Inktober 2020 – I’ve been drawing a lot this year, but wasn’t seeing the kind of improvement I wanted. One hard lesson I’ve learned in life it that you can do something every day for many years and never get any better! You have to consciously decide to get better to have any hope at achieving it. So, beginning October 1 I used the Instagram hashtag “Inktober” as a framework to improve. I’m not satisfied with my progress, but I think you can see definite improvement over the month, the question is do YOU see the improvement? Let me know what you think!
Large Format Drawings – I’ve spent 2019-2020 focused on improving my drawing and rendering skills, to varying degrees of success. I use my sketchbook to do day-to-day practice and explore ideas and layouts, but the big challenge is to do 11 x 17 drawings on bristol board. The earlier drawings are tentative, but I began to get a groove going these past few months.
Inktober 2019 – I noticed on Instagram the hashtag “#Inktober”, which turned out to be artists creating on inked piece per day. I was just beginning my year of retraining, and this offered some much needed rigor. I decided to explore the inking styles of the master comic book artists I have admired over the years, and this turned into a rich experience. Beyond learning who used what tools for what effects, I began to learn how rapidly (most) approached the task of embellishing. It was clear their mastery was not only of form and storytelling, but hitting deadlines!
Sketchbook 2019-2020 – I have a bad habit of abandoning sketchbooks, leaving many pages untouched. Another one of my goals for the year was to begin the habit of filling every page. Haven’t quite finished the 200 pages in this book, but it’s filled with a lot of ideas, practice and designs for future drawings. Also, I began poking around with digital coloring this year, using pages from the sketchbook as guinea pigs and some of those are included here.
Drawings, Sketches and Concepts – These drawings don’t fit into the other categories, so I needed to create a “kitchen sink” page to present them. The first 16 are from the past year, the others just randoms from the archive. This gallery contains a number of experiments I did in 2019 to get a sense of where my skills where. I tried some noir, some barbarian and some superhero styles to varying degrees of success. But I love them all for different reasons, mostly because I kept my pencils, pens and brushes moving while fighting the sense that I don’t have what it takes to be an illustrator.
Older Works
Kirby-a-Day – From 2012 – Wanting to reconnect with my comic roots during my 2012 sabbatical, I decided to interpret one panel of Jack Kirby art per day for a month, very fun!
Hired Muscle, Inc. – From the 1990’s HMI represents a melding of my love of the sequential art storytelling of comics, and my time in the trenches of corporate America. I thought it was pretty amusing, hope you do too!
Plague – From the 1980’s Created while I was living in abject poverty, in Indianapolis, making cabinets for fish tanks (the triple-double of pain). Which, I think, informs it’s rather dark vision. Savage as it is, I still find the concept of a protagonist slowly going insane, while doing the right thing compelling.
First Hawk Page Thumbnails – From the 1980’s – A little too ambitious for its own good, this project remains unfinished, victim of full time corporate employment. The story, written by Todd Jackson, deals with an ancient priest bringing about the first laws. Think “Hammurabi with wings” and you’ll get the picture.
First Hawk Sketches – I was planning on rendering the “First Hawk” pages in watercolor, these are the preliminary sketches.
WarCathedral – From the 1980’s – Started this before I went off to Virginia Commonwealth U, and never touched it again. Thought about it when I contacted Paul Gulacy, an old school comic artist, who still creates wonderful work and I don’t think he’s given the props he deserves. Anyway, take a look at testosterone fueled imagination of Todd Jackson, and yours truly.
Batman & Superman – Created these pieces for my nephew Josh and the son of friend of mine, also some sketches for the abandoned “First Shot” project.
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