I'm originally from Stoneham, MA. Learned about the illustratin' at Syracuse University. Left there in 1995. I've been living in Brooklyn, NY pretty much since then. I got myself a lovely wife Julie, and a loyal pooch Logan. I enjoy the drawin', codin', travellin' and listening to the music.
This is an old animation I did for the Outdoor Life Network a few years ago. They used it as a little animated bug that ran across the bottom of the screen during Thanksgiving week programming promoting some turkey shoot show.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hit the Spring Studio for some long overdue figure drawing today. The only thing I ended up liking is this drawing from the very first 2 minute pose, when Minerva (the owner) stood in for the tardy model (who wasn’t very good). I need to log some more time there, as I feel a bit rusty, and it takes some time to get your drawing mojo back, I find.
While drawing, I’ve been listening to the excellent new album
“The Crane Wife” from The Decemberists. The track that will stay in your head and keep you humming all day long is the duet Colin Meloy sings with with Laura Veirs “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)”.
I was watching the incredible film Das Boot for the first time while drawing this in my sketchbook.
On a hot tip from well-informed invisibleman Kurt, today I went up to check out the two-day Prints Gone Wild! show in Williamsburg. Every print was priced at $50 or less, and there was a great assortment of posters, prints, cards and t-shirts on display. I was immediately drawn to the amazing work of Knoxville, Tennesee’s own Yee-Haw Industries. I picked up the above poster celebrating Buford Pusser, the Tennesee lawman who was the inspiration for the 1973 film “Walking Tall” (just added to the top of my Netflix queue).
Check out the goods at http://www.yeehawindustries.com
Other cool print shops worth checking out are Pittsburgh’s Triangle Poster, Atlanta’s Methane Studios and the grandaddy of them all Nashville’s Hatch Show Print.
This past week was my Dad’s 78th birthday. We met up in Columbus, OH and drove over to Dayton to visit the United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base. My Dad was a private pilot for many years, and had wanted to visit for a while. This place was incredible, with three gargantuan hangars spanning the mere 100 years of military aviation, from the first Wright Brothers’ planes purchased by the Army to the latest drones and stealth aircraft. It was a dizzying display of planes, and I was excited to draw them. I basically just focused on the silhouettes, not caring too much about detail. You can some photos of our trip here. If you are even near Dayton, check it out…It’s an amazing display.
I’m happy to announce that our merch page is finally up and stocked with our first batch of Invisibleman T-shirts. They are printed on 100% cotton American Apparel tees. $15 a pop. You can pay securely with a debit or credit card via PayPal (which you don’t have to be signed up for).
The shirts are just the first items we’re offering, but we will be adding some limited edition books, prints and original artwork (as well as more shirts) in the near future.
LINK: the invisibleman MERCH page
This illo will be in this Sunday’s New York Times on September 24th, 2006. The story is about how most people’s garages are dark, scary places full of the tools of yard work and labor, rarely resembling the brightly light neat workspaces shown in catalogs.
See more of my work for the Times here.
Congratulations to our good friends Susannah and Mike Italiano who got married up Lake Placid, NY this weekend. My wife and I spent an amazing weekend with them up at the fabulous Lake Placid Lodge with the above jaw-dropping view out of our lakeside cabin window. The weather was perfect and the leaves were just starting to change, and it reminded me of how much I love this part of the Adirondacks. Click below for another sketch of a cool birch tree on the lake.
Spent some more time in the Lab this weekend beefing up my texture library. I painted with acrylic and gouache on acetate, gessoed illustration board, butcher paper and cardboard. The coolest results were painting right onto acetate with gouache. Always fun to get messy and experimental. I scanned these in at 600dpi @ 100%. Having a bunch of these files lying around has been invaluable to me as I strive to add more texture to my digitally painted illustrations. Nothing worse than a flat, paint-bucketed expanse.
One illustrator who has really mastered the art of balancing the real paint texture look with crisp digital illustration is Linzie Hunter of the UK. She also started the fabulous On My Desk blog, full of photographs of illustrators and designers’ workspaces. Check it out!
