Quentin for my book!

This week I will be at the Wizard World comic convention in Chicago, selling and signing books. If you're there stop by and say hello! I will be at booths 3300, 3302, 3304, hanging out with my Imaginism family!

This Quentin is one of my new paintings done for my book.




One of the special things about this book is that I have invited many friends of mine who's work I greatly admire to also be a part of the book. So I would like to thank my Guest artists for their amazing contributions to my book.

Roberto Parada, Drew Friedman, Joe Bluhm, Ismael Roldan, Wouter Tulp, Kei Acedera, Stephen Silver, Larry Seiler, Bobby Chiu, Hermann Mejia, Thomas Fluharty, and Jan Op De Beeck.



Click HERE to order the book!

Leland and Broadway 2:00 p.m.

I went out yesterday and painted with my friend Bill Moore. It was a really great time, he's good and has a nice approach to painting plein air . . . he also shared some new techniques with me . . . a fun time for sure! Anyways, we were rained on and had to stop. His painting was finished but I was just getting started with mine. So today I went out for about another hour or so and finished this little study of Leland and Broadway. This is such a great spot for urban painting . . . there's a lot of nice angles and great places to paint. I'll be going back to paint a few other views of this same area.

Amy Winehouse!

Sneak peak from my book!

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Final "Big Sleep" for my new book!

I shared the progress of this painting a while ago, here's the final piece. I want to remind everyone that I will be selling and signing my book at the Chicago Wizard World Comic Convention next week, Thursday through Sunday. I will be with Imaginism Studios. I'm not sure at this time what the booth number is, when I have it I'll post it here. I will also be at the San Diego Comicon in July, hope to see you there!!


Click HERE to order the book!

Al Gore warm up sketch!

I'm trying to learn how to use Painter X . . . I've never used it before and I'm finding it a new beast if you will. A lot for me to figure out. I started this sketch off in Painter, first using a color pencil, and then blocking in with various oil and acrylic brushes. It wasn't quite looking the way I wanted, so I took it into PS and finished it off . . . just a sketch, or study . . . all in all took me about an hour and a half.

Final and then some . . . .

Here's the final art for The Weekly Standard. This was a challange more than normal. I had about two days from start to finish. I was near finishing with only a few more things left to paint. His left arm and airplane as well as final touch ups on the skin and hair. My phone rings with the news that we have to change the illustration or lose it to a photo . . . arrrrrrgh! Can happen and does happen . . . comes with the job. Splash water on your face and move on. So with less then half the time left, I had to change my illustration to what you see on top. I'm a bit bummed, because I really enjoy the first version with him sitting much better and the new version was rushed!

Still, I look forward to every challenge, and I truly enjoy working for Philip at the Standard, he's a great Art Director. More importantly, he's a great guy who is pleasant to work with . . . there are some a.d.'s out there who aren't nearly as workable, or understand what it takes to create this kind of work.

W.I.P. Weekly Standard

I got a call late Wednesday from The Weekly Standard. Started yesterday morning, and the final is due later today. These are sketches in prep for the job . . . will show final art soon.

Robert Sketch

A pencil sketch of my friend Robert.

Back from the Bush!

Well, I'm back in Chicago, and I am now in need of a vacation from my vacation! My wife Kat, and two girls Isabeau and Ava and I spent a week in Bushnell IL, relaxing, watching a ton of The Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, and The Wonder Pets. At night my wife and I made popcorn and watched episodes of C.S.I., it was a nice time. I tried to get out a bit to do some painting and drawing. Since I just finished my book and have a lot more new pieces to introduce to my portfolio, I decided that I wanted to give caricature a break for a bit while on vacation. So I thought it would be fun to do some oil sketches, pen and pencil sketches, just drawing my surroundings a bit. Well, it so happens that bugs have evolved a tolerance of sorts for bug spray, at least in Bushnell . . . it was hopeless, I spent about two hours one night painting a plein air, or at least trying to, I was eaten alive by nazi gnats, flies, and mosquitoes. They were crawling up my back, flying into my nose, mouth, and eyes . . . . bedding down in my ears. I was going MAD-CRAZY. To my left there was a herd of cows that were literally puking and pooping the entire time. It was lovely. I didn't have much time for drawing and painting as I wanted to play with the kids as much as possible, but the times I squeezed in were discouraging. Because of the bugs, it was hard to find inspiration to paint and draw outdoors. I found myself locked in a screened in patio painting and sketching whatever was around. The plein air above was done in about 30 minutes, painted during a thunderstorm. It's oil on a 4"x8" panel, using a "zorn" palette. My goal was to capture this little scene with as little brush strokes as possible.








These are quick little thumbnails that I did in prep for paintings that I thought about doing.









The top sketch of a trailer was done while sitting in a van in the middle of the woods. I first sat on the ground and was soon eaten alive by zombieBUGS . . . . frustrated again, I drove into the woods with my van to sketch the trailer.

Locked within the enclosed patio and having the itch to sketch I decided to sketch the wood fencing on the porch. Exciting eh?









These sketches were again done while sitting in a "bug-free" van . . . I would drive around in the country and find old trailers and shacks and just sketch. All done very quickly, and very loose.








Being that this was really the only view from within the screened in porch, I did a quick digital plein air, painting by gut, no real palette in mind, just grabbing color and painting. This was done in about 10 to 15 minutes!