Ty has a new gig

http://www.sho.com/site/announcements-view.do?articleid=831

I’m working on the third of these series…and I get to draw tied up people and chainsaws!  Who said this isn’t a good week?

Ty the Guy

(Poster by Kyle Baker)

Happy 70th Birthday, Harvey Pekar.

Here’s a couple of drawings I did this week to celebrate Harvey Pekar’s 70th Birthday.

(Click to see the many lovely contributions from a host of other artists at the Harvey Pekar Project Online at smithmag.net)

The realistic portrait I did first– sort of in the the style of Gene Day.  My wife had recently coloured a portrait of Gene for her work, and it had caused a mild nostalgia in me, enough to pull out a bunch of Gene’s Batmans and Masters of Kung Fu… With all those comics in my brain Gene’s style crept into my hands as I was sketching this portrait of Harvey, which it’s never done before, but I’m clearly more of a Zelig than I wish to be.  AK!  GHOST OF GENE DAY!!

In the long run, I didn’t like the Gene Day-ish drawing because it’s basically just a portrait of Harvey, sketched from a photo, and really, didn’t bring anything to his unique and iconic character– beyond my skills to capture a likeness, and an odd departure for the way I usually draw (which, when I do portraits,  is far more like Mort Drucker –I’ll show you guys later…).

So after an hour or so of carefully capturing Mr. Pekar’s likeness, and inking and washing it in a casual style (to disguise all the labour and erasing in doing the basic portrait), I tossed the whole thing out, and did a cartoon of Harvey out of my head in about three minutes that feels like HARVEY PEKAR to me, even if it doesn’t look as exactly like him.  The madness, the beauty and the Harvey-ness of the character is more “correct” IMHO, when rendered in an expressionist and unconscious way.  Somehow, making it look too much like Harvey the human being, is almost a disservice to Harvey, the beloved comic character.

And I know he’d disagree with me, which is why I LOVE the man.

Happy Birthday Harvey.  You are a treasure to our medium, and it’s always a joy to share a page or a conversation with you.

Now, is it just me, or does the second one look like “Middle-Aged Man Logan?”.

Ty the Guy.

LAST WEEK in Art Land

Monday September 28

Piles of Paper

Polling…

Friday October 2

Ty shows up

Ty shows up

(I’ve been too busy to post anything so I shoved Ty into my chair, faced him towards the monitor and keyboard, took the pencil out of his hand, and left him here…)

Here’s an “Artist’s Sketch Card” I drew for the upcoming Moonstone card series.   This isn’t art meant to be reduced onto a card and printed many times…this is a teeny weeny itty drawing on a blank card.  The dimensions are two and a half inches by three and a half inches.  And here’s what’s wrong with me…when I look at it, I think I could have gotten more detail into the face if I’d had a smaller ink brush and better glasses.

Let us all say it together:  Oy!

Anyway…this original is going to be a surprise for someone buying some of the upcoming Moonstone Card series.  So, check your packs for this Phantom sketch card, and don’t be too disappointed when it’s in black and white, cause it’s an original.

AND DON’T SELL IT ON EBAY WHEN YOU GET IT, ya ratbags!

Ah…they probably will.

Ty the Guy

(heh…Ty’s cynicism comes from the number of times after conventions, he’s gone ego-googling to see if anyone has said anything about the workshops he does at cons, and he discovers that someone, sometimes someones, is eBaying one of Ty’s free convention sketches–even one Ty has personalized in his signing.  Ty is completely resistant to the idea of charging for convention sketches–he even lectures his bootcampers about this ideal, feeling this is something he owes to his fans.  But the eBay listings make him pretty cranky.)