CLICK ON PICTURES IN THE RIGHT-HAND MARGIN TO VISIT SOME PRETTY COOL PREVIOUS POSTS~!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

FORTUNA CARD~ YEAR 2000~!



Ever since the year 2000, I have been
creating an annual Fortuna Card,
variations on themes with the
Roman Goddess of fortune.

These cards, slightly smaller than
Baseball Cards, are then laminated
and given to Friends & Family in
the hopes it will protect them,
bless them with good health,
and maybe even toss a little
luck their way.

THE ROMAN GODDESS FORTUNA


Monday, December 27, 2010

BUSH-BABY CAPTURED ON FILM~!

The Bush-Babies are a bunch of Sibling feral
Cats that live in my Green Machine Dodge
Sportsman Motorhome. Their survival
instinct is very strong; three of them
stick together @ all times to avoid
being ambushed by Spunky, the
Cat who adopted me, sleeps in
my bed, and forces me to buy
her Fancy Feasts. The Runt
Bush-Baby is only seen
@ dusk. Pictured below
is the female I call
'Sweetey', who
now trusts me
enough to
approach
within
three
feet~!



Saturday, December 25, 2010

A NEW CHRISTMAS TRADITION~ 'PUNKING' MY NEPHEW~!

My 24 year-old Nephew Justin is a huge
Philadelphia Eagles Fan (sorry about his luck),
and a big fan of former QB Donovan McNabb...

Last year, I gave him an Eagles Football that,
oddly enough, washed ashore on Ocracoke
Island NC where I live year 'round, proving
yet again that Truth is Stranger than Fiction.
The FAKE part (or, NON-truth), was
perpetrated by me, the sinister
Uncle, who FORGED Donovan
McNabb's stylized signature
on the ball after some
extensive research
on the inter-web...

Well, he was ecstatic with the gift
up until I broke his heart (just like
the Eagles) by letting the cat out of
the bag that he'd been Punked.
Laughter ensued and at least
he had a cool leather football
with an embossed Eagle and
forged signature to fool his
Eagle-Fan friends...

SO, this year...

After feeding an entire Bus-load
of half-starved midget football players,
due to their escort's credit card being
expired, their grateful Coach enlisted his
old star-player from High School to
come do some promotional work
for our little road-side sandwich
shack. The final photo was,
once again, signed by
Donovan McNabb~!

;~j


Me, McNabb, & his Midget Football Coach...

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

PHOTOREALISM~ OLD MAN ON A BENCH~!

I took a slide photo of this Old Feller
on a bench in the Galleria Shopping
Mall in Philadelphia & really fell in
love with the image, so, I drew it
with colored pencil, marker, ink,
& acrylics on 18x24 illustration
paper...


Monday, December 20, 2010

RITA HAYWORTH POSTER ART~!

I have always been an old film buff
and was blown away by Rita Hayworth
as a Teenager. When I found out she
was also a Pin-Up Queen for our
Men At War during WWII~
it sealed the deal. I just
had to do an homage
piece that tied the
two together...

18x24 Acrylic/Mixed Media


Saturday, December 18, 2010

MA~FRANK~REDUX~!

Just got an early X-mas gift while
visiting the Folks... My new Wacom
Bamboo Pen Graphics Tablet. Thus
far, I have only farted around with
the enclosed Corel Paint Essentials
4 program, which, is like a super-
simple user friendly Photoshop
for ADD 3rd Grader minded
people like me. So, needless
to say, I love it~! I will be
using certain features
in conjunction with
Photoshop to do
the coloring
chores for
my Clown
Rebellion
Graphic Novel
;~j




Thursday, December 16, 2010

ANATOMY OF A REJECTED T-SHIRT DESIGN~!


Ever have one of those assignments where
the Customer has no idea what they want,
and can barely speak English, and can
give you no direction whatsoever when
you do present them with sketches
and concept designs...? Yep. The
problem was, this client was also
THE NICEST PERSON EVER !

It got to the point where I just said,
"Look. Unless you are going to hire
me as a full time employee, I am
going to stop working on this
t-shirt until you have a better
(any) idea what you want".

I ended up getting two 'free'
take-out meals outta this
deal. Much as I enjoyed
the process, never
again ! I refuse
to work for food
like some (gasp)
starving artist !


















Wednesday, December 15, 2010

STREET SCENE EXERCISE~!

I actually considered (briefly) getting a job
with a graphic illustration company back
in the 90's, before I went totally blue-
collar jack-of-all-trades. This piece
was just a self-chosen assignment
to help fill out my portfolio.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

GRAPHIC PENGUINS~!

I think whenever my art starts to get too
scritchy-scratchy muddy grey, I needs to
reminds myself (like Ali G), to draw
something implicitly graphic in
Nature, like Moo-Cows or
cute wittle Penguins,
then apply their
b & w simplicity
to other objects,
like People, Cars,
& geometric
structures.

;~j



Monday, December 13, 2010

DESIGNS FOR WEDDING BROCHURE~!

Don't know how we artists get talked into doing
some of these projects by friends & family... I
think we all do some obligatory cheese-ball
work for schmoozy events. I don't know if
I even have the final art for this project,
it may have all gotten shit-canned by
my cousin when the divorce papers
got signed sealed & delivered~!

more interesting, are some of my
notes for various writing projects.
most of my journals have writing
on the left-hand pages & drawings
on the right. like the spheres of my
brain; "gotta keep'm separated"~!






Sunday, December 12, 2010

SKETCHBOOK PHOTO-COLLAGE COVERS~!

These were made from a combination
of test strips and reject prints, along
with stuff dug out of the trash
from the Photo Lab~!

FRONT COVER...


Back Cover


Saturday, December 11, 2010

TORNADOES~ IN~ PORTUGAL ?!?

Saw on the news that Earth's new bizarre
Weather Pattern continues... So, can we
expect to see even more Tornadoes pop
up in the coming years across the pond ?
Prob'ly. Means it is time to finally put
my welding skills to use and build
that Tornado-Pod I've been
dreaming of; the one that
allows you to go for the
craziest ride this side
of Wild Pecos Bill's
stomp'n grounds~!

And~ survive~!




Friday, December 10, 2010

HUNGRY COMIX REPORT CARD~!

I did not show this to my Parents until I had
properly mutilated it to distract their attention
away from my lack of Academia & focus their
eyeballs on my raw cartooning talent, and,
on the reverse side, my skewed sense
of humor... These efforts were
all for naught, however~!
Looks like I will have
to suffer through
being Punished...
sent to my room
to look at more
comics in my
secret stash
;~j




Thursday, December 9, 2010

AVATAR~ CIRCA 1984~!

Every few years or so I go through a creative
explosion triggered by inexternal influences.
Round about the early 1980's, the comic
book industry was having a Renaissance
of sorts & consequently ideas were
flowing like hot melted butter
over the corny cob of my brain.

One such idea, entitled 'Manican',
was not entirely original at the
time (unbeknown to me), but
has resurfaced with James'
Cameron's mega-hit 'Avatar'.

In my version, an 8-year-old Kid
is a quadriplegic. His Scientist
Father gets booted out of the
Military Industrial Complex
for failing to complete new
super-soldier Robots that
work; only to have an
epiphany & succeed
in private. His Son,
of course, becomes
a New kind of Crime-
Fighter, living vicariously
through the animated 'Manican'...


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

SUPER-DOOPER TEENAGE ANGST ILLUSTRATION~!

Going through a rough period around this
time, and, armed with an arsenal of multi-
colored markers~ a young lad is just bound
to unleash some cathartic scribble-scrabble~!


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

THE IMMORTALS AKA THE COMPLETION OF OSIRIS~!

Here is a recently unearthed drawing
that I did for a project back in the early
1990's. It is about a group of 12 Immortals
who are waiting for the 13th Soul-Shard
of Osiris to emerge, so they can complete
the Egyptian God's resurrection. The
story really focuses on each of the
12 characters, and, their current
life cycle; how they are either
at peace with, or rebelling
against, their own
Immortality...


A 'Prostitute' Immortal in
New Orleans, literally Mind-
Fucking her Fat-Ass Client...

Monday, December 6, 2010

RANDOM SKETCHBOOK IMAGES~!

I drew these when I lived in Baltimore. It's
cool how our memories remain connected
to times & places through something
simple like these drawings. I can
still smell the early summer
morning dew before the
heatwave of '92 took
full control of
the tarmac...


Sunday, December 5, 2010

PORTRAIT OF EVM~!

This is a drawing of Erik Victor McCrea,
writing some poetry or taking some notes.
I drew this when we were roommates back
in Philly, well after our collaborations on
Dr. Dork & Matt Crenshaw...

Thursday, December 2, 2010

COMIC COVER FOR A. TODD ELECTRIC !

I work for an Electrician here on Ocracoke,
and, back in 2003 I did this full-size (11 X 17)
comic book cover for his December B-Day.
I am the guy in the background carrying
all the supplies to whatever job...





Wednesday, December 1, 2010

DEVIL & MATT CRENSHAW COVER MOCK-UP

I know I've posted the final color cover before,
but, here we see all the pieces that make up
this puzzling Devil & Matt Crenshaw cover...