Warcraft cyber spying

Here's a new piece for the New york Times Sunday Review, It's for a fun article written by the esteemed Margaret Atwood, about U.S. spy agencies using the online gaming universes Warcraft and Second Life to spy on potential terrorist activities and exchanges that may take place in these virtual worlds.

Joyce Carol Oats and Flannery O'connor

  

I've been playing with different ways of combining traditional drawing with digital in a collaged fashion.  Portraits are always a good subject to explore new materials and esthetic ideas, these are two I came up with recently.  Joyce Carol Oats, and Flannery O'connor were two fun subjects for this.

Telephone

This is a new short comic I've been working on over the past couple of weeks, first time I've actually attempted a painted comic. Painting comics takes forever.

Check out the larger version Here.

Pat Benatar and Brian Wilson for Smithsonian.

 

   

These are two portraits of mine that just ran in the latest Smithsonian Magazine. The issue was about  the Beatles coming to America, and their influence. It features spotlights on several musicians. I had already done a portrait of Brian Wilson as a personal piece, which the art director had seen and asked to use, and then asked for a second portrait, this one of someone I never thought I would be commissioned to draw....Pat Benatar!  I had to reformat the Brian Wilson piece from the original, which had a blue background with palm trees and with Brian in a white tee shirt, to one where the background had to be white, so I took the background, and turned that into the tee shirt.  Pat Benatar being Pat Benatar was a pleasure to draw just because she's so outrageous, the illustration practically drew itself. 


The original Brian Wilson:

Picture in Picture original comic art show

I have a piece in this show opening tonight curated By Jess Worby. Located in the Launchpad Gallery in Crown Heights, hope to see you there.

Washington Post: Book Review piece on the Kennedy Assassination.

This is a new piece for the Washington Post Book Review of the novel Top Down by Jim Lehrer. The book's about the guilt of one of JFK's secret service agents who blames himself for the assassination, he let the president ride that day without a protective roof.  The agents daughter and a reporter associated with the assassination decide to reenact the shooting with the plexiglas roof on the limousine to prove to the depressed secret service agent Kennedy would have died either way.

Last Rites 13th Hour Group Show

This is a pen and ink drawing I did for the upcoming 13th hour show at the Last Rites Gallery opening this Saturday the 26th. This may be the largest pen and ink drawing I've done scaling in at the 22"x30" range.  There is a ton of detail.  There is a link to a larger version below, so take some time, take a close look, and enjoy.
The show details:
Last Rites Gallery
511  W.33rd NY NY
Opening, Sat. Oct 26th 7-11.

      

Large version Here.

Best Amercan Comics 2013 notable comics.

 I did this comic earlier in the year and I must have completely forgotten about it, I don't think I ever posted it. The story was for the last issue of Rabid Rabbit based on the theme of romance, so naturally I wrote a story which is very unromantic and dealt more with the topic of control, participation and responsibility within relationships.   Anyway, I was very surprised and excited to find that it has been listed in the notable comics section of this years Best American Comics.  Thank you so much Matt Madden and Jessica Abel. Congratulations to the rest of the artists listed, many are friends of mine, so it's treat to be listed along side such a great list of talent, check out the entire list Here.

Check out a larger more readable version of the comic Here.
And remember to pick up this and other issues of Rabid Rabbit at your local comics retailer!

Amazing Forest

Earlier in the year I was contacted by the amazing comic artist Ulises Farinas to contribute to his new anthology Amazing Forest, a collection of stories written by him and Erick Freitas, and illustrated by a host of talented artists.  It's published through Monkey Brains comics, and includes a cover by Paul Chadwick (creator of the classic Concrete, for those that don't know!) If you are free this weekend, stop by the NY Comic Con and pick your copy up.  

Here are some pages from the story I worked on titled Wolf Mother:

No text, sorry, buy the comic to read the words.

To order your copy online go check out comixology.

Check out a larger version here.

Something new.

Here's a new piece wrapped up recently It's a poster for an upcoming movie project. I'll post more details about the project as it gets closer to release. A little hint before then,  the movie is not about a giant dog headed woman, that's just a metaphor.
Check out a larger version here.

New instructional pen and ink video.

Earlier in the summer I finished working on a second instructional video for the wonderful online company Craftsy, who produce a series of instructional videos, both fine arts and crafts. My most recent video is on drawing with a pen ink and brush.  I cover portrait drawing, landscapes, still lives, how to add watercolor to your drawing, and compose your own image.  Check out bellow some examples of drawings I did for the class.
Check out the lessons Here.

 Here are some of the drawings I demonstrate on in the video:

  

Here are some images from the shoot:

For a link to the class go here
For limited time discounts go here:  25%, 50%
And for those that get there first, ten one time free options, click on the numbers below to see if they are available. First come first serve:
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National Arts Club Opening Night

These are images from my solo show at  the National
Arts Club on September 5th.
Thank you guys who made it out to the opening,
It was a wonderful evening, and a big thanks to
Micheal Gormley for the invitation.

Claw Claw

My talented friends Ray Jones And ShanonWeltman Are starting this cool design project Claw Claw (awesome name!) Ray and I sat down with a recorder and chatted about art, influences, anxieties, and other cool things. Check out Ray's transcription, and the cool giff he did of my digital process.  Photo courtesy of Ray.
Claw Claw 
Ray and me

New York Times Op-Ed

This is a new one for the Op-Ed section of the New York Times.
The story is told by an Egyptian reporter recalling the past 20 years
of threats against him by those he criticizes, and how the threats have
evolved from jail time during Mubaraks years, into death threats from
the Muslim Brotherhood, in more recent history.  This was a really
interesting story you can check out here  Thanks the the wonderful
art direction of Matt Dorfman!

Summer Nights

This is a new one I've been working on for a little while in my free time. It's about all of the things to do on a summer night. look closely, there are a lot of things going on. This one started with inspiration I got from the original book cover to the novel Lord of the Flies from 1954, the original cover was done by the print maker Anthony Gross. I loved the restraint and simplicity of his line.  I had a notion I wanted to create a drawing about summer nights done only in white line.  I started with just pencil and paper, created a sprawling composition.  The pencil was originally going to be just the sketch, but I liked the looseness, so I scanned it, inverted the line work, and then bit by bit, the pieces I wanted to clarify more or accentuate, I started to redraw in ink or paint. From that point on the piece became an improvisation of mixed media, deviating quite a bit from my original plan. This is where it ended up.  The mediums I used include graphite, ink, gauche, and digital (the digital is mostly the collaging, but also includes a couple gradations, and some flat color.

Take a closer look at the detail Here

This is Anthony Gross's amazing cover for the original Lord of the Flies: