This is Why No One Takes Me Seriously

A piece I recently finished that is an ode to a bunch of different things. But, mostly an ode to the music of Queen.

I had done these two sketches, that are below, a few months apart, and wanted to create finished pieces from them, but I didn't want to re-draw Freddie Mercury, which makes no sense to me, and I also didn't want to be completely tasteless with the words that I was going to include in the banner that is blocking young, impressionable minds from viewing all that is natural, yet considered indecent. So, I married the two into one big, immature creation saluting skateboarding, the imminent danger that is naturally associated with it, one of the greatest songs ever, evenings in the park under some sort of atomic sunset, and of course, birds.

Initial sketch:

There was some electric yellow all over this piece, but was too shy to really show off once it knew it was going to be making an appearance on here.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Finally went to visit Providence, RI. It only took me 3 years after I graduated to make it back. Did a little drawing while I was there. I think seeing all the pre-college kids walking around with their gigantic portfolios and trunks full of drawing supplies made me feel like I was still in school(and should be slaving away at some drawing).

Not a lot to show, but it was fun to go visit old spots that various RISD faculty would bring us to while we were in life-drawing classes. It was nice to see that Providence hasn't changed too much, besides all the horrible looking condos popping up around town. Here's an embarrassing painting I did in a landscape painting course, just to show how long I've been learning from this park. it's also at Prospect Park, just from a different view.

Told you it was pretty bad.

Let Summer Begin!!!

Pointless, but Hopefully Somewhat Entertaining.

Sneak peek of a project I just finished, but cannot completely reveal yet:

I recently went upstate to visit my family and while I was there I found a long lost treasure: Alien comic books. These were the ones that came with various action figures done by Kenner in '92. When they released this line they wanted to give you a wallop of a package, so not only did you get melted down plastic shapes of alien life forms, but you also got a nail-biting, thrill ride of a read.

Sweet.
The craziest thing about these comics was at the end of every issue there was some crazy cliffhanger where aliens were wreaking havoc on some planet and the gang hopped into their space jet, flew there, and blew up any creature that resembled some alien life form that mated with any kind of species from Earth. This seemed to imply that the alien hunters never slept or ate, did a piss-poor job at actually killing the aliens, and that all species on Earth also exist on other planets.


I also found my first skateboard. Saved up 140 dollars to buy this thing when I was in sixth grade.

What was once the tail.

Made a new friend.

To anyone that saw me drawing hundreds of cats in my sketchbook, or had heard me mention this, well, here it is.

Largely inspired by this big guy.

Lost in the shuffle

Here are those extra heads I mentioned I had laying around. First is Ray Bradbury. You are blowing it if you haven't read any of his work besides Fahrenheit 451. Maybe when Urban Outfitters can market some hip cover design for his other works, more people will find out how amazing he is.


A young Norman Mailer


Also, here are some lyrics which have recently blown my mind and I'd like to share with you:

"Just wrap your legs around these velvet rims/ And strap your hands across my engines"

"Pick up the dog-doo/Hope that it's hard"

"Just the two of us/Building castles in the sky"

Wolfie: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

A recently commissioned portrait:

There's too many awesome stories about this unique creature to unload on this blog, but I tried as hard as I could to get this portrait to do him some sort of justice. But, in the end, as much as I struggled to really capture him the best I could, a 12 x 15 sheet of bristol board cannot control him, he's just too much for a mere sheet of paper to handle. I guess some people are just born that way.

Below is the sketch I did that put this project into motion.

Thawing Out

These are some random things I've done lately that I'm somewhat happy enough with to show. No major projects or anything along those lines in here, only doodles done to keep free time from being idle time.

There are some more of these heads that i have laying around that I'll get to posting soon. I know I said earlier i was getting sick of drawing people, and here, presented before you, is something to contradict that statement. Well, I lied. I was just sick of how I was going about it.





You know this is what Christmas has been reduced to. There's no use in thinking otherwise.

Blogging in 2011

Welp, it's a new year and it's time to release some life updates. I'm still alive, I survived the great NYC blizzard of 2010 and recently did some more spot illustrations for Steez. Another round of the ongoing illustrated definitions. Could we end up releasing a dictionary of these? Would anyone buy it? Would anyone care? Questions 2011 may or may not answer.







I moved from the great outdoors of Upstate New York to Manhattan in August. Stayed with an extremely gracious friend for a few months in a tight living situation. This air mattress was my bed, couch, desk, and kitchen table all in one. Let's see the folks making swiss army knives beat that combo!


Moved on over to Brooklyn in early December and was able to spread out a little more.


Heat is included in the rent:


Finally have my life situation stabilizing and finally have a wall for this Dennis McNett print. So far so good in ol' Brooklyn. Now Spring just needs to arrive because I'm already over winter.

Pages From the Book of Sketch Vol. 2

Some recent faces I've done in between other things going on. Feelings are a-brewin' down below that drawing people, or to be more specific, doing caricatures of random famous people, isn't as fun as it used to be. There may soon be a void where there was once hours and hours of enjoyment from people drawing. But I heard from a wise old man that if it isn't fun, then what's the point?

Ronald Searle at The Forbes Galleries

There's an amazing show that gives you a glimpse into the career of Ronald Searle going on right now at the Forbes Galleries, and I'm telling anyone that may read this that they should go check it out, a.s.a.p. It will most likely raise your spirits, open your mind, and cure any back pain you may be experiencing. There's also a room of brand spanking new illustrations he did to accompany a book of poems written by Robert L. Forbes. The show runs until March 12th and is on the corner of 5th ave. and 12th St. Here's some images to give you an idea of the awesomeness that awaits you.

Sharpen Your Spork!

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2010/11/05/guest-strip-rob-hovden-rob-barton-and-phil-ashworth/#more-7423

Here's a taste of a project a couple guys and I have been working on for the past year. We submitted this comic we did a little while ago to www.thedailycrosshatch.com Every week, The Daily Crosshatch puts up a chosen comic submitted by followers of the site, and ours raised enough eyebrows, and cracked enough grins, to be this weeks choosing, or maybe it was just a slow week. I will soon spill the beans on the project that we've been working on, but for now, hopefully you will enjoy this little bit.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!

This is a recent promotional project I did to appear on a website. A biking maniac, Andrew Fersch, contacted me about a goal of his to begin biking 1300 miles on Arbor Day, and along his journey, plant 1300 trees. Apparently, recently biking across the U.S. wasn't enough for this man because New England is the next to be dominated, and beautified. Andrew just requested a simple logo from me to help promote this adventure on his website. I figured, why not? Seems like a goal any decent human being could get behind. From start to finish, it was a quick and enjoyable one. Thanks again to Andrew. www.arborride.org


All inked up, just waiting for the color to get into the mix.

Below are some of the sketch ideas.

Reunited, and it feels so good.

New illustration for Steez Magazine. Pretty hyped that my good bud, Marcus Sears has been having his photos published in the same mag for the past few months. He's a rad photographer, filmer, and one fine human being.

Preliminary sketches: