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I decided to keep posting until they actually pull the plug on this ftp account.

Here's a detail of another background for the iPhone app.

Okay, last post. Here's an image of the iPhone/iPad children's book I'm currently illustrating/animating:

Just got a notice from Google that their eBlogger service will discontinue ftp service. What that means is that I will no longer be able to redirect my blog onto my website here. I suspect that means that when others click on my homepage link to the blog, they will receive a blank page, or just the frame of the page. In any case, I may as well close this blog and figure a way to get a blog set up on my site. In the mean time, adios to the three people who even bothered checking in with any frequency. In the meantime, I'll still post nonsense on my Facebook page if you want to keep up with the life-and-times of yours truly. God bless y'all.

 Often, while I'm working at the drawing-board, my 8 year-old is on my computer writing stories (I can't type. She can type 30 wpm or so). Since I eventually require use of my computer, I have to cut her time short, which naturally frustrates her. So my wife picked up a used typewriter for four-bucks at a thrift-store, and my daughter's been on it at every opportunity. It's electric, and not the kind of type-writer on which I grew up -- the one with the carriage that moves to the left, dings, and has to be shifted back to the right. Nevertheless, it's giving her an experience that most kids her age will never have, i.e., typing on a real typewriter and not having a backspace, and undo button, or a spell-check function to get things right. This will definitely force her to pay attention to getting things right the first time. Although it may seem a bit archaic, there's something to be said for low-tech.

It's been a loooooong time since I've played some poker.

My better half...

PARDON ME WHILE I TOOT

LONG LIVE DEAD TREES!

I find it's far more economical to buy copy-paper rather than waste money on expensive drawing pads. I keep this stack of paper in a magazine rack next to my drawing board, and it's convenient in every aspect of working when rendering roughs. I know a lot of artists are drawing on a Cintiq these days, but there's still nothing better than graphite and ink on dead-tree products. Long live dead trees!

I wish I had time to clown around with music, but my guitar strings are rusty and remain untouched these days.

I keep trying to get the right shot of the my desk, but something is always off. In this case, the watch was supposed to be in focus, but it's way off. I'll try it again later. I really could use a macro lens. The one on my current wish-list is the new 100mm f/2.8 macro... Right after I get my wife her new kitchen floor...

My daily contribution to the great smoke-off of 2010... I'm listening to a lot of OTR while I work ("Richard Diamond", "Johnny Dollar", "Sam Spade", "Philip Marlowe", etc.), which put me in the mood to knock this out during my break.

Listening to Phil Harris' orchestra right now.

Way cool, daddy-O.

Another shot during my jaunt through L.A. 

Evening lighting can make ordinary architecture much more interesting. 

Like I already said, I don't smoke. 

But for some odd reason I enjoy drawing a character with a smoke.

I'm like that.

Remember that Missing Persons' song, "Walking In L.A.",

where the line in the chorus is "Nobody walks in L.A."?

Well, this must be the "nobody" of which they sang.

Is this equivalent to a Big-Foot sighting or something?

Went to L.A. yesterday with a buddy to do some shooting. I'd like to go out shooting more often, but one really needs to have a partner to shoot with if one intends to roam the streets of L.A. at night. As much as I enjoy going into the city and taking in the hustle and bustle with all its towers, traffic, and city lights, I enjoy coming home to the family and settling down in my cozy nest.  

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES...

When I was growing up, smoking was just a part of life. It seemed like every other person smoked, and no house went without an ashtray on practically every coffee-table, end-table, nightstand, kitchen counter, toilet-tank, and anywhere else one might drop a potted plant. No kid made it out of an elementary-school crafts class without making an ashtray out of clay to bring home to mom so she would have someplace to drop her ashes with pride. 

Being a big fan of pulp fiction and noir films, it seems like people in those yarns lived on alcohol and smokes. Although I don't smoke, I don't have the tobacco-phobia so common amongst many today. Oh, sure, it's not a healthy past-time, but it's also not the evil that some portray it to be. Cheeseburgers are probably worse for your health than smokes. It seems like the people most paranoid about things like "second-hand smoke" are those who wring their hands over global-warming and overpopulation; two of the stupidest ideas driven by junk science if ever there was a stupid idea. So here's my doodle for the day-- my non-conformist rebellion against all such stupid phobias. 

ROCKETEER!

Woo-hoo! My IDW Deluxe edition of Dave Steven's Rocketeer collection just arrived on the doorstep ten minutes ago! Anyone who knows me knows that I have an addiction for books, but work was so slow last year that this past summer I only bought one book at the Con -- so out of character for me. So this is the first book I've purchased in the last eight months, and it'll probably be one of my favorite art books ever. Amazon and IDW are sold out of the Deluxe edition already, but you can still find it on eBay. If I weren't swamped with work at the moment, I'd spend the rest of my evening pouring over every page. It's truly a work of art. (Incidentally, I swiped this image from the web, because I wanted to post this and didn't want to take the time to shoot a pic. My apologies to the photographer)

Well, I squeaked my way through 2009. 

This year seems to be off to a good start, 

but we'll see what's in store. 

Still scribbling away, doing comic-book pencils for a current client.

This panel had to be revised and won't be used as is.

Final Christmas Pic of the year of my lovely bride...

Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas Eve!

A photo I shot while at the library recently...

Three more days till Christmas...

Okay, almost done... Just one more illustration... It's 11:30 in the AM and I've still not gone to bed. This thing is due tonight, and if I go to bed now, I'll sleep until sundown, and I'll never finish by tonight, so the little wife put another pot of coffee on, and I'm chugging away. Every time I take a swallow of java, I fell like my heart starts racing. I NEED SLEEP!!! I can't wait to hit the sheets. These marathon projects run me down... Ah feel like drool awn a dawg's lip. I feel like this guy... Hopefully I don't smell like him... but this studio is getting stuffy. You know what it smell likes when you keep a hairy critter in a box for too long? Yeah, pretty bad. I need a shave real bad, too. 

Still got a few pages before finishing my current project. Deadline is Thursday night...No time to clown around.

I just read about the attempted robbery of Frazetta's gallery. I wondered if Frazetta's kids would fight over his art when he passed. Since his wife, Ellie, really controlled the museum, her passing was the actual thing that brought about the alleged family feud. It's really so sad.

Just thought I'd take a moment to post something before getting back to work. I'm pulling another all-nighter, because I have a project due pretty soon, and I need to put in as many hours as possible so as to complete it on schedule. My listening-while-I-work bounces between Christmas tunes and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar OTR programs. It's almost 3AM, and I'm still nursing my second cup of coffee, but it'll be enough to keep me up. Hopefully my hands can remain steady as I attempt to ink and color another comics page... Rats, I just realized: it's trash day tomorrow and I forgot to take the cans out to the street... Guess I'll go do that before I get back to the drawing board. 

FORGERY UPDATE
Well, for those who read several posts ago (12-4-09) about the possible fake sold at Heritage Auctions, here's what's happened so far. The person whose site I originally had noticed the image of the possible fake decided to post my suspicions to a site which he believed Heritage frequented. Sure enough, they took notice of the buzz and responded with the following:


"We appreciate this being brought to our attention (thanks to the fellow who called us as well [that would be me] ). As I think/hope everybody already knows, we guarantee the authorship as stated in our cataloging on any painting unconditionally. We feel that the painting in question is indeed the painting used to produce the final pulp cover. There are a number of possible reasons for the visible changes between the painting we sold and the printed version: all kinds of alterations were often made in the production process, and there may well have been restoration at some point to the painting. Anyway, we\'re contacting the buyer and offering to inspect the painting first-hand, and will offer to refund the purchase price if our opinion should change about the veracity of the painting. -Barry Sandoval" (Insert mine)


Well, I don't buy that the "production process" accounts for the discrepancies. It is possible, however, that the painting was damaged with age and was poorly restored, but that remains to be seen. 

Since Trinity, my eldest daughter, spends so much time reading and writing, I recently suggested to my wife that we set up a blog for her, wherein she can post her book reports and other writings. Trinity naturally embraced the idea with enthusiasm, so I took a few minutes to set up the account on eBlogger. Other than setting it up initially, my only contribution to the blog was to come up with the name and add photos I took of my daughter. Cristina, my wife, will be helping by proofreading for grammatical errors, but other than that, the writing will be all Trinity's, so it'll be interesting to see how that develops. 

BUBBLE-GUM PINK

This is a shot of Noel at Universal City Walk. I really want to get a page on this site for photography so I can use this blog for artwork only, but I haven't had the opportunity yet. And sure, I also post this stuff over on Facebook, but I post it here so as to consolidate things. This way, if Facebook goes belly-up, I still have my stuff here. Now, if I go belly-up, that'll be something else altogether.

BURNING THE MIDNIGHT CANDLE

Well, I have a project that'll probably keep me awake for the next week and a half. I'd better get all the sleep I can tonight.

(Still tinkering with photography. This is the little lady and my little dude.)

DeRailed

So the train, after several years of use, has finally given up the ghost. Joe had the thing on practically nonstop, and the motor either burned out, or something came loose, but it won't even turn on. Well, it still looks nice...so far. Joe's been playing with it off-track, so we'll see if it remains intact throughout Christmas.

My lovely bride, of whom I am not worthy.

YOU BE THE JUDGE
A couple of weeks ago, I was perusing a website that featured pulp art, with side-by-side comparisons of the original art next to the published version of the cover art. Well, I noticed one sample featured an "original" that differed significantly from the published version (by Edward Dalton Stevens). Being an artist, I know the difference between editorial changes and a different painting altogether. I also understand that printed versions may be different in color due to the age of the printed material, or due to the printing color formulas, or due to registration shifts, and so forth. But the differences between the original art and the printed version of the art in question had nothing to do with those kinds of things. The two were clearly not that same illustration -- at least not to this artist's eye. 
So I decided to email the website and let the guy know that he possibly had a fake on his hands. The owner emailed me back, agreeing that he looked closer and saw that the two images were not of the same painting. He let me know that the art was not a part of his collection, but that he was just featuring the images on his site for public interest, and that the comparison images actually came from Heritage Auction Galleries. He also sent me a link of the auction page. So off I went to view the page, and there were the images. Seeing that the painting had been purchased, I emailed Heritage to let them know that they possibly had sold a fake to a customer. This was all about a couple of weeks ago. 
This morning at 9:14 AM I received a call from a representative of Heritage Auctions, and the rep assured me that the painting was original. He also assured me that they have "experts" who verified the item. He also expressed incredulity that anyone would find an old canvass frame on which to paint a forgery, and go to all that trouble for only six-thousand dollars (it actually sold for $6,572.50 at auction). Well, which is a better forgery scheme? To forge something like the Mona Lisa, of which everyone knows where the original resides, and which, if it were offered for sale by an individual, would raise eyebrows and be placed under the strictest tests, x-ray exams (or whatever kind of technology they use to see "beneath" an existing painting), and scrutinized to the nth degree? Or would one be more likely to get away with it if one forged a rather obscure work of art, of which no one would likely know where the original resides (if it even survived), and which wouldn't be worth enough money to warrant spending thousands of dollars to subject it to technologically advanced testing in order to verify its authenticity, and which could fetch six grand for a days worth of work? How difficult is it to run down to the local antique shop, purchase a worthless antique painting (of requisite vintage so as to have an authentically aged canvas and canvass-frame), and just paint a forgery on top of the existing painting?
Now, am I 100% certain that this is a fake? Well, no, I'm not God, so I'm not omniscient. I'm also not Descartes, and my suspicions are not indubitable. But I'm also no dummy, and I can see that the two paintings are not identical. And though I am an artist, I don't think it requires an artist to see the difference. But that's just my opinion. The representative at Heritage Auctions wouldn't relent, and I think he took the time to actually call me personally (instead of just emailing me back) because he was duly concerned that perhaps I might be correct, even though he insisted that the painting was authentic. Well, you be the judge.


Note: After I tipped off an acquaintance about the call I received from Heritage Auctions this morning, he started a discussion thread with these same images, only he added indications where the differences are most notable. If you can't see the differences yourself, you may want to check out his thread and see the images there: http://www.munchkinpress.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=969

Found this to be an interesting ad. If only I had the funds, I'd place my order today (click on the image if it's difficult to read at this size).

IF THE SHOE FITS...

As usual, the Christmas tree went up at Thanksgiving. Here are two close-up shots. These are a couple of the many baby-shoe ornaments I designed while at Cast Art. I got several before we went out of business, so they go up on the tree along with every other shiny dingus we can find.

TEKSTSTRIP
I was recently asked to do a sample character sketch to match characters from a Dutch comic-strip called Tekststrip, and I was given a link to view samples of the strip for which I would use as reference. For reasons I won't go into, I declined to work on this project. However, when I viewed the samples of the strip, which were produced around the sixties, I was duly impressed. The art is great, and I thought it was too bad that American audiences haven't had a chance to view it. It's got a wonderful animated feel, and the backgrounds and overall design are tops. The artist that did this really didn't cut corners in any way. I suggested to the person in charge of the project that they approach an American publisher to have the strips published in a trade form (which would require translations of the text and new scans of the art). We'll see how that goes. For now, here's a sample of the strip.

Something I found lying under the kitchen rug...

THE THREE INVESTIGATORS

Recently, the little wife mentioned a new book series she had been reading, and it brought to mind something from my childhood. I told her that I had read a series called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, and we went online that same moment to look it up. She did a library search, and found several libraries that carried some of the books, so she requested an inter-library loan. That very same day I had written to someone I had never met concerning some other matter. This person mentioned that they had a couple of web sites devoted to some particular art, and when I visited the sites, they were devoted to the art of the Three Investigators series, and to the two artists who created the art. So why am I telling this story? Because I was just wondering what the odds were of discussing and borrowing books that I haven't read or thought about in over 35 years, and running into someone who has two websites dedicated to the art of that series, all in the same day? 
Incidentally, I'm looking forward to pouring over those books again. I hope they don't turn out to be a disappointment, as revisiting the things that inspired us as children often does. 

My oldest is a voracious reader. Here she is reading the world's tiniest book.

My little one wasn't too happy about her seat on the trolley... If looks could kill...

My oldest girl. I shot this at Santa Monica beach this past summer. This also has a vintage feel to me, which I dig.