Computer art is interesting. I usually don't like it due to how slick everything can get. In a way that is probably what people are reacting to when they say they don't like it. It usually lacks appropriate texture. It's tricky because you can't use a technique just to use it. An artist needs to recognize when it's the right time to push it or reel it in.

I'm using the computer to work out the colors, but if I was to do computer art as a final I would try to find what techniques the computer tools are stronger for. It's a different medium that mimics traditional medium as a starting point. It allows people who haven't developed traditional drawing and painting techniques to put out something in their head in an efficient manner. I think a lot of accomplished artists with traditional techniques resent people who have figured out how to get the computer to do what they want because it seems like a "cheat".

In a lot of cases it is do to it's inherent ability to look like polished art in half to a tenth of the time of traditional (physical) art takes. There are people who try and take that medium past merely copying what traditional art and those are the true pioneers pushing boundaries. I like seeing something pushed farther.

My approach to using the computer is as a sketch. I learn a little more each time I do these and maybe in the future I'll begin to push the computer techniques. But for now...

I have some great models. Of course I always appreciate all my models! I know it's a hard job. I tried it a bit in college. OOF! And I was a lot more spry back then. It was for regular figure drawing. I wasn't a pretty person but I was pretty lean so if you wanted to learn anatomy my body would do. No extra arms or legs. Exactly the right amount of toes and fingers. My first time modeling I was WAY too ambitious. I was doing back bends, stretches and twists to rival any yogi... in my head. Every pose hurt. I was pretty sore the next day. Even if I had never modeled for a figure drawing class again, that one experience gave me a great respect for anyone willing to model for me.

So this is Freya. She modeled for an impromptu photo shoot that I can use for reference. It's more pin-uppy. There was a car involved. Some time I'll get back to it. And yeah, she has an amazing tattoo. Drew this at the bar.

I did comics once upon a time. I was a penciller for DC Vertigo. "Animal Man" was my title with a few guest pages in "Doom Patrol". At Marvel I was an inker and finisher for Marvel Comics Presents, Dr. Strange, Savage Sword of Conan, and other pin-ups here and there. I didn't grow up with that goal in mind, but being in New York City, this is what I had the opportunity to do so I did. I learned so much! I worked with many different artists. Some good and some bad but I think I came across some new knowledge from all.

Since then I have become friends with even more comic book artists who inspire me. Of course my good friend Steve Ellis, and Dean Haspiel, and Gregory Benton.
They do more personal comic book work that doesn't always deal with a fight scene. Their themes are more adult oriented and they and the slew of others I don't have the time to write down and link to inspire my desire to tell some stories. 

This is my character "Klunk". He's loosely based on me. Very loosely. Because you are here looking at this and because I have a keyboard connected to my computer in front of me I will share his story with you... or at least an explanation of the character. Klunk appears to wear a gas mask. It is a metaphorical device I use so the reader is able to get past what he looks like and go immediately to what he "feels" like. The viewer never sees Klunk's face. This is my personal challenge. How do I get across the full range of emotions and expressions a faced character can do? I like the idea that although the viewer can't see his whole face but a character in the strip might say something like Klunk you have a piece of tentacle stuck between your teeth" implying that they can see his whole face.

So here is a Klunk story he is barely in. And you can interpret it in several ways, which I like.

Molly, my GF, had a great 2015 and topped it off with a successful book launch and tour of her book "Drawing Blood" from Harper Collins... no relation. In her mind she thought she was very difficult to live with this last year as she wrote her book and planned all the details around it to be a success. Truth, she wasn't any harder to live with than any other time! Well I wasn't going to argue as she wanted to treat me to a three day get-away to New Orleans... Come to think of it I guess she was a bitch!... and you made a mess in the studio! Is that worth at least a trip to Pittsburgh? HA!

We spent all three days going from food, to coffee shop, to more food, to a hookah lounge, to roaming all over the Bywater, French Quarter, and the Garden District. This was one of the doodles in my sketchpad at a coffee shop. We had the best time and I would even go so far as saying it was perfect. I love that girl!

I played around with it in Photo Shop a bit. I think it'll make a nice painting eventually.

I think I should title these entries after I've written them not before. I assume I am speaking to friends, or at least neutral people I might be a friend with if we were to meet. I'm not the kind of person that goes out in the world looking for potential people to be enemies with. I like to think I give everyone equal opportunity to be friends. There are different layers of friends  of course.

I consider this dude who cleans the gym where I work out a friend, but like level one, or 1C. I don't know his name, but only a week after he was working there, he found my locker key on the floor after I had left. Instead of turning it in to lost and found, or going through my locker to take my dirty shorts and some soap, he held on to it until the next day. As soon as I walked in the gym, he stopped me and asked if I lost my key. I said yes and he fished it out of his pocket with a "here you go, I thought it was yours". He just got in to Level 1! I had a spare, so it wouldn't have been a tragedy, but how cool is that?

I was just impressed he had paid attention as to who I was and at which locker all during his first week. The guy at the desk who has seen me a million times, recognizes me, and still seems surprised when I ask for a towel every time.

I have a newsletter you can sign up and "hear" more rantings and opinions and usually see a preview of the art I'll be sharing in the coming week. Ok my friends... Some figure drawings from this past weekend. Newsletter people have already seen a few of these.

More figure drawing at Spring Street. My friend Colleen was modeling at Muchmores coffee house again but I just didn't have time to get to Brooklyn again. Colleen is a really cool person that models.

I don't know the name of the model I was drawing at Spring Street, but I had drawn her before and she is really good. The rhythms of her figure are just really fun to discover and draw.