The Blues in red and black--

I know I said that I was going to take a break from blogging, but I lied. I worked on my comic book project last night- but got home late tonight and decided to do a few exploratory inks.
It's all relative, right? I hope so. Anyway, the thought of imaginary blues men came into to my dome, so here are the sketches it inspired.

(Philly "Fatback" LoPrete, Paris, France, 1965)

("Jazzy Jackie" Geritano, Monterey,Ca., 1963)

("Blind Willie" Henderson, New Orleans, 1956)

(Rollo King & The King's Men, Alabama, 1951)
brush, pen, ink & prismacolor pencil

even more scat sketches--

Some more rapid sketching,
inked with a shaved chopstick...
(carved to a point by X-Acto blade)


And for some strange reason
I chose the theme of
"Street People"....

"Scooby-Doo" preliminary art (May, 2001)

One day, out of the blue Scholastic Books asked, at the recommendation of Warner Brothers, if I'd like to illustrate a Scooby-Doo children's book. I'd never done one before so I jumped at the chance. Here are the cover concept roughs, character designs and story thumbnails for "Scooby-Doo and the Invisible Android"--




Final cover art...

New supporting character designs...

When drawing continuity I always start by scribbling directly on the script:
Here are the story pages...











(All Scooby-Doo and related characters are TM & © Hanna-Barbera)

This is the only book I illustrated for Scholastic. I also worked on two still-born books for Golden Books, back when they were having problems, as well as six for Chicago-based publisher Publications International.
It was fun to draw the dog again.

I don't know how else to start this--

--but thirty-eight years ago, at nineteen years of age I drew this pencil sketch, possibly for use as a portfolio piece.
Looking at it now I'm a bit surprised by its real estate and the way it's composed; with Revolver as the firm foundation and Yellow Sub as an extra added attraction on top, a bit of fluff actually. But by featuring a solo Paul Mc Cartney image set slightly above the other Beatles' "Let It Be" images suggests that he'd firmly established his solo career, and that I was highly in favor of it.
I still think that Paul's first solo effort is one of the best records ever made. It's loose and sketchy. And "Maybe I'm Amazed" still holds up.

And why did I think it was necessary to draw John's mic coming out of Ringo's head?

Sorry, Ritchie. You deserved better.

Bjorn on the 4th of July--

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

This one is for WP