I’ve been lousy poster as of late. It started a little over a month ago when I came down with a nasty little bout of tonsillitis, and continued after I got better and busy with work.

Something big is in the works which I am grateful to have been asked to be a part of. It hasn’t officially been announced yet, so I have to hold off on letting you in on the details. However, it’s related to the photo above which is my blank canvas. Or blank paper to be precise about it. Not a great photo or anything, but you get the idea.

Preparing my paper/canvas for a painting or illustration is an exercise I really get into. There’s something quietly serene and pure about cutting the paper, setting it to my board, taping the edges, and sizing it to paint on. It’s become a little ritual, a little offering to the gods of creativity out there who I hope will lend me a little bit of their sugar. I’m hoping to show you what happens with this one soon. Hopefully when this whole thing is announced!

I’m starting to run into her more often in the mornings when I’m on my run. This is a super quick sketch when I got home, but her face is just so striking to me, I can’t help it. All that makeup! I wonder where she’s off to every morning? This morning she was all about the lavender jumpsuit, probably to celebrate spring. Stylin’!

A little bit of mirror doodling today.

My fourth sculpt from some time back. I always liked how this one turned out. Since she’s reclining there was no need for an armature, and it gave a lot of freedom to move things around a bit to play with the composition.

Our group lost our regular sculpting space a couple months ago, and although another space was just found, it’s difficult for me to make it Monday nights. I’m hoping to tweak my schedule and make it back in again.

Hmmm. What would have happened if Saul Bass designed the title sequence for Star Wars way back when? Perhaps you may not recognize the name of Saul Bass, but there is no doubt you have seen his designs in everything from company logos, to children’s books, to album covers, to film title sequences. His work is amazing and he is a design legend.

Just got back from checking out the new exhibition of Annie Leibovitz’s photography over at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Nice collection of her magazine and corporate work, juxtaposed against her very personal family photos. I sketched a little bit outside, since the weather was so stunningly beautiful.

This is a little guy I had made some time back. Please don’t ask why he has a telephone. He’s pretty annoyed at the absurdity himself.

A small listing of the books I picked up from this year’s Con:
• Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons 1 and 2 by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood. I love Ashley’s meaty oils and gestural/dynamic panels in scratchy ink. Great texture. Plus it’s about zombies and robots and amazons all fighting eachother! C’mon!

• Chris Sanders’ Sketchbook 2 - full of his fantastic little critters and busty babes. Really, this guy is just an incredible draftsman!

• Claire Wendling’s phenomenal work in drawers 2.0. Claire blows me away. She can draw her figures and animals like Frank Frazetta and also do concept work for animation and comics. I don’t think her super simplified characters are as strong or interesting as her other work, but it’s nice to have the entire gamut of her style in one book. I love, love, love her animals and figures. The gestures!

• Afterworks 1 and 2 - I was late on this bandwagon, but I got ‘em now! Lovely work from the folks over at Pixar.

• Istanbul by Dupuy and Berberian. I couldn’t pass this one up. A real lovely book of sketches of this incredible city. It’s full of beautiful quick and whimsical studies of the architecture and people. Again, this is where my family is from, and the illustrator is Armenian. Yay!

Yesterday I attended the geek-fest that is Wondercon in San Francisco. I’m definitely on the “artist-geek” end of things, but the “fan geeks” definitely make the event highly entertaining. I picked up some really great books which I’ll talk about later. But first here are some pics from the day. These photos were taken with my phone, so apologies for the low quality.

Some people really spend time making elaborate costumes. I don’t even know who these characters are supposed to be.

Ah, yes. Cobra Command!

Again, I have no clue what character she’s supposed to be. But it’s cool!

Silent Hill was a pretty awful movie, but I loved the production design, and these evil characters. They were pretty memorable, and I was pleasantly surprised to see these two go through all the trouble of recreating them here.

Lou Ferrigno! The Original Hulk!!! I’m usually not so easily star-struck, but this guy made such a big impression on me when I was 5 years old and watching the Incredible Hulk on tv with my dad. He scared the living crap out of me back then, and I think also helped nurture my fascination with horror and all things scary.