The Keeper's Notes

Graff Inks

2012-01-24T23:01:00.000-05:00

Some Random Sketchcards

2011-12-29T23:48:00.001-05:00

EK Success Sketchbook

2011-12-04T19:30:00.001-05:00

These are some of the drawings from the communal sketchbook project at my job. You can read more about it and see one of the drawings I did for it here:Futuristic Vampire Speed Sketch

The themes represented here, left to right are:

first set:

Robot Vs Monster
Head Full Of ...
Currency

second set:

What's Under The Bed?
Castle In The Sky
Robot holding a Teddy Bear

Work Buddies 9

2011-12-03T01:43:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 8

2011-11-30T23:30:00.001-05:00

Ho-Ho-Ho! Merry Christmas!

2011-11-27T15:05:00.001-05:00

Well, the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally (?) when people start putting out the Christmas lights and tree...there were some homes in my neighborhood that had them up on Thanksgiving. So what better time than to post some Christmas art that's currently in the stores. I drew and vectored the Santa here for the 2011 Recollections Designer Corner Christmas line, which went on sale in Michael's stores a few weeks ago. (The art was created over a year ago, but I'm just now able to post it.)

It was used as a graphic on the dimensional stamp set pictured below. Most of the artwork used for our Christmas line was supplied to us from a style guide, but we needed to embellish it with other art, hence the Santa. Besides the Santa, I also supplied a poinsettia, ornaments, wooden soldiers and a few other elements. I later combined the Santa here in Photoshop with some of the art from the style guide. For next years line (which we're currently working on) we're creating the style guide ourselves (with some supplementary supplied art).

Below are pics of the actual finished ski (including a photo of the display in Michael's). On the finished set shown here, besides the Santa, I just illustrated the ornament above the standing Santa. Craig Parrillo illustrated the candle and the other ornament below it. The rest of the art was supplied by Michael's and we used it to create the layouts and designs.

Work Buddies 7

2011-11-24T02:51:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 6

2011-11-22T20:32:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 5

2011-11-22T00:22:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 4

2011-11-17T20:22:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 3

2011-11-16T20:35:00.001-05:00

Work Buddies 2

2011-11-15T21:50:00.001-05:00

work buddies 1

2011-11-14T23:14:00.001-05:00

Sketch A Day Journal days 5-8

2011-09-22T20:22:00.000-05:00

Some Recent Sketches

2011-09-19T23:16:00.002-05:00

The monster on the far left is the creature in 'Night (or Curse) Of The Demon,' from 1957. The guy at the bottom started out as Richard Ashcroft from The Verve, but it morphed into something else.

Sketch A Day Journal days 1-4

2011-09-16T22:59:00.000-05:00

Picked up this small journal at Urban Outfitters. I like the way the pages are broken up, with each one split into two sections. Unfortunately the paper is fairly thin, so if you do any inks or even darker pencils, it follows through to the other side. I'm going to refrain from inks for the most part for this book...I might have to skip over and just draw on the two right pages...we'll see.

Here are the first four days worth of drawings.

Speed Inking a Futuristic Vampire

2011-09-13T21:48:00.003-05:00

The theme for this sketch came from a list of ideas that's part of a communal sketchbook art project at my job.

Coordinated by one of our art directors, he had about twelve of us at work sign on board to each fill up a 40 page Moleskin sketchbook...there's no set formula and you can draw whatever you like, but as inspiration he came up with a list of 44 different ideas and pasted that list on the inside of the sketchbooks, which he handed out to each of us. I liked the concepts and ideas and knew it would push me to draw things I normally might not. This page just said 'Futuristic Vampire.' I've done five so far, including this guy, as well as 'Robot Vs Monster,' 'Goth Fairy,' 'Currency,' 'Good 'Ol Barbarian chick or guy,' and 'What's Under My Bed?' I'll post some of the drawings I do on this blog as I do them, but for the majority, I'll wait until the entire sketchbook is filled up before posting anything.

Here's a video for this one; I hadn't thought of filming the pencils, so it's just the inks.

Recollections - Halloween 2011 Vampire Lenticular Stickers

2011-08-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

This lenticular Vampire sticker set was one of the more fun projects I've had the opportunity to work on over the last year. It was part of a large Halloween collection that's made it's way to Michael's store shelves this week. Lenticular stickers are the kind that change their image when you move them from side to side, allowing for a transitioning picture. Check out the movie to see how it works. I used public domain portrait photos from the 1800's that I painted over in Photoshop to create the Vampire creature effect.

Inka Dinka Do Halloween Clings - Scary Pumpkins & Haunted Night

2011-08-24T23:09:00.000-05:00

Here are two more of the stamp clings I did last year for Inka Dinka Do. The final vectors for Haunted Night were done by Craig Parrillo. The gargoyle door knocker is all his.

Scary Pumpkins

Haunted Night

Inka Dinka Do Halloween Clings - Witches Brew

2011-08-22T21:05:00.000-05:00

I worked on a bunch of Halloween cling stamp designs last year, while freelancing at EK Success.

They've finally made their way to Michael's, Joann's and other craft stores and the Inka Dinka Do website, where you can buy them online, if you so choose. This one sells for $4.99.

Here's a direct link for Witches Brew on the Inka site:

Witches Brew

For Alex

2011-08-04T00:35:00.000-05:00

These were done inside copies of my Monsters and Graphic Art books, for a co-workers boyfriend.

Jolee's Boutique - Halloween 2011 Dimensional Stickers

2011-08-01T22:21:00.000-05:00

These are a couple of the dimensional sticker designs I worked on for Jolee's Boutique® last year, which just went on sale at Michael's, JoAnn's and other craft stores this past week. I only did the pencils for these, while the factory in China did the finished vectors before the actual production. I worked on two others - Vampires and Costume Party. I'm not sure about Costume Party, but the Vampires design wasn't produced, although the factory did do finished vectors for it.

I've also included one of my sketch pages when I was working on the Witches sku, with some unused elements.

The 'Lil Loose Limbed Krew™

2011-07-25T21:27:00.001-05:00

Some recent sketches.

SPEED SKETCHING A (cute) MONSTER 6

2011-07-20T22:51:00.000-05:00

Here's the second of a new bunch of cute monster characters I started sketching the other day...did little sketches that I've expanded upon in these speed sketch videos.

SPEED SKETCHING A (cute) MONSTER 5

2011-07-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

Had some fun with this dude...started as a small sketch on regular printer paper...I've got a bunch more in this style..a bunch of friends for him. I'll get around to drawing some of those guys next.

SPEED SKETCHING A MONSTER 4

2011-07-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

Here's a movie I made of me drawing a horned demon beast dude, drawn on toned scrapbooking paper. It works well with the white-out pen, but soaks up the lower numbered Copic grays. Finally figured out I needed to go to at least a Cool gray 6 for it to be effective. Total actual time was around 25 min. Music is The Chronomancer II - Nemesis, by The Sword from their album Warp Riders.

SPEED SKETCHING A MONSTER 3

2011-06-26T11:02:00.002-05:00

Finally got around to filming this one more properly, with a tripod mounted camera, directly over the drawing. Total real time was around 20 min.

SPEED SKETCHING A MONSTER 2

2011-06-26T10:58:00.001-05:00

This was actually the first video I shot, and, unfortunately, my hand obscures most of the actual drawing process. Total real time was around 15min.

SPEED SKETCHING A MONSTER 1

2011-06-26T10:54:00.001-05:00

I've finally gotten around to filming myself drawing 'live' and posting to YouTube, joining the ranks of the many others that have done the same. Many of those are done in Photoshop or some other computer drawing program, but mine are done traditionally, using paper, pencil, ink and a white-out pen. This first video was done before I had access to a tripod, hence the angled view of the art. The next one was filmed with the camera mounted on a tripod directly overhead for a better viewing experience. I've sped up the actual process by 400% in IMovie..the actual drawing time for this one was about 15 min.

INKADINKADO CLING STAMP DESIGNS

2011-06-08T00:05:00.000-05:00

One of the projects I worked on last year at EK Success was for their stamp division, Inkadinkado. Myself and my co-worker, Craig Parrillo were given just a couple of weeks to produce around 45 stamp designs, some of them pretty intricate florals and flower illustrations. We did pencils and finished vectors on many of them, but luckily, another illustrator, Kaitie Kunsman, at the time working in a separate department, was brought in to help us out with finishing the vectors. She was able to complete a large number of designs in a very short time, allowing us to finish the project on time. All the Spring designs we did are now in Michael's, AC Moore and other crafts stores and can be seen here on the Inkadinkado website:

Inkadinkado Stamp Designs-new releases-Spring 2011

Beginning from the bottom of page 3, through page 5, all the designs in green, are the ones we worked on.

Shown here are some of my pencils and finished vectors (aside from the filigree in the bottom left, which was vectored by Craig) for a few of them.

RECOLLECTIONS-COWBOY

2011-06-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

This is the last of the designs, currently in Michael's stores, that I worked on, from the 13 that they chose out of the initial 48 created. There are three more sku's in the stores, though, from this line, which were designed by Dan Fenelon. Those are seashells, track and field and poker. For this one, I did the pencils and Dan did the vectors. Some of the elements on this include gold foil, gold thread (around the brim of the hat), thread for the tassles on the vest, and actual rope. You'll notice on the pencils and the vectors, that the rope was drawn. At that point, we didn't know how these would end up when completed by the factory. Kind of funny, considering more time was probably spent drawing that icon, than any of the rest of them.

RECOLLECTIONS-SWIM TEAM

2011-05-22T20:57:00.002-05:00

Pencils by me, vectors by Craig Parrillo. Featuring actual cloth for the towel, epoxy on the timer and goggles and gold foil for the medal and whistle. What's interesting, is that when we were first designing these, we really weren't too familiar with the type of product and weren't 100% sure what it would even look like when produced by the factory. We left it up to them to decide where the layering would take place and how the dimensionality would work. We did decide what would be epoxy and foiled, etc, but still there was a good degree of guesswork involved in how it would ultimately look. So, with that in mind, everything that was an element was vectored as if it would be recreated in print. However, as you can see, the towel, which was penciled and then vectored wound up just being a piece of actual cloth! That happened on at least one other sku, that I'll post soon. It was a cowboy one where I drew a very detailed rope, which was then carefully vectored, only to be replaced by the factory with an actual piece of rope!

RECOLLECTIONS-BIKING

2011-05-21T02:52:00.000-05:00

Pencils by me, vectors by Dan Fenelon. This one has lots of silver foil on the air pump, bike spokes and chrome parts and the lock. The helmet, water bottle and the air pump have a clear epoxy treatment on them.

RECOLLECTIONS-MARCHING BAND

2011-05-19T21:46:00.001-05:00

Pencils by me, vectors by Dan Fenelon. This one features a bit of feather for the hat, as well as a gem, gold and silver foil and gold stitching on the jacket.

RECOLLECTIONS-MARATHON RUNNER

2011-05-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

Pencils and vectors by me. This one features felt on the 'Finish' sign, gold foil on the medal, and epoxy on the timer, water bottle and energy bar.

RECOLLECTIONS-LONDON

2011-05-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

Pencils and vectors by me, aside from Big Ben, which was vectored by Dan Fenelon. This one features gems for the bus' headlights and on the crown, gold foil on Big Ben and the crown, felt for the beefeater's hat and embossing and debossing on the faux coins. You can see on the original rough I placed actual photos of money that we were going to use, but we decided against it and went instead with the generic pound symbols on the coins.

RECOLLECTIONS-TALENT SHOW

2011-05-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

Pencils by me, vectors by Craig Parrillo.

RECOLLECTIONS-PICNIC

2011-05-15T18:36:00.000-05:00

Just in time for Spring/Summer! Pencils by myself, vectors by Dan Fenelon.

RECOLLECTIONS-EQUESTRIAN

2011-05-14T21:35:00.000-05:00

Now out at Michael's stores ($3.99 retail)....all pencils and vectors by me.

RECOLLECTIONS-BACK 2 SCHOOL

2011-05-13T23:44:00.000-05:00

I'm finally able to post some of the work I did last year at EK Success Brands, the scrapbooking and crafts company I've been working at for the last nine months. The first batch of dimensional stickers I designed, under the Recollections line, (sold exclusively at Michael's crafts stores) has just hit the shelves.

This was my first foray into work done for scrapbooking. I designed around 35 sets of stickers, for categories ranging from sports to school, travel and kids. Working along with me, was a terrific artist and muralist, Dan Fenelon, who designed another 10 or so. All told, there were 48 finished 'sku's' that we created, fully vectored and colored, from which only 13 were chosen to be produced. For my sku's, I did all the pencils, and some of the vectors, with Dan handling vectoring duties on a good portion. When it came to crunch time to get the program completed, another great artist who was working with us, Craig Parrillo, helped out on some of the vectors. I'll break it down as to who did what in the ensuing posts.

This is one of the first ones I did. For the vectors, I did everything, aside from the books and pencil cup, which Dan did. You can see from the photos that the actual stickers have depth, and are produced with different materials - foil, faux suede paper, gems, etc, to mimic real world textures and items. Pretty neat.
It was a bit difficult to photograph the packages because of the glare of the plastic bag, so you miss some of the details. For instance, the 'Back 2 School' logo at the bottom is printed in a sort of holographic mylar that shimmers when moved around. The lines on the color page pointing to objects are from the notes to the factory telling them what sort of techniques to use for those items. I couldn't locate the original vectors for this one (I only had a jpeg) to take them off.

Garanimals - The Final Line-up

2011-05-13T18:10:00.001-05:00

All fourteen animals in three poses each for a total of forty-two poses. Whew!

Garanimals - Leopard

2011-05-12T00:46:00.000-05:00

Fourteenth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Fox

2011-05-10T22:13:00.002-05:00

Thirteenth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Kangaroo

2011-05-09T22:33:00.000-05:00

Twelfth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Koala

2011-05-08T22:07:00.002-05:00

Eleventh in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Panda

2011-05-07T23:35:00.000-05:00

Tenth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Bear

2011-05-06T21:24:00.001-05:00

Ninth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Tiger

2011-05-05T22:04:00.000-05:00

Eighth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Elephant

2011-05-04T22:37:00.001-05:00

Seventh in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Lion

2011-05-03T20:14:00.000-05:00

Sixth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Giraffe

2011-05-02T19:12:00.003-05:00

Fifth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Rhino

2011-05-01T18:50:00.002-05:00

Fourth in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Hippo

2011-04-30T19:18:00.002-05:00

Third in a series of fourteen.

Garanimals - Zebra

2011-04-29T21:46:00.000-05:00

The second in the series of fourteen Garanimals animal characters.

Garanimals!

2011-04-28T22:16:00.000-05:00

Over the last few months I worked on creating a new style guide for the Garanimals kids clothing line.

Garanimals uses a simple mix and match system with it's clothing to easily help parents and kids coordinate their outfits. Each of the Garanimals characters represents a line within the clothing collection, and each has a bunch of seperates created for use within that line. The art will be used on the clothing as well as on the hangtags that identify each line. There are fourteen Garanimals characters and I created three poses for each, for a total of 42 poses.

The monkey was the first character I worked on...I've included some of my sketches here, including some unused ideas.

More to follow.

Even More Sketches

2011-04-05T21:16:00.000-05:00

Some More Sketches

2011-03-29T00:14:00.000-05:00

For Jesse

2011-03-27T23:09:00.000-05:00

Another sketch done inside my Graphic Art Of...book.

Some Sketches

2011-03-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

A compilation of various bits and pieces from the past few months.

Sketches For Rob

2011-03-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

A couple of recent sketches, done for my friend Rob Kramer, out in Portland, OR. The "shark in a business suit, made out of steel and smoking a cigar," was his request.

Baron Karza

2011-02-23T00:19:00.001-05:00

I've been very busy with freelance work lately, and haven't had much time for any personal art. I'll be posting some of that freelance work soon, but in the meantime, here's a drawing of the Micronauts bad guy, Baron Karza.

Witchy Woman

2011-01-12T20:43:00.001-05:00

This drawing is from a couple of months back, while I was working on Halloween designs at work.

Tammy's Sketchbook

2010-12-17T00:51:00.001-05:00

Drawn for another friend at work, in her Unicorn and candy sketchbook.

Tommy's Sketchbook

2010-12-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

I did this for a friend at work, in his sketchbook.

Ghost Rider Collaboration

2010-11-05T22:26:00.001-05:00

Here's another Ghost Rider drawing that I penciled and my buddy Jesse Hernandez did an awesome job of inking.

Gorilla Grodd

2010-11-01T22:39:00.004-05:00

Did this in a copy of my book, for my friend and co-worker, Craig Parrillo.

Check out some of his cool art at his blog:

Pencil Mayhem

Another Monster

2010-10-24T00:20:00.002-05:00

Here's another drawing I did during the New York Comic Con..I started it at home and worked on it off and on at the convention. Drawn on a cut down sheet of 8 1/2" X 14" bristol paper.

MTV Geek Launch Party

2010-10-18T22:45:00.002-05:00

After the Comic Con, on Saturday, my buddy Brad hosted a party at a pub a few blocks from the Javits Center, to launch his new site MTV Geek. There was food, an open bar, Paul Pope spinning records and live art being created by awesome talents such as Dave DeVries, Jim Mahfood, Dave Crossland, Molly Crabapple, Sanford Greene and Ben Templesmith. My buddy Carlos and I were also in the mix, as well as a bunch of other artists that I never got the names of.

All the art being done is ultimately going to be auctioned off this week for the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund). I'll update this post with a link when I get one. In the meantime, here are the three pieces I did for the auction. Unfortunately, I heard that after I took off, a drunk patron knocked over some beer, ruining a bunch of pieces, one of mine included. Which one, I'm not sure yet.

You can also see some pics from the night over at the MTV Geek website, here:

MTV GEEK Launch Party pics

***UPDATE**

As it turns out, the Monster drawing in the middle above was the one that got some beer spilled on it.

Thankfully it wasn't too bad, and most of the drawing survived intact. All the art from the night has now been posted on MTV GEEK (the actual auction will follow soon) and it can be seen here:

MTV GEEK - LIVE ART for Auction

NYCC sketches

2010-10-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

Even though NYCC wasn't exactly the most financially rewarding venture, it was still a lot of fun and I got to meet some old friends, as well as make some new. I did move a decent number of buttons (maybe 1/2 a table of just buttons next year??), but those are only a buck, so the return isn't great. Still, I managed to do a fair number of sketches over the weekend. I don't have scans of anything, just pics I took before I handed them off.

The first sketch of the weekend was this Biolante (as in Godzilla Vs. Biolante) for a guy starting off a Kaiju sketchbook.

I also did a few sketches inside copies of my 'Graphic Art' book and 'Monsters' book.

New York Comic Con

2010-10-07T21:58:00.001-05:00

I'll be sharing a table with my good friend, caricaturist Dan Springer, at this years New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center, this weekend, October 8-10. We'll be at table N-14, in Artist Alley.

I'll have prints, buttons, stickers and copies of my new book 'The Graphic Art of Justin Leiter,' for sale...I'll also have freshly printed copies of my last sketchbook, 'The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Monsters,'...I've just got a few copies left of the first, limited run. And I'll take commission requests, including sketches inside the books! Come by and say 'hi'.

Here's the cover to the new book.

MORE EK SUCCESS SKETCHCARDS!

2010-09-24T19:10:00.001-05:00

BlOoRp!

2010-09-18T12:17:00.002-05:00

EK SUCCESS SKETCHCARDS

2010-09-15T06:24:00.002-05:00

Initiated by one of the Art Directors at work, some of the graphic artists are drawing sketchcards and then trading them amongst ourselves. Here are a few of the ones I did.

It was Twenty Years Ago today...

2010-09-12T15:53:00.002-05:00

In the midst of putting together my second art book, for this years upcoming New York Comic Con, I found some old sketches, circa 1990...these won't be in the book, just thought it might be fun to post them for what it's worth.

Behold ... Charles Munro

2010-08-29T22:25:00.010-05:00

Last week I came across the shocking and upsetting news that my friend Charles Munro had passed away. I first met Charles when we worked together at Kleiner't's, in 1999. He was also a graphic artist, doing kids clothing like myself. After he left and worked elsewhere, we saw each other a few times, and then lost contact for a number of years before reconnecting on Facebook, last November. We spoke on the phone once and then kept up through e-mail. Charles was getting involved in electronic keyboard music, creating really cool, atmospheric pieces on his computer. In his last e-mail to me, on July 9th, he mentioned how he was entering an online music contest.

That was also his last post on his Facebook page. Not hearing from him for a bit, I went over to his page to discover the terrible news that he had passed away in his sleep and that a wake had been held for him on July 12th. I was numb and saddened. Charles was a sweet guy, a talented artist and an emerging electronic musician.

Charles used to have a saying at work - ' Behold'...it didn't really mean anything...or did it? It was just a cool emphatic message...sort of an Asgardian, mythical word. One day, while our boss was out sick, I pencilled a quick nonsense comic based around the word. In memory of Charles, today I sat down and inked it. R.I.P. Charles.

Charles' music can be found at:

Charles Munro Music

I Float, Therefore I Am.

2010-08-13T06:18:00.000-05:00

Looking through some old files, I found these two guys, and a few more, in semi-completed form. I colored them and added the backgrounds, using some drawings I had done for Hot Wheels.

And another monster sketchpage...

2010-08-04T23:59:00.002-05:00

A Monster Sketchpage

2010-07-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

This page dates back a year or so..there's a date of 4-20-08 in the bottom left, but I think that was just for the red pencil demon dude in the middle of the page (later inked)...the rest of the blue pencil drawings are more recent.

Sharks and Dinos

2010-07-28T23:13:00.002-05:00

Some recent designs for Target boys swimwear.

Merry Bloody Christmas!

2010-07-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

Maybe this should have waited 'til the appropriate time to post, but what the hell..came across it while looking for some cupcake illos in an old folder from my days at Saramax. This was done sometime in 2008 (even though it's got a 2009 date on it). I was really just doing regular cute gingerbread girls, but felt like tweaking it a bit.

Keeping Busy

2010-07-01T18:05:00.003-05:00

Hey folks - I know it's been some time since I've updated the blog. I hope to get back into the swing of things and keep it a bit more current. Not too much this time, just a couple of recent sketches done inside the Mosnters sketchbook.

I've been doing a lot of drawing lately at a job out in Clifton, New Jersey, doing pencil sketches of icons that will eventually be turned into dimensional stickers. I was never told not to, and I never signed anything, but I'm going to refrain from posting those sketches for the time being. I've done everything from cowboy stuff, to motorcycles, baby themes and camping. If all goes according to plan, there should be around 120 different 'sku's (sheets of icon stickers), with each sku containing anywhere from 8-12 icons, so it's a lot of drawings. It's been a lot of fun and I've been putting pencil to paper seven hours a day, so I think it's helping my drawing skills, at least for realistic stuff. Hopefully not too far down the line, I'll post some of it. At the moment someone else is doing the vector art from my sketches, but I'll also be doing some of the vectors myself.

In other news, I'll be returning to the convention circuit (lol), as I'll have a table with my buddy Dan 'The Caricature King' Springer at the New York Comic Con in October. I'll have copies of my last sketchbook, some posters, maybe t-shirts and some new art. Hope to see you there!

Comics For Cures Sketchcards

2010-04-27T21:24:00.004-05:00

Here are a few sketchcards I did this month for Blueline Pro's Comics For Cures cancer research exhibition and auction. The art from the auction will go up on Ebay the week of May 17th, and culminate with an exhibition of the original art from the auction to be held at Comics 2 Games, 8470 US 42 Florence, Kentucky on May 22nd.

All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to the American Cancer Society.

ELEMENTS!

2010-04-07T10:45:00.002-05:00

Presented here are a bunch of the element drawings that make up some of the prints I've done over the years...I just selected a random bunch of illustrations, along with swatches of a few prints....This page contains art done for both boys and girls prints...I've got so many of these individual element type drawings I could put together another twenty of these pages and not run out of art to use.

More Monsters Sketchbook sketches...and more

2010-03-21T23:13:00.014-05:00

Some of the recent drawings I've done inside my Mosnters sketchbook, along with a few other sketches from recent days. The ape in the Mets hat (that was Rob's request...to draw a monster in a Mets cap) at the top is saying 'The Mets are my favorite team to eat!'. Baron Karza, from The Micronauts, for James, is under the Stormtrooper for John.

Monsters Sketchbook Now Available!

2010-03-01T17:48:00.009-05:00

I've still got copies of my sketchbook for sale, so get 'em before they're all gone!! The sketchbooks are $20 each, postage paid, and come with an original inked sketch on the inside front cover; the sketches are the size of a sketchcard. Plus, as an added bonus (whoo-hoo!) I'll include three free postcards with each order. The postcards are of Darth Vader, Robot ND-23 and Surfer Shark, all images previously posted on this blog. The sketchbook itself contains 32 pages and measures 8.5"x 5.5". I can draw a random monster for you or you can ask for a special request. E-mail me at jleiter1@verizon.net for ordering info. Here are a few examples of the sort of sketches you can expect.

New York Comic Book Marketplace-2-27-10

2010-02-27T23:30:00.010-05:00

I'm exhausted, and it was a long day, but a fun one at the NYCBM. It's been many years since I've done any comic conventions, only tagging along as support for my old friend Mitch Waxman, back in the early 90's when we worked on Plasma Baby. This time, I was promoting myself, so there was a bit of anxiety going into the show. After a sleepless night, and days of preparing, and stressing, the show came and went. Unfortunately, there wasn't the greatest turnout, with the weather a factor, and the general lack of advertisement for the show itself. I was a bit disapointed that my book didn't sell better...well, aside from the three or four copies some friends graciously purchased from me, only one person I didn't know picked one up. Still, I did get some people flipping through it, and my book of originals and prints, and a decent number picked up my business card, which I put together last night, after my postcards didn't arrive due to the storm.

I did have someone buy a print of my Darth Vader piece from last Summer and he also asked about buying two pieces of original Vader art I had. I wasn't sure what to price them at, so decided to hold onto them..in hindsight, maybe I shoulda sold 'em. Later in the day, a woman came by and asked for a Batman head sketch in her sketchbook. I also did a sketchcard of Batman for my friend Bill's son, Will, as well as a drawing of a ragman?? cartoonish monster character Will described to me. During the show, I also inked some sketchcards and did a Marvel sketch cover for my buddy Brad of Ghost Rider. Two of the other pics here, the guy who looks like he's playing an imaginary guitar, and the Acroyearish dude, were pencilled back in 2007, but only inked this past week, and at the show ('The Plucker').

My co-horts at the show, Dan Springer, did a few live caricatures, a drawing of a cupid for our friend Louis' daughter, Mason, and sold a few giclee prints. Carlos Vega, with his humourous 'Become A Zombie!' sign, did pretty well, pretty much booked the whole day, drawing people as zombies. They'd come up to the table, he'd get a rough sketch of their likeness, then they leave, and while gone, he'd 'zombiefy' them, rotting their flesh, exposing their brains and generally making them look pretty putrid.

It was rewarding day, all in all, and we hope to do it again sometime soon.

Lastly, in this, likely my wordiest post to date, I'll have some info soon on how you can order a copy of my 'Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Monsters' sketchbook.

Sketchcards for the NYCBM

2010-02-26T13:11:00.002-05:00

Here are some sketchcards I worked up over the last couple of days for sale at the New York Comic Book Marketplace - tomorrow! (Feb. 27th, 2010!) Today I'll be working on doing sketches on the inside front cover of copies of my sketchbook. The weather is definitely not helping out, but hopefully all will go smoothly tomorrow - the show is still scheduled to go on!

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MONSTERS - THE SKETCHBOOK!

2010-02-20T15:11:00.008-05:00

I've finally gotten around to putting together a sketchbook of my monster drawings. I'll have a special edition of the book, limited to 23 signed and sketched-in copies (+ 7 Artist's Proofs) with me at next Saturday's (Feb 27th) "New York Comic Book Marketplace" at the Penn Plaza Pavillion in NYC. I'll be at a couple of tables with my buddies Dan Springer, Carlos Vega and Derek Santiago. We'll be sketching, chatting with whomever happens to stop by and we'll also have prints and sketchbooks for sale, so, come on down and say hello!

night

2010-02-14T16:53:00.001-05:00

Robots!

2010-02-04T12:22:00.001-05:00

Robots on boxes! From 2008.

Sketchbook movies

2010-02-02T22:37:00.003-05:00

I've been having fun playing around with Imovie and making little videos. Here's a couple I put together of my sketchbooks, set to music, that I've put up on YouTube. Some of the drawings have been on this blog, but many of them haven't.

You can find the first two here. Make sure to watch them on YouTube, where you get the full wide-screen picture.

White Queen

2010-01-30T22:04:00.017-05:00

It's been some time since I've posted anything that took into account the word 'music' on this blog, considering the word is under the title. Here's a video I put together in Imovie, using a recording I did in 2003 of the Queen song 'White Queen.' Written by guitartist Brian May, it's off their 1974 album Queen II. I've always felt the imagery of the album cover (the classic four heads pose made famous by the Bohemian Rhapsody video, which you can see here:

Queen II

and inside gatefold sleeve, shown here:

Queen II gatefold pic

as well as the song titles and lyrics, evoked a mythological and fantasy world. Brian May himself had a sort of wispy Pre-Raphaeliteness to him, as did the band, with their long hair and early Zandra Rhoades, flowing stage costumes.

The song 'White Queen,' in particular, has a Baroque, Medieval feel to it, with it's classical chord progressions and structure. The recording featured here is from 2003 and was made on my Roland KR-375 digital piano. I decided to use some classic Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau images as the visuals to go along with it. Included are artists such as Alphonse Mucha, J.W. Waterhouse, Gustav Klimt, Maxfield Parrish, Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham and others.

Over the years I've done a bunch of drawings of Queen and Freddie Mercury. The painting/drawing above (it's in oils and pen and ink) was done for Peter Pop, now the VP of Creative Services at Vanguard Graphic Staffing, but at that time, one of the placement guys in the jobs office at S.V.A. He was hoisting an art show at a local bar and the theme was rock musicians, so he asked some of the students that used the placement office to participate. The pen and ink (rapidograph) drawing of Brian May, above that, is from the late 80's.

Kooky Mini-Comics #4

2010-01-15T00:55:00.006-05:00

This one was a couple of months in the making. Most of it was done a few weeks back, but I had trouble finishing the last few panels. I did multiple versions of the last three panels, as well as a few versions of the last panel on the third tier. Here's the final inks, along with the first version of the pencils.

Girl Sketches

2010-01-07T23:33:00.004-05:00

Blue Girl

2010-01-05T22:20:00.005-05:00

Digital Girl

2009-12-22T23:36:00.003-05:00

Did this today at the freelance gig I've been at for the last month and half. It's a combination of digital and some hand sketching with a ball-point pen on a color print-out. The design was done for girls 12-16, and they felt this girl looked too old, so I did another version with a younger looking face.

William : Keeper Of The Cosmic All

2009-12-18T23:37:00.006-05:00

Announcing yet another new blog!! If there weren't already enough blogs to bog down your day, well, here's one more for ya! This one is dedicated to the comic I drew for my College newspaper, 'William : Keeper of the Cosmic All.' None of this art has yet made it onto any of my other blogs. Hopefully you'll find some amusement in the old drawings. You should certainly see a progression in my drawing ability, as the first episode, in particular, is pretty crudely drawn. Doing the strip each week for the paper definitely improved my drawing ability much more than any of the actual drawing classes I took while at school (with the exception of my anatomy class!).

you can find the blog here:

The Cosmic All

Facebook Fridayz - 6

2009-12-04T00:28:00.004-05:00

The rough pencils for this were done at lunch one day, a couple of months back and then I finished it over the last couple of nights.

Facebook Fridayz - 5 - aka Kooky-Mini-Comics #3

2009-11-29T02:47:00.009-05:00

I had started penciling this a few weeks ago, but only got as far as the third panel. The theme for this weeks Facebook Fridayz was anything whimsical, so I had the impetus to complete it. I figured this would qualify....sorta.

You can see the previous episodes here:

Kooky-Mini-Comics #1

Kooky-Mini-Comics #2

Facebook Fridayz - 4

2009-11-21T00:39:00.011-05:00

Technically this is Facebook Fridayz 5, but I never posted last weeks drawing of Jason from Friday the 13th. Maybe one day I'll get around to putting it up. I wasn't entirely happy with it (not that I'm entirely happy with anything I do!), so unless you're a Facebook friend of mine, that's the only place you're gonna see it for now! Here's this weeks quick pencil sketch. Soon as I get a little time, I'm going to ink this one up. I realized after I'd drawn it, though, I'd left off his chains!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inks and a little photoshop.