On the Fringe

Friday the 13th saw another installment of Dr. Sketchy, held this time at Detroit's Music Hall as part of The Fringe Festival. The turnout was a bit light due to the cold and flu season, but we had plenty of models to choose from and a few new artists. No captions on these. Just use your imaginations.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

A couple of quick vector illustrations for a travel presentation:

Sketchy-Book

I promised I would post some more of my sketches from our Dr. Sketchy sessions. Gaze in wide wonder:

Tim TV humbles himself before his god

Michie DeVale takes a literary break

Mee-oww

Matt Feazell pumps up the jams

Art Monkeys

Lana the Belly Dancer

Lana in super spectacular colorific...um...color

Tattoo You.

One of my coworkers commisioned me to design a tattoo for him. The theme? "There's a monkey on my back." So I toiled to get the beer swilling, chain smoking, finger flicking monkey's face looking graphic enough for my liking. When I finished the initial sketch I thought the dark space between his legs needed something, so I added a li'l winkie as a joke to see if it would fly. The guy loved it with one exception. "Make it bigger and more erect". It took a couple times to get it to the heights that he was happy with, and then I inked it up. I also did a color reference for the tattoo artist to go off from (if they can actually reproduce what I colored up). I'll post some photos when the guy gets it done. Click on the pic below to see the whole design.

Cowabunga!

What do you give a five year old for his birthday? If he's got way too many toys you might make him a poster of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And then you take him to see the movie.

You don't get him one of these though:

This was in my sketchbook and I colored it in for fun.

HATCHED!

Last Saturday was the first official outing for HATCH, the Hamtramck art collective I belong to. We all snuggled up inside Cafe 1923 for some coffee, an art show, and a little Dr. Sketchy. This is the first juried show I've ever been in . No kiddin'. I'm 41 and never been in an art show before! We had a great turnout and took some steps toward getting a community arts program off the ground. With a few more events like this it's sure to flourish!

I didn't take many photos, but here are the few that aren't blurry. Oddly, there's none of me.

Dr. Sketchy coordinator Sean Bieri shows us the back of his head. And that's Hatch president Christopher Schneider standing in the center talking it up.

Jim Mackey and Michelangelo Cicerone discuss the composition and technique of one of the entries.

Hatch members Suzanne Baumann and John Nagridge.


Michelangelo continues his art discussion with Matt Feazell, creator of Cynicalman.


The John Nagridge Fan Club.


Local art lover waiting to get in.


Well, someone took my picture.


It's Hatch shop proprietor and Dr. Sketchy Swag Faerie Katherine, along with her friend.


John can't wait to do some Sketchy-ing.


Art Monkey Bill Kuehl waiting to get started. By the way, that's my entry all blurry up on the wall.



Our model for the day Xaina reads up on what to expect from her session in Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book.


And here are my interpretations of Xaina:

And here's the super special color version:

Party all the time.

Here are two illustrations I did for parties. One is for a retirement party and the other for a birthday for a five year old. Guess which is which.

Pretty Colors

The last bit of artwork for the big CEO trip is finally done. This here's a view of the lawn out front of the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. I kinda cheated on this one as I actually just traced over a photo, but the colors are all mine. And there wasn't a moon in the photo so that's original.

Pick a card...

Here are the rest of the cards I did for the AT&T sales trip. That last one is the original version of the one before it. I included it because I thought it was pretty cool and I spent so much time on those horses. Seems a shame to let it go to waste.

Dr. Sketchy

Once a month or so a group of Detroit area artists congregate in a small bar in the hamlet of Hamtramck for a night of drinkin' and drawin'. Dr. Sketchy was started by Molly Crabapple in New York City as an alternative to college figure drawing classes. The models are culled from the local burlesque scene to add a little spice to our sketchbooks. Our local Hamtramck chapter was started last August by cartoonist Sean Bieri. Here's a few sketches from our most recent get together featuring Queen Bee. I'm not too happy with them as my magic pen wasn't working right or something. Perhaps I'll post some others later on.


And, imagine my surprise when I was flipping through a copy of Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book (that I won for another rendition of Queen Bee that doesn't appear here) that I discovered one of my sketches from our first Sketchy session was included really small!

S'all Relative

Baby Blue M/M
2002
PVC on Wood
30" x 30"

My cousin, Steve Schmidt, is an LA area artist. Much of his artwork utilizes discarded plastic which he then arranges in grid-like monochromatic patterns. A kind of study of color and texture. He's also used cigarette papers that have been carefully peeled from their crushed out butts, and then attached to board in a similar fashion as the plastic. I especially like Baby Blue M/M. I imagine this is a lot of people's favorite because of the soothing variations of the aqua colored plastic. I like it because it reminds me of the bottom of a swimming pool like the one I practiced for swim meets in for high school. I can smell the chlorine. Mmmmm...

I proclaim him today's Artist of the Day!

Past Life
2006
Graphite on Paper
45 x 48 inches

Yee-Haw!

I just finished up this card illustration for AT&T. It's for an announcement of a western themed party for their top sales representatives. As with much of my work, it's completely digital using Corel Painter.



Also, I'll be attending the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators annual conference this weekend in New York city! T'ain't ne'er been there afore. Kinda intimidated by the whole thing. I'm hoping to get some illustration work and possibly drum up some interest for Rubber Duckie Sees The World. Wish me luck!