More art. Pencil with white gouache on paper.

Fantastic time at the San Diego comic convention. Name drop time, so if that sort of thing bothers you, skip to the sketches.

Travis Louie asked me if I wanted to tag along for dinner with  Bruce and Jan Cory Helford after the convention
Sat. Well twist my arm! We didn’t know what to expect, so I told Travis I’d disappear if it was a wheeling and dealing session that I’d be intruding on. I guess there was wheeling and dealing, but I wasn’t intruding. There were about 20 other artists and friends of the Helfords there. It was a really nice group of people. Carlos Ramos, Gary Baseman, Buff Monster, and a bunch of people I didn’t get around to meet on the other side of Travis. Molly Crabapple came in just in time for desert… The food was great too!

Annie, at the Hi Fructose booth,  gave me their artist sketch pad earlier at the con. I did a little drawing in the book at dinner and later ran in to  her at a party held by Mark Murphy. Mark was a great tour guide and told a really nice story of this huge Joe Sorren painting he had on his wall. The evening was easily one of the hi-points of the weekend for me. At the convention, I also hung out a little at Donato’s booth, Greg Manchess, Jamal Igle, Mark Texeira, and a bunch of other people whose names escape. I ended Sunday night listening to stories of haunted hotels from Steve Ellis, and Chris James, as we stood on a street corner across from the Horton. Apparently the Horton Grand Hotel in San Diego has a few ghosts in it.

My friend Patrick of the blues band “Blue Four” really took care of Molly and I Sunday. His CD that just came out is called Chris James and Patrick Rynn “Stop and Think About It”. If you like music with a blues influence, these guys are fantastic!

Some airport drawings…

I don’t want to post shitty pencil sketches… but I have an accumulating sketchpad full of them. Really ruff stuff still in the tumbler that is my head.

I took a Mini Cooper out to go visit my friends Mark Texeira, Travis Louie, and Mark Elliot. It was inspiring enough to hang out at Tex’s place, add Travis’ studio and brain blows a piston! Even Travis’ dog inspired me.

Elliot was visiting Travis when Tex and I arrived just in time for dinner. We just missed seeing all the work that is in Travis’ current show at Gallery 1988 in San Francisco. (a 4 person show) He sent everything out the day before. I should have been more aggressive getting everyone to pose for pictures. The few I took came out for crap. I won’t post shitty photos either!… Well, too late for that, I’m in a few already.

… on Park Ave.

… at the car club.

… we could be related.

These are some cars I can drive and one I can’t. I’m still absorbing the pictures I took of engines and shock absorbers and brake pads at the car club.

In an unrelated story I did this drawing while on the ‘L’ train with some dude standing next to my seat staring over my shoulder. I found a new brand of sketch pad. Moleskine switched to a lighter stock and it doesn’t hold up to my pencil leads. The new one, Cache, has heavier stock, and a very similar surface as my old Moleskines. It feels so good to draw on this stuff, I plan to do a lot more! I have two friends named Steve and we all have tentative plans to hang out at a coffee shop and do some doodle’n this week.

I will have a new painting in a group show in Jersey City. More info. once I get it!

Took a few pics at the Coney Island Mermaid Day Parade last weekend.

Loved this.

Some kind of sea horse on the boardwalk?

I really have no idea, but it was the last group and they closed down the parade after them!

Right now, I’m working on commissions and and soaking in my environment. I just joined the Classic Car Club here in NYC. I want to incorporate more actual machine parts from exotic engines as a starting point for my newest batch of images.

While joining a car club sounds extreme, I figure why not enjoy the research while I’m at it? Michael (one of the founders) picked me up from Bushwick in this freshly tuned GT3 Porsche and we tooled around lower Manhattan where the HQ is. HQ is a garage full of exotic cars and engines and a lounge… Where I plan to do some “research”. I find the whole atmosphere inspiring.  After I signed up, Michael dropped me off at Last Rites and checked out my show before it comes down next week. He really liked the clown and the dog paintings. I’m sure I’ll have some cool new experiences at the car club. I leave this post with another inspirational image from Bushwick.

It was a calm day, a peaceful day. Sunny, like in some stylized happy setting in a romantic movie about the innocent first love between a boy and a girl holding hands while gazing at frogs chirping in a pond at sunset… Little did I know what lurked on the sidewalk! It was a massacre. Reds and yellows oozing everywhere. I almost wretched. Then I saw the black and blues and worst of all… brown. Sorry, I had to share.

Devastating.

It’s always sad to lose a baby blue.

It made me appreciate my own colors safe in their box in my studio.

I have a table at MOCCA Fest in the Puck building this weekend. Please stop in and say “hello”. I’ll be drawing and showing prints etc. If you are looking for a good reason to go to New York City, this is it! Obviously they aren’t holding this thing for little old me. It’s full of a lot of really talented comic artists and illustrators and fine artists. Four floors from what I hear. I hope it doesn’t out grow the Puck. The building is a work of art itself.

I might even have a bowl of candy sitting out.

Meredith, who posted the article, came to the opening as well. I finally got around to thanking her. I stink at sending thank yous!

Just received this from Last Rites. Some pictures of me painting the mural on the gallery wall and folks who came to see the show.

Here are a few reasons I’m not a model. These are some more pictures from the opening at Last Rites Gallery on April 5th.