Here’s a few other comps done recently. This project revolved around depicting and inventing documents of parts of history where there was none.

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, is the focus. 1930 Chicago, on valentine’s day, Al Capone sent four of his men dressed as cops to slaughter 7 of Bugs Moran’s men to take over his liquor operations. Because they were dressed as cops, no one struggled or resisted, and the plot goes down in history as one of the classic hits of all time. 

Regardless of however many photos exist after the event happened, there is of course none that were able to catch them in the act…..I’ve decided to get us in front row seats.

This would be the final mock before the finished version, working out all the details

Details like the dog to your right. After the 7 were fallen and dead, they found only one survivor in the garage —a young German Shepard hiding through the puddles of blood and bodies who couldn’t stop barking……poor pooch.

Keep your eyes out for the finish, soon to come. And here’s another classic, The Godfather Part II-one of the best scenes….

Justin dropped in to begin his lower right sleeve.

It’s always an honor to work on soldiers. Justin has fought several tours in the Middle East and back, sacrificed friends, tears and blood for us and now finally set for an official discharge and live the civilian lifetsyle. We went with a classic angel bearing the weight of the cross, protecting and reserving strength for his lost brothers.

Us at home can never truly understand the weight of the struggles men like Justin have seen and survived. But we give another thank you, for him  all the men and women out in the field.  Still another session to go, more on Justin to come.

Coming soon…

The Hundreds by Jun.

Here’s a sneak peak of Alison who came through to start her first project.

So I’m back with Paul Rogers, getting schooled on some of his points with illustrative storytelling. We go into a few hours of work, doing some 5 to 20 minute illustration studies off of the live model. Dressed as an old beat up clown reject, the model sits, while we draw and come up with different mediums, processes and pull a narrative off the spot.

Here are some snapshots of the studies-kuro sumi /pelican burnt umber  ink, and acrylic red, brush on vellum.

20 minutes really seams like 5 mins when your trying to tell some kind of situation that never happened. Paul Rogers, is notorious about his music-and loves his Jazz and old school blues. So while we are staring at this clown, he puts on “The Clown” by Charles Mingus. The song is all about a clown who never really made it in the world, and whose only goal was “to make people laugh.”

Pretty fucking depressing….but fun at the same time.

And for all the fellow illustrators, check out Richard Merkin, Peter Blake, Robert Weaver, David Martin, and Stuart Davis, to see where some of the old school direct line work comes from. Key words, direct, simple, loose, and free.

So some where in the mix of Jazz and Bailey’s Liquor, my story ended up being about the clown reject, and how his depression leads him into becoming a drunk, which leads him into getting jumped into the clown reject neighborhood, which then leads him to go on a rampage with a 12 gage that he borrows from his homey’s,  and kills the audience who won’t laugh at his jokes……or something like that.

Just joking. While we are talking about Blues check out this classic-, Billie Holiday is THE original vocalist and godmother of jazz, and a personal favorite. For all you club hoppin, 80’s babies-stop and listen.

Vince came through for a quick session onto his inner right upper sleeve we started not too long ago.

We decided to maintain the beauty of the Geisha look, but implement the farmer’s straw hat to give it some contrast. Still a ways to go, more to come with Vince.