sketch 005

early studies of paul and suzy, circa 1997.

suits 208a inks

wow!  backgrounds!

and for this, i missed tonight's mtv albumlaunch: limp bizkit...

suits 208a pencils

also, i've finished posting pictures from my vacation as well as last sunday's street fair in the photos section.

broadway cares flea market

broadway cares/equity fights aids held its 17th annual broadway flea market and grand auction yesterday.  i met up with my friend kevin and got to see joe in full work-mode.  below are highlights from my visit.  i will post the rest in my photos section sometime soon.

the table for the show urinetown was selling bottles of water, along with glasses of lemonade, and rolls of toilet paper.

the manhattan chili company was selling chili (of course) and some amazingly delicious shrimp cocktails.  yum!

joe at work.

during the matinée performance, some actors from the producers came out and let people take pictures of them for $5 a piece.  kevin and i couldn't resist.

a very blurry shot of bebe neuwirth signing autographs.

pretty orange flower

another picture from my vacation.  i haven't posted it in the provincetown 2003 album, yet, but i will get to that this weekend, hopefully.  (still playing with digital post-processing.)

suits 207 foreground

all of page seven — just the foreground figures, but the inks are final.  backgrounds and lettering to follow.

let me know what you think!

sketch 004

a sketch from my living room couch, done in may of 2002.

suits 207c

quick and dirty inks using a pigma brush pen for the third set of panels on page 7.  still no letters or backgrounds, though.  the brushwork is a little rushed due to my last-minute effort (i started inking at around 11:00 pm sunday night).  i just wanted to have something comic-related posted for today...

looking at it now, i think the third panel is noticeably rougher, probably because i free-handed most of it — my pencils really weren't up-to-snuff on that one.  however, the first two don't look so bad.  i don't think anyone could tell the difference between my linework using a brush pen versus my using a real brush.  i may stick with this cheat for a little while.

photo album

i've started a photos section.  i've posted the first roll of pictures from my vacation to provincetown, massachusetts from back in july.  i will be adding the rest of the photos by the end of the week, hopefully, and plan to integrate photo albums from my other sites as well.  enjoy!

chris' present, part one

now that it won't ruin any surprise, i wanted to post this little project i'd been working on for chris' birthday.  thanks to chris' parents, bill & kathy, for the great pictures.

sketch 003

yes, that's the x-men's wolverine on the left.  i actually hated him when i was reading the comic book series (i stopped back in 1992, effectively) but hugh jackman has renewed my interest in his character.  *grin*

i suppose the sketch on the right could be a "naturalistic" rendition of scooby doo, but it's actually from a painting which hangs in the office of the vice president of corporate communications at my company.  i had a meeting with him and a few other folks yesterday; thus, the drawings on notebook paper.

chris day 2003!

i've known christine hamel since the spring of 1993 when we were in the student musical at williams college together.  although we'd met in rehearsals and backstage numerous times, i consider our first meaningful interaction to be at the closing night cast party, where i discovered the she and i had crushes on the same cast member.  friends forever!

fast-forward ten years or so and now she's in school while simultaneously working as an actor, singer, and a university professor.  she also has met a man as amazing as she is with whom she now shares her life — and, no, it's not our mutual crush.

she makes me laugh, she cheers me on, and she inspires me with the incredible life she leads.  most importantly, she's a great friend.

this past year was a big one for my dear miss hamel, and i expect this one will be even bigger.  here's wishing her the very best.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRIS!!!

suits 207b pencils

the next three panels of page 7.  fun!

friday doldrums

today is the first full-day friday after summer hours ended.  it is currenty fifteen minutes before i would have left a week ago, and i'm DYING!  considering how this was only a four-day work week, i anticipate next friday being even less enjoyable.

right now, work is very slow.  earlier, i spent a good five minutes staring out my window, down at the street below.  at one point, some guy with long hair, wearing sunglasses and a black trenchcoat, crossed broadway, and i thought of that scene from The Matrix where Morpheus is familiarizing Neo with the changeability of Agents in the staging environment.  i suddenly found myself wishing that individuals in flashy skin-tight leather outfits would fly by my window, or at least be leaping impossible distances, as they were being pursued by men in versace suits.

*sigh!*

sketch 002

another sketch, this one of some characters i'm designing.  they don't show up until around issue #6, so it'll probably be...oh, ten years before you see their story.  ugh.

the nice thing about sketches it that they are supposed to look unfinished.  as much as i like using a brush for larger works, i'm discovering that i actually hate inking my comic work.  no matter how careful i am, the lines end up just a little too fat.  i refuse to switch to a crowquill, though i'm almost tempted to use rapidographs or, heaven forbid, felt tips.  given the current state of imaging and printing technology, using pencils for the final draft may not be such a bad idea.

anyhow, all things to think about.  i just gotta keep practicing.

hopefully more of the comic next week, or else this turns into a sketch blog real fast...

sketch 001

updates to the book are not ready, so i'm posting a recent sketch of mine instead.  the inspiration for this was the lack of realistic black characters in comic books, so i drew a version of storm from the x-men if she were to have dreadlocks instead of the platinum blonde halle berry wig.

would the character still be the same if they changed her hair?  probably not — but, then again, why does there have to be only one?  can't a comic book superhero team have *gasp!* two black women?  i'll be mighty surprised to see that happen in any mainstream title (though i admit to not having read many in recent years.)

more photos, sketches, and comic installments to come.

good lyrics

for me, a good songwriter will bring me back to a certain time and place.  or maybe the narcissist in me is always looking for my own story in other peoples' lyrics.

anyhow.

and i wasted your time, didn't i? and that's the reason we fight all the time. it's been so long since you've been a friend of mine...

that's liz phair's "friend of mine" off her new self-titled cd. good stuff.

summer ends

with a whimper and a sigh, the sunshine is gone, the warm temperatures are over.  joe assures me that we are due for a mid-september warm spell, but, as far as i'm concerned, summer is over.

itr's a dreary, rainy day in new york city today, which is a shame, considering it is also the west indian day parade.  i hope everyone else is having a good one out there.  drop me a line, let me know how you're doin'...