FIRE_BAD

IPadding...

2012-01-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

Finally had a chance to experiment with my new stylus and SketchbookPro on the iPad...Thanks, Paul for the stylus!

Tomorrow!

2011-12-09T11:49:00.001-08:00

Yikes, the show is tomorrow. This has been the busiest couple months. Finishing up a big project for Lego, Start on the Street, Mr Smartass Theatre and the show at Dark World all due in the same week. Funny, I'm not even very tired. It must have been that little nap after lunch.

Anyway, the show started going up last night. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on a few things and watching a master framer turn my swill into gold. Oh, and I got some good ink this week from Worcester Magazine.

Directions.

Just got back from the printer...

2011-12-01T14:10:00.001-08:00

This year I have included an amazing new innovation...the punch-hole!!!!! Just picked these up from Vantage Printing. Those guys really do a great job. I'll have these at StArt this weekend if you want to pick one of these up.

BLAAAAAAGGHH!

2011-11-29T11:22:00.001-08:00

SO MUCH going on right now. Ton of toy work is going out today, and I have my show coming up in less than 2 weeks... and StArt at the Station is this weekend! Oh yeah AND Mr Smartass Theatre is next week!

I should have new calendars ready for StArt and, fingers crossed, a new zombie shirt. I was messing around with this face and thought he looked a little like Bob Dobbs, so I added a pipe and I thought that looked hilarious, so yeah. I like funny.

still going...

2011-11-22T23:56:00.001-08:00

Alien on the table

2011-11-19T14:26:00.001-08:00

Painting this one. Might be a little wild by the end...

December 10th

2011-11-18T23:07:00.001-08:00

December 10th, 2011 is my first solo gallery show, at the Dark World Gallery on Grafton Street here in Worcester. I'll be honest, I've never done more than a few pieces in a show and never solo. I'm scared. I still have a ton of work to do and I've been trying a lot of experimental things. Some might work, some might not. The basic idea is that I put out a calendar every year. The calendar originally served as a promo piece to send to editors and art directors, a giant business card. This year, instead of compiling pieces from various projects throughout the year, all the images are created specifically for the calendar. Lots of very tall images, of sexy ladies. And monsters.

So, please come to my show and see 12 new images, plus some extras. Tell me how nice it is, even if you think it's crap. Hah.

Troll progress

2011-11-17T15:27:00.001-08:00

Maybe a little more than halfway there...some calendar pages will be faithful to the role of calendar, some ...not so much. Still so much to do. My thought on the look of this is to go crazy with the facial detail on the troll. I think if you saw one that big, you could probably fit your fist inside the pores on his nose. Hm, I might have to adjust the size of that glove.

Troll on deck

2011-11-15T14:40:00.001-08:00

After some thought on the subject, the list of babes for the calendar needs to include my own ideas. Here's one I'm working on right now...this will be wintery, even though it's for July. DON'T YOU QUESTION ME!

Cheers.

On the desk now: Quorra

2011-10-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was planning on painting this one, but it makes more sense to do it digitally...

more babes...

2011-10-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

The background image that will go under the 31 small paintings. About halfway done. Still need to draw in the buildings and cars. For the show this will be printed on a skateboard. This is a pretty big image, don't steal, eh?

Maria...finished

2011-10-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a little jpeg for facebook to recognize.

More pretty

2011-10-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

Probably a little more than halfway there.

Pre-tragedy photos.

2011-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the view from my house. Yesterday, I noticed a strange wire stretched across the street.

It's attached to a giant pulley, and the pulley is strapped to a dead branch of a half-dead tree!

When the branch breaks, the giant pulley will crash straight down, or swing across the street, depending on what breaks and where. What happens then will not be pretty. I'm sending these photos to the city. If anyone knows a better avenue for this to be reported, lemme know.

Working on a new page

2011-10-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and decided I'd make something beautiful. I've been making 'cool' stuff all week, but today, pretty pretty is what I want to make.

First ten Leeloo watercolors

2011-10-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

These are each 5x7, watercolor and ink. 21 more to go. I'm doing them in random order. Click to enlarge.

Halfway there on the Leeloo sketches...

2011-10-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

Holy cow this is tedious. Got all the thumbnails done. Cleaning up in Adobe Illustrator right now... I just finished #16. Here's 1-9. I'll be doing these as 5x7" watercolors. Click to enlarge...

Experiments

2011-09-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

Working on a lot of different ideas for this project. It's really morphing from what I originally intended. I'll explain better later. I want to really push the mediums I'm working with.

Here's one example...It's just a test strip, and there's plenty of mess on there, but the basic idea is it's a sketch digitally blown up and printed on a cotton paper. I then did some basic tones in thin washes of oil paint and after they dried I went over it again with watercolor washes, mostly black. The different medium bases have a similar look, but they don't interfere with each other. I don't think this is a preferred method, but I am liking what I see.

31 Leeloos

2011-09-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, we went to see this movie called The 5th Element. It had Bruce Willis in it. He was the guy from Moonlighting. He was good and all, but the chick in that movie had everyone chattering.

Taking the time to concentrate on this is massively fun. Seems like I take every October and November off to make art. To make art, for me.

This project, while intended to be a book release, is also going to be a gallery show. So, maybe we'll have 31 little watercolored Leeloos that everybody can take home. Good idea?

As always, click to enlarge.

Pris

2011-09-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

Still sketching... I've put some time in today getting screengrabs from Blade Runner to make sure I get this costume and room right. I'll apply the room props into the next round...this is a tough one, because as cool as that character ever was, that hair always looked pretty goofy.

Leia and Ripley

2011-09-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'm just going through the planning stages of this project. It's a minimum of 12 images, plus cover if I have time. I'd like all of them to be awesome. Here are my color studies for Princess Leia and Ellen Ripley.

I want her.

2011-09-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok. I know I've been saying I want this to be a sci-fi babes calendar. Yeah. Well. I want Beatrix Kiddo in this so bad I'm changing the rules. The more I think on it, it really is important to me for the women to be strong, interesting heroes. I hate the word 'heroine'. Too easily confused with that other 'heroin'. Sheroes? Blecch. Considering how many men Beatrix has taken down, how about just the non-gendered 'hero'.

This conflict idea is making me reconsider the thrust of the project. I mean, I want to include Ripley from Alien, but what good is she when she isn't blasting that ugly fucker to shit? It's about showdowns. The idea's been done before, and in really fun ways, but I really want to concentrate on contrasts and tensions.

Consider this color study, the giant Kiddo in the foreground, dressed in hot yellows and reds, wild hair, spattered with blood. Her posture seems disoriented, the light on her back suggests that she's just been transported from another world. Smaller in the distance, is O'Ren Iishi, in blues and whites, is calm and harmonious with the environment. Each snowflake is a part of her. Her silver sword is drawn from its black sheath, she'll use both sword and sheath in the battle, a metaphor for yin and yang.

Enthusiasm

2011-09-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this this morning.
My own story closely resembles that of the uninsured person in Wolf Blitzer's hypothetical question. I take personal and extreme offense to the behavior in the video. The people in this video would have let me die, or live the rest of my life in extreme pain. And they would do it enthusiastically. If you support these people or their ideas, I have no use for you.

As it was, I spent over a year in extreme pain, until Massachusetts' health care law provided me a path to wellness. I had a herniated disc that was eventually treated with surgery. The surgeon said it was one of the worst he'd seen, he said it looked like a big piece of broccoli sticking out of my spine. I got up and walked around the hospital the next morning after surgery. I walked up and down stairs. For that, I am thankful to this day.

In the video, Ron Paul says I should go to my church for help. For a $14,000 surgery. Or rely on my community? Well, my community did come to my rescue, my community is called Massachusetts. And this is a community that the people on that stage and in that audience sneer at, because it is a community that helped me.

A few more thoughts...
Someone said to me today, well that was just a few jerks in the audience. True, a few people yelled, but there was also quite a big audience applause.

During the 2008 presidential race, a crazy lady in a red shirt stood up at a McCain rally and rambled to Senator McCain that Obama was an arab muslim, etc. McCain did the right thing. Right then and there, he took the microphone from the woman and stopped the craziness. He stood against his own crowd. It was a courageous and honorable act. None of the candidates did any such thing last night.

New Psychedelic Shirt

2011-09-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

I want to have a series of zombie face shirts. This would be the 3rd in the series...and I'd like for it to make you nauseous. Click to enlarge.

50 Foot Woman

2011-08-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

Did this quickie this weekend. Sharpie and Pentel brush pen, digital color. Check out the show, it'll make you smile.

LD

2011-08-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

This morning I dreamt I was driving my car from Worcester Center Blvd (now Major Taylor Blvd) onto Foster St, here in Worcester. The light turned red. I'm parked with the hospital on my left, Centrum/DCU on my right. As the car in front of me blatantly runs the light, I can see it's an older asian driver and I try not to think about stereotypes. He almost hits an oncoming car. I look in the oncoming car and Larry David is driving it. He's looking incredulously out the window at the asian guy. Soon, while I'm still waiting there, Larry David runs across a crosswalk and someone almost runs him over. I yell out the window, Stop following the law!

...Which I thought was clever.

Then I go into a public bathroom and use the stall. I don't think I am pooping, I'm just in there. It's busy in there and I somehow see a buddy of mine in the next stall. We start talking and I tell him about the whole Larry David traffic thing. We talk about that for a while and as I walk out I turn to see Larry David is sitting, pooping into a urinal. I look back at the stalls and realize he's prob doing that because he got frustrated/desperate to poop but we were talking in the stall. Yet we wouldn't have been talking in the stall if he hadn't been driving around Worcester earlier. Yes, I am creating Curb episodes in my dream.

Larry David, his wife, Nicole and I are walking downtown afterward, because now we're friends of course, and I suggest we go look at the monuments. I laugh because for some reason, I again think this is clever. No one else does. I then become extremely self-conscious about having a Massachusetts accent.

His wife suggests we go to the Boynton, but Larry David says 'I don't know, that's where we said dirty words when we were young.'

Then I woke up and wrote it down as best as I could remember. I wrote it in TextEdit and cut and pasted it into my blog. I made a few small changes and fixed typos. Then I clicked 'Publish Post'.

Then you read it. You were a little disappointed by the ending.

Quorra

2011-08-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Finally getting a start on my sci-fi babes calendar...I've posted a few sketches so far, but it feels like it's moving so slowly. Here's an Adobe Illustrator sketch. I want to paint this in oil, we'll see how that plan goes...I have a new method for creating halftone with paint. You can see that white halftone glow behind her.

Tiki tiki!

2011-08-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

Got asked to customize some Vans sneakers for the upcoming Skate of the Art show at the Dark World Gallery here in sunny Worc. All the sneakers in the show are up for silent auction. Proceeds go to the Worcester Animal Rescue League, so don't feel guilty about overbidding. The woofs and meows appreciate it.

Here's what I'm offering...click to enlarge.

New Morticians Shirt

2011-07-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

My buddy Pete plays in a great rockabilly sickapsychobilly band called the Memphis Morticians. Great stuff, and every once in a while I get asked to do a shirt for these cats. Here's my newest one. Based on an old illustration I had hanging around, I redid the lighting and the girl's face, the old one always bugged me.

Here's their merch page, this'll be up pretty soon.

Quick sketch of Leeloo

2011-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

For the scifi babe calendar, just a small thumbnail. Too busy to put any real time toward this right now.

I always liked that first few minutes where she's out on the ledge in the strange new world. Great character. I'd make sure that teh background is pushed way back, atmospheric, smoggy. The focus is on her.

Spaceballs!

2011-07-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Just finished this...finally. It's been hanging around forever, but I wanted to make sure I got the details right...

Lord Helmet's outfit is both the most complex and the laziest costume I've ever seen. Tons of details over ill-fitting spandex. Hilarious.

Come see it on Thursday, August 25. It's free!

Here's something else I noticed while poring over the movie, frame-by-frame. Yup, that's Optimus Prime.

Oola

2011-07-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

Okay...what the hell is an Oola? She was Jabba the Hutt's green slave girl, the one that got eaten by the Rancor monster and had to be replaced by Princess Leia. I always liked this character, the actress had a very beautiful, expressive African face, and seemed somehow related to Bib Fortuna. Unfortunately, she had a very quick and tragic end. I've always thought Lucas threw her in only as a piece of ass and then threw her away just as quick. Not cool.

Why am I writing about this? I'm working on my 2012 calendar. You know, the one with all SCI-FI BABES instead of random portfolio crap. I want a month of Oola. Here's some sketches:

Oola-la...

Derby Tattoo Design

2011-06-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Got asked a while back to design a a zombie roller derby tattoo. Here's some process. We discussed the design at the bar and thumbnailed it on a menu. Stole the menu. No big deal.

Let's have a roller derby zombie, and she's just cut the head off another derby girl zombie. Ok, I said, how about if she has the same pose as the statue of Perseus with the Gorgon's head? Yeah. Good, I like referencing classical mythology. Even when the new illustration is so very different from classical sculpture. This is about 1.5 inches tall:

Agree on the idea. Scan the thumbnail. Quickly refine the pose in Illustrator, make sure the design will fit on the arm, make sure the proportions are correct, make sure the composition has a nice flow, then run it by my friend again:

So far so good. She approves. I grab a slice of marker paper. It works as a good tracing paper, though nowhere near as transparent. It's also able to withstand erasing, and maintain a really bright, smooth surface. Avoid bond (or photocopy) paper. I then go over my Illustrator sketch in pencil:

Going back to pencil really allows you to add depth and life to the illustration. Check out how her hips get nice and curvy. Little bit of sexy chub on there. And speaking of sexy, when I showed this to her her my friend was happy, except she said that the face needed to be cute and not be quite so gross and dead. I agree.

Printed it out super-light (just add a photoshop layer of pure white over the art and set the opacity to 70% or so, that way you don't have to eff around with your actual art in photoshop), and then I redrew the head on top of that print. On this one, I made sure that I used a real helmet for reference. Always get the equipment correct, even when it's a cartoon. It matters.

The new face drops perfectly into place:

Rescanned that and went over it again in Illustrator. I kept the color palette simple (red, baby blue, pukey green and a dark blue to estimate the ink) and dropped it on top of an estimate of her skin color. The white highlights on the greenish skin are actually just clear, with no color. Use lots of solid black, and keep the lined areas clean and thin, so that the tattoo artist can decide how thick they should be.

That's something to remember when you're asked to design a tattoo: the guy (or gal) who is actually doing the tattoo is also an artist. Don't be afraid to just send a rough sketch, or in some way allow him to have as much freedom as possible. If he gets pissed off because you treated him like a photocopier, the final product can reflect that.

I would have been ok to just let the loose pencil sketch go to the tattoo artist, and tell him to take any liberties he wants, but In this case I was asked to go tighter. So I did:

Might be some more changes, but probably not much. I think this is pretty close to done.

IMC...Wow

2011-06-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I didn't keep up the blog for the whole week I was away. Sorry. The hours were crazy. We were up until 2am (at the earliest) every night in the studio and then back up at 7 for breakfast. I had a migraine that lasted a couple of days straight, until I realized that it matched up with the food allergy that I used to get. Once I isolated that it was something at the salad bar (spinach is my only consistent foodstuff) that cleared up pretty quick and I was 100% for the rest of the week.

Anyhoo. It was an amazing week and I really was just amazed at the instructors as well as the students. The highest caliber, all around. I didn't finish my piece that I started there, in fact I brought it home with about 5 different painting styles on it. Learned so much solid technique. Can't say enough and I am already socking away money for next years' class.
d

IMC Day 3

2011-06-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry, true-believers, no visual update today. What I can say is that I am thoroughly impressed by Mo Willems' design of art and text and the mental comprehension of each. My achievements include: I got my sketch mounted onto masonite board. Sure, I expected that it would be done by 10am, and it was actually done by 9pm, but it got done by plenty of sweat and effort and desperate please-please-work-so-I-can-move-on-with-this. I also drew in my gritty city background this evening and am ready to paint-paint tomorrow morning. I have preemptively requested lots of hand-holding as I embark on the painting aspect of this course. Will post my progress tomorrow night.

It's 3 am, and many people know my pet peeve of birds waking joyfully as I attempt to go to bed; it goes without saying that I'd like, LOVE to punch that bird in the face.

While I did enjoy whiskeys with a bunch of great artists this evening, I do miss all my dickhead friends. Yeah I'm looking at you.

IMC Day 2

2011-06-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

Wait...it's only day 2? Holy shit. Had more great seminars today, some about designing concept art for films, evolution of personal artistic styles, nature vs nurture on the subject of talent (spoiler alert: I was right, it is about working hard and not about having a magic wand hit your head at birth). Made some more progress on my image. Starting to feel unsure about it, but this is where I always get shaky --when it comes to putting the brush on the canvas, or masonite. Had some good suggestions that affected some of my color decisions. Here's a color study, incomplete. Finish it tomorrow. Need some sleep.

Looks like I'm skipping my run again tomorrow morning.

IMC Day 1

2011-06-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished the first day here at the IMC. Had a critique of my sketch by Scott Allie, Donato Giancola, Scott Fischer and Jeff Mack. Yes, those guys are all instructors. They generally had good things to say about my sketch and I definitely feel better about it. I didn't have much time to get my idea together this week. This afternoon I pushed forward with the image, adding detail and trying to figure out what to do with that pesky front arm and tailpipes. Of the five assignments, I went with the one that was most outside my comfort zone and then promptly knocked that fucker right back into my comfort zone, haha. Actually, people seem to be into the idea that this dragon is a departure from fantasy.

I intend to have a finished piece by weeks end. We learned how to properly mount drawings to masonite this evening and am planning to mount this one and finish it that way. A little bit surreal at times. At one point today I was working, rocking out with Wolfmother in my headphones, and I noticed Boris Vallejo had been looking over my shoulder.

The faculty is incredible, and great at teaching as well as masters in their respective fields.

My rough sketch, 18x24":

Moving forward:

More to say tomorrow.

Illustration Master Class

2011-06-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I've neglected this blog for quite some time. The story is that I've been busting ass day and night to clear my workload so I can effectively disappear for a week. Today I'm leaving for Amherst to attend the Illustration Master Class. Basically, I'll be learning technique from some of the masters of fantasy art. We arrive at class with sketches and ideas of a piece we'd like to accomplish during the week. I had to choose from three categories, and the very first category I ruled out was Dragons. I like sci-fi, man! But the more I thought about it, the more I warmed to the category and the liberties I could take within it.

Here's my thumbnail of my idea. Apparently I really dig girls riding cyborgs. Tightening this up right now for the initial crit.

I'll try and blog every day.

New shirts are ready for Start tomorrow

2011-05-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Looking to do a zombie head series. Here's #2. You can grab one tomorrow at Start on the Street. Cheap!

Early teaser art...

2011-05-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

working on a new poster...no details yet.

Mr Smartass Theatre is Tonight?

2011-05-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yes!

Tonight we'll be roasting the film: Bloody Pit of Horror! Contrary to the title, there isn't much blood in the bloody pit. And not much horror either...and the pit isn't particularly deep.

But! What we can offer is...
• Barely-dressed Italian women from the 1960's!
• Fake torture devices... or ARE THEY?
• Swords from the horrific closeout bin at KayBee toys!
• Mariska Hartigay's bodybuilder dad in leotard pants!
• A very real spiiiider, woo scary!
• To honor our 2nd Italian movie in a row, FREE PIZZA AND CHEAP BEER!
• Also, we'll have plenty of Osama jokes for the kids!

Mr Smartass is always FREE, on the first Wednesday of the month at the Lucky Dog Music Hall. Doors open at 9pm. You might want to bring a lawnchair and some snacks to fulfill the drive-in atmosphere.

See ya!
MR SMARTASS
(which is me and the other two guys)

*Mr. Smartass Theater is a live homage to the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Cheesy films are projected onto the Lucky Dog's lovely, never-fail movie screen, and three of Worcester's worst smart-asses give the film a new soundtrack laced with gags, puns, sound effects, dirty jokes, etc. Every show is unique, every show starts at 9:00, and it's always free to get in. It's especially free for ladies in tube tops.

WPI

2011-04-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Regarding Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil speaking at WPI's commencement. For details, see this article in Worcester Magazine. http://www.worcestermag.com/city-desk/top-news/Oil-and-water-119785344.html

I just read this Go-List notification from the students protesting Tillerson's presence:

> Good news! We are thrilled to announce that our negotiations with the

> administration have come to a satisfying resolution.

> Student who wish to avoid ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's speech will

> be allowed to do so. A row will be reserved them the back so that we

> may join the rest of the class afterwards for the degree-granting

> ceremony.

> In addition, our alternate speaker Richard Heinberg has been offered

> the same stage as Tillerson. I can confirm Richard will be speaking

> after commencement, at 3 PM on May 14th, on the Quad.

> We are delighted at this outcome, which satisfies both our, and the

> needs of the administration.

My reply:
You've been allowed to sit in the back of the room while Mr. Tillerson still gives his speech. I'm sorry, but take your victory lap when you've achieved victory. When the school acknowledges that its actions are disgraceful and when Mr. Tillerson is not speaking at your commencement, then congratulate yourselves. WPI's students are not the ones whose actions are offensive to our society. Rewarding students of conscience with segregation is not an acceptable solution.

I know graduating students have a diminishing stake in your school's actions, but it does matter.

d

Shrunken Head!

2011-04-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

I just did some shirts for my buddy Brian over at Shrunken Head Studios. He's an incredoble toy and model sculptor working way far out there in CA. He wanted a version of DaVinci's Vitruvian Man, but as a zombie. Here's what I did.

Click to enlarge.

Form

2011-04-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm completely blown away by the design of something that came out 4 years before I did (to the day!). I just saw this today. I follow a few blogs like Hemmings and BikeExif. The vehicle designs are always incredible, whether from the distant past or the near future.

Well, meet the 1970 Lancia HF Zero:

Check out how the clean, futuristic blade-form perches above the pure-muscle, mechanical undercarriage. They usually coexist in cars, but never like this. It's like the two pure ideas of design were pressed together to become conjoined twins. Lancia.

Auction's on May 21, love to see how much it aucions for. More pics here:
http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=VE11&CarID=r105
#7 is great photo of the interior. Amazing.

Get ready to want this.

2011-04-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

...Or not. It's completely up to you. I should have some of these ready for Start on the Street. I like the Celtics' color combo, so I stole it.

I think I'd like to keep doing zombie head-shirts. I'll do other stuff too, but I love having this as an ongoing series.

Bluestocking Bombers!

2011-04-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I have been pretty pisspoor at updating the blog. So here's a quickie. Just finished the logo for a new roller derby team, The Bluestocking Bombers. Trying to get something that'll look good on shirts.

I'm behind on everything right now (and still have to get my taxes in!), so no time to comment.

Click to enlarge.

A week from today

2011-04-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in so long. There's been more work-art and less fun-art for the past few months. Can't complain, but I'm itching to draw some explodey stuff.

Anyway. As some folks may know, I was selected as one of two recipients of the Worcester Arts Council Fellowship Grant. It's a pretty big honor. And to be honest, it's an even bigger honor to receive the accolade at this point in the city's evolution. Good things are happening here and I'm proud to be part of it.

The other recipient is Alex Charalambides, a local poet who has created a huge movement in the area. If you ever have a chance, check out the Dirty Gerund show. I've never been big into poetry, but I was blown away when I went. On top of a great show, it was a completely packed, enthusiastic crowd in the downstairs of Ralph's, on a Monday.

Well us two fellas got selected by the city to be Fellows and there's a reception this coming Sunday. Nothing majorly formal, but I would love it if people came out for a couple hours in the afternoon. I'll have some art up, I'll spike the punch, we'll hear some poetry and give some high-fives. Here are the details. 1-3pm, April 10th, Goddard House and Art Gallery, 1199 Main Street, Worcester, MA.

Lastly, I want to say thank you to the Worcester Arts Council for this enormous honor. Thank you.
d

Hello, UPS man

2011-02-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

UPS man just made a visit. A new abnormalbrain skateboard! Wowee!
Of course, international internet sensation Cricket Catinski must investigate.
Yup, definitely smells like a box. You're welcome.

I'm glad to finally see this, it's one of the first boards I designed for my Zazzle store. If you want one of these, they's available here:
Zazzle.com/abnormalbrain

Monster trucks

2011-01-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

Started this a while back. Going to try and get it done in the next week or so. 18x24" in regular, plain, old, acrylic. There will be a giant scythe blade up there at the top, and lots more junk flying around, some more reapers in the background, and I'm not sure about that bright yellow. I think the sky colors need to be more drab.

Peeks

2011-01-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

at the new work for the 242 show. each is 18x24". This one's india ink:

I'm pretty new to working with gouache, which is what I used on the Luchador piece. It's a weird medium, chalky with a high pigment density. It's really reacting oddly in the sunlight here. Cyan is very light in the sun, while the red is super saturated. I hate the idea of doing any Photoshop to a photo of a painting, but I'm prob going to have to, just to get a correct representation.

UPDATE. This is closer to what the colors really look like. Not exact, but I don't really have time to spend finessing a psd file.

Come with.

2011-01-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

Space 242 is having a new show opening this coming weekend. I've got 4 pieces in it. Technically 3 pieces, but I think I'm so cool I can just throw a frame around the sketch for one of the main pieces and call it art.

space242.com

I'll have some peeks up soon.

Lots of news

2011-01-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

First off, let me say a very big THANK YOU to the Worcester Arts Council. I was informed Friday that I was selected for the 2011 WAC Fellowship Grant. My plan is to use the grant toward some education, I'd like to find some kind of immersion art program and am researching some now.

On the other side of the work table, I've got some more work coming together for the next 242 show. It's the Good Vs Evil show that was scheduled a few months back. Originally, I'd just done one piece for that show, but I decided that since I got sick of seeing the same piece hanging around, I needed to do some more. I'm trying to veer away from the straight digital print stuff. So here's what's on the table, two 18x24 pieces:

one on newsprint (I love newsprint, it's such a crap surface, but the tooth is just awesome, and it's for a comic book-themed show),

...and the other a luchador poster (El Buenador vs Señor Maligno, my apologies to any real luchadors with those names), I'm not sure what material to put it on, still sketching it up.

All I want for Christmas

2011-01-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

is FOCUS. Finally feel like I can get my head back into the work. All the lights and trees and food and gifts and driving and shoveling are done. If I could just keep my hands in shape and my brain sharp, that would be great, but it never works out that way. And pretending to myself that I can keep sharp is stressful and frankly, kinda miserable. I now embark on the struggle back to competence.

Needs somes wake-ups exercises. Here's one.

Zombies on Fire

2011-01-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Doing a few new projects for AdriansUndeadDiary.com. This will be a shirt. You'd look sexy in one.

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Oh, no.

2010-12-28T18:44:00.000-08:00

I have a movie on where many upsetting things happen. War, deaths, some massive dickishness, etc. Then one of the characters is an artist and she starts airbrushing, and I catch myself saying out loud "oh, no". I guess some things are just too much for me to take.

Here's some REAL ART!

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this mall!

2010-12-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

So Worcester Magazine, our local alt-pub, wanted to do a year-end big-big-story roundup issue, and have it all done as a full-color cartoon section. Here's my addition to the collection:

Click to enlarge.

The story: I guess there was a big to-do involving the Governor and Lt Gov arriving here in the Worm, in order to officiate over the demolition of the local mall that has been sitting empty since, like, 1914. When folks showed up hoping to see a Vegas-casino-sized demolition, they got to see a small drill bit poke itself through one wall of the mall. Whee. Oh, also, they needed TWO countdowns before the drill bit actually emerged from it's hole.

When it did, it predicted another 10 years of unattractive real estate.

Next Year's Calendar

2010-12-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

I like doing a calendar every year. And my 2011 calendar is in hand. Bug me if you want one.

Usually I use a mix of old and new stuff. Unfortunately I'm running out of old stuff and can't make any more old stuff. So the next one requires a plan. After watching Tron: Legacy and Star Trek: The Motion Picture yesterday, I decided that 2012 needs to be sexy scifi. PG, but sexy. So here's my short list of babes:

Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Leeloo from 5th Element
Ripley and Winona-bot from Alien Resurrection
Jabba's slave dancer girl
Natasha from Alphaville
Quorra from Tron: Legacy
Princess Aura from Flash Gordon

None are definite (ok, some are), but I've not seen every film, nor have I read every book. I am still open to suggestions, sales pitches and bribes.

Also should mention, since this is my project, I have ultimate choice, and there are some definite 'No's:
No 3-tit chick from Total Recall
No James Bond girls

Maybes:
I'm not super into these ideas, but am considering...
Barbara from NOTLD
Barbarella
Maria-bot from Metropolis
characters from Planet of the Apes
Princess Leia
Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of Frankenstein

Like I said, I'm open to any and all suggestions, if only for the discovery of new stuff.

Cold morning.

2010-12-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

I had to go out yesterday to do some recon-research for an illustration project. It was 19º or so out. It sucked. My fingers were freezing and my camera batteries died halfway through. Luckily, it was the camera that takes AA's, and not my stupid proprietary not-easily-recharged camera batteries, so I stepped into a convenience store. As I wandered the store, warming up, there was a manager interviewing a guy for a job.

Manager: "Very good, what's your phone number?"
Candidate: "I don't have one right now, I had to have it shut off."

Cold morning? Whatever. I have it easy. I know it pays shit, but I hope he gets that job. It's the giving season, so give some $ so your neighbors can eat. They're not lazy, they're not losers. They're just like you, they just got a shittier roll of the dice.

Worcester County Food Bank

.

Kids, bug your parents!

2010-11-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

Rolling out the new calendar. Fingers crossed, I should have a batch of them for the Start at the Station this coming Sunday, Dec 5th. Also should have some T-shirts as well. Not a brandy new design, but some sexy new colors.
$15 for shirts, $15 for calendars. If you're interested in mugging me, I'll be walking around with lots of fives.

Not close to MA? You can buy one straight from Lulu. and if you order today get 25% off with code CYBER305.

Street Fleecing

2010-11-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had our street-sweeping signs up for the past four days. Today was the magical morning. It's chaos, with the shuffling and re-parking cars, and circling the neighborhood, just to discover all the streets around are 'no parking' as well. After all the ticketing and trucks and nonsense, here are the results...

What? You're not impressed? You will be.

I counted $300 in tickets, just within view of my front porch. This includes my own $50 ticket. Here's the thing about my ticket: I'm on top of this shit. We joke that I'm the neighborhood watch. I'm here all day and night, working next to this window. When the signs went up last week, I went out to the street with a shovel and broom, cleaned the gutters, scraped the curbstones of the artificial peatmoss that forms over the summer. I have a 30 year old motorbike out there and I don't like the idea of it sitting on top of a leafy, trashy swamp. And to illustrate how much silt piles up out there, while shoveling last friday I discovered among the other trash, a full sized wooden chair-leg buried under where I park.

I digress. The point is, I'm on top of this. I was up this morning before 8, expecting to hear the rumbling and beeping of Pat's Towing trucks, letting us know that our big angry squaredance was starting. This is the process we're accustomed to, after 4 years of living here: Beep beep, move your car. Some people don't. Beep beep, move your car. Some people still don't. They get a $50 ticket. It's usually college kids, UMass students in scrubs wandering out at noon to find a $50 fine on the windshield. The process is designed to get cars off the street, work with the neighborhood, so that the street can get swept. It's loud and crude, but it makes sense, it works, and if you're paying any kind of attention, you can avoid the ticket.

Today, nothing but the thrum of the sweeper. At that sound, I went out and moved Nicole's car across the street, and waited in it until she was ready to go. Then I went inside and watched my own car from the window. I hit the bathroom. Back to the window. I checked my email. I kept my eye on that goddamn car. Then the little white DPW pickups show up and the ticket-man starts walking around. I go out and start up the Civic, and on the far side of the windshield, there's the ticket. I didn't leave the window long enough for him to fill it out. And even if I did, how did he hit that magical perfect timing? Or did he just wander through at 7am, silently passing out $50 fines*? I drove my car up onto the sidewalk, slammed the door impotently and went inside. Out the window, a girl was getting out of a little blue car that had just eased into my former spot. I got a little pissed, thinking my ticket was for nothing if that spot wasn't even going to get swept. O ye of little faith, I thought as the little white truck arrived a minute later. Damn, he's smooth.

Sweep time is posted 7am 5pm. The 5pm makes sense, since people will likely be at work, and the streets are likely to be clear of cars. What the fuck is the 7am for? That's when people are getting ready for work, so instead of showering and shaving, they're in the street in bathrobes, negotiating sweepers, dumptrucks, each other, and since we live on a main street, let's not forget about the usual traffic speeding through, treating the trucks and sweepers like traffic cones on a racetrack. Or maybe they are showering and shaving, blissfully unaware of the non-rippable little surprise on their windshield.

So, the facts of the case. The city decided not to pay for Pat's Towing. And they sent a ninja ticketer through. I'd say today's street sweeping was a success. Buy some fucking teachers with that money, you assholes.

* EDIT: I just thought to check the time on the ticket: 8:10 am. Must've been magic.

The Kiss

2010-10-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

242 Show was last night, and it was quite good. Here's one of my pieces, finished. And some of the sketches/ideas/process.

It started out as just an idea, scratched on the back of an envelope.

I blew it up large, but I wasn't in love with the composition anymore. That heart shape doesn't hold up. Plus the poses are too tender. Seems forced, schlocky.

Pushing the idea further, I still wanted hands to be interacting, but they need to feel passionate, maybe even desperate.

Background/composition. I wanted wreckage, but it needs to be pushed away from the couple, so that we (the viewer) are pulled into their space. There are other 'people' in this world, but they don't matter.

The final, 12x36". I still wanted the colors to be sparse, but I don't want it to feel just black and white. I hit that spot between them with hot light, the sun, an explosion, a a-bomb, or just their emotion? The overall shape/flow of the background wreckage is also circular, originating in that same space between their faces. Click to enlarge.

Arrr...

2010-10-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Working on a pirate project. Here's a sketch.
This art won't appear like this in the final project.

Fun

2010-10-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Consider coming to Space 242 on the 22nd. Details are below.

More in progress stuff....

2010-10-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

I hope you can make it out to Boston on the 22nd. Details below...

Another peek

2010-10-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

...at some of the stuff I'm putting together. It's been a fun exercise, trying to figure out the old "who I am". I often work with clients on illustration, figuring out their needs like a puzzle, trying to come up with clever ways of covering all their bases while still making stuff look cool. It seems to me more technical than artistic. So when the chance is dropped in my lap, to come up with some stuff that's just for me, well that's the toughest puzzle yet. And have it on Halloween/spooky theme; and still have it appealing to people without getting all Hallmark-cardy. I've got about 2 weeks left before it's back to commercial-ville.

This here isn't finished, it's just what's onscreen right now. I hope you can make time to come out on the 22nd.

Horseman sketches

2010-09-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I wasn't planning on sharing much of what I'm working on for this new show. Screw it, here's some sketches and color studies of a headless horseman piece that's on the desk today.

CLOSED!

2010-09-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I'm shutting down the office for a few weeks. I'll be available again mid-October. Why am I shutting down? I'm doing new work for the Space 242 Halloween show and ~~want~~ need to concentrate fully on it. Here's a small sample of some early stuff...

I hope you'll join me on the 22nd of October for the opening of this show. I think you'll want to bring a costume.

stART is Sunday

2010-09-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Park Avenue in Worcester. Come by tomorrow 11-5.

stART

EDIT: Thanks everyone who came by! It was a great day!

More Zombi

2010-09-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

Who wants one.

2010-09-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

One of two t-shirt designs I'm doing for this year's StArt on the Street festival. Come buy one. September 19. It's a Sunday, you ain't got no job and you ain't got shit to do.

Oh and here's one more, based on that image I posed last week. See you there.

Back to the Future is now available!

2010-09-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was asked to create the art for a Back to the Future card game. It was released yesterday. Getting some good reviews and now I'm just waiting to get my samples. Not yet available on amazon, but you can definitely bug your local comic shop. I'm sure That's Entertainment will carry a few copies.

The best thing is, now I can post some of the art...here's some rough sketches and final pics of the cars. First the sketches (show your work!)...

These are mostly just sketches and thumbnails for communicating with the client. The most difficult one was the last one, the lightning-powered Delorean from the end of the first movie. We needed to cram a whole lot of information into a very small space:

Car needs to look cool (a little bit in-your-face, never small or far away)
Car needs to be visually distinct from other versions (in this case the only major diff was the fishing pole antenna),
Show the town is still 1950's, not run-down 1980's
Show the lightning/streetlight apparatus
And what the hell, let's put the clock-tower into it

And it all needs to fit into the efficient little space of a half a playing card. Lotta rounds of discussion on that one.

Here are some of the final Deloreans.

As you can see, not all the sketches were used, which is why it's nice to have a place to post this kind of stuff that would otherwise just end up in the memory hole.

One of the things that I've discovered in my month-long crash course into becoming an expert in BttF was that every home-built car, every illustration, every representation you'll find online is wrong. Almost no reproduction of the car is ever faithful, so I spent about 50% of my time doing research, mainly consisting of watching the films in slo-mo (huge thanks to Mr Scymszlacks for letting me borrow his BttF dvd set).

Speaking of insane details, here's the train. This was about the toughest part of the whole project. It works very differently than I originally thought (thanks to my dad for pointing out that the rockets that hold it aloft are under the center of the train, and not in the wheels). Every piece on it has a purpose. It is either: a larger version of a piece that was on the Delorean; a clever re-purposing of the train's steam power source; or a reference to the submarine in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues. It's really kind of amazing.

It was an honor to be able to add to the pantheon of this story. The only thing I wish I could have done was the character likenesses, which for legal purposes just wasn't possible.

Derby coming atcha

2010-08-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

Made this yesterday for a new CMRD poster. They needed something they could reuse a few times, plug in the info and go. I may post the fully info'd poster, but you'll probably see it around town...but only if you live in WORCESTER McAWESOMETOWN U.S.A.

Sorry it's so low res. Been dealing with webthieves lately ...and then I got accused of stealing my own work. Fun times.

If you want to use this art, just fucking ask.

Back to normal

2010-08-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

Work is easy when my head is clear. The beginning of the month is always tough because I'm prepping and stressing over our Mr Smartass show. In case you missed it, it was last night...and this happened:

Long live Gumby.

More Zombi

2010-07-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

Well. Here's my first conception of the new book I'm (slowly) putting together. The last 242 show (the one that didn't yet happen) was a challenge to create comic book heroes and villains. I'd always had the idea for this character, but nothing solid. She's kinda hot, kinda gross, smart and tough. I doubt that Zombi will be overly super-heroey. See below for the pencils.

Skadebord done

2010-07-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

So, this is basically just a giant insane-o-doodle. I just wanted a shitload of skulls. I used one whole Sharpie marker for this.

Click for enormous view. This will be on display at the Dark World's annual Skate of the Art 2 skateboard show, August 7. All boards will be silent-auctioned off during the whole month of August. The proceeds go to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central MA.

I'll hopefully have a few more for this show, albeit less functional ones.

Skadebord

2010-07-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

...for the Dark World's skateboard show. Finally got a little bit of work in on this one. Skulls, skulls, skulls, in glorious Sharpie marker. This would be the only board I'm putting in that isn't busted in half.

Sketchbook...

2010-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Some doodles and character ideas for upcoming projects...really enjoying the new brush pen.

Remember kids...

2010-07-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

Just goofing around. I want to get more used to hand-inking. I love this new brush pen. Already gone through a couple ink cartridges in what seems like no time at all.

New Blog Design

2010-07-01T08:14:00.001-07:00

Feel free to leave me lots of nice compliments on it.
Also, while editing I noticed this odd image on my Zazzle store. What's up with this poor guy?

Got asked for a Batman sketch

2010-06-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

...a day or two after I watched the The Batman episode where Joker decides to give Batman a bad name...

Pretty Ghoul

2010-06-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be slowly rolling out this idea that I've had for a few years. Zombi, kind of an undead Modesty Blaise character. Sexy and gross at the same time (I love attraction/repulsion), with basic g-man/spy story kind of stuff. She can take a lot of bullets and no one knows she exists, sort of like the old Hulk tv show. There's a lot about this that I see in terms of 1970's comics. Still writing and fleshing out the character...

I'm really disappointed that Mike Allred just released a series called iZombie, about a girl zombie. It was pretty dopey and after two issues I've taken it off my subscription sheet at the store, but I know the comparison will persist. I might have to read it, just to keep this project from going anywhere near it. Blecch.