I have so much fun painting with oils. I’m inspired by music, films, landscapes and travel. The canvas sizes and canvas surfaces change and vary frequently. They range from stretched canvas to flat canvas pads to cardboard to wood.
In 2015, I began illustrating comedy show posters for world-touring headlining comedians such as Doug Stanhope, Bert Kreischer, Sam Tripoli and many others. Creating the show posters was a labor-intensive process with fast turnaround times. All posters were created, designed and drawn at 11” X 17.”
Watercolor was my first introduction to painting. My inspiration comes from music, films, landscapes and my surroundings. My watercolor surfaces can vary from cold-press or hot-press paper to Aquaboard, Bristol board and Scratchboard.
Scratchboard is a fantastic medium to work in. There are so many techniques and tools that can be applied while creating on it. I work with a standard scratchboard or scratchboard paper. The scratchboard paper items are 11” X 14” and the standard scratchboard pieces vary in size.
Pastels are always a lot of fun to work with offering raw strokes and blending options. The vibrancy pastels offer is undeniable and the colors push me to challenge color theory.
In late 2021, a good friend and great comedian, Andy Andrist, was diagnosed with cancer. I knew I had to help, but, didn’t know what to do. So, beginning at noon on 31 December 2021 and ending at noon on 01 January 2022, I drew one sketch per hour for 24 hours straight. I then auctioned off all 24 sketches on eBay with 100% of the earnings going to his medical bills. Sure, I stayed up a long time and cranked out a lot of work. But, that was nothing compared to the winning bidders who really stepped up to offset crushing medical debt in a time of need.
In August of 2022, another good friend and great comedian, Kristine Levine, was also diagnosed with cancer. I knew I had to help. So, beginning at noon on 02 September 2022 and ending at noon on 03 September 2022, I drew one sketch per hour for 24 hours straight. I then auctioned off all 24 sketches during a live Twitch stream with 100% of the earnings going to her medical bills. Sure, I stayed up a long time and cranked out a lot of work. But, that was nothing compared to the winning bidders who really stepped up to offset crushing medical debt in a time of need.
After working with traditional media for so many years, working digitally is a delight. Easy to set up, no clean up afterwards and if I screw up, I can just click “undo!” All the comedy show posters I’ve drawn were created with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator or Procreate. Currently, I’m only using Procreate when working digitally.
This is hands-down my favorite medium to work with. It’s where I’m comfortable and happiest. I love to grab a #2 pencil and begin sketching. When the sketch is complete, I throw the kitchen sink at it via drawing inks, ink pens, markers, colored pencils and occasionally Zip-A-Tone.