LokiLoki

This is my latest for the pop surrealist crowd. I used my girl Molly as reference. She claims I always make her look ugly... of course I can say I don't have anything to do with her being ugly! HA! You can see her "ugliness" here. I'll be entering this in the gallery La Luz de Jesus in LA. There's a group show in March and now is the time to enter! I'm still working on the Bob Dylans and hope to finish them some time this week.

Speaking of the girl. I helped her mat and frame most of her show that will be coming up this Friday at Trinity Gallery. Some of the art on display will be from Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book. She doesn't have a desk to work on so all the matting and framing took place on the floor. My back is going to snap in 3 pieces that will in turn snap in to 4 pieces a piece and then those pieces will catch on fire and then jump into a vat of gasoline (that just happens to be sitting out on the side walk) and then everything will explode and then they will take a tour of a chile habanero hot sauce factory, fall in a vat of the hottest sauce and then wipe their eyes with their burning broken back knuckles and get broken back burning eyes and then run out on the street without looking both ways and get hit by a low flying space shuttle! That is what my back feels like today.

Labels: dr. sketchy's, la luz, Molly Crabapple, space shuttle, trinity gallery

Cover for The Week's year end edition.

I'm not the holiday celebrating type of guy. I don't go to church, and I don't have an office full of people with various beliefs that come to a head at this time of year. I enjoy everyone's festive spirit though. In the past, family wasn't always very pleasant to be around during the holidays. Planning to have a bunch of guests over was always stressful for my mom and dad wasn't in the best mood due to the credit card bill he was probably going to get the next month. Plus cabin fever and a lot less sunlight! Church was this artificial ritual we'd go through and eventually got out of.

I just look at the end of the year to figure out what worked for me this past year and what would make things better in the next year. Usually I'm most concerned about getting paid on time. After meeting everyone's deadlines with my art, I get screwed with them paying me when the accounting dept. decides to get off their ass. Try paying your bills when you don't know when you'll get a check in the mail! My yearly (and monthly) tradition.

Labels: Covers, sleep time, traditions

Where to start!?! Uma was just hanging out in a coffee shop the other day so I asked her if she'd sit for a quick portrait. I told her I was a big time illustrator. She should be flattered I wanted to paint her, 'cause usually I get 10's of 20's of dollars to do this! She said she was an actress or something. "Oh yeah honey, they're a dime a dozen in this town" I said. I wished her good luck. I thought she might "pick up" my coffee, you know, for the effort and all. I even told her she reminded me of some famous actress but I couldn't recall the name... No wait, I just found some ref. out of a celeb mag. and did this study. But that's how I might have played it if I HAD happened to bump into her at a coffee shop. If Uma and her people ever read this, I'm at The Wycoff Starr in Bushwick a lot! Or Verb in Williams burgh!!

Had a busy week of running around in circles. One client had me do a ton of changes that took up all day! Then another client needed a tweak the next day. Everything came in on DL. but I was mentally wiped. Molly had another book signing at Jim Hanley's Universe in the shadow of the Empire State building, across the street, last Fri. Lady J flirted and teased everyone in the store. My friend Mark showed up for support and to repair contacts with the store. We then all went out to dinner in the basement of the Empire State building.

I went back to Mark's studio to help him catch up on his Ghost Rider pages by filling in blacks and some back ground and helping him stay awake and not get overwhelmed by the amount of pages piling up. Inking some one's pencils, is a great way to see how they think as an artist. In 24 or more years of doing comics and thousands and thousands of pages, Mark has a certain stylization he's developed that is unique to him at this point. It's kind of obvious who his first influences were, but I don't think that is a bad thing.

I have a bunch of jobs to do next week. Pretty busy, I only have time for jobs with big paydays this week! What a horrible problem, HA!

Labels: dr sketch's, ghost rider, jim hanley, mark texeira

Last night's review... Last night started around 4:30pm. I have a studio guy, Steve, who comes in once a week to organize my crap. He also helps out my girl, Molly Crabapple, with Dr Sketchy's drawing at a bar in Brooklyn. Dr Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book is her first book coauthored with John Leavitt and has been getting great reviews and press on the web and print. The official release happened at The Slipper Room in the Lower East Side. A lot happened. Transvestite birthday cake, Gawker photographers, burlesque by The White Boom Boom, Amber Ray Darlinda Just Darlinda, Go Go by Lady J live music from Two Man Gentleman Band, and all hosted by The World Famous Bob. I have no shame as I participated in a dance contest arranged by Bob. I'm on video being stupid. Others might just say it was silly and embarrassing. The 2ND shot of whiskey was just hitting as I got pulled on stage. Serves me right, I had just shoved my friend up on stage moments before as they were calling for "volunteers". That was Wed. and much more went on...

Friday was a bit busy. I had some jobs come in. Met my friend Mark, at Maxim Mag. He was turning in a painting for a cover. I think it'll come out in Feb. (The March Issue) Then we wandered down to the Lower East Side stopping at a burger joint on the way.

The girl had a book reading at Blue Stocking right around the corner from The Slipper Room. It was much smaller by comparison. She did well, and Amber Ray did a small posing session while everyone drew on paper with crayons that were supplied by the authors. Leavett handed everything out and supplied the ding dongs and ho hos.

This was a cover for Westword in Colorado. Some guy doing an Indiana Jones thing to find the original coffee bean in Ethiopia. I couldn't wait to do this one!

Labels: Dr Sketchy's, Fleshbot, Molly Crabapple, Westword