Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes folks, years ago, on this day in history, I was born somewhere in the great states of New England. It's been a wild ride ever since.

For some reason, about every ten years or so, I seem to find myself with some kind of odd birthday head gear to wear. Ten years ago (Robbo, you remember this) it was balloon hats shared with friends at an Old Chicago restaurant.

This year is is a Sonic the Hedgehog stuffed hat.

Nothing says you're getting one year older and one year wiser than wearing something on your head that makes you look like a complete idiot!

As Robbo said years ago, while wearing a Batman style balloon hat on his head, I may be growing older but I'm not growing up.

Have a great day everyone!

From The Vault - Werewolf Assignment 1995

Back in 1995 I was still living in New Jersey and was doing pretty well for myself doing a lot of color work for Marvel Comics. During this time, and because I still lived near, I was asked to do some substitute teaching at my old school, The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts. I did this for a few months and, when fall arrived, I was actually asked to teach two classes during the week, Color Theory and Story Adaptation.

One of the assignments I had the students do for the Story Adaptation class was to illustrate two scenes from one chapter of a book I loved called "The Hyde Effect." The book was about a werewolf and the chapter I gave to them was all about a girl who went looking for the werewolf one full moon night and really got more than she bargained for.

One of the students, I can't remember his name now, turned in these two images. I really really loved the style and because he was so hesitant to try out the airbrush I took copies of the images home, had them shot onto photostat paper, and painted them up to show him how they could look.

I used airbrush, some sponge technique, a bit of toothbrush splatter and, for some reason, even tried to get some effects with a white pencil on the close up of the werewolf (it didn't work too well as the photostat paper is super glossy...almost like using a wax pencil on a photograph.)

But, it did the trick and not soon after the student was using the airbrush.

I still really love these pieces even though it looks like the close up piece of the werewolf got a little damaged over the years. The sky background seems to have run a bit and I'm betting some moisture must have gotten to it after fifteen years of sitting in my portfolio.

Ah well, you get the idea. And they're still great pieces that I had a lot of fun painting.

I really loved teaching and it's one of the things I wish I could really try again someday.

Sample Book

Amidst working on a few new projects I got a chance to print out a sample book of all the scanning I've been doing the last few weeks.

So, for you, my few blog readers, here is a glimpse at what I've been scanning.

Honestly, I'm amazed how many pages there are already and I have yet to write, draw, or produce anything new for it yet. Two hundred pages and counting! The secret project is doing well so far.

I should have really done this years ago. Ah well, better late than never.

The Airborne Toxic Event Acoustic

When The Airborne Toxic Event released their first album they promoted it by doing one song acoustically each week until they had performed every song on the album. It was such a simple concept and, I felt, a really great way to get their music out there into the world. Each week they would set up their gear, position the microphones, and perform in such locations like a tour boat, an old railway yard, and the back of a car.

So, for their new album they are doing more of the same.

As you can see from this video that debuted last week not only have they kept the simple idea of setting up acoustically and performing the song live and in one take but things seem to have gotten a bit...um...bigger.

From the starting simple guitar and vocals the song really builds. The rest of the band comes in and then are joined by even more musicians as the song peaks. Then it all comes back down and we are left with the singer and guitar to lead us out of the song. The energy of this song is amazing and the lyrics are really moving. Much like the song's music that starts slowly, builds, peaks, and then settles back down, the lyrics follow us through a lifetime, starting at birth and ending in death.

It's a really beautiful and amazing song and I can't believe that, only a few short weeks ago, that I was in the same room as these people.

Enjoy the fun. I'm sure they'll do it again this week.

From The Vault - Scott Kolins Doctor Doom 1993

Here is another piece of art I painted as a sample when I was putting together a package to send to Marvel to try and get some coloring and air brushing work.

At the time, just after school, when most of my classmates left and went back home, one of the few guys who stayed in New Jersey that I could still hang out with was Scott Kolins. Yes, that Scott Kolins, the guy who's worked all over the comic book industry and has made a pretty decent name for himself. We used to hang out, go to movies, and talk a lot of art.

He was living with an inker, John Holdredge, and the three of us did a few pieces of art to sell at conventions. Scott would pencil, John would ink, and I would color.

Doctor Doom here was one of about five or six pieces we did together.

And yes, I think it was pieces like this that helped me land a bunch of regular gigs at Marvel over the years. So, thank you, Scott. I've lost touch with him over the years but I'll always have great memories of hanging out.

More Sketches

I've been spending the majority of my time working on scanning and cleaning up a bunch of pages for this new personal project and the new client work I am doing is still in the early stages so there isn't much new art work to show off.

But, I did scan in a page from my sketchbook showing a few ideas I have for the new project I am working on.

If I had known three weeks ago that I would still be scanning in pages for this thing I don't know if I would have been as excited as I was when I started. I mean, I still would have done it but I don't think I would have been as excited.

But, it's getting there. It's not there yet...but it's getting there.

Sketches

Since I finished up the client work a week and a half ago I've been doing nothing but scanning, scanning, and scanning some more. I've gone through a lot of old work and have turned my attention to getting it all into the computer, pieced together, and cleaned up.

I honestly didn't think it would take this long. But I think another day or two and I should be able to get back to the creative part of my job and away from all this technical computer stuff I've been doing lately. Hopefully it will all be worth while.

I'm not sure I'm ready to tell you what I am working on because I want to get a bit more of it done before I break the news.

What I can tell you is that when I had the idea to do this a week and a half ago I got really excited about this new project.

So much so that I started sketching in my notebook during lunch when I was thinking about doing this project. For those of you who know some of my old work, seeing a few sketches from that day should give you a clue to what I am working on.

I had to see if I could still draw the two main characters after all these years.

What they're doing with Spider-Man, though, I have no idea.