Fire in the Big Top...

With or without stars? I can't decide.

Film sketching...

Sometimes I like to watch a film and sketch the characters.

Cops...

This final "cops" sketch is of Sgt. Gannon of the 76th Precinct in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where I grew up. This guy fired a few shots at me and my friends one night in the late '60s. We noticed he was drunk as he tripped out of his squad car in an effort to chase us off a street corner and weren't about to wait until he approached us. So we ran away and he gave chase, firing his revolver and cursing us as we made our escape. If he had better aim that night he would have been the last cop I ever saw, so I think it's appropriate for a memory sketch of his image to close this series.





For John Quinn & Dan Thompson's character concepts club.

pencils, inks & watercolors...

pencil & ink...

I'll be adding new work, as it is created, for the month of July.
I hope you enjoy it.

"E'lera del terzo mondo--

--he's a
third
world
man."

Odd Couple...

Whuzzatt?!!

I couldn't resist.
I fear I've become
a hopeless
"blogging junkie".

Oh well,
here's some more
mediocrity
for you...

(Inspired by a panel from a Simon & Kirby comic, circa 1941)

just one more...

"Dreaming of Disneyland, Brooklyn 1959"
(ink wash & watercolors)

When I was a child growing up in Brooklyn my only connections to Disney were Dell comic books and the TV program "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color".
Going to Disneyland was as impossible to imagine as going to the moon, in fact this visual is set ten years before the 1969 moon landing.
But for ten cents a copy, comic books could take me anywhere, and that's why I chose this situation for a Disney gallery exhibit coming up in September.
I remember dreaming of going to Disneyland and hoping to someday work at The Walt Disney Company.

I guess some dreams can come true.

more secret lives...

Luck runs out very quickly in Hollywood

color pencil / pooh & co

from "The Art of Winnie the Pooh" book, published by Disney Editions

He kept the house... she took his heart--

The Ol' Salt...

just taking some new felt pens for a test drive.

"Nostril-Dumbass Strikes Again!..."

trouble in toontown...

Too many things going on at once.

Doomworld...

Post-apocalyptic comic book concept from the early '80s.
(pencil & felt pen on Neenah bond paper, unpublished)

some silly sketches...

'nuff said.

101st post...

I thought it might be a good time to share a few pieces from the flat files...

The Hagar the Horrible art was created for in-store marketing.
That's my coloring on the strip, and my figure drawing of Hagar at the bottom of the pages--my lettering too.
And a very nice note of appreciation, from Chris Browne follows it.

The Popeye art was a different story, this art was featured on billboards, bus stops, subway ads and print ads, all over the country. Created when I worked at GEM Studio for the second time in the late '80s. It was a thrill to work on the "Old Sailor"-- especially since he was the first image I'd ever drawn as a child. My only regret is that I didn't handle him better. Looking at it now I can see the inconsistent linework and the poor color choices, but I'm still very glad and grateful that I had the chance to do the assignment.

making comics...

Here's a peek at how I put a story together. This one started with a sketch of an older man's head, but I ran out of paper at the bottom and decided to put him in the ground up to his nose. Then I added his house in the background, with his wife talking on the telephone.
This led me to wonder how he got into this situation, so I drew a rough storyboard to flesh it out. I tried to keep the pencils loose and only draw what was necessary to the story. I did get a little heavier handed than I intended in some spots on the backgrounds, but it's a challenge to try and keep it simple and basic.
I'm still working on the figures, and tweaking the dialogue, but I thought it might be interesting to show the story in progress.

I should have the final inks and color done by next week. Maybe.

(images above are all intentionally 'lo-res' and crappy...
I don't want to give too much away)