Brick

 I had my first day off in weeks yesterday. I took it easy, slept late, and went and saw the Angelina Jolie movie, Maleficent, at the theater with a friend. It was a good way to spend a day off but I was ready to get back into the OilCan Drive groove today.

I've missed posting so many pages this last month due to the Denver Comic Con, client work, and being sick. I hated missing the updates but something had to give and the easiest thing to let go of was the OilCan Drive stuff. With any luck I am hoping to get back on schedule and start posting pages in the first few weeks of July. I am only nine pages short of having the second chapter done and, by God, I will finish that second book even if it kills me.

But, today I thought I'd start on something simple and fun to get my head back into the OilCan Drive world. I've been doing so much client work that it sometimes doesn't feel so much like art as it does production work that I have gotten so good at that the process doesn't really present a challenge anymore. So, I thought I'd try something different and this drawing of Brick will make a nice little experiment.

I figure that the worst thing that can happen is I fail and go back to doing things the old way.

Right now this piece looks like most other things I've shown off on the blog. I penciled the piece while I was at lunch today with friends and inked it when I got home tonight. The next step, the coloring, is where it will get interesting.

But I'll have to wait until Friday to start on that. If it works, I'll show it off this weekend. If not, it's back to digital color so I can use this piece for July's blog header.

Either way, I am really liking how crazy I have Brick looking in this piece. I've missed working on OilCan Drive. It's time to get back to it.

Denver Comic Con 2014

The 2014 Denver Comic Con is done and in the books! It was a lot of fun but it totally wiped me out. I definitely need to train harder for next year's event! But, after the convention, doing client work, and getting sick a few times, I hope I can get the OilCan Drive story back on track in July and get the second book finished!

Still, bringing the book out to the public is always a blast. It's one thing to sit in your studio and work away and put stuff online but it's a whole other thing to get out there, sell actual books, meet new people, and catch up with old friends in the art community. You just can't beat it.

And, when someone finds OilCan Drive for the first time and tells you that they really like the art and story it really makes moving the gear,  waking up early, and not eating right all worth it. What is especially fun is when you go up to an artist you really love with the full intent of buying some of their work, give them a pack of your stuff, and have them want to trade you for it instead of taking your money. It makes it all feel worthwhile.

Now I have a whole year to figure out my next plan of attack for the 2015 Denver Con. I want to make a new booth display, get some more books done, and make some more prints. I'm hoping it gets bigger and better every year.

Slowly, ever so slowly, my little cartoon band is getting out into the world and gaining a fan base.

Now, it's time to get back to making the book. Thank you for your patience. I hope it's worth the wait.

Happy June!

I honestly can't believe it's June already! This year is going by quick and I already find myself having to worry about my second round of quarterly estimated taxes? Where has the year gone?

You can tell things have been really busy around here based on this month's blog header. It's the first time in 26 months that I haven't had a piece of art related to OilCan Drive to place in the header. Hopefully this piece I did for my friend, Nicole's, business card a while ago will work just as well for you. It's a cute piece, a bit different than I usually do, and I really love it.

 I feel like I've been juggling cats these last few weeks with all that's been going on. I've had multiple client jobs going at once as well as the regular weekly OilCan Drive work. I also got really sick last month and was down for about a week. I was still working because I had to (there are no sick days when you're a freelance artist) but I was nowhere near at the top of my game.

One of the other things I've been working on is getting two OilCan Drive books into print and available through Amazon.com as well as a few other places. It's one thing to write, draw, script, and letter comic book pages all by yourself. It's a whole other thing trying to put that into a book with text and layout and making sure everything looks right and is spelled correctly. There have been more than a few late nights this week where I find myself wondering what the hell I am doing.

But, I think I got it all figured out and, with any luck, I'll have new books in hand for the upcoming Denver Comic Con and then the books will be available online shortly afterwards.

We've also been doing a lot of work on the house and putting down hardwood floors everywhere. So I've had to move my whole studio into a small room with a bunch of boxes and piles of stuff everywhere. It's been tough to keep working but I've really had no choice.

Like I said, it's been a busy month.

This week I'm still juggling a few client jobs and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the newest page for OilCan Drive done by Friday. I've started drawing it but I've found myself on a page again where every character in the book appears at least once. At last count, that's about 16 characters. So, if I'm late this week, or have to push it off until next week, I hope you'll forgive me.

I'd much rather do good OilCan Drive pages and have them late than have them done on the Friday deadline and not looking as good as I know they can. I've always said that the moment OilCan Drive becomes a job is the day I quit doing it. I still love it and it's still fun but I may need a little more time to get the job done the way I want it done. Hopefully my editor won't fire me for being late :)

Okay, time to get back to it. Have a great one, everyone! I'll talk to you soon!

Sports Illustrated Kids May

 Hello everyone! Sorry once again for the lack of posts this month. I was really sick all this last week and, now that I am finally feeling better again, I find myself needing to catch up on all the work I've missed.

It got so bad that I finally missed my first week of posting a new OilCan Drive page. I'm not proud of the fact I missed a deadline, even a personally imposed one, but, luckily, the world didn't end and no one yelled too loudly. Hopefully I can get that back on track with the comic this week or the next.

Later this week I'll be finishing up the newest round of illustrations for Sports Illustrated so I figured now would be a good time to show off the pieces from May's issue. It should be out on the stands as we speak so, if you want to see these in glorious print, head on out to your nearest bookstore or news stand (do they even have either of those anymore?) and pick up a copy.

May's article featured basketball, football, and an indoor tennis match.

Okay, I am off. There are a few emails and ordering I need to catch up on and then it's back to the drawing board. Talk to you all soon and I hope you're doing great!

Inking Away

I woke up to snow on the ground this morning and the dismal weather for the weekend continued here in Colorado. But, the good thing about it being so miserable outside is that I didn't feel too guilty about bunkering down and working on the next page for the OilCan Drive web-comic.

I ran out of my buffer for the comic more than a month ago so every week I've been having to get a new page penciled, inked, toned, scripted, and lettered. At first I was a bit scared that I was only one step away from missing a week but, to be honest, I've really been enjoying the pressure of getting a page done every week no matter what. The thing I am trying to fix now is the part where I stay up on Thursday night until three or four in the morning trying to get that page done for Friday.The professional in me just won't let me miss a week.

I think I have a good jump on the newest page but somehow I know I'll probably be pulling another late night come Thursday. That's just the way it goes.

But, for some reason, I am really loving it.

I hope you're all doing great and I'll talk to you soon!

Happy May!

Okay, so it's May 5th (Happy Cinco be Mayo!) but, finally, Happy May!

Last month was full of juggling various client projects as well as finally running out of the buffer I had on the OilCan Drive comics. It meant I was staying up way too late on Thursday nights trying to get pages done for Friday morning. Hopefully, now that things have eased up just a little, I can actually get a page done on a Thursday afternoon instead of four in the morning. My fingers are crossed.

Enjoy the new Ryan piece. He might make an appearance in the new version of the OilCan Drive book coming out through Amazon later this summer. Yes, that means there is one more thing I need to start working on...

Late night Thursdays, I don't think I'm done with you yet!

Getting There...

The inking on the newest blog header piece is done and all Ryan needs now is a little bit of color.

The finished piece should be done by tomorrow and the new blog header will be up soon after...just in time for Cinco de Mayo!

He's getting there...