Hungry Ghosts

Here's the cover to the new webcomic I'll be doing soon. Story, pencils, and colours by me.

Newf Friends Calendar

The 2009 Newf Friends Newf Rescue calendars are ready to go!

The calendars are the same style as we used last year for the Canadian Newf Rescue calendars--extra large 12 x 18, high quality, high gloss paper, metal spiral binding across the top and over 50 full colour images!

Most of you will recognize at least some of this year's gorgeous Newfoundland Dog models who include Matilda, Marin, Darcy, Volare, Murphy, Mary, Neptune (my handsome boy), Ozzy, Bower, Zoë, Caera, and of course no Newf rescue calendar would be complete without everyone's favourite Basset hound, Floyd.

Calendars can be picked up in Bancroft, ON at West Wind or purchased online.

All proceeds go directly to Newf Friends in Ontario, Canada to assist Newfoundland Dogs and Newf mixes in need. Newf Friends is a foster based Newfoundland Dog Rescue group working in partnership with the wonderful team of volunteers at HART.

Thanks for your support!

Eric The Midget

Eric the Midget arrives at the Sirius building with the winner of his Modeling Contract Challenge.

"I'd like...you to meet...Candy, Sternnn..."

Bye for now.

(and yes, I listen to Howard Stern a lot while I draw!)

Evolution Of A Page

Wow, that was a long hiatus. It's been a busy summer but I'm back at the drawing table and ready to go.

Here's a preview page from BrainStorm and a description of how I get a page done:

I made preformatted sheets on 8.5 x 11 that are measured out at the exact scale of a reduced 11x17 art board with guidelines for trim and lettering. This allows me to thumbnail at the size the comic will be printed at. It helps me to visualize what the final work will look like. At this stage I read the script and rough out the panels and compositions and block in word balloons to see how the whole page will flow.


After I hear back from Robert on what I have so far I make any necessary changes noted and start to work up the figures and iron out where the panel borders are. I blow up this page to a 10x15 work area and go to my lightbox.


Once I've traced my roughs on to an art board (either a Strathmore bristol or Xerox Digital Expressions depending on how I'm inking) I move to the regular drawing table and start to pencil. I rough in with a 4H wooden pencil and then finish with a 2H lead holder.


If there are no more changes it's time to ink. I ink mostly with a W&N Series 7 #2 brush and Dr. Martin's ink. I do some details with a crowquill and straight lines are drawn with a ruler and a Micron. On this page I just drew one spaceship and then made a brush from that in Photoshop to fill in the rest.

I e-mail the page to Javi LaParra all the way in Guatemala and he works his magic from there.

Next step: Lettering....

BrainStorm Designs

Just thought I'd post a few sneak peeks at the designs I'm working on for the upcoming comic BrainStorm. I'll post some penciled pages shortly.

Sketch Book Dump #3

Nothing original here. Embarassingly these are all actually swipes. Sometimes before I've got a lot of drawing ahead of me I like to warm up with a page of quick sketching. No thinking just manual labour. I grab whatever is nearby and start the pencil moving. I fill an 11x17 page in about 10 minutes and pray that I learned something. It's also good to look at what you swiped and try to figure out why yours suck and the originals look so good. These swipes are John Byrne--I just finished reading the Essential x-Men that has the first half of his run there. So good.

Post-Its, #1

A fun exercise: Take a quick look at a stranger and then make them up as a character on a scrap of paper without looking back at them.

Jewel Thief

I've been quiet posting here for a while but I have a few things going on behind the scenes! More on that later. Here's a sneak preview of some pencils I've done for an unnamed book. It's about a gypsy performer/jewel thief in 1960's Europe.

Town Banners

Just thought I would post some of the designs I have been toying with for some town banners. I wanted a sense of history with a touch of modernity or something like that. This is where I am at for now...

Animal Friends Passed

Here are some older pencil drawings done of some of the pets I've had who are no longer with me:

This is Quentin my first dog ever--a crazy pit bull mix I rescued from the pound. The best $30 I ever spent.

This is Wicca my 170lb Newfoundland. She was a massive girl and obviously the boss dog!

Cosmo my wife's cat she rescued from a closing shelter before I met her. She was one lucky cat.

Ink Happy

How to: Ruin some alright pencils with way too much ink!

Late Night

Stopped for a 1am coffee break. Well not coffee. No don't ask what. Okay, tea. Green tea with pomegranate juice. Don't roll your eyes. Hey, you asked.

What's on the iPod? Lexicon. Youth Is Yours album. It's great you would like it.


What am I drawing? A government pamphlet decrying road rage or something? All I know is it has been 9 pages pencilled, inked, scanned, prepped, and lettered in 14 days. I am on fire.

This is why you always look in the backseat.