 Since Halloween is right around the corner I'm going to continue onward with my more spine-tingling imagery. And the scene from ADRIFT that this concept piece is inspired by is easily the most frightening of the story.
This is the "Abduction Chamber". Originally a form of generator room which has now been revamped to harness energy from a new source. Humans. Each captive is attached via their spine and as the energy is extracted their bodies are left ridged while pulled upwards toward the ceiling.
Not exactly my kind of hobby, but hey, that's me.
- D
 We've begun our journey into easily one of the best times of the year. The month of October. Leaves are changing, a brisk chill is in the air and, of course, there's Halloween. Because of this I'm that much more excited to post this piece - a birthday commission for the son of a good friend of mine. A painting of Alfred E. Newman.
This is in fact the first time I've ever illustrated the infamous character from the long-running and just as infamous, MAD Magazine. And having the request to "zombify" him made it all the more enticing.
Being that he's a zombie I found the consistency of paint, and in this case acrylic paint, can coincide rather well with the texture of skin. And skin that's, we'll say, not quite so fresh? Even better. One can loosen the grip on the brush more and allow the brushstrokes to just paint it themselves.
Having never illustrated Al prior the more I studied him the more character features began to emerge consistently from cover after cover of MAD. Extremely specific features. From the his well-known smirk & freckles to his slightly less obvious off-center eye. Something I hadn't picked up on before. The guy's a peculiar subject. But a consistently peculiar subject, I'll give him that.
I'm also excited to announce I've done something with this piece that I've NEVER done with any other piece of artwork. Though you'll have to wait to find out what that is. Don't fret though, I'll keep you posted.
Anyways, hope you all dig it (especially Cobey) and I'll talk with everyone soon!
- D
 Whatsup everyone!
Continuing my experimentation with the pen & the marker I've recently wrapped up this pen & ink rendering of a home in Towson, Maryland.
What I found most interesting about this project was the return to the fundamentals of perspective. After learning the rules I find it's quite fun to break them. So much of the time I freehand the perspective, giving an image a looser organic feel. With this piece though it's more about a grounded solidified appearance to the image.
So to achieve this I decided to revisit those basic mathematical rules of perspective. Which meant the horizon line, vanishing points and breaking out the ruler. I also, for the most part, tried to keep the rendering to that of hatching (marks moving in the same direction), with minimal areas of cross-hatching (marks layered over one-another in opposite or various directions). This gives off the feeling of a "traditional" pen & ink appearance, almost similar to that of an etching. Though I still wanted those deep blacks so I used a calligraphy marker to create the foliage in the trees and bushes, also a way to help frame the home.
Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!
- D
 Whatsup everyone!
Here we have an illustration I did for the company, Social Help Online, a company geared around the wide world of Social Media. This fellow's name is Lindsey Nagy, advisor to SHO and managing director of Nagy Ventures.
I did this piece in the similar manner to that of my most recent comic, Last Caress - using a variety of pens with black ink & white paint markers. The results from creating artwork from basic office supplies can be rather surprising and a fun step outside the norm. Especially if you've been wed to the brush like yours-truly. For example, the pinstripe suit was done using a large Marks-A-Lot black permanent marker. The thinner lines were used with a Staedtler pigment liner (drafting pen) and the shadows created with a smaller Marks-A-Lot marker that was on it's last leg. You can get some nice grays with these.
Oh, and no worries, despite his slight resemblance to Lex Luther Lindsey's a good guy. No need to fear world domination that I know of. Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!
- D
 Whatsup everybody,
Here's a logo I've recently designed for the new company, SHORE PIX. Shore Pix is an establishment on the Eastern Shore of Maryland built around the digital preservation, as well as organization, of photographs new and old.
Over the course of my time designing logos I've really become quite found of these types of projects. They're challenging in ways that help your eye understand the subtitles of "design", font selection, color and so on, which can be a slight step outside the peripheral of that of your illustrative or fine art eye.
Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!
- D
 Whatsup everyone!
Here we have the fifth and final illustration for the ALTERNA ORIGINALS creater-owned sketch card series. This undead action-packed World War II climax is based upon the New York Times Best Selling graphic novel series, FUBAR - from supreme commander (and writer/artist) Jeff McComsey, along with a multitude of other very talented artists & writers.
A little while ago I expanded my world of subject matter by drawing my first zombie. Since then I think I may have gotten a small taste for it as I truly enjoyed working on this. Here's a brief description of the book...
We have nothing to fear, but fear itself...and Zombies. This Zombie-Nazi smashing book spans the entire European theater from Sussex to Stalingrad as the Allies come face to face with the walking dead.
Enticing, right? If you'd like to know more about FUBAR you can visit and peruse samples of the on Alterna Comics website right HERE.
Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!
- D
 Whatsup everybody,
Hope you all had an excellent and possibly even restful weekend. Continuing onward with our ALTERNA ORIGINALS escapade we have an alluringly dangerous character from the graphic novel, DIARY of the BLACK WIDOW created, written & illustrated by Mr. Bret M. Herholz.
As soon I saw Herholz's illustrations of the 'Black Widow' I knew I needed to take a stab at it. The refreshingly unique drawing style, combined with the striking design of the character, rightly grabbed my attention. There's something in the eyes that almost tells you everything you need to know...
"A young woman with a habit of seducing and killing men attracts the attention of an oblivious Detective and his helper. Will they solve the mystery behind these murders, or will the Black Widow strike again?"
If you'd like to drink in a few pages from the graphic novel simply click right HERE.
Hope you enjoy and I'll be back soon with the series' conclusion!
- D
 Whatsup everybody,
Hope your Friday's begun with an electrifying start. Today's 3rd installment of the ALTERNA ORIGINALS sketch card series is the character Richard Sullivan from the graphic novel, THE CHAIR - written & illustrated by Peter Simeti.
Peter is not only a fine wielder of pen & brush but he himself is also the president & publisher of ALTERNA COMICS. Yes, that's right, he's not only the owner but a member as well.
What I found striking about the Sullivan character is this ragged yet hardened appearance. Just looking at his body language and overall all demeanor it's obvious the guy's seen and been through a lot, and most of it he'd probably prefer to pass on. "As the sole remaining inmate in the prison, Sullivan must find a way to escape his fate or let the insane events of the prison finally consume him". If you'd like to know more about THE CHAIR simply click HERE.
Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you next week,
- D
 Whatsup everyone!This is illustration numero dos of my 5 card series for Alterna Comics' new collection of creator-owned trading cards, ALTERNA ORIGINALS.
This bubbly character is from the 5 volume graphic novel series, Novo, from creator/writer/artist Michael S. Bracco. Anytime I have the opportunity to delve into the world of science-fiction I try to take it, and this portly fellow of dental magnificence was just that chance. If you'd like to know more about Novo you can check it out right HERE.Mr. Bracco and myself actually crossed paths a time or two, as we're both alums from MICA (Maryland Institute, College of Art). He actually published a pretty sweet comics magazine at the time called Rhino. Today though he's the owner of the website, SpaghettiKiss.com - "Unusual apparel design for men and women" based upon his graphic novels and illustration. Give it a look.Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!- D
 Whatsup everyone!
A little while ago Alterna Comics announced they would be doing a brand new series of creator-owned trading cards titled ALTERNA ORIGINALS, based on the mass of successful graphic novels they've published over the years. Within this group of cards would be a massive 250 hand-drawn sketch cards from 50 different artists. This is a project I was very excited to hear about and I'm pleased to say my name is amongst the many talented artists on the roster.
I've contributed a total of 5 originally illustrated sketch cards to the collection, and in celebration of the release of the cards this coming Fall I'll be posting each card right here on my site one at a time over the next week and a half.
We had the opportunity to choose whichever characters we'd like to illustrate from any of their graphic novels (that in itself was tough, since so there were so many great lookin' characters).
First up is a character by the name of Homer Hegal from Jeff McComsey's comic, AMERICAN TERROR. The unique look of this fellow immediately grabbed my attention and I knew I had to try my hand at him. Spectacles AND an eye-patch on one character. C'mon on, right? The exact ingredients of 'cool'.
If you'd like to find out more about AMERICAN TERROR you can click right HERE. You can also visit Alterna Comics' website at www.AlternaComics.com to find out more about ALTERNA ORIGINALS.
Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon!
- D
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