Hey gang, looking for a little help if you've got a minute.... the design that ran on Teefury.com a while ago is up for voting on Threadless.com right now. If you could click on it and hook me up with some "5" votes, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks a bunch!





*****Only one more day left to vote. Thanks to everyone who helped me so far, much appreciated!

Over the past few weeks, I've learned more about the U.S. Presidents than I've ever cared to know! Why, you ask? I can't tell you yet. But I'm also diving deeply into the First Ladies as well. Just know that I've been extremely busy at the drawing table lately.

/cryptic journal entry

Hooray!

[link]


Missed out on the last one, hopefully I can be part of it next year!

Wow, what a blast! I was so busy from start to finish! Was great to hang out with so many awesome sketch card pals (somehow Rhi eluded me most of the weekend, even though her table was right next to mine ). Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table to chat and buy some artwork.

There's a bunch of reports and photos here: [link]

Best part of the weekend for a zombie fanboy:

Also, the Sketch Artist Panel on Sunday morning was way fun - Rhi, Axebone, Tony Perna and myself answered questions from the group. Here's a link to the video [link] I think the panel part starts around 15 minutes in (haven't watched it yet).


Back to the drawing board!!

Don't forget, I'll be set up at the Philly Non-Sport Card Show in Allentown beginning tomorrow: [link]

Also featured artists:
Special Guest Appearance by

I just posted a bunch of personal sketch cards I'll have available, as well as sketch books, larger pieces, Voltron books, etc. etc. etc.... and I'll be taking on-site commissions. Hopefully you'll see something you like.



I'll also have a limited amount of FREE Cult-Stuff promo items to give out. First come, first served!! [link]





****SCARES THAT CARE****

TODAY Friday the 13th is $5.00 Donation Day for Scares That Care, with proceeds benefiting sick children. It's just $5, but it can go a long way. Plus, you could win some cool prizes like an Xbox 360! Details below and on their Facebook page (which I can't seem to post a direct link to)...

-----
Folks, there is only one Friday the 13th this year. Let's make it special for sick kids by having everyone interested donate $5.00 to "Scares that Care!" Remember, every single penny we raise goes to the kids! We are collecting for the"Make-A-Wish" Foundation! Donate on Friday, May 13th, 2011!

Donations can be made directly through paypal to; scares_that_care@yahoo.com! It's only five bucks! There will be random Prizes awarded......everyone who donates is eligible!

PRIZES INCLUDE;

An XBox 360 Video Game Console
A Kindle Electronic Reading Device
A copy of "Fallout; New Vegas" for the PC
A copy of "Fallout; New Vegas" for the XBox 360
A copy of "Fallout; New Vegas" for the PS3
A copy of "Fallout 3" for the Xbox 360
Autographed Picture of Bruce Campbell

MORE PRIZES WILL BE ADDED AS WE GET MORE PEOPLE TO ATTEND!

...to Biz E.


Currently working on:

• Catching up on commissions! (I don't think I'll ever be caught up )

• Getting ready for Allentown next weekend!! [link]

• Vampirella!!! [link]

• Dungeon Dolls!!!! [link]

• Other card sets on the way!!!!!

• One REALLY BIG project that's going to ensure I don't see the sun until sometime in July!!!!!!

I normally attend the show anyway, but for the first time in ages I'll have a table at the show! [link]

The artist lineup is quite amazing, really a who's who of sketch cards:








I mentioned this elsewhere, but I feel like Joe Blanton on the Phillies pitching staff.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Kris from sketchcollectors.com tipped me off to this, an amazing deal at Buy.com! Free shipping too, hooray!

[link]


Or if you want them in a pretty case for $3 more - [link]

I uploaded the last of my Star Wars Galaxy 6 sketch cards. I did 50 Hobby, 50 Retail. I didn't want to inundate everyone with messages, but I normally thank everyone for every favorite of my work. These cards have been faved by SO MANY awesome DA folks that I just didn't respond to those who faved each one. Thanks to all of you for following my work!


What's on my plate now....

• COMMISSIONS! I still owe some of you work, and believe me, I'm trying to get them done in a respectable timeframe. By the time I get home from work I'm usually caring for my daughter (Mommy has day-duty and is usually wiped out by the evening), and when she finally goes to sleep, Daddy's usually ready for sleep too.   I had a rough go with a few commissions I was working on, one I just could not get to look right and had to give up on. Thankfully the buyer was understanding. That was a real bummer, I'm still angry with myself over it.

• Vampirella from Breygent - This should be fun.

• Dungeon Dolls from Bad Axe Studios - More fun! Pin-up stuff isn't really my forte, but by the time I'm finished, it just might be. I did enjoy working on the Bettie Page set, which I think is some of my best work.

• Maybe some more things for Cult-Stuff.

• Something else that I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about yet. It's a property I was hoping to work on years ago, finally got the nod.


I think that's it. I love having work to keep busy, but I gotta tell ya, Daddy's dead tired.


GO PHILLIES!!

So I did both Hobby and Retail cards for this. I'm not saying how many I did just yet, but over the next week or so I'll post groups of them and will eventually post them all.

For the Hobby version, they are all full color and instead of doing more character-based images, I went with all landscapes and wide shots. I've done some like this in the past, but I went all out on these.

For the Retail ones, I gave a nod to the 1951 Topps Red Back baseball cards. The design isn't exactly the same, but having the character in the diamond shape is a straight up reference. I also scoured for some obscure creatures, ended up drawing a few I didn't even know existed!

So bear with me as I sporadically post these, and hopefully you'll stay on for the ride.

Now it takes a lot for me to get riled up over something, and I'm probably letting this bother me more than I should, but some of the reactions from sketch card collectors dumbfounds me.

Let me start this by saying buying unopened product is a gamble. Sure there are odds to hit autographs and sketch cards, but aside from the guarantee of one per XX packs, you don't know exactly WHO you're going to get - both in artist and subject. There are unbelievable artists that have raised the bar pretty much as high as it can go. And hey, I appreciate the fact that someone has all day to work on one small card and can dedicate themselves like that, because it truly shows in their work. But there are collectors that see this and expect to get that every time. It's actually gotten to the point where on a thread over on the Scoundrel boards somebody complained about opening a case, one that guarantees a sketch per box, mind you... out of the 8 boxes they got 15 sketch cards (and a printing plate to boot) consisting of amazing artwork by popular artists Cat Staggs, Kevin Graham, Mike Duron, Alex Buechel, and others (including one of mine, which is probably why this is bugging me so). Now, who would imagine someone would be unhappy with that? The collector's reaction was, "My one case pulls. That is really all I have to say." Then they followed it up with, "I am sure no one wants to hear it but this case feels like a straight waste of my time and money. Just one great sketch would have made things worth it but Topps piled all those into a group of cases instead of spreading them out. I feel Topps dropped a smoke screen of sketches, a flash bang that merely tried to distract us of how jacked up things still really are there."

Wow. "...a straight waste of my time and money." That really hit me hard because I pour a lot of my own time and talent into my work, as I know most sketch card artists do. I have a newborn at home, and around the Christmas madness managed to devote every moment I had available into trying to make all my cards for this set great. Will they sell for thousands? No. Am I proud of them? Heck yeah! Will you be happy to find one for your collection? I hope so.   But to have someone dump on all that work because it wasn't an Adam Hughes signed by Mark Hamill just.... ARGH!

If you're looking for work by a specific artist, save your money on the "unknown" sealed packages and purchase the card on the secondary market. Or here's an even better idea - commission something directly from the artist. At least that way you'll get exactly what you want, and won't have to deal with the troublesome wasted time and money.


And I'm not ending this Journal with that. To those of you who look forward to my work on these sets (and many of you email me telling me so), thank you. You make continually doing this fun, and I appreciate the support. I'll be posting my Galaxy 6 work here soon, just like to leave some element of surprise.

Sorry for the rant. It's just you get one bad apple and it leaves that super-sour taste in your mouth.

Nice use of alliteration, eh?


Check this out, pretty amazing - Portrait of Ali made from 1,300 punching bags ---> [link]

Looks like a cool contest.... and Queen rocks, so this is a no-brainer.

[link]

You've got until April 19th. Good luck!


And a cool, unfinished feature:

Well, with the usual quick sellout unless you have your tickets secured by now, the only way you're getting into Comic-Con is in the Souvenir Book.

Info --> [link]

This year's themes so far are:

• Fantastic Four's 50th Anniversary
• Comic Fandom's 50th Anniversary
• 1986: The Year Comics Grew Up

Aside from the FF anniversary, looks like they're grasping at straws for the other two. They may add more, but if they don't include some more specific items, I suspect there will be a deluge of FF entries.

Submissions will be take until 4/29/11.

Last year they included my Peanuts tribute.


I'm sure I'll get around to doing a submission this year again, and I hope you do too. Good luck!


*****UPDATE******

Now these are the type of anniversaries I was looking for!

• 50th Anniversary of Spy vs. Spy
• 20th Anniversary of Bone

I will absolutely be doing a Spy vs Spy piece!

This is the greatest music video I've ever seen: [link]

Dave Grohl is an amazing musician, everything he touches is gold. Here's an impromptu feature on some awesome Dave art!

Looks like many artists are receiving their contributor copies of Voltron: United and Drawn [link] still waiting on mine, hopefully it will arrive any day now. Once it does I'll post up my artwork for it and what page you can find it on.

All of my Bettie Page artwork has been approved, now I have to wait until the set's release to post them, which means no BP art until June/July.   I really think this is some of the best sketch card work I've ever done, can't wait to show it off!

I also haven't mentioned much, if anything, about this anywhere but I did do sketch cards for Star Wars Galaxy 6. I approached the subject matter differently than usual. I spent a good chunk of my Christmas vacation laboring over these to meet the deadline. I hope collectors appreciate my work.

Look for a handful of painted sketch cards in the next wave of Sherlock Holmes and Victorian Era Crime from Cult-Stuff, which should be available any time now (if not already). [link] I'll post them here once I know they're out there. Should have some other work in future Cult-Stuff releases as well. Stay tuned...

Have some commissions to catch up on... other than that nothing really major or pressing on my plate at the moment, it's nice to be able to breathe a bit. If I owe you artwork, I haven't forgotten you! And I still have sketchbooks available for $5. [link]

Oh, and if you live in or near Chicago, and if the planets align (which as of right now it appears they will), I may be visiting you in September...

I haven't uploaded anything new in a month... but it doesn't mean I haven't been busy!! I've got plenty to show, just can't yet. Damned contractual stipulations!!!

So hang in there, I'll be bombarding you soon.

[link]


"This may possibly be the best Monday ever, especially for the artists participating in The Stan Lee Foundation's Create a Superhero Character Creative Invite! Here's why…

Comic book artist/writer Todd McFarlane has officially jumped in to co-host this life changing opportunity offering an additional, yet equally incredible, incentive!!
As the winner of our Create a Superhero Character Invite, you will now receive the following:
• The opportunity to meet Stan Lee!
• A trip to San Diego Comic Con 2011 (tickets, travel and accommodation provided)
• A trip to Tempe, AZ to spend a day with Todd McFarlane at his art studio production facility, Todd McFarlane Entertainment, Inc. (travel and accommodation provided)
• Your winning design will be manufactured into an action figure

On top of that, the top 100 highest voted submissions will receive a Prismacolor Premier Illustration Markers Set and the 20 highest voted submissions will also receive an official movie poster from one of the Marvel movies signed by Stan Lee.

Because of this exciting collaboration, we have extended the submission deadline to Monday, February 7th, 2011!

A huge thank you goes out to MTV Geek for their write-up on this collaboration. You rock!"

This coffee table book is scheduled to release soon, should be quite awesome. I contributed a piece of full-color art, which I'll probably make available to purchase once the book is out.

Pre-orders are up now at Voltron.com - [link]

Well, a sneak peek of my artwork, anyway.

[link]

There are quite a few artist samples posted in the "Meet the Artists" area of the site, give it a look-see.