Sorry to Interupt

Hey all,
Just wanted to share a little warm up I did this morning. I've been trying to draw a bit more from the top of my head and rely a bit less on reference to see where the two meet up lately. This is a little self portrait cartoon drawn on bristol paper and colored with watercolor. I think I'll color a bit more when it dries and maybe ink it. Not sure yet. I thought it was a step in the right direction though, so I shared it.

I'll try and wrap up those Batman and Wolverine pieces this afternoon and post again.

Peace,
Joe

Batman Wolverine Part III

I would say now that these pieces are about 50% finished. I've got quite a bit more to render with the paint, and then I'm going to bring the black ink in at the end. You should see the finish be this week's end.

Peace,
Joe

Batman Wolverine Part II

So here's an update on the Batman and Wolverine paintings that I posted the drawings for below. I work on each of these for a little bit today, and I'd say they are about 25% finished, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

I'll post more tomorrow,
Joe

Sleeping Beauty Final

Step One: Sleeping Beauty

Here's the first step of the painting process for the first piece below. I've titled it "Sleeping Beauty" because she's sleeping. This has nothing to do with the fable.

I'll post more tomorrow,
Joe

Under Drawing

Hey everyone,
These are some sketches that I did in my sketchbook that I scanned and printed 16X20 to do some old school illustration on. I'll post the images as they progress.

Peace,
Joe

Gibson Study

Hey all,
I just got done doing the colors for the new post over at my web comic, and I just thought I'd do a quicky while my water colors were still out. This is a 60 second painting of a Charles Dana Gibson rendering.

Go check out the web comic if you have the time. Adam Ford wrote and drew it, and he did a really nice job.

Peace,
Joe

New Paintings

These are some paintings that I have been working on. They are not finished at this point. I plan to turn the head of the man a bit more toward the viewer in the bottom piece, clarify the pink and blue figures in the middle piece, and further define the female's closer leg and foot in the top image.

Thus far, I'm happy with the process though. These pieces have been a journey of new discoveries.

Peace,
Joe

Finding the Rhythm

Hey everyone,
Thanks to all of you who checked out the web comic that Adam, and Chris and I are doing. We appreciate your comments. If you haven't checked it out yet, here's the link. I think you'll dig it.

Anyway, I'm just brushing up some of my skills and getting ready for my first coloring chores this week. I'll be coloring a story written by Adam and inked by Chris. I think it's about a monk, but I haven't seen the pages. Above are just some images I've been doing to work my colors a bit, and just have some fun.

Peace,
Joe

Ménage à Draw

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that me and two of my friends (Adam Ford, and Chris Bivins) are now doing a weekly web comic. Here is the link to the blog so you can RSS it.

The page above is our first post to get the ball rolling. I wrote and drew the story, Adam inked it, and Chris colored and lettered it. We will be swapping jobs every week, so make sure you stop by every Sunday to see the newest posts.

Hope you dig,
Joe

INTERVIEWED BY CREATIVE LOAFING!

After our first show together at AXIOM two Saturdays ago, the Cheap Paper Collective has been interviewed by Wyatt Williams from Atlanta's own Creative Loafing.

THE INTERVIEW

CHECK IT OUT!
Joe

CAUGHT IN THE LABS

So I just scanned a ton of stuff in the labs at SCAD and I found out I'm not supposed to be here during the break. I was not originally going to post all this stuff together, but I better throw it up or I'll have to rescan it.

AAARRRGG!!!
Joe

!ZAKT!

This is one of the 100 images I showed last weekend for the Cheep Paper show. It is an image of the X-MEn character Cyclops if you can't tell. I really liked the way this piece turned out, and I will be sharing more as I scan them in.

Ciao,
Joe

RED

Hey All,
Just a quick update. The cheap paper show that I was a part of last Saturday was a huge success. I think everyone had a great time, and we Cheap Paper People are all looking forward to spending some more time together.

My next show to look out for will be on Jan. 15 at the SCAD sponsored STUDIOPLEX gallery. I will post more info on that sometime in December, but mark your calenders now.

This piece above is an oil and marker figure study that I showed in my "Big Baby" show last summer. I have shown it a few more times since then, but now it has to go to it's new home in the collection of Atlanta sculptor extraordinaire MARTY DAWE. Thanks for liking the piece Marty.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and an even better Holiday season,
Joe

SHOW TONIGHT!! NOV. 21

This is our very first group exhibition as a collective! Come out to show some love, see some art and hang out with the cool kids. The event is part of an entire evening of art events in the Old Fourth Ward called AXIOM, organized by the awesome folks at Public Acts of Art.

In association with Axiom, WonderRoot presents: The New Alchemy, a Cheap Paper show.

Cheap Paper is an Atlanta-based artist's collective. Working together for the first time, WonderRoot and Cheap Paper will curate and produce a one evening exhibit showcasing eleven of Atlanta's top emerging artists. Together they seek to support an artistic community which both embraces and addresses Atlanta's challenges and opportunities. The exhibit will be a interdisciplinary endeavor which includes works of a variety of mediums and will span beyond just visual art.

WonderRoot is an Atlanta-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization committed to uniting artists and community to inspire positive social change.

Cheap paper is an Atlanta-based artist's collective committed to breaking through to recessionary haze to support new and fresh movements in the city's art scene.

Hope to see you out there,
Joe

THIS JUST IN!!!

So grad school has my head completely turned backwards and inside out lately, and I have no idea what I'll be doing in the months and years to come. One thing that was recently suggested to me was to remove any humor, profanity, or vulgar imagery from my work in order to challenge my creative process.

I was beginning to work on these new pieces that combined pornographic imagery with New York Times headlines in order to create a new context for receiving these two forms of information. I did several sketches for this and this one was my favorite. I don't believe I'll be moving forward with these any time soon, so consider this post a farewell to controversy on this blog for a while.

Peace and Love,
Joe

ISN'T RELIGION A PEACH?

I came across this joke on Facebook today, and I just had to post it. It's a truly lovely text.
(The above image is Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" for those who are unfamiliar. I thought it a fitting image :)

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are your Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, Me too! Are your Episcopalian or Baptist? He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are your Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? He said, Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are your Original Baptist Church of God or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" So I then said, "Die, You heretic scum!" and pushed him off.

JOE THE BARBARIAN!

Hey Everyone,
I just saw that Sean Murphy's "Joe the Barbarian" comic is going to hit shelves in Jan. and I felt inspired to do a quick sketch. I based it off of myself (since my name is also Joe :), but I'm wearing the clothes of his main character on the cover.

This is exactly the type of project that never happens. Super-imaginations of writing and art coming together for eight issues. I can't wait to see this book!

Peace,
Joe

BLOWN

This is an experimental piece I did after reading an interview with British painter Glenn Brown about how he will begin a piece with a famous painting, and then distort it and change it until it becomes his own.

I applied the same idea to this digital image starting off with the painting of a famous artist and manipulating it over and over until it became this. I couldn't choose between the first and the second image above, so I thought I'd share both.

I think it's an interesting process.
Joe

LE FLASH

Hi everyone. I participated in the "Le Flash" event this last Friday, and here's a picture from it.

I'll post most about this later with more photos.

Ciao,
Joe

SKETCH PUMP

Hey All,
Here's some of my latest doodles out of the new sketchbook as well as an amazing cover to the Sergio Toppi "Sparrow 12" book I picked up today.

Peace,
Joe

SHIRTS!

Hey All,
I've been trying to find some cool T-Shirts lately, and I've asked a lot of my great friends with sweet shirts where to go to get some amazingly designed stuff, and I found 0.000 shirts that I wanted to spend 25.00-30.00 bucks on.

So I'm going to make a bunch of shirts that I think are cool and funny and this is the first one I'll be doing. This is only the digital sketch, but I'll be rendering the doodle in pen and then coloring in the computer. I think I'll make 10 or so just to justify the effort, so I'll keep you posted on here as the process goes along and if you want to buy one just let me know. They'll be like $12.00 ea.

Peace,
Joe

Doodle

So I'm back to Grad school this week, and it's going to be a heavy 10 weeks. 2 stuios and one theories class + flatting an OGN + layouts +writing + girlfriend + cat/dog = no time to sleep.

Should be fun. I'll try and duck over to the scanner from time to time show some work.

Peace,
Joe

ALDO the APACHE

Just saw "Inglorious Bastards," and I really liked it, so I thought I'd do an Aldo for the bunch a you mutts. This one is certainly a lot closer to a finished image than the one below it, but it took me some time to get here, and it's a bit stiffer than I'd like. I'll keep whackin at 'em though.

Hope you're all having a great Labor Day.

Peace,
Joe

Cute P'Toot

Trying to work on my digital drawing and find the fine line between sketch and finish. I think this is still more of a doodle than a finished drawing, but it's getting closer.

'Nuff said,
Joe

Learning from the Masters

I took another break in between flatting and decided to do some Buscema studies. John Buscema is one of my all time favorite artists, and I sometimes forget that because he didn't draw anything that I like to go back and read very often. I mostly look at his work when I'm doing layouts or when I'm just not understand the figure.

Anyway, I made it funny after the fact. Hope you dig it.

Peace,
Joe

Break Time

So I've been working on some flatting work that I picked up today, and I just had to take a break and switch gears. This image started as portrait of Jon Hamm from "Mad Men," but the finished image looked boring. I ended up throwing around some color and slanging some liquefy and I finally drew right on top of it.

Hope everyone's doing great out there.

Peace,
Joe

DISNEY MARVEL MERGER

I'm officially throwing my hat in to draw/write the following crossovers:

1. Spidey/Mickey
2. Goofy/Stronguy
3. Donald/Wolverine
4. Peterpan/Jubilee
5. Mulan/Powerpack
6. Howard the Duck/Scrooge McDuck
7. Ducktales/X-Men
8. Goof Troop/Hulk
9. Aladin/Fantastic Four
10. Tarzan/Daredevil

Please contact me about any of these. I am not playing games here :)

Peace,
Joe

J Hearts T2

Here's my latest pass at my Jesus Loves Trannies concept pieces. It's a bit more stylized than the first, and I like it more. The colors pop a lot better I think, and it's overall a step in the right direction.

Hope this isn't ruffling too many feathers out there. Just trying to keep it real on the old blogg-O-sphere.

Peace,
Joe

JESUS LOVES TRANNIES

So this is in a way different direction, but I'm working on a new series for images for Grad School called "Jesus Loves Trannies" wherein I will paint transgendered men with Jesus genitals.

Still with me? Good. I'm glad I could connect with you for once :) The "imagine a cure" type ties into an even bigger theme that I will reveal later.

This digital sketch is one of twenty five that I'm working on for a post card set, and then I will be painting at least eight of these in oil on canvas.

More to come.

Hope you like it,
Joe