...Pray for Your Death."

Another drawing derived from the first Sartana film, If You Meet Sartant, Pray for Your Death (1968. d. Gianfranco Parolini). This time it's of one of my favorite Euro character actors, William Berger. If you've ever seen a photo of Berger back in his prime, he would've had, in my mind, the perfect look for Jonah Hex. Oddly enough, the original Weird Western Tales of Hex had a far more spaghetti feel to them compared to the other western comics of the time. Anyhow, this was the result of having too much time on my hand over a vacation day...

Thank Jolly Old St. Nick...

For X-mas, I attempted to do a series of pin-ups for friends. For whatever reason, I've always preferred the cute and playful images of a Gil Elvgren over the super-polished works of an Alberto Vargas. Not that I don't like Vargas. I still recall my grandfather jokingly showing me some Vargas girls in an ancient issue of Playboy with a grin, and telling me that maybe I could do some work like that one day. Well, if I could pull together a decent studio space, granddad, I might just yet...haha...

"Ok, but why a duck?"

Granted, this is a quick ink portrait of Harpo Marx, not Chico, as the above quote might imply. However, seeing as Harpo didn't talk, he's a bit harder to quote (and I'm not bored enough to figure out a keyboard vehicle for depicting a fish with a sword in its mouth). Anyhow, I stumbled across this ludicrously melodramatic portrait of the great silent comedian, and felt compelled to translate it to another medium. It's in my Sanity Clause.

The Mystery Press...

I recently located and read a copy of John Franklin Barden's mystery novel, The Deadly Percheron. Barden was an advertising exec who turned out ten or so novels and is considered one of the forerunners of the modern psychological thriller. In the book, the killer leaves one of these great beasts tied outside the abode of his victim. I find the Percheron, a French breed of horse used primarily to pull carts and carriages, to be both majestic and a wee bit creepy...

"If you meet Sartana..."

Today's quickie was brought to you by the Italian genre cinema industry of the 60's and 70's. Gianni Garko starred as the James Bond of gun slingers in a series of films dealing with the enigmatic Sartana. Maybe second only to Django in knock-offs, this drawing is a knock-off from the original film. Or as Jason properly called it, "that's a bunch of lines."

B is for Boris...

If I recall correctly, this was a quickie loosely extrapolated from a movie still of Boris Karloff. Any resemblance to Boris is purely coincidental. I was having more fun just playing with the hatching...which, as you can see, I, like a child, lost my sense of enjoyment in around the halfway mark.

RJE + JSA

Probably one of the few collaborations with Jason Shawn Alexander that I got to keep. I know that our duo placemat pictorials went on to find better homes than we'd give them. The figure in the middle got the ball rolling...then I went to town after that. If you guessed the above was the end result...you'd be right!

"Saw the picture, by the way...

...thought it was swell."

A vampish quickie.

The page had some ink spots left by work on the page previous...well spots be damned. I wouldn't say I incorporated them. I just didn't let them stop me. You work with what you have...and what I have is the total lack of desire to waste a page because of a few spots for a clean page. How's that for attitude? The snarkiness almost shocks me.

At Long Last...Little Candy Hearts...

A few years ago, for a grant competition, I wrote a short for my friend Seaton Lin. From there...well I'll skip the saga of the ups and downs of how the project finally came together...the important thing is that cinematic thunder was captured, cut, and released for you enjoyment. The film's been starting its way out onto the festival circuit, but here's your chance to catch it sans ID card and lanyard. I hope you will like it...if you don't, remember that budgetary restrictions cut all the explosions and Seaton's relentless monkeying with the script and all, that is what ruined it.

And on with the show! Take me to...LITTLE CANDY HEARTS...(Click It!)

Everybody's Heard About the Bird...

A quickie of Charlie Parker. Jason Shawn Alexander admonished me soundly about solid lines...solid lines...solid lines. I like to think he got what he asked for.

The Lines...Do you hear the lines?

A Face Worth $3,000...

This cute li'l fella was inspired by ubiquitous Spanish character actor Aldo Sambrell. Aldo's face after many years of viewing what's somewhat affectionately known as "Eurotrash" cinema is almost...well...comforting in a way. The same way that anything familiar becomes somewhat comforting at times of trials and tribulations. Not that I'm full of tribulations right now...in fact, I'm pretty zen right now really. Still, doesn't change the fact that the pen made me do a rendering of Señor Sambrell.

Simple and Simply Put...

Stop...in the name of the...uh...

Law or Love? With a face like that...it's hard to say for sure.

"You don't play pool..."

"You shoot pool!" Thanks to Robert John Burke and Hal Hartley.

It Ain't Easy...

Yes, that's right. A Frog. Ribbit.

Less Gloomy...uh...Monday

Sure I should've posted this yesterday, when I could've made a bad song-to-drawing tie-in joke. However, I didn't.

In any event, here's a quickie of Billie Holliday.

The Face of 2010...

Let's all say goodbye to him...Here's to a Happier New Year.

Today's Post Could Drink You Under the Table...

In my continued desire to sketch the somewhat inexplicable (in terms of subject matter)...I submit to you a quickie of Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson from the film Women in Love. Now that I've said that, you're probably all wondering why I didn't choose something with more skin and more wrestling. This is art, you dogs...

Villa Rides...

A roughed out rough of Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa.

The Usual Train Wreck...

Once again, the holidays are about us, and playing hell with my schedule and my memory.

Here's a pictorial representation of how things are generally going with staying on top of things...

Cheers.

"Hey, Guess Whose Back..."

Here's something sort of classically serene...

En Garde...

I've often wondered if I could pull of breeches...not so much the hose, but I guess tube socks would be a touch boorish.

Who...Are You? Who? Who...Again?

Much along the same impulse that led me to draw Teddy Roosevelt, I present a quickie of Roger Daltrey. Yup. That Roger Daltrey.

The Week Ends...With a Striped Hyena.

A quickie's quickie...it's only fitting...

"Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe" - Teddy Roosevelt

Perhaps this post would've been more appropriate to the elections yesterday...but I remembered it too late in the evening.

Ok, this moment with the former President got a little more involved. I couldn't tell you what it is about him that has had me return to him as a subject...perhaps it's that larger than life quality he had about him. Sargent's portrait of him is probably my favorite of the presidential portraits. I especially love the fact that the pose and location were found when Teddy turned to Sargent because he was growing impatient over their expedition to find a place to paint it.

"Do nothing which is of no use." - Musashi

Another experiment with the Sumi brush. While it's nowhere near where I'd like to be withone, I wouldn't call it of no use. And you may think it cliché to draw a samurai with said brush as practice, but you've got to have all that stuff to feel like you're doing something with that brush. It's...appropriate...

In any event, I'll have to keep trying...

...Of Amazing Adventure...

So...we have a quickie of Errol Flynn...sans moustache...or sword...or bow and quiver...

...and a Lion riding on a side car in an auto stunt show. Your Argument is Invalid.

You've Been Good...Have Two...

All I can tell you is that this was a quick one from a publicity still of a cross-dressing Katherine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett. I suppose it struck me due to a sort of resemblance to David Bowie in his Thin White Duke phase. In any event, it's a little rough, I should've spent more time with it...


On the flip side, to balance all that masculine-femininity, here's some feminine-femininity in the form of Ella Fitzgerald. Another quickie from a photo I found amongst the Library of Congress archives.

"Take my rats, fleas...."

Something a little different for today. After a failed attempt at getting a piece that centered around masquerades ready in time for a themed show, I then turned may attention to possibly doing something concerning Poe's Masque of the Red Death. While that project may still materialize, it never quite came together like I wanted. Anyhow, this was one of the tests that I painted up real quick. Originally it was supposed to be inked as well, but I decided to leave it colorful...and generally line-less.

The Perfect Cure for a Pimp named Gator...

Just another result of being in "one of those moods". I'm proud to present my swift rendering of soul legend Isaac Hayes as Truck Turner. I'm led to understand they're going to remake this film...or, I should say, make another film with this title and a character of the same name. Likely, it'll once again prove that the "creative" powers that be have never and will never understand what made b-movies like Truck Turner great in the first place. Alas...

After all, Isaac Hayes wrote Sam & Dave's megahit "Soul Man", won the Oscar and a Grammy for "Theme from Shaft", and was just...well, Isaac Hayes....who could replace him?

A delicate nod...to the ladies...

This week, we take a look at the fairer sex...but then again, when are we not looking at the fairer sex...?

"Da, Comrade Mozstacz..."

The World War sketch vibe continues...

"Ladies and Gents..."

"...This li'l choo-choo's gonna be a little late getting to the station." Another sketch based on an image I found from a photo taken during WWI. To those familiar with my work: No, it hasn't escaped me...the potential metaphor all these train wrecks represent...

On the Edge of the Desert...

I found this peculiar photo of war games in the New Mexico desert from either WWI or II (it escapes me which). The bizarre thing was that I don't recall a military vehicle or uniform in sight. In fact, it looked more like some Hollywood version of some Prohibition shootout. Anyhow, the whole thing is sketchy...much like this drawing...

Vulture Masks say 'It's a Party, y'all."

As Indiana Jones once famously quipped, "Ahhh Venice..." Though I'm far from any gondoliers, I guess I can think of myself as being in her Far West Coast sister location...or not.

Leader of the Free World and/or Cuddly Companion...

As was once famously said of Don Knotts...I just felt like drawing Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt once survived an assassination attempt thanks to a speech in his pocket. Though bleeding, he delivered an hour long speech without medical attention. Drawing the blood-stained manuscript for the speech from his pocket, he said "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." On the flip side, his well known account of piranha shredding a cow in minutes is largely believed to have been staged for the traveling president. Personally, I think Teddy would've nicked himself a number of times, jumped in the Amazon, and staged a razor-tooth fish-fry for later that night if he had had his way.

A Flower...

...sums it up, eh?

Just Drive it Off the Lot...

Like a City...with Buildings in it...

I don't do much in drawing architecture. For the most part, it could be called...well...laziness. A good part of it is just disinterest. I appreciate a good building. I like a nice skyline. I don't, however, like reproducing them. Yet, that was part of the point of why I started all this sketching was to work on the things I didn't like drawing or was weak at. So...Uh...Napoli....

"But now I'm a man...way past 21..."

The Blind Brush-man...

I recently purchased my first proper Asian horsehair brushes to attempt to do some different work in ink. I haven't gotten much practice with them, but I'm determined to get that sharp-angled wrist action they do so well in cloth folds. This one...well...he's not there...

Announcement: Hive Gallery...Saturday, September 4th.

According to the above, yours truly is a featured artist at the September show at the Hive gallery. The card contains all the details one might need to attend such a gala event. I'll be standing around looking like someone who stands around at art shows with a sandwich in one hand and a Cuba Libre in the other (I'm not ruling out a Tequila Sunrise). If you can make it out, if patronizing the arts is your thing, if you're more than a meter in any dimension, then by all means come on out to the show!

Not a Burt Reynolds Movie...

Satyr-ical...

Satyr-nalia...I'm out of Satyr puns...wait...Satyr-n...Never Mind...

"Evenin' Ladies, My name is 'Dances with Girls'..."

A first run test for an illustration I was commissioned to do. The mighty bison.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT (Because I can't make plane noises on here...)

A little preparatory experiment for a potential job that might be coming up...no, I'm not joining an air show...

A Man About Town...

It's been darned chaotic here late. Now that's no excuse, as the internet doesn't sleep for anyone. If you're not serving your audience a fresh dose of new material every five seconds, you're old news. How else do you explain Twitter? Twitter has shown me just how many things people are doing that I didn't need to know, and don't care about. Anyhow, I add this little sketch to my own mountain of minutiae. I hope he's worth interrupting your post on the style of quilting on your latest toilet paper purchase.