Brick Color

I woke up still feeling very sick this morning so I'm glad I got most of the color done on the new illustration of Brick earlier this week.

So, even if I totally fall apart today, there will be a new blog header and illustration ready for tomorrow. But, for now, back to the couch!

Have a great New Year everybody and be safe out there!

Lily and Ryan

I went out with some friends last night to a hockey game in Denver and had a great time. Unfortunately, with so much fun last night, I woke up this morning feeling awful with some sort of cold. I've been holding it off for weeks but I think the moment my body figured out I was having fun and not working the cold took hold with a vengeance.

But, it's been a great week of work and a little fun last night was definitely worth it.

One of the things I did get accomplished this week was finding some time to ink the Lily and Ryan piece. Now I need to get some color on it but I think I am going to try a different technique than simply using the computer to paint it. It might take a bit more time but, if it works, it should be pretty cool and be almost a throwback technique to the way I used to paint art for Marvel Comics back in the nineties.

And, if it doesn't work, there's always the computer.

We'll see how it goes. Have a great week!

And The Inks

I found some time this morning to ink the pencils of the Brick character I showed off yesterday.

I think I may have drawn his jacket here a bit too bulky. Brick is supposed to be a skinny little sideshow carnival type of character and the big jacket makes him look a little too big.

But, he works for now.

I took the design of his jacket from something I found on EBay. I'll have to see if I can find some photos of it and show it off when I get the illustration finished. I like the idea of it but I'm not sure how it will look once I lay some color down on it. I'll have to play around with it and see if I like it and then go from there.

And, if it doesn't work nothing says I can't change it up once I plug Brick into the OilCan Drive universe for his big debut later this year.

We shall see.

Have a great day!

Happy Holidays

Once again the end of the month has come too soon and I find myself worrying about the new header for January's blog.

While I was waiting for Monika to get ready on Christmas Day to go out and have dinner with some friends I found some time to do a quick sketch of a new character from OilCan Drive named Brick. I haven't drawn Brick too much so I am still figuring out who he is and how to draw him. But, even if I don't have him figured out quite yet, he is still fun to draw.

I'm hoping to find some time to ink and color him in the next week before the New Year.

But, for now, I am waiting on a plumber to come out and take a look at my heater. We came home on Christmas night to find the heat was completely off and the thermostat was unresponsive. I've been manually opening and closing the valve since then to make the house warm. With nothing regulating it other than me poking my fingers into the zone valve we go from way too hot to way too cold. Hopefully that will get all fixed today.

Have a good one, enjoy the holidays, and keep warm!

Ryan and Lily Pencil Sketch

I finally found a few extra hours this weekend to get some more detailed penciling done on the new illustration of Lily and Ryan from OilCan Drive.

In the new story I'm working on Lily and Ryan have a past relationship and are finally reunited. What occurred to me as I was writing the story is that I've never actually drawn the two characters together.

So, I figured it was time to see what these two kids looked like on the same page.

And, I'm happy to say that the smile on my face rivals the smile on theirs. It;s turning out well. Hopefully I can find some time this week to ink them as the client work slows down for the holidays.

Have a great day!

A Little Joy

I found this video file sitting in one of the folders on my computer this week. I tried to view it but it looks like whatever codecs the players needed to watch it were out of date so all I got was the audio. In a last ditch effort I uploaded the files to YouTube and, what do you know, everything worked fine.

This video was shot a month or two after I bought my new home in Boulder in 2004. My friend Lou had helped me move and, in return, I allowed him to use the new pool in the complex. Lou was doing a lot of underwater photography at the time and would bring girls over, throw them in the pool, and photograph them.

One of the people he brought over and who I had the pleasure of meeting was a girl named Joy. Not only was she a girl who would allow someone to throw her into a pool and snap some photos of her but she was also an amazing musician and singer.

After her shoot we all sat up in my new place (which, as you can see, still had closet doors on the floor) and played some music. I turned on the microphones and webcam and captured a few videos of her doing her thing.

Joy's birthday was last week and I sent her a few of these videos as a gift. It was great catching up with her and talking about some of the old times when we first met and the few times I had a chance to record her. She is living in Hawaii now and, as she told me, hasn't been playing music much. That's too bad but sometimes things come and go from our lives. I just hope she picks it up again soon. Because I, for one, would love to hear more of her singing in the future.

This last week has been a busy one in the studio but there isn't much I can show off just yet. So, hopefully Joy's beautiful voice will make up for the lack of new artistic visuals.

Have a great day!

Sketching

I've turned it into a gray-scale image and messed with the contrast so you could see it easier but this original sketch is all drawn in non-repo blue pencil and is now sitting on my art board.

It's an image I've been meaning to draw for a while now and the idea is integral to the new OilCan Drive story.

So, hopefully I'll find some free time over the next few days to work a bit more on it. And, when I do, I'll make sure you get to see the progress.

Have a great day!

Sports Illustrated August Illustrations

As I'm finishing up the newest round of illustrations for the Sports Illustrated Kids' What's The Call article I thought it would be a great time to revisit some of the previous illustrations from this year.

As always, you're the official on the field and something odd happens during the game. Everyone is looking at you so, you tell me, what's the call?

1. A player is shooting a free throw in a basketball game. While dribbling he bounces the ball off his foot and out-of-bounds. Does he get another chance to shoot?

2. In a soccer game a player is taking a penalty kick and completely whiffs on the ball. Is she allowed another try since he didn’t make contact with the ball?

3. A player tries to steal a base during a baseball game. He slides into second base safely but his foot knocks the base out of its groove and it goes into the outfield. The shortstop tags the runner, who is no longer touching the base. Is the runner out?

What's the call?

Happy December!

 The Lily piece for the header is done and colored just in time to ring in the new month.

And, you can see the fully finished illustration sans the header down below.

I've really been enjoying doing these character pieces from the cast of the OilCan Drive book. And I am really happy I finally got the look of Lily finally out of my head and into reality. That's just one more step towards getting the newest story done.

But, for now, it's back to work! Have a great month!

Lily Inked

 The Lily piece is all inked up and ready for a bit of color.

Here are a few photos I took from my art desk. The first one is the inked piece before I erased the pencils, filled in the blacks, and touched her up with some white-out. The second is Lily all finished up and ready for scanning into the computer for color.

Alright, off to coloring. I need to finish this piece by tomorrow to get the new December header up in time.

Back to work!

Lily Pencils

For the December header of the blog I know I usually do something a bit more festive and in the holiday spirit. But, this year, since I've been having so much fun drawing the characters from OilCan Drive, I've decided to ignore the holidays and keep drawing the fun the images in my head.

So, in keeping with the OilCan Drive theme, I took another shot at drawing Lily, a girl from Ryan's past. I did a head shot of her earlier this year and she came out looking older and more world-wise than is called for in the story. This time I tried to make her look a bit more naive, cute, and sexy.

I think I've succeeded. This pencil sketch looks much more like the Lily in my head. And I really like the pose with the, "smile, it'll all be alright," attitude.

So, the pencils are done and now it's on to the inks. I have two days to finish her up before December 1st.

Wish me luck!

Where I've Been

I can't believe that November is already almost over. This month has really flown by and the blog has taken a hit because of how busy I've been. But, I have started a new piece of art to put up on the December header so I figured it was about time to start writing again.

When I went to Maine in October I made sure I had room in my luggage to bring some of my old artwork from high school and college back to Colorado with me. I found a lot of pieces I had done of Keith Howard and Exit 6. Getting those pieces back to Colorado and scanning them into the computer got me back on track to really finish up the collected Exit 6 book.

As I've said in the blog before, the collected book will not only feature the Exit 6 comic books I originally published in the late nineties but will also have a lot of production art and work I was doing on the idea back in college. If the Exit 6 story did end it would have been easy to put all the books under one cover and simply put it out as a collectection. But, because I only got half of the story done when I first self published I am looking at the collected book as not only a collection of the art but also a story of how I came up with Exit 6, what I did to publish the book, and what happened when I had to stop production.

In the end, it will be an interesting story of what I went through to self publish a comic book in the late nineties.

So, I've been writing this last month and getting the text for the book finished. I wrote a quick, messy, first draft last year and have let it sit for far too long. Since being back I've been going through that draft, filling in stories, and making sure everything is grammatically correct. Right now I'm a little more than seventy five percent done with an official first draft. And, right now the text alone is about ninety pages. I figure once I format it the text pages will be about a hundred and twenty pages long.

And, the art for the book?

I printed out all the art I have scanned for the book so far and put it into a three ring binder so I could move pages around when I start laying out the book. Right now the art alone is about two inches thick.

When all is said and done the collected book should be between 350-400 pages long. I am hoping to get it all done and printed before the next Denver Comicon in June.

So, working on this has taken away a lot of my need to write anywhere else this month. And that is why the blog has been a bit barren. That, and, once you stop writing a blog, it's so hard to get back into the groove again. Unfortunately, I've also stopped doing the "Back To The Drawing Board" podcast for a bit. I'm not sure if I'll ever do another one but I'd like to try and get it back up and running at some point. It was becoming a job trying to get one done every week when I was doing it all myself.

But, the OilCan Drive webcomic is still going strong and, thankfully, I've set it up so, even if I fall off the face of the Earth, it should update itself three times a week until some time in April of 2013. So, if you ever miss me, head on over there and see what new pages show up.

I hope you all are doing great and had a great month. I'll see you soon with some new art for December's header. With all the client work and writing I've been doing it's really been nice to draw something for myself again.

Have a good one!

Keep Your Panties On!

For a while I had a Blogger driven OilCan Drive Blog up and running kind of like a Twitter feed where the band would, from time to time, post comments and updates.

When I moved all of the OilCan Drive work over to the official OCD site the original blog kind of just sat there.

Because my Blogger profile lists OilCan Drive on my list of blogs I figured it might be best to recode some of it so it would forward viewers to the new webcomic site. The problem was that the new webcomic site can run a bit slow from time to time so I wanted to create a  place holder so people knew they were being redirected.

So, using one of my favorite images of Ryan Burke, I came up with this.

One more thing checked off this huge list of Things To Do I keep creating. It's not much, but I'm glad it's finally done. It'd been bugging me for too long.

You can check out the redirected blog link HERE.

Happy November

 OK, this is a day or two late but, honestly, I have a good reason.

As I said in the last few blog posts, I took a quick trip to Maine a week or so ago to see my family. Unfortunately, when I made my travel plans more than a month ago, no one told me a hurricane super storm named Sandy would be on its way up the East Coast as I was trying to get out of Maine.

I was supposed to leave Maine on Sunday and be back home for a week of work. But, when I woke up on Sunday morning I found an email saying my flights had changed. I could fly from Maine down to my connecting flight in Washington DC but, if I did, I couldn't get a flight out of DC until Wednesday. Deciding I'd rather spend some time with my parents than sitting in an airport terminal for three days I called to change my tickets.

I spent almost an hour on hold before I finally got someone on the phone. I tried to get a connecting flight from Maine to Chicago to see if I could beat the storm but, unless I was willing to pay two thousand dollars, that wasn't going to happen. So I was booked on a flight for Tuesday. Knowing that the storm was going to hit New York and New Jersey on Monday night I had doubts this would happen. But, the man all the way over in India assured me I'd be on a plane on Tuesday.

On Monday night the storm hit. While it didn't directly hit Maine in the same way it hit New York or New Jersey being on an island off the coast of Maine in the midst of the storm wasn't all sunshine and roses. The wind blew, the rain fell, the house shook, and the roof even leaked a bit. But, the power stayed on and I was with people I loved. By Tuesday morning the worst was over for us.

But, my flight had been pushed back to Thursday night.

So, my original plans to get home on Sunday turned into me getting home around 1am on Friday morning.

But, I am glad to be home, glad my family is safe, and hoping all my friends in both New York, New Jersey, and all along the East Coast are doing well.

As for the new blog header this month, here is the finished Henry doodle I did and the new header.

I hope you all are well and have a great month!

Let The Coloring Begin

Before I headed off to Maine I got a good start on coloring the new Henry piece for the blog header.

So, here is a screen shot of the work so far. On the first of November I'll reveal the new blog header and the newest finished illustration of Henry.

For now, back to enjoying Maine. See you all next week!

Back To The Drawing Board 13

Just because I am away and on vacation doesn't mean the Back To The Drawing Board podcast gets any rest!

This week, for our unlucky thirteenth episode, I brought my lucky charm Josh Thorne back into the studio to talk about his new project, his new way of working, and his plans for the future.

So, head on over to the B2TDB website HERE or check it out on iTunes HERE and have a listen!

And, I'll be back soon enough from vacation, drawing away, and posting new stuff. Have a good one!

Henry Inked!

Here are the inks I finished up on the Henry blog header piece this weekend.

I am off to Maine but, hopefully, I'll be able to post a few new articles from the road. And, if you are in Maine and you have the time, I'll see you soon!

Have a good one!

Henry Pencils

Since I am heading off to Maine this week for a short trip to see my family and some friends from back home I needed to get a jump start on next month's blog header.

And, because Ryan, Nicole, and Vincent have each been featured the last three months I thought it was only fair that Henry got his fair share of the spotlight. It is weird when you have four main characters in your head all trying to get out and be seen in the world and it's even weirder that I am trying to treat them fairly and make them all happy.

But, they do make the music and have the adventures so I figure it's better safe than sorry.

So here is the pencil sketch of Henry playing his bass that will be on next month's blog header. And, I even have him crooning and bit and singing some back up vocals. Monika says she has always seen Henry as singing in the background so I thought it might be fun to see what that looked like.

Inks coming soon and then I am on a plane and headed for the east coast!

For now, have a good one!

OilCan Drive Business Card

Here is a business card I created earlier this week to try and help promote my entry into Guitar Center's Singer/Songwriter contest.

I wanted to create something I could give to friends I saw in the real world and not just rely on the digital world to try and do the job for me. Plus, it's always fun to build something new and give it to people. If I could make a living simply making cool stuff to give to my friends for the rest of my life I'd be all set.

We'll see how these cards have helped me by the end of this week. But, right now it doesn't look too good. The numbers I figured I would need to get me past the initial round and into a spot where I would actually be judged seem now to be a little low. And the numbers I have gotten this past week are far short of what I initially thought I would need.

Some people out there seem to be far better at using all the social network sites than I.

But, I still like making cool things. And, whether I make it into the next round of this contest or not that will never stop.

Back To The Drawing Board 12

I'm taking a break today from talking about the singer/songwriter contest and getting back to more important things. Things like the newest episode of Back To The Drawing Board!

This week features the second part of the two part interview I did with my good friend, Thom Zahler.

During this second discussion Thom and I continue to talk about his comic book Love and Capes, how he went from self publishing the series to working with IDW Publishing, Thom's own Kickstarter experiences, and then we wrap up the show talking about the archetypes Thom has created for his book and what both the positive and negative impacts could be.

So, head on over to the official website or get the show on iTunes and happy listening.

Have a great day!

Singer/Songwriter Contest, Day Two

Alright everyone, it's day two of the contest and things are rolling along great. Thank you all so much for yesterday and starting this thing off with a bang! Today I'm posting the link to the actual contest page and my profile there. You can check that out HERE.

 If you go to the profile, on the right side of the page you can see the list of social media that I am being judged by. There is, of course, Facebook (where you can like the page), MySpace (or, as I call it, Classic OilCan Drive, where you can become a friend), Twitter (where you can follow me and get tweets about my blog postings and such), YouTube (where you can watch the video and, if you like it, hit like...it's the only way the view counts), SoundCloud (featuring a couple of great Bob Dylan songs covered by OilCan Drive...follow the band here for it to count) and, finally, Vimeo (where, if you are signed up, you can follow the band.)

Again, I really appreciate the help. Honestly, I was feeling kind of down late last night as I looked at the leader board and saw people in the top ten who were obviously using some sort of program trickery to get votes. There is no way someone who hasn't posted a tweet since August simply goes on Twitter, types in, "I've joined a contest," and suddenly has 11,000 new followers. I found a few different sites that will get that to happen for you and I almost signed up to try and gain some speed in the contest but I didn't.

I'd much rather have true friends and fans like you support me than a bunch of phantom fans that don't mean a thing.

I said it once and I'll say it again. I would put my song up against anything else I have seen entered in this contest. But, I won't cheat to try and get fans simply to get to a point where an actual person will see my video and judge it.

Whether I succeed in this endeavor or not it doesn't really matter to the future of the OilCan Drive project. I'll keep drawing art, telling stories with comic book pages, and recording songs. I've tried to quit the project a few times and the band in my head just won't seem to let me.

Although, they think it would be really funny if we won something like this and, in a sea of singer/songwriters, the guy who draws cartoons for a living is the one who gets to appear and perform on Jimmy Kimmel. Come on, what would be funnier than that?

Thank you all again and have a great day!

The Contest Begins!

Alright everyone, the Guitar Center Singer/Songwriter contest is ON and thus begins the week of me trying to get into the top ten! To start it off, here is the video so you can see and hear the original song I submitted.
If you could check it out and hit the "like" button on the YouTube page we'll get this ball rolling.

For those of you not in the know I've entered a singer/songwriter contest with one of the demos I did for the OilCan Drive project. The goal is, out of almost a thousand entrants, to get into the top ten for one week. So, I'll need all the help I can get!

Thanks to everyone! You're the best!

Song Contest

I'll need some help this week.

For those of you in the know, OilCan Drive has always been an odd multi-media project of mine that mixes art, comics, and rock and roll music. This past week I entered one of the acoustic demos I did for the project into the Guitar Center Singer/Songwriter Contest.

I'll put the song up against anything I've heard on the contest page (in the midst of a bunch of acoustic ballads I'm trying to bring the rock!) but the first part of the contest involves an artist's ability to network through various social media (does anyone even still have MySpace anymore?) In order for the judges to even take a look at the song I submitted I need to be in the top ten artists for one week. I've figured to hit the top ten for one week I'll need between 750-900 new fans. The good news is that the contest spans six different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud) so if I get one person to "like" me on all six platforms it counts as six fans.

So, this week, starting Monday, I am going to push full tilt and try and get myself into the top ten. I'm not one who's used to asking for help but I could really use any help and support you can give me this week.  All it takes is a few button clicks.

I'll post the video tomorrow as well as my profile on the contest page.

You knew I could draw goofy pictures, but now you'll see I can sing goofy as well.

Thanks everyone!

Sports Illustrated Kids July

As I sit here on a Saturday and ink the newest Sports Illustrated Kids "What's The Call?" illustrations I thought it would be a perfect time to show off three more illustrations from months past.

As usual, there is a certain play during a sports game and it's up to you, as the official on the field, to decided what's the call!

1. During a women's basketball game a player, in the three point zone, takes a shot that hits the side of the backboard. Is the ball considered out-of-bounds?

2. During an NFL football game a quarterback throws a screen pass to a receiver but the receiver bobbles the ball and it's caught by an offensive lineman. Is he allowed to advance the ball?

3. In a Major League Baseball game a second baseman fields a ground ball but it gets stuck in his glove so he tosses the glove and ball to the first baseman. Is the batter out?

So, you're the official on the field.

What's the call?

Back To The Drawing Board 11

The newest episode of Back To The Drawing Board is up and ready for a listen.

Thom Zahler is best known for the self published (and later IDW published) heroically super situation comedy comic book, Love and Capes. An award winning and Harvey Award nominated artist, Thom has been carving out a good career for himself in the comic book field since 2001. But, of course, I know Thom for a different reason. We sat next to each other during our first year together at The Joe Kubert School and have been friends ever since.

In the first of a two part interview I brave Skype to get Thom on the phone and onto the show. After a little trouble with the microphone and getting the levels right Thom and I sit back and talk a bit about going to school together, jobs after college, and delving into the freelance art life.

Along the way I ask Thom, a huge Star Trek fan, where in the Star Trek franchise I should bring a friend into the show (yes, there is someone out there in the world who hasn't seen a single episode of Star Trek), how Thom did his first self published book called Raider, and why I'm  finally jealous that Thom lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

And, yes, somewhere in there we talk about Thom's best known work, Love and Capes.

So, head on over and have a listen HERE.

Something Cool

The OilCan Drive webcomic site has been up and running since late last April. It's been going strong as I've been posting three pages a week using a lot of the work I've produced over the last ten years.

And, while I wasn't looking, a friend of mine took a completed book of pages and popped them into this really cool program he developed for his own website.

I first met Liam through my friend Ken and we've all been having lunch every week since to catch up, talk about art, and support each other through various creative projects. It's really been great to meet such a talented and nice artist. But, when I saw what he had done with my comic I was blown away.

It was just so cool. Honestly, I'll sit here some nights and flip through the pages just to see them move and hear the sound effects. I absolutely love it and I'm happy I can show it off here.

You can check out some of Liam's own work on his website HERE. He's super talented and I'm always looking forward to the next new piece of art that he's ready to show off. 

And, you can check out the flip book program he created with the OilCan Drive book HERE.

I absolutely love it.

Have a good one and I'll talk to you all later!

Love and Capes #2

Maybe it's because I don't do the whole "New Comic Wednesday" thing anymore at my local comic shop but I totally missed this book coming out last month so I didn't even know to look for it.

My friend Thom Zahler's newest issue of Love and Capes, #3, came out yesterday so it means the issue of Thom's Love and Capes #2 that I inked and colored the cover for came out last month.

Oops.

Anyway, here is the finished cover that Thom penciled and I inked and colored. I'm sure you can still find a copy at your local comic shop or you can get the book digitally at Comixology HERE.

This was really fun cover to do and it had been so long since I've done any kind of artistic collaboration that I forgot how much fun they can be. My thanks to Thom for bringing me along and letting me play a little bit in his super hero universe. It was really great.

You can check out more of Thom's work HERE and Love and Capes not only runs as a regular comic book but you can also read it as a web comic and buy some books and merchandise HERE.

And, yes, I am working right now to get Thom on the B2TDB podcast. Keep your fingers crossed!

Back To The Drawing Board 10

The newest episode of "Back To The Drawing Board" is up and ready to be listened to.

This week I brought my crazy artistic friend Louis Deangelis into the studio to talk a bit about being artistic, creative, and musical.

And, a funny thing happened.

Put Lou on a microphone and he calms way down, changes his voice, and is almost normal to the point of being boring. But, he had some interesting insights and, near the end of the show, I actually snuck in some material I was recording when he didn't realize the mics were on. It's in that moment that you really get a glimpse of the real Lou I know. I should record him more often when he doesn't realize I am doing it.

I've always said I wish I had a camera in my eye so I could record half of the stuff I see this guy doing. But, hopefully it's a good show nonetheless.

You can check out the B2TDB website HERE and find this show, as well as past shows, on iTunes HERE.

Enjoy and have a great day!

Happy October

 Happy October, everyone!

As promised, the new Vince piece I did for this month's blog header got done last night and I put the whole thing together with at least a few moments to spare.

And, here is the original finished piece, sans the blog header background. I really like the way this came out especially with how quickly it all came together. Who knows, I may have to use this piece somewhere else at some point in the new OilCan Drive run. We'll have to see if there's a place for it.

But, for now, have a great start to one of my favorite months. Things are getting cooler, more horror movies are on the old TV, and, with any luck, some hockey should be starting soon (although I'm not holding my breath...it looks like there is going to be an NHL lockout....ugh.)

Have a good one!

Vince Inked

And the inks for Vince are done.

Now, on to the color!

I'll see you tomorrow with this piece all finished as well as a new blog header for October. I love it when things work out just right!

Have a good one!

Vince Pencils

I went into this weekend and suddenly realized, "whoa, it's already the end of the month! I'll need a new blog header in a few days!"

So, I sat down at the art table this morning and penciled out a quick sketch of Vincent Spicer, lead guitar player for OilCan Drive. In the last two months I've had Ryan and Nicole on the blog header so I figured it was time to give Vince his due. I guess that means Henry is up next month but I probably won't worry about that until it's almost too late.

So, here is Vince. He just needs a bit of inking and coloring and he'll be all set. If all goes well he should be done by tomorrow night and ready to be featured at the top of the blog on Monday.

Have a great weekend! I have some work to do!

From the Desk!

It's been far too long since I've taken a photo of the work I currently have sitting on my art table. But, this last month has seen me doing a bunch of client work that I can't really talk about just quite yet.

I've also been working on some new OilCan Drive stuff that I'm still not sure if I really want to show off yet but I figured, what the hell, how much harm can one tiny photo do?

So, here are a few half inked pages from the newest OilCan Drive story that will be premiering next April on the OilCan Drive webcomic site. Why April, you ask? Well, since last April I've been putting a lot of my old OilCan Drive work and stories on the site and, by putting up three pages a week of the old stuff, it means I have until next April to get some of the newer story done. So, I have a little bit of lead time. It seems like a lot of time now but at the pace I am going with these new pages I'm already getting a little worried.

But, I figure no one can really fire me from this job so I am simply enjoying drawing my characters and telling their story at a nice, comfortable, non deadline fearing, pace.

It's been going great...and it's only just begun.

Have a great weekend!

Back To The Drawing Board 9

Geez, you stop blogging for a little bit and the next thing you know Google has changed the whole blogging interface on you. Right now, I actually really hate it. I like what I am used to and what I know works so trying to figure out where everything is again feels like a huge pain in the ass.

But, what is our society today if not obsessed with the newest and shiniest way to do something we've been doing for years?

It just makes me sad.

Anyway, things have been going well. I've still been doing client work and have just really got my hands muddy with my own personal project. I'll try and take a few photos of the work on my desk but I don't know if I'm ready to show anything off just yet. But, we'll see.

The good news is that the second part of the Tim "Jom" Campbell interview is up over on the Back To The Drawing Board podcasting site. I think it went well and this time I got a chance to hear some of Tim's own music as well. It definitely made for an interesting afternoon. You can check it out HERE.

As things get busier with client work and starting my own project I've been thinking of letting the B2TDB podcast slide. I hear good things from a few friends but I've never gotten any feedback from anyone I don't know, good or bad. So, I don't know if continuing to do it would be the best thing or not.

Actually, I don't know if anyone would even notice if I stopped doing it.

We'll see. For now, enjoy the newest podcast and I'll talk to you all soon!

Sports Illustrated Kids June

It's still been a busy week around here and I'm actually finishing up the newest Sports Illustrated Kids "What's The Call" illustrations for a deadline tomorrow morning.

But, I figured I could tear myself away from the drawing board for a few minutes and show off a few of the previous SIK illustrations and try and get a bit more caught up on showing these things off.

These illustrations come from the June issue and the idea is that you're the official referee on the field and something happens. It's always a little odd so it's up to you to make the right call.

Here we go:

1. An NBA basketball player goes up for a layup and the defender smacks the player on his right hand, which is still on the ball. Is this a foul?

2. In a Major League Baseball game, a batter rips a line drive that hits an umpire in the foot and then is caught by a fielder before it touches the ground. Is the batter out?

3. A hockey player cuts toward the goal and sees a pass coming his way, but he slips and falls on top of the puck, and then slides through the crease, past the goalie, with the puck still under him. Is this a goal?


So, you're the official on the field. It's up to you.

What's the Call?

Back To The Drawing Board 8

Geez, it's been another busy week doing client work and personal work that I just can't show off yet. I really don't know where the days go but, next thing I know, it's Wednesday again. But, with as busy as it's been, the good news is Wednesday means another Back To The Drawing Board podcast!

This week I sat down with comic book artist and musician Tim "Jom" Campbell to talk a bit about living in Boulder, his work, horror movies, and how he deals with fan interaction. It was great to sit down with someone who I hadn't known for the past ten years and actually do a cold interview. I was a bit nervous at first but it turned out so well that this is actually the first of a two part podcast.

So, head on over to the Back To The Drawing Board site and have a listen. I hope it's as much fun to listen to as it was to talk about.

Have a great one!

Back To The Drawing Board 7

It's been a really busy week here around the studio but, unfortunately, it's all stuff I can't exactly show off yet. From client work to work I am doing under a non-disclosure agreement to new pages for the OilCan Drive story, nothing is quite ready to be thrown out into the public just yet.

But, the good news is that there's a new "Back to the Drawing Board" podcast up today. This time I bring my good friend and artist Ken Truhan into the studio to talk a bit about how we both met, his days at college in California at the Disney founded CalArts, working in animation in Los Angeles, and finally how he found his way to Colorado. We finally wrap it up talking about his new comic book idea called "Troop."

It was definitely a fun one and you can check out the podcast blog HERE or simply go right to iTunes and enjoy the conversation HERE.

Have a great one!

Sports Illustrated Kids May

I've been really remiss in not posting some more of the Sports Illustrated "What's The Call" illustrations I've been doing lately. The months just seem to go by so fast that, before I know it, I've finished one set and another is on my table.

So, I'll try and catch up. I just can't believe I'm only getting to the May illustrations now. I'll try and do better.

OK, once again, it's What's The Call. Different sports scenarios happen and, being the referee on the field, it's up to you to make the call!

1. In a baseball game, a pitcher throws off a hitter by throwing a really slow pitch. The batter takes a swing and misses, but the ball is going so slow that he still has time to swing again, and this time makes contact with the ball. Is it legal to swing twice?

2. In football, a field-goal kicker boots the ball directly over one of the uprights. Is the kick good?

3. In a women's track and field race, a runner sneezes at the starting line, causing several runners to false start. Should anyone be charged with a false start?

So, it's up to you, what's the call?