education and conventioneering

i’m going back to school for the first time in too many years for me to count here. strangely, i’m not as nervous as i had imagined. i’m enrolled in the university of the arts’ continuing education certificate program for communication and web design. going to try to customize it a bit to get some print stuff in there considering that’s one of the directions i want to go in.  starting with two classes for the spring semester. somewhat excited.

in terms of conventioneering, i’ll be returning to the convention circuit with dreary and naughty merchandise (books, dolls and lunchboxes), original artwork (including the darques, halloween kids and more), prints and stray toys that take up too much room in my basement. so far, i’ve booked tables for march’s monster mania in cherry hill, new jersey and august/september’s horrorfind weekend in gettysburg, pennsylvania.  pete stathis and i are talking about sharing a table in the artist’s alley at the philadelphia wizard world comic con in june as well.  looking for even more.

onward!

 

Onward

So much has transpired since we last spoke, blog.

I’m presently on hiatus from tattooing to pursue other aspects of my art.  This is going to mean a larger presence at conventions and festivals.  Just signed up for Monster Mania in Cherry Hill in March.  I’ll be there all weekend selling original paintings and illustrations as well as copies of my work with Glen Feulner, “Worlds Without End” and “Dreary and Naughty”(with John LaFleur) books and merchandise.  Currently looking in to comic cons and area street festivals.

Been renovating my parents’ house in Overbrook Park with my good friend, Jim Cameron.  Nearing completion.  Once finished, it’s full time in to comic books, paintings, and design.  Also signing up for a certificate program at the University of the Arts beginning this spring.

Full. Plate.

A Bit About Process

thought i’d babble a bit about the process i go through to bring about installments of not green cheese.  i’ve already mentioned the wacom cintiq and its awesome powers, but wanted to talk about the hands on stuff using the first panel of the 25th strip.

here, we have the pencils done on the tablet.

from here, i go on to do rough inks.

after some erasing and cleaning up some lines, we have the final inks.

i then map out the basic color.

after cleaning up the edges, adding shading and final touches we have the final art ready to go.

from here, i finish up the other two panels, add text, and publish.

for this week’s installment of not green cheese click here.

comics, etc.

thirteen thirteen thirteen.  the writing and thumb-nailing of the first story arc is now complete.  today, jason is putting together a little preview package for friends that have volunteered to do a read-through for last minute criticism/edits before we set to sending it out to the comic book world once more in hopes of getting it published.  i’m gearing up to ink the first ten pages of issue one for our presentation before scanning it in and adding the lettering.  this means i have to fix my scanner set up.  both of them have decided that they no longer recognize my computer after my upgrade to the latest mac OS.  bah.  time to hit the interwebs and find a solution.

this is a quick thumbnail from issue 5

last week marked the twentieth installment of not green cheese and the launching point for the further travels of the voidbot and alan.  more fun to come.

starting work on a logo design for an old friend this week.  hope i’m up to the task!

 

 

moving right along

had an awesome interview/photo-session with photographer jamie siever last week.  we met up in chestnut hill for coffee and wandered around the streets, snapping photos and talking.  you can see the piece here.

not green cheese has been coming along smoothly.  the wacom cintiq is far less alien to me now.  in fact, we’ve developed a decent working relationship and i can see it evolving into bigger, brighter things in the future.  currently thumb-nailing the next leg of the story.

i find myself staring at animation software online more and more recently.  after a while, i sit back and ask myself if i’m serious about opening that can of worms.  also started making an attempt at building an app for not green cheese.  the cintiq, apparently, is a digital gateway drug.

the latest incarnation of the thirteen comic is well underway.  i’m happy to say that this is some of the best writing i’ve ever seen out of my good friend and collaborator, jason ridings.  the story is filling out very nicely in places it lacked before.  in our excitement to get things out to comic book folks in the past, we overlooked little things like decent character development and clear continuity.  we’ve managed to bring the reader in on the secrets this time around, making the journey all the more enjoyable.  the first issue’s pencils are almost complete.  jason is currently writing issue four.

still thinking about finding another art show venue for the fall some time.

stan the man

my father passed away on february 24th, 2011, twenty one days after his seventy second birthday.  it was a heart attack, caused by choking or some such mundane thing.  the nursing home sent him to roxborough, though his usual hospital digs were at lankenau.  they said it was closer, yet, after a quick bit of googling it was obvious that lankenau was closer by a fraction of a mile.  he’d beaten heart attacks, a stroke, having one kidney, and many a handicapper at the races, but this is the one that got him.

he didn’t like being in the nursing home.  the food stunk.  he didn’t want to do the physical therapy.  people were crazy.  he once asked me if i’d mistakenly placed him in a mental institution.  so much medicine, too many times a day.  no off track betting to watch.  they’d taken his horse racing channel off the air waves, so he never bothered turning the television on even after i replaced the batteries in his remote control a number of times and assured him that he had cable.  i told him when it got warm i’d take him for a walk outside in his wheelchair and bring him a tongue sandwich.  we would have a little picnic.

it rained on the day we buried him and that somehow made sense.  my uncle, cousins and i took a look at him as he lay there in his coffin at the funeral home.  alex mentioned that he looked a bit like a villain from a western due to how they’d shaped up his facial hair. it was good to smile.  i wondered what he might say about his new look.

as i watched friends and family carry him outside, i lost it.  jen led me back to the family grieving chamber or whatever it is they call it before we made our way out to the limousine.

mud is harder to shovel than dry soil.  our feet sunk into the soaked earth as we walked through the rows.  dried footprints still line the walkway to the door of our house a month and a half later.

we sat shiva there.  family and friends were wonderfully supportive. food overflowed from our table.  there was a fish platter. this was imperative.

there are glass horse statuettes on a bookcase in our living room- not our cup of tea, but i don’t quite know what to do with them.  i miss my dad.  i miss his voice on the phone, his questions about my wife, our house, our garden, my artwork, the parts of the family i talk to more than he does, the weather, my friend the chef, my friend the actor, my friend the guy with muscles, that girl with the scratchy voice from across the neighborhood,  my inlaws…

we had a tough time as i grew into myself finding common ground, but it was there at times.  he had his way and i always had to test his boundaries.  many things we simply could never agree on, but in the end we were able to laugh with and at one another without harsh words.  in the last few years of his life, he made sure to tell me that he was proud of me and that he loved me on a regular basis.

he was bigger than life, a real distinct personality.  love him or hate him, he was, and ever shall be, stan the man.

i love you, dad.

not green cheese

“NASA, 1962.  The space race is on! There are no cell phones, no personal computers, no liquid crystal displays and cars are a mile long with fins.”

my web comic, not green cheese, launches today as of 5:00pm est.  check it out!  i’ll be posting one comic per week from here on in until i say otherwise or the voidbot stops relaying messages from deep space.

as stated in my previous post, this comic has been made completely in the digital domain.  i draw directly on to the cintiq tablet using the sketchbook pro application, do some finishing in photoshop (sizing, etc) and illustrator(lettering, etc), and gawk over what fun it’s becoming.  as i become more familiar with the software and the cintiq itself, i hope to apply it to other areas of my work.

we’re off to outer space…

the (semi)reluctant embrace

my wacom cintiq and i have been staring at each other for nearly a year.  we’ve said hello politely, had coffee, tested the waters.  i was afraid to commit to our relationship even though i could see that the merits would outweigh the negatives.  recently, i decided it was time to overcome my fear and give in to the technological wonders that awaited.

now, i’m drawing directly into my computer.  to some of you, this is nothing new or all that impressive.  to clarify, i grew up with a black and white television with a tube.  thirteen inches of screen was luxury.  now, not only is my laptop about as big as that awesome little television, but i have a screen only slightly smaller that sits on my lap and allows me to draw over an existing image into the computer box.  amazing.

in order to acquaint myself with the cintiq further, i decided to purchase the sketchbook pro program as it was getting some rave reviews.  it does not disappoint.  one can draw directly into this program, work things out, then pop them in to photoshop and/or illustrator to polish them up.  to further acquaint myself with the cintiq and sketchbook pro, i decided to start working on a web comic which will be my first completely digital project to date.

i purchased the domain for this project and have been developing it in between other bits of work.  my wife was good enough to help me with the setup.  expect to see this begin within the next few weeks.

currently, the plan is to put out a three panel strip once a week.  i’ve completed the thumbnails for the first sixteen weeks so far and the ideas are happily still rolling along.

more details and links to come soonly.

yay technology!  i still want my flying car.  c’mon.  i can handle it.

p.s.  where’s my jetpack?

 

first words of the new year

i’m so sorry i’ve neglected you, blog.  will you forgive me?  i’ll give you chocolate…

happy new year!

just finished work on a good chunk of concept and final art for a blogsite my wife and i are playing with.  once it’s ready for public consumption, i will post links and more information.

i am halfway through my sketchbook for the sketchbook project and will be cramming all this week and next to get it postmarked by the 15th.  i started off using pencil and painting ink over it, but have since abandoned the pencil and am attacking it directly with ink. the subject i chose is “coffee and cigarettes”.  throughout the sketchbook, we follow a man and a woman as they embark on a relationship with one another-smoking many cigarettes and drinking tons of coffee.  all is glamor until he wakes up with chest pains one day and the sketchbook takes a tragic turn.  i’ll post more pics and information later.

inside cover and first page

 

 

still have to finish corrections on my comic work to send off to darkhorse and get my good friend and writing partner, jason ridings, to finish re-writing the first five pages of thirteen to send off to image.

many other projects and paintings still in the pipes.  toying with the idea of creating an actual monthly schedule to get them done this year.  ha ha.

and just for fun, here is the art of don kenn.  you should take a look.

 

happy happy merry merry

my wife, cats and i "entertain" a guest for the holidays