get the true intent of what the composer wanted. I guess I'm a purist because that's always my preference. Every once in a blue moon, however, an exception comes along, and that's what this entire post is about.

Tadlow music, owned and headed by James Fitzpatrick, has recently created a re-recording of Maurice Jarre's score for LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and it has done nothing but confirm that this is indeed the best score I have ever encountered. It was recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and they should be proud of what they've accomplished. Nic Raine, who used to work with Maurice Jarre, conducted, and has done a masterful job of ensuring that this new recording is as faithful to the original recording as possible. It contains the complete score for the film, orchestrated from Jarre's original composition notes.

It is amazing. Have I said that already? Who cares. I should say it a hundred times. The quality is superb, as good as any real score recording. Better than some. It is mastered with all of today's quality goodness and it is almost as moving for me to hear now, in its complete form, as it was when the screen first went dark in the Ziegfeld Theater and Jarre's Overture blasted into the dark, four and a half minutes of orchestra with no picture.

If you have ever been a fan of film music then you owe it to yourself to own this recording. You will not be disappointed.

tadlowmusic

You can also buy it here

And you should own the movie as well. I can't wait to finally get a Blu-Ray player and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on Blu-ray. It will definitely be the first film I watch on Blu-ray. Yes, I know it's sad that I don't have one yet, but it is a time of tight budgets and it's a want, not a need, so I bide my time and remain patient. Until then, though, I have this amazing new version of the score to listen to over and over. And over.

Cleanliness Conundrum

2010-09-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

I use a washrag when I take showers. I put the soap in it (liquid soap), lather it up, and clean myself. When I'm done I rinse it thoroughly and hang it to dry. Now, theoretically, shouldn't the washrag always be clean? It basically gets washed every single day, right? So why, if you use the rag too long, does it start to smell of funk?

You, Yourself, and your Drawing

2010-08-25T12:37:00.000-05:00

Super busy lately. I don't like going so long without a post so I'm putting up a drawing I did yesterday or the day before (the days all blur together when all you do is work work work). It's an unused drawing; part of the freelance illustration job I'm currently working on.

I think, in the end, I'm glad this one isn't being used. It's me. I often use myself as a model (I'm the only person I know who's always available when I need someone) but rarely do I ever try to keep 'myself' in the work. Actually I usually put a lot of effort into making sure the end result doesn't look anything like me. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.

One thing you'll learn by drawing yourself a lot is all your imperfections. They jump out at you when you start changing yourself to be more 'ideal'. So the me you see here is a slightly more ideal me. Not too much in the way of changes, but a few. The biggest change is the missing goatee. And the glasses. Then there's the face being a little thinner. The eyes are in line. I could go on...

The Little Things

2010-08-11T01:53:00.000-05:00

When you're busy working your butt off and not getting to experience normal life you have to learn to love the little things. For instance, after using Photoshop for ten years or more I discovered the other day the "sample all layers" option when using the magic wand. Holy christmas has that saved me some time when coloring pages! How I didn't see this before is beyond me. I had another flash of brilliance the other day: as I was leaning way over on my drawing desk, uncomfortable, I suddenly pondered "why the hell is this thing so low?" So I raised it. I was whistling ditty little tunes the rest of the day. It's these little things that bring so much joy if you let them.

On the other hand, Apple has finally updated their operating system to the point where it no longer recognizes my perfectly good but older large bed scanner. Just a little thing that will cost me $300 now that I have to go and buy a new scanner. Thanks Apple. How do you do a middle finger with text?

RECOVERY INCORPORATED, page 1

2010-08-03T08:47:00.000-05:00

First page of the new comic I'm doing that will appear in STRIP magazine. The first issue hits the stands, in the UK, in November. I think this first page makes for a nice teaser.

2010 Sketchbook

2010-07-31T16:56:00.000-05:00

I got this thing done this past spring for Chicago's C2E2 comic convention. Since then they've been sitting in my office waiting for me to get a storefront up on my website. Well, it's finally done. It wasn't even difficult. I felt slightly not-stupid for being able to figure it out and get it done, but slightly stupid for waiting so long.

So anyway, if you have any money left after SDCC, and have an interest, head on over to my website here and pick up a copy.

It's sixty pages of black and white work covering stuff done in the past ten to twelve years. The majority of the drawings have been redone this year to bring them up to my current level of skill (or lack thereof). They are mostly done with Photoshop and my Wacom Cintiq. Here are a few pages giving you an idea of what's inside. They're flying off the shelves like sleeping turtles, so hurry!

Yeah, I know. I'm not famous. I'm not even moderately famous. I am full blown unknown in the world of comics - well, in the world of everything really - but one day, when that's all different, this first volume will become invaluable. Just think about that. Granted, all of us might be long dead, but your great great great grandchildren will love you for what you've left them and they'll think of you when they're smiling to the cameras on "Antiques Road Show". And yes, for some reason I think that show will still be around then. Hopefully our frozen heads will be able to lean back, relax, and still watch it.

Tweeting

2010-07-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

It should be obvious from my posts here that I'm not short_winded. That should make life through Twitter fairly difficult. I don't even have a clue what to say. So why am I doing it?

Hmmmmm...

I think I'll have to get back to you on that one. You can follow my confusion @luxuryninja

Generation Text

2010-07-23T00:43:00.000-05:00

That's the name I would give the generation that includes current high school students.

I was on the train a few weeks back and noticed a teenaged girl across from me texting away. I called a friend of mine. We talked for a half hour. Yeah, that's a long phone conversation for a guy, but whatever. We were talking creative stuff. At one point I thought "that's the difference between my generation and hers: if I want to talk to someone for that length of time I'd rather just call," which I was doing. The girl, meanwhile, kept right on texting. Finally, off the phone, I started reading a magazine. I didn't pay attention to the girl while reading but when I got up to get off the train the girl was still texting. Could she have taken a break while I was reading? Yeah, but somehow I doubt it. So that's like an hour of straight texting.

A week or so later I was on the train (aaagain) with my wife and in front of us sat a couple of teenaged girls. Across from them sat three of their friends. Five girls, together, talking away. Yakkity yak yak. And texting. Texting texting texting. Nonstop. That was impressive. I watched the girls in front of me and was further impressed with their texting speed. It seemed like they were texting as fast with their thumbs as I type with all ten of my fingers (and I know how to type).

And then, as if all this weren't enough, I came to the most startling revelation after about forty five minutes: these girls? They were texting each other!!!!!! I kid you not. One of the girls would type something and another of them, across the aisle, would laugh and say "yeah" or something. That blew me away. Sitting together on the train yakking it up isn't enough? Apparently not. Wow. So is this generation just that ADD or or they just that adept at multi-tasking?

And why is it always the girls that I see texting so much? Do the guys do it too? To that extent?

Manga Studio 4 EX

2010-07-17T04:25:00.000-05:00

I picked this up recently because it was on sale for a very good price. I've been using Photoshop since sometime around 1997. I'm used to it. I know ten ways to do anything I need to do. Why try something else? Well, it's good to keep your brain sharp and up to date with what's going on in the digital art world. It's also good to constantly experiment; good for your art and, hopefully, good for your productivity.

It's been a slow process but I can say at this point that Manga Studio is worth every penny.

It's not a perfect program by a long shot. Worst part about it to date: the manual. Ugh. It takes some significant brain power to understand what their intentions are. They leave stuff out and half of it's labelled wrong. "New Special Ruler: Speed Lines"!? No such thing, but there it is in the manual. "New Special Ruler: Radial Lines"? Yes, but you have to figure that out. And the fact that you have to create a new Ruler layer, then select the type of ruler you want to create, then click on the layer you want to draw on? It's mentioned once, way earlier in the chapter, then never repeated. It should be repeated for each set of ruler layer instructions, for boneheads like me.

I know, I know, gobbledygook. :-)

Yes, I still do a lot of my comic work in Photoshop (under drawings, sometimes"inking", putting together pages) but I'm starting to do more and more in Manga Studio. It's so efficient. Panel borders, word balloons and captions, and now, as of tonight: speed lines! These tasks are all tasks that have traditionally taken a fair amount of time in either Photoshop or on an actually piece of paper. With MS I cut these tasks down to minutes instead of hours, and for a guy who's slower than he should be, that's a significant change. Worth blabbing about for a minute? Obviously.

Okay, I said I'd post art next time so here's a sneak page from Recovery Incorporated.

Through the Wormhole

2010-07-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

I've got a couple of funny stories to relate but I wanted to post new artwork before doing that. All three have been put behind the need to say "I love this new series - Through the Wormhole - with Morgan Freeman." Can't help it. I'm a super geek. I draw stuff and love science. I loved Cosmos as a kid and I think this is the next generation of it, exploring the universe and how/why it is the way it is. Science has come a long way since Cosmos originally aired (late 70's, early 80's?) and this show is really up to date with current theories and the work scientists are doing to gain further understanding of our world.

The official website is here and you can watch the first episode, if you like, on youtube. I don't know if it will stay up on youtube (different channels have different attitudes about having their material there), but if the link's still good, you can start watching it here.

Okay, I'll post some new artwork next. Then relate more weird stories from life on a commuter train (which I don't even take regularly anymore but have been on a lot recently for one reason or another).

Press

2010-07-02T09:44:00.000-05:00

Not sure how long this will stay the headline, but the first press is finally out for a magazine I'll be a part of. It's called Strip Magazine (no, it's not a sex thing - think "comic" strip) and the first issue will be hitting the English market in November. That's English as in England, not all places where English is spoken predominantly (too bad). Click here to see the article.

My story, created and written by me and my buddy Dean, is called RECOVERY INCORPORATED. Mia Raven is the main character and I'll leave it at that. I lie. I can't help it. It's an action packed kind of story. How's that? More? Okay. She's an American immigrant from Portugal with a troubled past and an addiction to risk taking. Here's some character studies I did of her.

Note to Commuters

2010-07-01T18:48:00.000-05:00

This is mainly aimed at guys, but if there's any women out there doing this, you're included.

You're on the train, you forgot to bring along things to keep you occupied, and you're bored stiff. Because of this you can't seem to ignore the booger lodged up your left nostril. You try but it is a powerful thing and compels you to get it. It's okay. It happens to the best of us. Get it. Don't, however, forget this fifteen minutes later when you're still bored and you look at your fingernails and think "huh, I really should trim those," because when your fingertips go in your mouth and the biting begins, well that just crosses a line.

Either one is less than ideal when in public, but we're all human. It happens. But combining the two, specifically in that order? That's a no-go, as we used to say in the army. Just sayin'. People are watching. ;-)

Otherwise, happy commuting!

Sketch Cards

2010-06-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

After C2E2 this year I decided to start doing a sketch card a day. The daily bit lasted a whopping three weeks. I'm not the fastest artist in the world so sometimes I really have to buckle down and work on actual work without distractions. I like doing the sketch cards though so will try to keep up with it the best I can.

The reason? During C2E2 I was asked to do a few commission sketches and I hadn't drawn openly in public like that since college. I work quietly in my office, often digitally or on marker paper where I can redraw things over and over (using multiple sheets of paper or layers in Photoshop) until they're 'right' to my eye. These methods allow me to redraw and edit very easily. Sitting in McCormick Place and drawing 'one shot/one kill' was waaaay more stressful than it should have been and I was disappointed in the results. I said to myself, "self, that's not going to happen again."

So that's the reason. To try and stay true to the 'working live' conditions I set up a couple of simple rules for myself: have no idea what I'm going to do before sitting down to do it and then finishing it in 45 minutes or less. So for better or worse, these are my results so far.

Easy Come, Not So Easy Go explained

2010-06-15T02:04:00.000-05:00

More pages from The CORPS!

Jobs come and go. It's a part of life. This one wasn't so easy to let go, unfortunately, because of the 'not getting paid' part. That's hard. So there, now my stupid title has been explained. Not that anyone was wondering. It was bugging me, I admit it.

Design A Character

2010-06-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

I love coming across new things, especially fun ones. I found this group over on DeviantArt called "Design A Character", link ,and thought "this should be good, fun practice". The first challenge in progress since joining the group (earlier today) is called "Drop In". You take a picture and add a character that would seem to fit.

I went to a website where I knew there would be interesting pictures, link , picked the first picture of interest I came across, and this is what my brain produced. Fun, and not overly time consuming.

Easy Come, Not so Easy Go

2010-06-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

So way back when I posted pages for a comic I was working on with Rick Remender. Devil's Due was the publisher. The book: The CORPS! (pronounced "core"). It was a G.I. Joe kinda thing. I got an issue and a half done and the book got cancelled due to DD's money problems. I have yet to be paid for most of the work. That money's pretty much gone now, as is Devil's Due it seems. Oh well. Such is life.

Since I'm pretty sure these pages will never be published I'm sharing a few of them here that I can still stand to look at. That's how it goes with most of us artsy fartsies - we rarely like our own work. So here are a few pages from issue 1. I'll post some pages from issue 2 next time around.

Okay, so I made a small reference there to farts but it was really by the way side, therefore I'm considering this a fart-free post. :-)

Patience with the Elderly

2010-06-06T19:17:00.001-05:00

So when we're young it seems we are constantly annoyed by older people slowing us down. That was me anyways. As I've grown older though, I realize that I will one day be one of these people and they're doing the best they can. How arrogant I was to think everyone was out to get in my way.

So I'm walking out of the grocery store the other day and I get behind an elderly fellow, easily in his nineties, and he's slower than molasses in January. I don't get frustrated though. See? I'm a grown up now. Good for me. The old man peddles along, holding onto his shopping cart for dear life. He raises a shaky hand and waves to an employee he recognizes outside, dutifully watering plants. I think "how nice. What a nice fellow." Again I'm proud of myself for my maturity. I pat myself on the back once more for my personal growth.

Then, after a full minute of patience, the old man lets one rip. FRRAAAAPP! Loud, full-bodied, and full of stink. He doesn't flinch. I'm not sure he even knew he did it, but I sure knew. And that's the thanks I get for being more mature.

No, not all of my posts are about farting. I can't help it if my life revolves around such things. It just happens - there's no reasonable explanation for it. I'll see if I can't post on a different subject matter next time.

Overheard on the train

2010-06-03T17:21:00.000-05:00

The METRA commuter trains to be specific.

A young father holds up his infant son and says the following between spurts of giving the child rasberries (putting lips to stomach and blowing):

"Are you gassy like daddy? Are you gassy like daddy!?"

Mixed in were other great lines like "Did you fart? Did you fart!?" and "Did you drop a duce? Did my boy drop a duce!?"

Truth. I Swear.

That was easy.

2010-05-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

Thanks to blogspot for the export/import tool! Now I've got way more extra time on my hands than expected. What to do, what to do...

Explaining the impossible

2010-05-30T14:13:00.002-05:00

So a couple of years ago, give or take a year, I moved to a new blog. Why? I have no idea. I didn't keep up with it very well anyways. So now that the stupidity has worn off I'm moving back. I'm going to copy and paste all those posts to this blog so that they're not lost. Why? No idea. Just feel like it. I guess the stupidity hasn't totally worn off. Oh well...

Midnight Men

2009-09-24T23:43:00.000-05:00

My blog is falling behind compared to my deviantart page. Too many sites to keep up with. Here's a couple of two page bio stories done for The Midnight Men. Their blog: http://midnightmen.blogspot.com/ and their website, newly up and running: http://www.themidnightmen.net./

Fun characters to work with; would love to do more.

America's Army

2009-07-31T00:04:00.000-05:00

Well I'm finally getting around to posting some of the pages from the comic book project I'm working on for the US ARMY.

Time to kill? Bored? Can't sleep? Well boy do I have a time waster for you! Follow the link below to the America's Army website and have a read. The cost? A few minutes of your time. Once you're to the page, click the "read now" button in the upper left corner to get started. Some find the controls a snap. Others want to beat doorknobs with baseball bats after about sixty seconds of trying to figure them out. I hope you're of the first variety. Unless you don't like me, in which case I wouldn't feel too bad if you're in the later category. Said controls are not of my design. Just keep that in mind.

http://www.americasarmy.com/graphicnovel/

Yes, it DOES come across as a sales piece for the Army. At times. The Army pays (as in, you know, like, they're the client) so it gets what it wants. Zack Sherman (the writer) and I think there is still plenty to like. We're both veterans - he was a Jarhead and I was in the Army, and yes, we poke fun at each other constantly over it. We've got special forces operatives verifying the accuracy of our work. Put it all together and what you'll get is a military story that is very accurate in the details. Maybe not Tom Clancy accurate, but maybe so.

Thanks to anyone who reads it. If we are considered a success it is because of you. Issue 2 is in production (I'll share a little from that soon) and 3 looks like it's close to approval (everything with the Army is about approval - it's all part of the process). 12 issues is the current goal, so basically I need to shut up and get back to work.

If it is to your liking, enjoy.

SANDYeggo comicon 2009 report: FROM THE FRONT LINES...

2009-07-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

So, the show is bigger than ever. It's more hollywood than ever. It's more crowded than ever. Is it more awesome than ever? Well let me tell you...

I don't know because I didn't go. Missed it. It just slipped by. Passed me right up. Stayed as far away from me as it possibly could. I thought about it, tried to wave to it, but I got nothin'. No love. Maybe next year... Or the year after that. Or sometime after that.

Looking for Spring

2009-04-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

I think the cats have finally found it, and it's right outside their window! The paper clippy thing was a cheap tactic to get them up in the window, har har, and it worked like a charm.

It's February already!!

2009-02-28T11:57:00.000-06:00

Zoiks! 2008 involved a lot of thumb twiddling. 2009? Looking better. During the thumb twiddling I managed to work on a few things, so here are a few of the few.

Yeah, it's a bird. Riveting, I know.

This one? A little more fun. Far from perfect but good practice.

More fun. I started coloring this one and got busy, so colors at some later date.

I snagged a fun gig doing a comic book for the US Army (yes, that's fun for me. Go figure), so I'll share some of that soon.

To be published or not to be...

2008-12-03T00:57:00.000-06:00

Finally got the chance to do a comic book series. Got halfway through issue 2 and the series was suddenly put on hold. Indefinitely. Business issues. Hey, who's NOT having business issues in this economy? They still want to do it, which is good, but people have to make a living, me being people, so who knows if our schedules will match up again. Anyway, they released a Zero issue, previewing the first eight pages of issue 1, so I'm sharing the black and white pages here. Hopefully you'll see the whole thing someday: The CORPS!, published by Devil's Due and written by Rick Remender.

Happy drawing.

Work and fun

2008-10-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, time does like to fly doesn't it? It doesn't seem like my last post was so long ago. I suppose I've been a little busy.

First up: a piece that I had started but haven't gotten around to finishing yet. I've got way too many stories like that. Subject matter is a Naboo fighter pilot. Gotta finish the background then to color the whole thing... someday.

Next: a few frames from some recent work. Not the most exciting subject matter on earth, but I enjoy the coloring process. Learning to use color theory well is a challenge for me but I love it. I try to minimize my line art and let the colors do the bulk of the work, informing the image with form, depth, and mood.

More Progression Fun

2008-07-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

OK, not really, but this is another pose that I came up with while doing the last set of drawings. I didn't feel that it fit in at the time, but I liked it a lot so I found a little time this past weekend to give it a go.

Progression

2008-06-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

Sitting everyday and staring at your own drawings, it can be difficult at times to feel as though you're making any progression as an artist. I know a lot of artists are like myself: always looking for the faults in their own work. We tend to be our own worst critic. Shuffling through some old stuff recently I came across a drawing I had done around five to six years ago. It was horrible and I couldn't understand how I could have drawn it without noticing all of the problems with it, so I decided then and there to give it another try. Had I had managed to get any better between then and now? I had drawn the first one from my head, so I would do the new one the same way. I guess it was my way of regulating the 'test'.

Starting from the beginning, here's the horrid piece of graphic flinging that started the whole thing:

Next up is the first of the new sketches, just trying to lay everything into place. It's better, but it's not great.

Clean it up and it starts to look acceptable. I am, of course, still not happy with it.

I happen to be a tall person who used to be quite skinny, so I think that a lot of the people I draw turn out that way, including the above sketch, so I redid it, shooting for a slightly shorter person, or at least a more robust person (whatever the heck 'robust' is supposed to mean).

Again I think it's a little better but the pose in general is quite stiff and there's no sex appeal whatsoever, so that's when you have to bite the bullet, trash the pose that's not working, and start over.

Now I finally like what I'm seeing. I cleaned this one up and inked the final version.

Personally I think I like the sketch version of this better, but it was still a good exercise and proved that I have managed to grow at least a tiny little bit in the last five plus years. I hope that three or four years from now I will again look at this last piece, see it for the horror that it is, and be able to do it that much better yet again.

What a Week!!!

2008-06-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

Well, there's distractions and there's disTRACTions. So last Tuesday I was awoken by pain in my left knee at like 5:30 in the morning. It was swollen and just feeling something awful, so Elena took me to the doctor's office who in turn sent me to a knee specialist. The knee specialist took one look at it and took out a syringe.

What? You don't like where this is going? Heh, me neither.

One syringe of bloody puss later and I'm off to the hospital for minor surgery the next day. Talk about sneaking up on a guy. The culprit? Staff infection in my knee, specifically the bursa sack that lies on top of the kneecap. How did it happen? No clue. Doctors don't have a clue either, so it's just one of those things. What can I say? "Cleanliness is next to godliness", that's one thing I could say. Or have heard said. I think I'm starting to believe it.

As of today, six days after surgery, I'm walking on my own again, which is good because crutches get old really fast. No art today, but I could post a photo of my knee if you want...

Oh, and have you ever heard of a PICC line? That's an IV type line that they stick into a major vein in your upper arm. The catheter goes up your arm, around the shoulder and into the chest, stopping right next to your heart. Sticking out of your arm you've got 4 inches or so of line that you attach things to, like syringes with medicines in them. I've got one of those. I have to take mondo-powerful antibiotics (in liquid form) every day through that line. If all goes well that should come out this Friday or Saturday, at which time I get downgraded to antibiotic pills.

If you wind up in a place where you have to go through this, I recommend having a loving spouse and a good pain-killing prescription by your side. I'm not really into drugs or any such vices, but there's a time and place for everything. I am, however, really really into the loving spouse thing. I think 'always' is the time and place for that one. :-) I know, I know, lovey-mushy stuff is gross, but I could go back to talking in detail about the knee, the bloody puss, and the two and a half inch slit down the front of my knee...

Grinding it Out

2008-06-09T07:57:00.000-05:00

Sometimes there's just not any room left for those fun little side projects that help to satisfy the soul. Those times can be stressful and can take their toll on any 'commercial' artist, but that's the way life works and when you arrive at one of those places you've just got to hunker down and weather them. I try to find something in each job I do for me to enjoy. It's not always easy, but I do what I can. And if it's too hard? And I get all stressed out? And start acting like a moron? That's where my wife steps in and lets me know just how moronic, stressed out, and difficult I'm being. Then she scratches my back and makes me a snack and the world is set right again. I'm probably overdue to buy her some flowers...

So here's some of the current non-soul-satisfying-but-pays-the-bills work that I'm zinging through with grace and ease (hahaha!)

Neither Man Nor Hat (I gotta move on to a new subject line)

2008-05-30T08:07:00.000-05:00

More hollywood likenesses. Oh joy. This first one is another oldie but not quite goldie. I want to color it at some point but have no idea when I might possibly find the time. I'm such a spazzoid attention deficit junkie when it comes to art - I give my total focus to one thing for a day or three, then suddenly switch to some other thing for a few days, then another and another. It's tiresome. I've got like fifty thousand things that are "in progress". What the hay!? It keeps life from getting boring I suppose...

The second two images are from another of my spazzoid brain's projects. I have wanted to do my own version of a Rocketeer movie poster for a long time now, say 10 years or more. It would make a good portfolio piece for me - if I ever finish it. So for anyone familiar with the Rocketeer, I give you Cliff Secord and Neville Sinclair. These were done utilizing some of my more recent tricks (all of which I shall keep in my magic hat for now - not that it's too hard to figure out). Happy drawing!

Man, No Hat

2008-05-22T12:14:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a whole slew of Indy drawings but time, as usual, demands I do the work that pays the bills first. I'd say I need to win the lottery, but I never play so it wouldn't do me much good.

Several months ago me and the wife were packing up a ton of stuff/junk/crap/stuff in an attempt to try and eventually put our house on the market. I know, who cares, but in the process I came across some old drawings I did that were going to be used for a mock Star Wars book cover. Oh the things I've wanted/meant to draw over the years... Anyway, I wouldn't use them now, but I figured why not post them here, so even though it's not Indy, It's Han, and that's close enough for today.

I think these likenesses are close at best. The way I used to get good reference was to pause my VHS copy of a film, take a picture of the TV with a camera on a tripod, then use the resulting print. This really isn't a great way to do things, let me tell you. Old television sets have a curved screen, so right off the bat your image is going to be warped. The quality of any VHS sourced image is questionable at best; that's strike two. Factor in the reality that the camera can never be perfectly straight in front of the tube and you've got yourself even more warpage. Strike three. And as if three strikes weren't enough, using an artograph to project the photo print onto a table, which I'm sure are never aligned perfectly either, really does you in. So to get any kind of resemblance out of that process is a mild achievement. I've got much better tricks now and someday I'll get my ADHD brain around to producing those covers. Maybe...

More More Hat

2008-05-07T23:34:00.000-05:00

This one is older and has been on my website for years, but I've been a little busy so until I get more sketches done, this'll do.

More Hat

2008-05-04T13:32:00.000-05:00

Saw a new trailer for Indy 4 on Friday and thought it looked like a lot of fun. I was there to help add to the box office total for Iron Man, which I've been waiting for as a movie since I was about 8 I think. Thumbs up.

The Man in the Hat!

2008-04-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

Yup, the man in the hat is almost back. Is it strange, all these icons from childhood and adolescent times, making their way back onto the silver screen?

That depends. Are you talking about franchises in television or film? If it's TV then hell yes! Seriously, what's next? A Hogan's Heroes movie!? Don't get me wrong: I loved Hogan's Heroes, but somehow I don't think it would really fit into our current military situation. A bunch of American pilots held prisoner in an Iraqi prison, escaping into the desert to do what exactly? Help the locals rebuild their homes? Or maybe turn it around: have a bunch of Iraqi prisioners in Guantanamo Bay, escaping at night to help the local Cubans smuggle their cigars onto US bound ships.

Or maybe the Beverly Hillbillies! It would be great except for every self-proclaimed hillbilly in the country suing the film for defamation of character. Now Gilligan's Island... I'm still holding my breath for that film. It's sure to be undergoing a treatment any day now. Maybe Jonny Depp will play Gilligan...

As for Spielberg and Lucas, not so strange. It's just the same guys doing what they've always done. Are they different now than when they were younger? Of course, but not so different as they are the same. Might the new Indy flick waft into your consciousness with a big ol' nose-holding stinkola? Sure, but probably not. I assume it'll be a lot like most adventure flicks these days: some corny stuff, some eye-rolling moments, and a lot of funny, way cool looking, over-the-top fun. It's a ride, that's all, and I plan on tapping into my childhood and enjoying said ride for all it's worth. Color me a sucker, but I'll leave my cynicism at the door.

Guess Who's Back?

2008-04-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

Big Blowout Moving Sale!!!

2008-04-24T09:06:00.003-05:00

OK, not really a sale, but I'm starting a new blog. Why? Don't really know; just felt that I wanted/needed a new start. I've been out of the game for a bit, so starting again warrants a fresh start. In my mind at least. Please feel free to come by and visit. I like writing to the crickets but I still welcome any human visitors who happen to find their way around.

http://flinginggraphite.blogspot.com/

Happy drawing!

Golf

2008-04-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

The time: ancient history. Me? A kid. Opinion of golf: silly; certainly not a sport. Jump forward to my early 20's. I get to play a few times with a couple of friends. Maybe all of three times, and never more than 9 holes. The experience was fun but you'd have to jump forward another eight or nine years before I would grip a club again. Never watched it on television during that time. Nor before. Maybe my dad would fall asleep on the couch while entertaining the idea of watching it. Maybe I would catch glimpses of it as I passed through with friends. Or girls. Or both. Or neither. Then, my bachelor party. A few friends and I gathered for a full 18 holes. We had a couple of carts and luckily Johnny Knoxville had yet to show just how much fun you can really have with one of those things. So we were only mildly annoying out on the course. We let plenty of people play though, had a ton of laughs, especially when one of my friends got frustrated. We were merciless. Still I had no intentions of ever really getting into the game.

Then Dan Panosian, the Urban Barbarian, got involved with a comic strip for Sports Illustrated through Marvel Comics (written by Chris Eliopoulos). Dan the muscle bound destroyer-of-worlds made it look easy:

Golf still wouldn't have shown up on my radar except that Dan had to bow out (obviously too popular and in demand in other arenas) and he graciously suggested handing over the drawing duties to me. Luckily the fine folks at Marvel said OK, so I wasted no time into making a mess of things (colors by Chris Sotomayer, edits by Nick Lowe):

Suddenly I'm drawing people playing golf, which leads to me watching it regularly on the ol' boob tube. I gotta wrap my mind around what I'm doing, right? I gotta know who these people are that I'm drawing and what in god's name they're really doing. The strip only lasts for a year and a half, but as if the enjoyment of drawing it weren't enough, I got hooked on the game.

Birthday money last year: spent on a cheap starter set of golf clubs. Got some balls from a used Sporting Goods store (that's where I get all my balls; it's the place to go for affordable balls). Buy "Golf For Dummies" by Gary McCord (former pro who you'll find on CBS nowadays). Springtime arrives and I start frequenting the driving range. Any ball that actually goes more than 25 feet usually careens way off into the nets on the right side of the range. I get a couple of chances to play 9 holes. Ugly. Fun, but ugly. Then winter hits. I live in the Chicago area, so winter means no golf. I grew up in the south where that's not necessarily the case. Now, Chicago. I love the windy city but man o man do I hate the winters. No need to elaborate.

Finally. Finally! FINALLY!! Spring 2008 decides to show it's little head. I've got tons of work to be doing (which I'm plenty thankful for), but find it difficult to remain indoors. I'll be working late hours now to pay for my lack of discipline, but it's completely worth it. I head out today for the driving ranges. Only been once so far this spring. The course, however, is practically empty. Now why would I just go to the driving range when there's an entire course calling out to be used? I gave into temptation, ponied up for 9 holes, and after playing golf less than 10 times in my whole life I get my first birdie. I could die happy. Yes, I know it's completely silly, but it's truth. And no lessons other than that book, which I'm still only a quarter of the way through. I haven't even finished reading about how to swing the damned club yet, but I cannot wait.

The point of all this? No point. Just me obsessing. It must be the weather. Oh, Gary McCord? Great book! I would definitely recommend it. If only I had known as a kid that I would end up loving the game so much. Drawing? Yeah, it's a true passion for me, but I watch TV and I think those golf people get paid better. Somehow I don't think Bob Ross and Tiger Woods live in the same neighborhood. Oh well, I still love what I do, but I'll dream of golf while sitting here drawing...

Another sketch

2008-04-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

One more sketch that I felt worth throwing some ink on. I just used a Pitt brush pen on top of the pencils in my sketchbook.

These sketches all come from finding interesting pics in magazines, ones that for one reason or another have something of interest for me to study. I like sketching but sometimes feel that the time used there could be used to work on finished pieces. I know that there's a real benefit to just sketching (and doing it often) but when I'm doing other work for pay I'm having to split a finite amount of time between sketching and starting to build a new portfolio. It's always a struggle for me to figure out how best to use my time.

Holy Toledo! Here we go again, Buckaroo.

2008-04-16T23:11:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been more than a year and a quarter since I last posted. On my previous blog, that is. For what it's worth i didn't really draw much during that period (let's just say I was distracted), but I'm back in the saddle and hoping to actually get a little serious about this whole drawing thing.

For that reason I'm sort of starting over. The old blog is still around but I wanted a fresh start, so here it is.

When you draw for a living you do whatever pays the bills for a large portion of that time and believe you me, I'm no exception. I am going to try, however, to move the work that I do more towards the things that I'm actually interested in. Don't get me wrong, if I'm getting paid to draw it, I'm interested. The truth, however, is that some things are more fun to draw than others. So here's to the fun stuff and to fitting it in as much as possible.

First off, however, are a couple of sketches to sort of get my dormant drawing brain back into gear. I'm working on some paying jobs at the moment but I'm trying to find an hour or so each day (or more if I feel I can justify it, or if I'm overwhelmed with the desire to procrastinate) to just draw whatever my heart desires. I've got some ideas for building a new portfolio but to start with I've just got to get into the groove again. These are my first efforts.

Thanks for peeping.

Holy Toledo!

2008-04-16T14:56:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's been more than a year and a quarter since I last posted. For what it's worth i didn't really draw much during that period (let's just say I was distracted), but I'm back in the saddle and hoping to actually get a little serious about this whole drawing thing.

When you draw for a living you do whatever pays the bills for a large portion of that time and believe you me, I'm no exception. I am going to try, however, to move the work that I do more towards the things that I'm actually interested in. Don't get me wrong, if I'm getting paid to draw it, I'm interested. The truth, however, is that some things are more fun to draw than others. So here's to the fun stuff...

Meanwhile, here are a couple of sketches to sort of get my dormant drawing brain back into gear.

Volleyball Recovery

2007-02-27T01:04:00.000-06:00

I did these drawings for work the other day and thought I'd stick them up here. I had to do a quick sequence of a guy running into frame to recover a volleyball, then realize it's cold and exit.

Then I had to repeat the performance but with a female character. Simple, but I thought it was fun to get two different performances out of the same action.

more Simon, slow but steady

2007-01-22T22:53:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple more Simon Brizdale pages, coming along slowly but surely. I've got all of these pages lettered already but I'm waiting to get the whole story done to reveal all of that (and colors, which I have yet to start). Oh yeah, and there's a cover sketch there as well; almost forgot...

Gett 'er done, one bit at a time

2007-01-07T01:54:00.000-06:00

Just a little more pencilling stuff to add to the other day's stuff.

Another new year!

2007-01-04T10:47:00.000-06:00

Still busy but determined to find time for Simon. That being said, here's some various panels of upcoming pages in their penciled form. This is what they look like before I ink them. I draw them with blue col-erase pencils on marker paper, reworking it til it's what I like (sometimes redrawing on several sheets), then lay another sheet on top and ink with Pitt brush pens.

I used to be so against anything but an old fashioned brush and india ink, but boy are the pens convenient. I like the Pitt pens because they actually use india ink, so I don't have to worry about how they will age. I've seen with other pens/brush pens that don't use india ink how they will bleed and turn red or other various things as they age, often leaving stains on any and all things touching them.

If you go to a comic book convention and look around at the original art for sale you will see what I mean, and it's really sad to see some great art destroyed because of inferior quality tools being used. Oh well.

Happy New Year to all. Here's to a great year...

The light at the end of the tunnel...

2006-12-04T02:13:00.000-06:00

I say that but I'm probably jinxing myself. Busy is good though, so no complaining from me.

The movie I've been working on is finally filming, and I'm still doing storyboards for it. I will share some of those at some point - maybe once the movie is released. Meanwhile I got to design and draw a tattoo that will play an important roll in the film. No harm in sharing that much at least:

Before things got so busy for me I was beginning work on a new Simon Brizdale story. I got the first 4 pages pencilled. I was going to use pencils as the finished art but have since changed my mind. I like my work better inked, which also just happens to make some of the things I like to do when coloring in Photoshop a lot easier, so I'm trying to scratch time for that nowadays. Anyway, here are the pencils for the first 4 pages. Nothing exciting going on yet, but the fun begins soon enough. Hopefully I'll be able to make some good progress over the holiday season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Meanwhile I hope everyone has a great holiday season. Cheers.

Busy is as busy does

2006-11-06T23:59:00.000-06:00

No, I haven't forgotten about this little thing, but work has been rather busy of late. Fun stuff coming soon, I promise!

Simon says...

2006-09-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

..."don't forget to drink your ovaltine!"

So here's Simon, finally. I have been wanting to change my style a bit, but I needed a little help and guidance so I pulled out some style sheets I have from Don Bluth's "Dragon's Lair" and used Dirk the Daring as my basic body shape guide for Simon. All of these sketches are taken directly from those style sheets as a way of getting my brain used to the proportions of characters drawn in that style. They're fun to do and have helped a lot. So anyway, here's Simon. Now on to some page work...

Don't you love computer problems!?

2006-09-01T13:35:00.000-05:00

I'm just glad I survived the last two and a half weeks. I have another computer at work (which saved me) but I still didn't know if I was going to recover a lot of important work. In a nutshell: my hard drive went and got all corrupt on me, so I had to take it to the apple store. I got a new hard drive and thankfully they recovered about 90% of my files.

So that's why I haven't posted anything in a month. I've kept busy though. Once I get what I've been working on ready to post I'll share it, but 'til then here are a few old pieces of Simon Brizdale art that I have laying around. New stuff soon. By the way, only in the first shot here, the group shot, does Simon appear - all of the other sketches, from this post and the last one, are other characters (the ones who needed more design work).

Oh, and remember to back up all of your digital stuff!!!

Simon Brizdale

2006-07-30T00:38:00.000-05:00

Over the years, drawing stuff all day, I have come up with a lot of ideas. Most of them get a page or two of notes in a sketchbook and then get logged away, mostly to be forgotten. Every once in awhile, however, I come up with an idea that I feel has real potential. One of those is Simon Brizdale. Over the past three years or so I have been writing constant notes about the character and his life and times. The actual name for the comics I would like to do is "The Chronicles of Simon Brizdale". At this point I've got most of his life fleshed out in a pretty detailed fashion.

I've got about 10 or so short stories ready to be drawn, plus several longer stories that would take 3 to 6 issues of a typical comic book to tell. Then there's the epic scale story that brings his whole life jouney to an amazing conclusion.

Right now? It's just a bunch of ideas, a heaping mass of potential. The goal? Do something with it. So some of this blog will be given over to sharing the process of creating these stories and building up a collection of them. I don't know how quickly it will go, but every little bit is something.

I have drawn one short story for Simon, and eight page story that was in an anthology published by Komikwerks.com. It was a decent attempt to get the basic concept of the character down on paper, but he has evolved since then. I hope to retell that first tale after getting a few short stories done.

Anyway, after all of this yada yada yada, here are a few sketches done recently as part of my attempt to redesign the characters and figure out how I want to handle the art for this monstrosity of an idea.