SALE!!

Announcement - I am now selling some of my favorite pieces at my new Etsy Shop including these guys!  As you may have heard - Im getting married!  That's expensive so I'm trying to raise a little pre-marital dough for the cause and, I've got a lot of good paintings that need a good home.  Wont you give them a home?  I priced them to move and Christmas will be here before you know it, so check it out.  I've got some big ones, some small ones - but there's certainly one that's perfect for you.  So do two things at once: invest in marital bliss, and rescue a painting.  There will be more up as the weeks go by so keep your eye out!

Whatever happened to the good ol' fashioned watering hole?

Here's another new one for the NYObserver about all the new childhood game/theme bars popping up in NY.  It does seem a bit like the Dave&Busterization of great NY bars scene although I must admit, I used to spend a bit of time at the Red Lion in W-burg soley for a decent jukebox and the sport of kings, Skeeball.  And . . . I may have spent roughly $60 in quarters over the years playing Asteroids and 1941 at Barcade.  And I do like shooting large digital bucks . . .  And I am glad about but have yet to visit the Ping Pong bar, Spin. . .  BUT - I concur, it's getting a little out of hand.  Thus the Chuckie Cheez ball pit in a bar:).  

Since I routinely encourage my student to use photo reference even if it's just for inspiration, and since this one has sort of a fun cast of famous inspiration models, here's the folks that inspired the characters from left to right: Peggy Lee (turned brunette), Jackie Gleason, Dean Martin, Tom Waits (the consummate barfly), and Sarah Vaughn.

The Hamptons!

 In all the vacation madness of summer, I neglected to post a new map I created for Scene Magazine about the Hamptons.  This one was a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  I try to have as much real info as possible, while still manipulating the figures, typography, and scenes for a fun composition.  This one was initially a single spread, which after the first round of sketches, got turned into a double spread covering the bottom half of four pages, along with a type design (above).  The finished painting is below.  I decided to do a little more mixed media, with ink, water color and gouache on Arches 300lb hot press to have a lot of slight textural differences - gouache dry brush, watercolor dry brush, watercolor full soaks, gouache line, and micron .005 line.  Thank you to Jasmine Lombardi for working with me on this (it went right down to the wire!), and Scott Dvorin from the Observer for throwing my name in the basket.  And congrats to Scott on his new baby and new endeavors!

Below is the second set of sketches with the stretch to 4 pages.

Here's the first set of sketches below for the initial spread (two sketches and two type designs).

The Fox and the Crow

Here my new piece for sale at a great show at Chicago's Gallery 27, called "Dreaming Child" which opened on Friday, August 31.  The show is all artwork based on children's stories, fables, and fairy tales.  I based mine on the Aesop's fable of the Fox and the Crow.  The crow has a piece of cheese and the fox coaxes it away from him by at first praising the crow's physical appearance, and the inducing him to caw and drop the cheese by saying that the crow must have a beautiful voice to match it's beautiful appearance.  The crow, so flattered and full of pride, opens his beak and caws his caustic caw, dropping the cheese to the waiting fox.  Fox wins.  The painting itself was created by tea staining a background tone, and then gouache on top.

"The Fox and the Crow"
11" x 14", tea staining and gouache on watercolor paper