Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Coloring Hank

Henry has been scanned into the computer and the color is almost done. I just need to do a few more little touch ups here and there and I think we'll be good to go.

Nothing like finishing the year out with a new OilCan Drive piece.

Hopefully there will be much more to come from OCD in 2014! Have a safe New Year's Eve everyone. Stay safe out there!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Inking the Ape!

I meant to take a few more "in progress" shots as I inked Henry this weekend but, when I pulled the old camera out, I found that the battery was dead. And, while recharging it, I went ahead and just inked and finished the whole piece.

Oops.

But, here is a look at the finished inks before I scan them into the computer and start on the color.

Ya gotta love doing an illustration of a giant gorilla holding his favorite bass guitar. It's just one of the many reasons I love doing my own work. It just doesn't get any better than this!

Have a great one and I'll see you all soon!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Henry Pencil Sketch

As the month of December comes to an end I'm already gearing up for the start of January with a new pencil sketch for the blog header.

January will feature the fourth member of OilCan Drive and maybe one of the funnest to draw, Henry, the band's bass playing gorilla.

I rarely draw Henry standing straight up since I'm always trying to fit him in the space with the other members of the band. This means he has to always hunch down to make sure his smiling face is always seen. So, it's been a nice change to draw him standing straight up with his bass in hand.

And, unfortunately, I misjudged the space in the drawing again and had to draw the headstock of Henry's guitar as a separate piece. I'll paste it all together once I scan it into the computer but you'd think I would have figured this out by now. Ah, well.

Inks will begin on this soon. January is closing in on me!

Have a great one!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

OilCan Drive, Kickstarter, and T-Shirts

I've been meaning to write this for weeks now and I think me not wanting to write this post is why I haven't posted much of anything on the blog this month. I didn't want to write anything new without addressing the old first and me not wanting to think too much about the old made it too easy to write nothing.

The OilCan Drive Kickstarter Campaign ran during the month of November and finished without funding on December 3rd. The funding got up to a little over four thousand dollars but, because it didn't meet its goal of ten thousand dollars, no one who pledged was charged and I received no money.

So, the question I've been asked, that I've been asking myself, and that I've been trying to find a decent answer to this whole month is:

Why did the OilCan Drive Kickstarter fail?

I recently read a book that discussed crowd funding on Kickstarter and it pointed out that you can usually look at a successful Kickstarter campaign and see why it worked and you can look at a failed campaign and just as easily see why it didn't work.

I'm not sure I agree with this. And I'm not sure that you can look at the campaign I ran and easily see why it failed. I think the art for the book looks professional, I think the music sounds good, I think the tiers I put together were fairly priced, and I think I engaged the audience I had as best I could.

So, why didn't it work?

Here is what I've come up with.

One, I don't have a huge audience for my personal work. I have a bunch of really great clients who have kept me employed the last ten years but the audience for the stuff I do for myself for no money is pretty small. I knew when I took OilCan Drive to the Denver Comic Con I'd have an uphill battle. I'm a relatively unknown artist coming in with an unknown concept. I haven't built a name for myself at Marvel or DC doing a book and I'm not a no-name artist sitting at a table selling prints of known characters like Batman or Spider-Man.

The same idea held true for Kickstarter. I'm an unknown artist with an unknown concept with a small audience of followers. And it isn't easy to make ten grand from a small audience of followers.

Two, I might have asked for too much money.

It would have been easy to ask for one or two thousand dollars and have the campaign knock it out of the park in the first week. But, there are a few reasons I asked for ten thousand dollars instead of starting the campaign lower and hoping for the best.

First off, I've been watching Kickstarter for a few years and tracked a bunch of projects. If someone asks for two thousand dollars and it really takes off they might get four thousand dollars. But, if someone asks for eight thousand dollars and it really takes off they might come away with twenty or thirty thousand dollars. I figured if I was going to gamble with my project and my ego I might as well gamble big.

Second, if the campaign did work I wanted to make sure it was worth my while. I didn't want to go through all of this, make a few thousand dollars, spend the money on producing and printing the project, and then spend a month or more of my life packing and shipping things if I was just going to end up with nothing in the end. Or, worse yet, actually spending more of my own money to make sure everything was fulfilled.

In the same book where I read you could easily tell why a Kickstarter campaign failed the author wrote about running his second campaign where he asked for twenty thousand dollars and made a little more than a hundred and seven thousand dollars. He also outlined where all the money went. When all was said and done, out of the $107,000 he has nothing left and STILL has commitments to produce, print, and ship a "Making Of" hardcover book to people who paid for it.

And yes, this man wrote a "How To" book on web comics, printing, and Kickstarter.

So, I definitely didn't want to find myself in that same predicament.

Doing OilCan Drive really costs me no money. I make a decent living doing art for clients and OilCan Drive is my personal project. The website hosting is paid for next five years, I do all of the work myself, and all it really costs me is my time. If I was going to make no money from the Kickstarter campaign anyways I figured I would rather spend that time creating new stories, art, and pages for the project than packing and shipping out product.

That is why I initially asked for ten thousand dollars instead of two thousand dollars. And, asking for too much money might be why it failed.

But, there have been many comic book projects that have broken the ten thousand dollar mark and many of them have been from just as unknown creators as myself with unknown projects.

So, in the end, I really don't know why it failed.

The other question I've been asked is, "are you glad you did the campaign on Kickstarter?"

At least that question I know the answer to. I am definitely glad I tried Kickstarter and made an OilCan Drive campaign. It brought me attention from all parts of the web and has gained me a few more fans to add to my small audience. The second issue of OilCan Drive will launch in two weeks and there will definitely be more people seeing it when it launches than ever before.

And, just because the campaign failed doesn't mean I didn't get my work out into the hands of the people who supported me. When the campaign ended I sent a letter out to everyone who had backed me thanking them for their generosity and support. I included an OilCan Drive digital package consisting of a PDF of the first issue and an MP3 download of the first album. I hope everyone liked it.

I also took the opportunity to make available the t-shirt designs I did for the campaign. And, you don't even have to be one of the people who backed me to get a new OilCan Drive t-shirt. You can see the new designs for the shirts in this post and you can purchase the shirts here:

http://www.zazzle.com/plasticspoonpress 

I'll be putting a dedicated link up to the t-shirts in the coming weeks both here on the blog and on the OilCan Drive website. (and, as a bonus, I've found that if you watch Zazzle enough they always post discounts with codewords and such. I just bought myself a bunch of shirts for half price. So, keep your eyes open.)

And, even though I've been quiet I have still been keeping busy. This past month I've been spending my time both working on client work as well as doing new stories and pages for the next OilCan Drive book. The new story will begin positing on January 10th so I hope you'll be there for the launch.

Yes, Kickstarter didn't work out for me. But, I'm still happy I did it and it failing doesn't mean anything will change with my plans for OilCan Drive. There will be more new art, more new stories, and more new songs in the coming year.

I just hope you all stick around for it and enjoy the ride as much as I am.

And now, with that, I can finally start blogging again. Phew.

Have a great one and I'll talk to you soon.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

Unfortunately, this is about as close as I came to doing a Christmas card this year.

But, I still think it counts.

Have a happy one, everybody! Take care of yourselves out there!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

T-Shirt Inking

Here is a quick photo of the in-progress inks for the OilCan Drive Kickstarter T-Shirt.

The OCD Kickstarter Campaign ended today and I'll talk a bit more about it tomorrow once I wrap up a few things. It's been a long month but I'm still glad I did it.

OK, back to work for me. Talk to you all soon! Enjoy the inks!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Happy December!

 Happy December everyone! I have no idea where this year went and how it got to be December so quickly. I also can't believe it's now been over a year since I've had a vacation! Sheesh. I might have to plan one of those sometime soon simply to give my mind a break so I can think of some new things to occupy my time.

As promised, here is the finished Nicole Baylor piece. I got finished with her just in time to use her for the blog header. The only member of the band left to do is Henry but I've already sketched him so, hopefully, I won't be working on him last minute like I was with Nicole this month. There are also a few other characters I'd love to do like this but we'll see what my upcoming schedule allows.

For now, I am off to sit on the couch and watch a movie before I pass out. It's been a long holiday, a long week, and a long year.

Have a great December and I'll talk with you all soon!



Saturday, November 30, 2013

OilCan Drive Nicole Stand-Up Pencils and Inks

 Once again it seems the month has totally gotten away from me. But, it doesn't mean I haven't been busy. It just means that I lose track of days and forget to blog about everything I've been working on.

Between the client work, writing, drawing, and inking new OilCan Drive pages for the second book, and running and doing the upkeep on the OilCan Drive Kickstarter campaign I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off.

But, believe me, even if you don't hear from me, it doesn't mean there isn't always something going on.

I looked at the calendar earlier this week and realized the end of the month was quickly arriving and I needed to get a new piece for the upcoming December blog header. In keeping with the previous month's ideas of doing the OilCan Drive characters as new stand-up pieces I decided to tackle Nicole Baylor, the band's drummer.

I really should have been putting up these progress shots over the last few days but with the first of the month beginning tomorrow I figured I'd gang them all up here and show off the finished piece tomorrow with the new blog header.

So here is a photo of the pencil sketch as well as a few shots of me working on the inks. I'm working on the color as we speak.

I promise to try and do better in the coming months at keeping the blog current. Once the Kickstarter campaign is over it should free up some time to do what I really love- drawing and creating and having fun with art.

And I might even give myself permission to take a nap or two. It has been a long month and I am exhausted.

But, for now, have a great one and I'll see you all tomorrow!



Monday, November 25, 2013

OilCan Drive t-Shirt Design

Here's a pencil sketch I did over the weekend for a new OilCan Drive t-shirt design. With any luck I'll have it inked and painted by this time next week.

There is some client work and a holiday standing in its way but I am going to do my best to get it done by next Tuesday. So far, I'm really loving the idea and I can't wait to see how it looks when it's done.

Have a great week and, if I don't talk to you beforehand, have a great holiday later this week!

See you soon!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Harley Quinn Wrecking Ball Finish

And here is the finished Harley Quinn/Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" piece.

I do love the way this piece turned out and I have a feeling I'll be doing more of this as time allows. But, for now, it's back to the drawing board to get some new work done.

Have a great one!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Harley Quinn Wrecking Ball Inks

Here are a few photos I took at the end of the inking session on the new Harley Quinn "Wrecking Ball" piece I started this weekend.

She's coming along quite nicely even though I used some pretty rough paper that was actually ripping up in spots as I inked and erased the illustration. But, the line work is done and now it's on to the color.

With any luck I'll have a finished piece to show you by tomorrow.

For now, have a great day and I'll talk to you soon!



Monday, November 11, 2013

Harley Quinn Wrecking Ball Pencil Sketch

Things have been so busy doing the OilCan Drive Kickstarter Campaign that I haven't had time to keep up with the regular blog on this side of the web. The campaign is going well and last night we hit the 30% mark of the funding we need. My fingers are crossed that it keeps going strong over the next three weeks.

I did find some time this weekend to do something fun that had nothing to do with client work or OilCan Drive. For some reason I absolutely love the new video for Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and I thought it would be fun to do a parody of the video with my favorite Batman villain and the Joker's better half, Harley Quinn.

So, I sketched this piece over the weekend just to take a break from everything else going on in my life. I'll have the inks up tomorrow and, hopefully, the finished and colored piece done by Wednesday.

Enjoy the new piece, enjoy the video, and, if you have the time, check out the OCD Kickstarter. It can use all the help it can get.

Have a great one and I'll see you all soon!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Happy November!

 Happy November, everyone! Sorry this is a day late but all the work I was doing to promote the start of the OilCan Drive Kickstarter really took a toll on me the last few days. Who knew it would be so much work for one man to launch a campaign and promote it?

This month's blog header features a piece I did of ex-military man and lead guitar player for OCD, Vincent Spicer. He is the second piece in a set of all four band members that I am doing as new mini stand-ups. Ryan was done last month and Nicole and Henry are penciled and waiting for some ink and color. If things go right at least one of them will be featured on the blog header for December.

Here is the full figure illustration of Vince. I think once all four of the band members (and, who knows, I may do one of Lily and some other characters as well) are done and up on my shelf they should look pretty cool. I have an old set of the band already in front of me as stand-ups but they were done back in 2003 or 2004. So, it's about time for an upgrade.

The OilCan Drive Kickstarter Campaign launched on Thursday and, unfortunately, it didn't set the world on fire right out of the gate. I promoted it, paid for ad space, and hit every forum I am a member of. I even created an event for it on Facebook and had over 50 people join. So I was hoping for a larger launch but it just didn't happen. But, what can you do? I did my best, told everyone I knew about it, and created the best art, music, video, and campaign I could. If it works, it works, and if it doesn't it means I go back to doing what I was doing before. It's not like anything really changes in my drive to keep writing, drawing, and making music for the little rock band living inside my head.

The good news is that my Kickstarter Campaign was featured as a "staff pick" on the website last night. This means that someone over at Kickstarter Central likes what I'm doing. It will now be close to the top of the page when someone searches in the Comics section or the local, Boulder, Colorado section. Maybe that will give it a little life.

But, for me, I've decided not to worry or fret about it too much anymore. Worrying about it feels like worrying about the stock market doing better or my favorite hockey team winning a game. It does nothing for me except make me worry. Today I'm getting back to the drawing board and inking a new page for the second issue of OilCan Drive.

I figure that's a better way to spend my day than worrying.

Have a great one and I'll see you all soon!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

OilCan Drive Kickstarter Launch!

 The first ever OilCan Drive Kickstarter Campaign has officially launched!

If you've been following this blog you know I've been working towards this moment for a few years now and that day is finally here. When I first heard about Kickstarter I knew that it was just something I had to try. The problem I had was that I didn't have any projects out there to promote. So, I launched the OilCan Drive website almost two years ago and started putting up all of the old stories and comics I had created over the years.

Then I started new stories and new art. With a place to put all of the stuff in my head I just couldn't stop the new stories from coming out. I debuted all of that new work at the 2013 Denver Comic Con last June. And now, after months of planning and building, I can now bring that work to the rest of the world via Kickstarter.

I'll be honest with you, I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing. It just might not work. I might not get the money I need to make what I want happen. But, there is always the website and my love of the project so OilCan Drive isn't going anywhere soon. There are too many stories in my head and the band never seems to leave me alone.

Plus, as someone once said, if you're going to be scared about something that hasn't happened yet that only lives in your imagination why not be scared of something amazingly good happening? You're the master of all those thoughts in your head (hopefully) so why not imagine something really great happening?

As I go to lunch today I'll be doing my best to imagine OilCan Drive's Kickstarter Campaign exceeds all of my goals, hopes, and dreams. It will be so big that I'll need to buy a warehouse to store all of the product I'll need to fulfill orders and I'll need to hire all of my friends to work for me. It certainly beats sitting there and thinking the whole thing will go down in flames.

And, even if the campaign doesn't work out quite the way I want it to, OilCan Drive alone already exceeds all of my goals, hopes, and dreams. I love this little band in my head and I'm happy to share it with the world, even if it's just a small section of the world.

So, click on the link, check out the campaign, dig on the art, and watch the video. You don't have to give me money, you just have to go check it out to see what I'm doing.

And I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it all together.

Thanks again and I'll talk to you all soon!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1571629711/oilcan-drive-volume-1-comic-book-and-music-album

Bikini Girl Colored!

Before everything gets crazy later today I thought I'd take this chance while things were still slow to show off the finished colored piece of the bikini girl.

I went a bit more designy and graphic in the shading and flesh tones on her but once I went down that road I found it was really hard to stop. So, I went with it and, while it may not be realistic, I like the look of it.

One of the things I wished I could have done but didn't think about when I started this piece was giving her colored lines instead of the original black ink lines. But, because I built the outer lines of her body into the background I didn't have time to digitally cut her out of the background and make that happen. So, I left her as is and I think, while it may not be what I might have wanted, it still works really great.

I hope you enjoy this finished piece and stick around later today when the OilCan Drive Kickstarter Campaign begins.It should make for an interesting afternoon!

Talk to you all soon!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Bikini Girl Inked!

While gearing up for the OilCan Drive Kickstarter (launching later this week) I took a break from all the work I've been doing to make the campaign happen and inked something completely removed from client work and all things OilCan Drive related.

If you'll recall I penciled this piece last month as a way to take my mind off of all the flooding that was happening around Boulder. You can see that sketch HERE.

Now I'm turning to it again to take my mind off of the Kickstarter campaign that I am both excited and very nervous about. I think it's nice to have some sort of outlet to take your mind off of things when it all gets to be too much.

And, because I liked this piece so much I've already started the color on it. I meant to simply start the color, maybe lay down some basic shadows, but I found myself staying up way to late and not wanting to stop. So, aside from a few small details, the color is almost done as well.

I'm sure I'll be showing that off soon enough. But, for now, it's back to OilCan Drive for a bit. There is still a lot to get done before noon on Thursday.

See you soon!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Vincent!

 Happy Saturday!

I finally found some time this afternoon to sit down and ink the stand-up illustration I did of Vincent of OilCan Drive a while ago. It's funny how other things get in the way of doing what you want to do so it's nice to finally find some time to relax and do some of my own stuff.

The really weird part is that I go through the same motions when I do client work and my own stuff. But, while the client work can sometimes seem stressful and fill me with worry doing stuff like this for myself is actually relaxing. I don't know why but I'm sure some psychologist could explain the whole thing to me.


 So, I'm having a great Saturday, relaxing, inking, and watching a Blink 182 concert from 2004 on YouTube. And it feels great!

Enjoy a few photos as the art. I know it's going to get busy again next week so I'm enjoying these few days I have to breath before things get crazy again.

Have a great weekend!



Friday, October 25, 2013

OilCan Drive Kickstarter

It's been a long time coming but I finally finished up and submitted my first crowd funding campaign to Kickstarter for OilCan Drive. It was accepted earlier this week and I've set a start day of Thursday, October 31st.

To promote the campaign a bit I created a page on the OilCan Drive web site with some information and a few images of some of the products being offered. You can check it out HERE.

So, head on over, see what you think, and make sure to come back next week for when all the fun starts. It should be a roller coaster of a ride!

Have a great one!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Woke Up Dead

Sometimes you just need to get away from the client work, away from the personal work, and away from anything having to do with fixing the house. When I am feeling like that I usually have my friend Louis DeAngelis come over and record a song. Seeing that it's so close to Halloween I knew Lou would have a new song up his sleeve for his favorite holiday of the year.

We sat down two weeks ago and tracked and recorded the basic parts for the song. Lou brought along his friend Randall to lay down some guitar parts and we called it a day. Last week we got around to mixing and mastering the song. And this week, since we had a little extra time, we made a video for the song.

The video is all Lou's vision and I was just the man with his hands on the buttons. It's an interesting art school kind of video but I was really happy with how happy Lou was with how it turned out. Nothing beats putting a smile on that guy's face.

So, enjoy the video for Lou's new song, "Woke Up Dead." It made for a nice break from my daily routine. But, it's back to work for me tomorrow. Have a great one!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Aloha!


This last week was filled with revising a few old client jobs as well as starting a new one. It's definitely been busy and, while I feel like I never get anything done, I never feel like I ever get a day off. But, I did find some time to sketch out a new penciled piece of OilCan Drive's Vincent Spicer as part of my new stand-up collection.

With any luck once he's done he'll be standing next to the last piece I did of Ryan Burke. He just needs a little ink and color and he'll be ready to go. Hopefully I can find some free time this week to get around to that.

One of the things I've also been working on while I find some free time is the first OilCan Drive Kickstarter campaign. It's been a long time in coming and a lot harder to put together than I first thought. Just getting the video written and put together was a lot of work but I didn't realize how much time it would take to simply sit down and write out the campaign and have it make sense. A lot of the work had to do with getting over the fear of putting this project out there into the  world and asking for money. My biggest fear is that I'll promote the project, launch the campaign, and be greeted by the overwhelming sounds of crickets chirping. The other fear, the one I am trying to focus on (because, hell, if you're going to worry, to might as well worry about something going incredibly right), is that the whole campaign will be so successful that I'll have to start a new career with OilCan Drive.

So, we'll see what happens and I'll let you know as things get closer to launching. It's almost there.

And, a while back I sent a box of OilCan Drive fun to my family in Hawaii. There were books, CDs, postcards, and t-shirts all stuffed into one big box. Recently I received this photo of my second cousin's husband sporting the official OilCan Drive t-shirt. He's looking good and it seemed apt to share this photo in this post along with Vince seeing as they are both military soldiers.

Thank you Vince, thank you Seth, and thank you all. Talk to you soon.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Happy October!

 Alright, it's a week late but, finally, Happy October!

The new Ryan Burke illustration has been colored and is now finished. The plan is to do the rest of the band and a few more characters and turn them all into new stand-ups to put around my studio. The last time I did stand-ups like these was ten years ago so it should be fun to see how the new versions of the characters match up with the old ones. I'll be sure to take some photos once I get everything set up.

For now, have a great October! Sorry I dropped the ball on this month.


Sunday, October 6, 2013

A Little Inking

I got the inking for the Ryan Burke illustration done today, scanned the piece into the computer, and put the guitar's headstock back in its correct spot.

Now he just needs a bit of color and little more love and he'll be all done.

Have a great one! It's back to work for me!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Oops!

 Wow, with everything that happened last month, new cars, floods, and a ton of client work, September really got away from me. So when October snuck up on me I was totally unprepared.

I started this new piece of Ryan Burke from OilCan Drive for the October Header late this week and I promise I'll have the piece done and a new header up by Monday.

For now, enjoy the process. One of the problems I had with this piece was, as I started penciling it, I didn't leave enough room on the page for the guitar's headstock. So, I drew that separately and I'll merge it all together when I scan the piece into the computer. I need to get inking and coloring and I hope I don't fall behind again for November.

And the new sexy girl pin-up I showed off the sketch of last time will be done soon as well. She got stuck somewhere in a pile of art and I haven't had time to dig her back out yet. But, soon enough!

Have a good October. New art will be done soon!

Monday, September 23, 2013

A Crazy Couple of Weeks

 It has definitely been a crazy couple of weeks for me here in Boulder, Colorado.

Shortly after my last blog post I found the Jeep Wrangler I have owned for the last seventeen years had rusted out and sprung a leak in its gas tank. It happened late on Friday night and I spent the next bunch of hours first trying to patch and stop the leak and the then trying to find a hose and gas can. I wanted to siphon the gas out of the tank before it spilled all over my garage floor. At least that was the plan. In the end all I could do is plug the leak the best I could and then put a bucket underneath it to catch the rest. All night I tried to figure out a solution since I couldn't get the Jeep to my mechanic until Monday morning.

So, unable to sleep, I woke up really early on Saturday morning, checked the bucket of gas to make sure it wasn't going to over flow, jumped on my bike, and peddled to the Jeep dealership down the street from my home. I have no idea what the car salesman must have thought when he saw me jump off my bike and ask to test drive some cars. But, he went along and I test drove a few Jeeps. They also had a Fiat 500 on the lot and, as a fluke, I asked if I could test drive that as well. And, wouldn't you know, I absolutely loved it!

So, by that afternoon I had traded my Jeep in, signed the paperwork, and was the proud new owner of a 2012 Fiat 500. It looks like a little Matchbox car I would have played with when I was a kid but it's a ton of fun to drive, has better gas mileage than a Jeep, is faster than a Jeep, and actually cost about eight thousand dollars less.

It was hard to let go of the Jeep but I've been loving the Fiat and I find myself driving a lot more. I didn't even realize how much I had missed driving until I got a new car that was fun to drive. There are a lot more bells and whistles on the Fiat than there were on my 92 Jeep so I've been learning what all the buttons do as I drive around town.

So, with the car situation taken care of I thought life could go back to some sort of normal. Little did I realize how wrong I was.

It started raining in Boulder that Monday night. Usually we'll get some rain, maybe even heavy rain, but it will stop within half an hour. This rain didn't stop. By Wednesday night it was a full on storm. And that's when my ceiling started to leak rainwater into my living room.

My Wednesday night was spent sleeping on the couch next to the leak, waking up every hour, and dumping out a five gallon bucket of rain water so it wouldn't overflow. It slowed down a bit Thursday morning so I got some sleep but the leaking never stopped. By Thursday more spots in the ceiling were swelling and dripping. I punched holes in the ceiling with my knife to alleviate some of the pressure. One spot I hit came gushing out like I had poked a hole in a water bucket. Water streamed out and would not stop for at least half an hour.

Our garage also flooded but luckily I got the Fiat out before the water go too high. I was scared my little car might float away in the night and I just bought it! The main road into our building turned into a rushing river and it really was a harrowing bunch of days.

But, the sun finally came out and everything is now drying out. I haven't met one person who wasn't affected by the storm or the flooding but, compared to some, I definitely got off easy. Now I am just waiting to see how repairs go and who is going to pay for what. But, nothing got damaged other than a section of ceiling and a bit of the rug. So, we got lucky.

As for art, the client work didn't stop just because of a little flood. I've been busy juggling a few jobs at once and this week should be the last of it. It's been fun working and having something to keep my mind off the troubles but I'll be happy to get back to some of my own projects soon.

One project I did start (because it was really the only thing that made me happy as I watched water come spilling out of my ceiling) was a new pin-up piece. I just wanted to do something purely for the art of it. I didn't want to do it for money or because it was part of the OilCan Drive project. I simply wanted to do something beautiful.

So, I started this piece. It's only a pencil sketch now but I'm hoping once I get a little more free time I can ink and color it and finish it up.

So, sorry I've been away so long. But, as you can see, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

Take care of yourself. Talk to you soon.


Thursday, September 5, 2013

Usaji Yojimbo and Strangers in Paradise


Here is something new that you might not have seen me do on the blog before but the work seems very old to me.

One of the first jobs I had coming out of college at the Joe Kubert School was working in a studio that specialized in comic book merchandise like trading cards and t-shirts. From there I worked for Marvel Comics as an airbrush painter. The thing those two jobs had in common was that I was painting a lot of other artists' work.

Since re-igniting my freelance art career ten years ago most of my current work involves me doing all of the work (penciling, inking, and coloring) all on my own.

Recently my good friend Thom Zahler (loveandcapes.com) was putting together a retrospective of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo career for the Baltimore Comic Con. Many well known artists were contributing pieces to the book and when Thom asked me to color a piece that was submitted in black and white I jumped at the chance. And the kicker was that it was a Terry Moore piece.

Terry Moore has been a hero of mine for years due to his self published book Strangers and Paradise. He was an inspiration when I was doing my first self published book, Exit 6, and continues to be an inspiration today.

I kept the coloring on the piece simple and followed Terry's lead. I didn't want to do anything too fancy and instead try and enhance what he was already doing. My original idea was to put a blood red circle behind the figures to evoke the idea of the Japanese flag but it just seemed to overpower everything. So I settled for a subtle pink and I hope it works.

I figured it would be safe to post this piece since Terry already posted the black and white piece on his own blog HERE. What I don't know is how he feels about the colored piece or if what I have colored will even run in the book. I have my fingers crossed.

But, if my work appears in it or not, if you're in Baltimore for the convention this weekend make sure you pick up a copy of the book. From what I've seen so far it looks really great.

Have a good one!

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Happy September!

I can't believe it's already September. I really don't know where the summer went. It seems like just last week I was finishing up the OilCan Drive project to bring it to the Denver Comic Con on the first of June.

But, I am happy things will be cooling off soon and I'm ready for some football and hockey. Fall is my favorite time of the year and, if it was up to me, most of the year would be like September and October.

Have a great September!

Friday, August 30, 2013

EMF Soldier Finished

And here is the painted and finished piece of the EMF soldier I've been working on for the last week. He'll be showing up again on September's blog header in just a few days.

For now, enjoy the piece and have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

EMF Soldier Inked

The inks for the EMF soldier are done and now he just needs to be scanned into the computer, cleaned up, and colored.

It looks like, for once, I'm a bit ahead of schedule!

Enjoy and have a great day!

Monday, August 26, 2013

EMF Soldier Pencil Sketch

It's getting closer to the end of the month and I knew designing a new header for the blog was just around the corner. Instead of rushing at the last minute to put something together and throw some random piece of art up there I decided to do a new piece instead.

This month I decided to tackle one of the military figures from the OilCan Drive story, an EMF soldier (EMF standing for Environmental Military Forces.)

I really like drawing these guys. They have cool heads that can feature either a simple black face or a night vision goggles look. They are bulky and filled with pouches and gear and whatever other cool things I want to draw on them. They are a great contrast to drawing a band full of on the run kids.

So, I'll ink this guy up soon, color away, and should have enough time to get him done and into the header before the end of the month.

Have a great day.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

OilCan Drive #2 Cover - Finished!

And here is the final cover for the second issue of OilCan Drive #2!

This cover should drop on the OilCan Drive web comic site sometime in late November or early December.

For now, enjoy the preview of things to come. Now it's time for me to get going on the actual story and interior of the book. There is lots of work ahead!

Have a great weekend!