"Galactus Eat World" A Parker Brand ATC Sketch

Had a little time to work on the 2nd card in my trade with Chrissie Altese. She requested Galactus as 1 of the 3 cards I'm working on for her set. I used my Sable brush to ink this one and I was pretty happy with it, then I added the grey and immediately felt like I'd messed up. I think I'm going to go for a do-over on this one.

I've got to say, as much as I like using my Pocket Brush, the Sable just destroys it when it comes to control. Still, just shouldn't have added so much grey to his face.

Anywho... I'll post the do-over when I finish it. For now, I'm nursing a headache and think I need some rest. Peace, friends.

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I Want Your "Hex" - A Parker Brand Micro-Sketch

If you know me at all, then you probably know that I've been a Jonah Hex fan ever since I first stumbled into my Dad's collection back in the 80s. Being a fan, and having a moderate amount of skill as a sketch artist, I like to take a stab at 'ol hatchet face from time-to-time.

Anyway, I felt like I had one more micro-sketch in me tonight and I figured my pal Jonah would be as good a subject as any. Here's hopin' that the film does my main man justice,... old west style.

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You Don't Know Dick (or "Revisiting Grayson")

So, we had a lot of fun stuff to do today as a family. First we went to my daughter's testing, which will decide whether or not she gets accepted into the art program at Lake Charles Boston Academy of Learning (she did really well, by the way). We had a fun lunch, spent some time in the sunshine out at Prien Lake Park and then went to Hobby Lobby to get the kids some new art supplies (they earned them by doing good on their report cards).

I had some time to crank out a quick sketch in my book of heroes, and had Nightwing on the brain. I've drawn him before, but I recently traded my pal Erik the original art (of which you can buy the print in my Etsy Shop) for a really sweet Dick Grayson/Nightwing action figure. I wanted to have another piece of original art that featured Mr. Dick Grayson as Robin, Nightwing and Batman, so I broke out the sketch kit and put down some ink and marker for about 20 minutes.

The sun, my family, some ink... a lot of dang fun, I tell ya.


BONUS: My wife cracked me up on the drive home. She said, "you know, it's starting to stay lighter a lot darker." Now, I know she meant "lighter a lot later," but it was still pretty funny.

Anyway, I've got more things to post real soon, but the "real" job has had me pretty much buried up to the eyeballs. Don't count the Parker Brand out though. I'm not out of creative juice yet. See ya!

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"Do You Feel Lucky? Well, Do Ya... Frank?" A Punisher ATC Sketch

I've been really lucky since I've entered the world of Artist Trading Cards. It's pretty amazing how one trade leads to another. It's a real pleasure, and such a treat to see what the artists I'm trading with come up with.

I feel really lucky to be working on my current 3 card trade with Chrissie Altese. Her blog is loaded with creative eye candy (she's an incredible figure artist) and I feel pretty dang grateful that she agreed to do this trade. One of the characters that Chrissie requested was the Punisher.

I haven't drawn the mighty Frank Castle since I was in High School, so I was kind of excited to take a stab at it. I could have just drawn a classic Frank, but I wanted to do something just a bit different. Just as Wynn Ryder used Billy Idol to inspire his John Constantine card, I wanted to use another classic crime fighting bad ass as my inspiration for Frank. What better inspiration that Clint Eastwood. But, rather than go for the Dirty Harry look, I decided to go in the direction of Josey Whales. I didn't want to mimic Clint's exact features (it still needed to be the Punisher), but I definitely wanted to capture a lot of Clint's squinty eyed glare.

Going that direction made this card a lot of fun. I hope Chrissie likes it. Now, on to my next card... GALACTUS!

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"Mystery Ink" A Supernatural Artist Trading Card (6 of 6)... and that's the set, folks!

Had some time to finish up my Supernatural ATC set tonight. The last card in the set was the Trickster. Honestly, I think the Trickster is my all time favorite Supernatural character. Each time he's appeared on the show it has been a really good time. He sure gives the Winchesters hell, but man he has a good time doing it.

Now that the set is complete, I'm going to get started on producing prints. I'll be selling the set on my creative services site for $10 a set, plus shipping and handling. I'll keep you guys posted on their availability.

Thanks so much to all you folks who've been following along on this set. I appreciate all the positive feedback. You keep a guy going. Now, on to the next project... an ATC trade with the very talented Chrissie Altese. Take a minute and treat your eyes to her work. 

The Amazing Art of Wynn Ryder: A Gorgeous ATC Set

About a month ago I did an ATC sketch set with a talented artist named Wynn Ryder. Up until Wynn contacted me I had not had the pleasure of seeing his work. If you've not taken the time to do that then I suggest you treat yourself real soon.

Today, I received the cards that Wynn did for our trade. Honestly, I don't think I was prepared for what was inside the envelope. I had spent a lot of time on Wynn's blog, and I had seen photos of the cards that he had drawn for our trade, but holding them in my hand, seeing them with my own eyes, it was a rather humbling experience.

I don't know if this is a compliment or not, but Wynn's work echoes of Bruce Timm in it's utter simplicity. His work is clean and bright. So clean, in fact, that it is hard, at first glance, to discern whether is hand drawn or printed.


While every card in the set is gorgeous in design, there are several that really stood out to me. One card in particular, has a unique tale to tell. I asked Wynn if he would draw John Constantine, of Hellblazer fame, and he graciously agreed. I had no idea that Wynn would come up with such a creative take on the character. What a treat it was to see my friend J.C. with the Billy Idol treatment.

The second stand out card is the one he did of Swamp Thing. Composition, color, Constantine, nudity... this card has it all. Wynn is truly a master of his craft.

I honestly can't gush on enough about this set, or how lucky I feel to have had the pleasure to trade with a talented artist such as Wynn. So, here's to you Wynn. Keep doing what you do, and always know you've got a fan..

If any of you are interested in seeing the full ATC set, plus the cards I traded, then click here. Thanks for stopping by.

"The Voice Says I'm Almost Out Of Minutes" A Supernatural Artist Trading Card (5 of 6)

I thought I might have one more sketch card in me tonight, so I figured I'd take a stab at Castiel. This card was the most challenging so far. Cas has a pretty smooth face and the character doesn't have a lot of expression (he's an emotionless angel... what do you expect).

Honestly, I have to say that I'm not as happy with this one as I am with the other 4. I think that it looks somewhat like Cas, but it's not as accurate as the others. I struggled with Misha Collins' lack of facial expression (that's the part, gang... playing Cas is a subtle art and Misha does it well). Misha is an expressive and talented actor, so basically, if this Cas card isn't great then it boils down to my lack of skill.

I added a bit of red for the blood on this one. I thought it might be cool to have one card in the set with a touch of color.

Anyway, I'm putting the art supplies to bed for the evening. Next up... the Trickster!

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"Don't Look Back" A Supernatural Artist Trading Card (4 of 6)

I had about 30 minutes of down-time before my wife and I head out for the day. I figured I'd use it work on the 4th card in my Supernatural ATC set. As I've stated before, I really wanted these to look somewhat like the real characters on the show, so it's important that I get the small nuances on their faces right.

Here we have Papa Winchester, the big man himself. Jeffery Dean Morgan was the perfect actor to play this part, and I miss his character quite a bit. I think the look on John's face says it all; sorrow, worn out, but still carrying on the good fight. The Winchesters are a tragic bunch and I think the acting by Morgan really portrayed the tragedy of their lives. John Winchester definitely carried a lot of weight around, and now his boys have to do the same.

Anywho, I'm really having a lot of fun with this set. Once it's complete I think I may do a follow up set that hits on all the key players on the show. As usual, I'll keep you folks posted as that develops. Thanks for stopping by.

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"You Idgit" A Supernatural Artist Trading Card (3 of 6)

Had some time to sit and work on the third card in my Supernatural ATC set. I've already knocked out the Winchester brothers, so tonight I wanted to work on their fellow hunter, mentor and surrogate father, Bobby Singer a.k.a. Uncle Bobby.

Bobby is one of my favorite characters on the show. He's kinda like this really bad ass Obi Wan Kenobi type. He truly doesn't seem to give a shit what anybody thinks, he's pretty damn knowledgeable when it comes to supernatural lore and good old fashioned demon killing.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this card. I'm sold that it looks like Bobby, at least a bit. I guess that's a good thing, because that's what I was going for.

As always, thanks for stopping by and looking at my work.

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"What do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little hell?" A Supernatural Artist Trading Card (2 of 6)

Had some time to work on the second card in my the six piece ATC set I'm working on, based on characters from my favorite show, Supernatural. Tonight I focused my attention on Dean Winchester, brother to Sam (who I posted last night).

You know, like I've said before, I'm happy if I even get a small likeness on these sketch cards and I think I might have accomplished that with tonight's sketch. The actors who play the Winchester brothers have pretty expressive faces, so if you hit it right then it's pretty easy to tell who's who.

I'm satisfied with the direction of this set, so far. I figured I'd tackle the brothers first, because if they turned out okay then they'd be a big confidence booster to help me take on the other characters in the set.

It's always relaxing to stop for a while and do this. Normally I'd be watching the show right now, but it's in reruns until some time in March, then it's on to saving the world from Lucifer.

I'm still not sure how the Winchesters are going to pull that off, but I'm sure God and Dean's golden amulet will have something to do with it.

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Soon: A Supernatural Artist Trading Card Set Begins (or "Get Thee Behind Me Sam Winchester")

I've been stuck in the wild and wacky world of advertising for the past couple of weeks. The deadlines can get to you after a while. Getting away from the computer and picking up a pencil and pen is a big release for me. I told myself today that I'd take a personal break to start working on a new ATC set based on my favorite show, Supernatural.

Look, this show is on the CW; not known for great TV, in my opinion. But, honestly, Supernatural is tops. Quality acting, writing, directing combined with high production value. It's scary. It's cool. It just got picked up for it's 6th season. If you're not watching it, then you should be. Anyway, this ATC set is going to include 6 primary characters from the show; Sam & Dean Winchester, John Winchester, Castiel, Bobby Singer and the Trickster.

I wanted to crank out the Sam card tonight and I wanted it to be really rad, something that captures Sam in all his demon killing glory. I hate sketching out specific characters and them looking generic, like they could be anyone. I'm pretty happy with the likeness on this one. I'm still having trouble with the tiny format of the ATCs, but I can see our boy Sammy emerging from this card. I really wanted to catch that moment where he's yanking out the demon smoke. Those scenes are pretty bad ass on the show (go watch this RIGHT NOW if you don't believe me), so I hope I did it some justice here.

I plan to work on this set over the next week. I'll post the cards as I'm done. I did post this card a little bigger than normal because the detail seemed to work, even at a larger size. Next up, brother Dean (watch this for Dean's greatest moment).

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Get Thor UP! (or "Welcome to Thunder Mountain")

About 6 months ago I started trying to devote a little bit of shelf space at my office to the god of thunder. I had to fight a few small battles to get all of the versions I was looking for. Some of them have taken a beating by their previous owners, which is fine by me; it's Thor, for cryin' out loud.

There were two pieces that I was missing; the classic Jack Kirby Thor (or classic Thor... whatever) and the version of Thor from the Ultimates. I have to give props to Jack Kirby on this character design. When you see the chest plate disks, you know who you're looking at, no matter what version/universe it is.

While I'm pretty fond of the classic Thor design, I've gotta say that the Ultimate Thor looks pretty bad ass. I've always thought that his hammer design was pretty rad, sort of an over-sized version of Stormbreaker (that's Beta Ray Bill's hammer, FYI).

The addition of these two figures (and a bit of parking lot rubble) have helped me put my Thunder Mountain project to bed. No more ebay battles for a while. I fully anticipate there being a nice wave of Thor figures coming out with the upcoming film, so I'll hold off 'til then, unless I just find some filler pieces that I can get on the cheap.

P.S. I'd be a total tool if I failed to mention how completely awesome my wife is. I'm not big on receiving gifts, but she saw me eye-balling a Nite Owl action figure at the bookstore the other day, and that's what she surprised me with on Valentine's Day.

Nite Owl was my fave of all the Watchmen characters, probably because he was a planner, had guts and a healthy dose of common sense. I liked the design of the character in the book, and I think the movie artists did a great job updating his uniform for the film. The action figure has a nice sculpt. I think I may invest in a Silk Spectre figure, just so he's not all alone in the Parker Brand Battalion.

I've got a few other new additions I may share at some point, but if you're interested in seeing the whole gang you can always click here.

I hope to have some new creative to share with you folks real soon. As always, thanks for your time and your eyes.

Social-Lite: An Introduction To Social Media For Small Businesses

I will be presenting Social-Lite: An Introduction To Social Media For Small Businesses to the West Calcasieu Association of Commerce at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 11.

This presentation was a bit challenging because social media is an extremely broad subject, and the time alloted for the presentation is only 30 minutes. I was told to assume that most of my audience would have little to no knowledge on the subject.

I tried to be as lean as I could on the slides because usually they are only there to support what I'm saying to the audience. I decided to add a bit more content to this presentation in the form of pro tips for the note-takers, or for those who may view it online after the event.

The presentation gives an overview of what social media is, how it's grown and what it means to small businesses in general. In trying to distill the content, I focused on 4 aspects of social media marketing; You Tube, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging.

My hope is that this presentation will stimulate business interest in social media marketing in Southwest Louisiana.

To view my other presentations, visit my Creative Services site.

9 Reasons I Love Trading Art Cards

I finished up the 9 card ATC set I've been working on for Wynn Ryder (you can see his work over at http://wynnryder.blogspot.com/ ), a comic book illustrator who lives in England. This 9 card set includes Bond, Buffy & Beyond characters (3 each). Wynn's work is incredibly stylish and clean. I feel pretty honored that he wanted to do a trade with me. I'll be very proud to display his work. I would encourage each of you to take some time to view his work (and leave a comment while your there... artists love comments).

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