Older work

Digging through some old work. A good example of the problem of comic books back when I was doing them. I found that the editors at Marvel I used to work with seemed to want to be writers. Most had grown up reading comics and probably trying to draw them as well. This gave them enough confidence to get a job editing at Marvel. No art back ground. So working for them was like gambling to see if they would like your art. I did this painting of Lobo as a sample to get work at DC as my run on Animal Man and Dr Strange and Marvel Comics Presents all seemed to be ending at the same time. Editors in comics never seemed to understand they could suggest changes in the art as you went along. You had to guess how they wanted the story told or it was "wrong" in their opinion. Usually they didn't have the vocabulary to communicate to an artist (me in these cases!) what they actually wanted. My first job after the comic books ran their course was from the New York Time Magazine. The ART director, actually suggested things that actually made sense. He seemed genuinely interested in getting the illustration right. My Lobo piece here could have used some art direction. If I did this again, I'd focus a little more attention to the secondary figures and back ground. At the time I was looking at no income and was trying to show how shiny and polished I could make something. The design could have been better, I should have done some more preliminary drawings to work out the composition better. This was basically an idea I blurted out uninvited on to a piece of Bristol board.

This was a piece for White Wolf. Gouache on paper. This was one of their playing cards. I think in their Werewolf period.

I draw from the figure whenever I get a chance. Usually I don't exaggerate, but some time a model will inspire. I started drawing this guy with exaggeration and the more I drew the more abstract he was becoming!