"Now you see it..."

Again with the eye thing...
Still, with them considered to be the window to the soul and all... I suppose it is only fitting that such a monstrous voyeur should meet his demise in such a fashion.

Moving ahead again... slowly but surely.

Finally finished with the gore quotient of the story now... I can now focus on the character's resolution and the tale's dénouement.
Just got to keep moving ahead.

Recently several doors have begun to close in my life.
While new ones open to replace them, as they often do, I find myself wondering if the new directions are truly better than the roads already traveled... or merely different.
I suppose that I welcome the challenges ahead, for good or for ill...

Any type of change is better than just treading water... waiting for the next tide to roll in.

Just a short supplementary post today... some drawings I did the eve of my birthday this past Friday.
I was lucky that these turned out as competent as they did... I had a meeting with someone very important to me that evening after the session, and I was so excited to meet them that I could hardly concentrate on the work.

As luck would have it... or more specifically, MY luck... we missed each other by 5 minutes.
This is the way it is for me.

Still, something good came of it. Maybe there is a bit of intensity in the lines of these drawings that would not have been there otherwise...

The first is a 12 minute sketch... the second a five minute attempt.

The 5 minutes.

"Good to the last drop..."

Ok... another tough page in the books.
This one had a lot of tricky effects to it... I'm hoping that playing some of the background elements off the foreground action was successful. Who knows anymore;-)

Yesterday was also my birthday... a rather somber one in some ways... but in others... it was somewhat empowering.
Yes... things could be a great deal better (and not much worse)... but in spite of this, one fact remains...

I'm still here.

Just going to keep plugging away.
Something's got to give sooner or later.
I just have to be positive and be willing to be open to new possibilities... stop doubting myself.

Hey... it's a new year for me...

It's on!

"Tastes just like chi.. erh... finger."

Another page in the books as I inch ever closer towards the finish line...
Less than 10 pages to go now in the story proper... and then the lettering and fronts-piece.

Things are very tough right now so it's difficult to concentrate on something that isn't immediately paying the bills... but at least forward progress is being made.

Alumni Drawing Classes have begun again now and although the first session's model was a no-show, we still had a good time sketching one another. This was a 10 minute sketch of a classmate (I actually started late on this one because I had broken the piece of conté I was using on the sketch before... so it's more of an 8 minute drawing).



Aaand some recent Calligraphy madness...

"All right, Herr Zeichner... I'm ready for my close-up.."

Ok...

More progress.
I'm trying to keep moving while work has slowed down stopped.
I'm hoping to squeeze another out before the end of the year... maybe two;-)

I still can't get over how washed-out these low res scans are... but I just can't post the massive true files here;(

My Italian commission arrived with warm reviews this afternoon, so another heavy burden has been lifted off my shoulders.
I can't tell you what a relief this was... after the pressure of having to unearth my dusty, old architectural rendering skills for display for a respected client. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

Now, to get more work done on my paintings...

Mythologically Challenged...

Spent a little time painting today for a change...
Too much freelance crap has keeping me more focused on paying the bills than doing the work that I truly want to do.

After about 5 hours of work, I think I've actually gone backwards as far as progress is concerned... but I feel like I'm slowly rediscovering those old painting chops I once had more readily at my disposal years ago. Only time will tell...

Snapped these in my kitchen with a horribly outdated digital camera that can't capture natural color under artificial light (a new purchase that is terribly overdue at this point)... maybe some of the work is apparent if you squint your eyes hard enough;-)

Basically, more basic underpainting foundation for Daphne... and some foreground detail for the Poseidon piece.
More to come... hopefully soon.

Sketchdump Deluxe!

More crap from the SVA model sessions... 15 minutes each and with a sanguine conté crayon.
It ain't art, but it keeps me sharp and allows me to reconnect my eye/hand coordination in the hours between the endless days of Photoshop garbage that passes as "work" these days;-)

Wish I could teach this somewhere... working on it...

Halfway through the next page now and hope to have it up soon...

Gutstomp!

Ok... back in the saddle for the time being...

Finishing up the Italy commission and recovering from a peculiar bit of "character work" for a major television sitcom!
Can't talk about the details yet... but let me just say that I've managed to somehow parlay my own obsessive sickness into a short but lucrative freelance gig! The world can be truly wondrous at times...

Here is the next page in the ongoing cataclysm that is this never-ending project.

I think at this point, as disgusted as I am with the thing and the missed opportunities it represents, I'm just committed to finishing the project to get it out of my head. Hopefully, I can just improve the thing as it goes forward... IF I can even manage to get the work published after it has taken so long to finish.

Gotta just keep moving forward...

Halloween Show and Italy photos to follow soon...

What is this "sleep" that you speak of?

OK... it's that time of year again.
Spending plenty of time and energy on the madness in Brooklyn that comes but once a year.
A chance to flex my creative muscles and test my waning resistance to spray adhesive fumes...

Here is the new show flyer... will post images from the show's construction/props soon...

Hold me up...

OK... took in a last drawing session at the Alumni SVA Life Drawing class before heading overseas to meet my destiny at Menirva Medica in Rome. Not exactly a confidence builder... but the old man can still churn out a 10 to 15 minute drawing with at least basic art school proficiency.

This by rights should be my last drawing on United States soil for the next half a month or so...
Hopefully I'll have some decent work to post from my travels in Italy when I next return to this blog.



I won't lie to you folks... I'm terrified.
When I'm standing in front of that ancient edifice, the time for excuses and hesitation will be over. I'll have to earn my reputation the same way the giants before me earned theirs... I only hope that they still have room enough on their well-trodden shoulders for my unsteady feet.

"Peek-A-Boo"

Ok... another page in the can.
This one needed to get done before my big trip to Italy to confront the Minerva Medica in Rome...

I have the next page well in hand and it should be partially finished before I leave... I only regret that my paintings will remain somewhat untouched until I return. I simply haven't the time to put any meaningful work into them before I depart... shameful really.

Still, upon the completion of my journey overseas... I should return to work on them with renewed vigor and inspiration!!!
The work I'm doing bears an aspect of it's source from these lands, so I can only assume that I shall reap the benefits of walking in the very footsteps of some of the wordsmith philosophers that crafted many of the inspirations for my paintings.

I travel to the land of the Gods... and I shall bear their mighty spirits back with me...

"The Good with the Bad..."

OK... here is the flyer/poster for the Dynamic Comic Book Anatomy Class I'm set to teach at the Art Students League here in the city.

This class, along with my Italian drawing commission (more on this in a later post) serves to compose the recent positive progress in my life... and they greatly offset the interfering obstacles that have lately afforded me little sleep.

I hope that this course garners enough interest (see: enrollment) to warrant its existence.

Cross your fingers with me...

The Holy "Grisaille" at last...

This is to be the grisaille underpainting for the newest piece in the series...
Let's hope it continues smoothly...

Can't touch it really meaningfully again until this coming weekend, so I just have to glare at the thing until then and feel guilty about my protracted inactivity...

OK, back to the grind then...

"Put your back into it..."

And another one bites the dust...

The pages are moving along nicely now... I'm hoping to at least keep a decent pace as the Summer months wear on, work schedule permitting. This was a fun page... but even now I'm still trying to restrain myself from further noodling with the shadow effects in the last panel. Gotta try not to kill the damned thing as a result of my own overly critical appraisal...

Wish me luck...

POW!!!

Well... here we go...
Proof positive that I've got some seriously deep-seated issues regarding women!

In all seriousness though... this was one of the more difficult pages to color. It was just hard to look at such violent images for such an extended period,.. no less drawings of my own creation!
Still... it was necessary for establishing the utterly impersonal nature of the Pugilist's brutality... while also indicating the subconscious fury of the young woman at his helm.

The carnage continues...

"You wouldn't hit a girl... with glasses... would you?"

More progress on the pages...

It's amazing to me... the more I get done, the more behind I feel!
I never seem to get any closer to the end of this cursed thing. I'm beginning to feel like a modern day Sisyphus...

Got to keep pushing...

PS: The next page starts with a bang... let me tell you;-)

Sketchdump Deluxe!

Here are some sketches from the last SVA alumni night class that I periodically attended this past semester...

I'm anxious to start anew this coming September...

These are all 10 to 15 minute drawings.

"Giant Monsters All-Out-Attack Showdown!"

OK... here it is.

This was last years live Halloween Show that we put on in Brooklyn... complete with full monster suits, a giant replica of the Empire State Building, and a shit-ton of chalk and cardboard building props!

This is a fairly condensed version... hopefully once it is fully processed, it will look a bit less pixelated.
Until then, enjoy the nuttiest Halloween Show in New York City in it's full color cubist glory!

Just click twice on the image to link to Youtube and watch the show uncropped ;-)

Atlas shrugged...

Here are few sketches from the SVA alumni drawing class I occasionally attend Wednesday nights...

These feature a fellow with a tremendous physique... thick and sinewy... potentially perfect for a future Hercules/Atlas/Zeus painting for my mythologically themed series.

The first is a 10 minute drawing... the other two are 15 minutes.

Back in the saddle...

OK... trying to get back on schedule again with the work...
This page came fairly quickly once I was finally able to put my full attention to it.

Lotsa junk freelance work to pay the bills interfering with what I want to do... need to do.
I have to keep sight of what is really important and get through this.

Some life drawing sketches coming soon as well...

Keep peddling, Greg...