Spanish Peoples

Innocent bystanders at parks and hotel rooms in and around Madrid, Spain, 1999.

A Park in Seville, Spain

Parque Maria Luisa, Seville Spain, April 1999. Quite a beautiful day as I recall.

Seville

Stopping for a snack in Seville, Spain 1999. The problem with drawing in Seville wasn't "what do I draw?" but rather "where do I start?".

Almeria, on the beach

Drawn while sitting on the beach in Almeria, Spain sometime in 1999, with a Micron marker.

Almeria

Our time in Spain was divided between Madrid, Seville and Almeria. While in Almeria, the order of the day was fresh seafood. Tip of the day: when you eat mussels, eat only the ones with open shells, otherwise you could spend the rest of your vacation in the bathroom. Anyway, that's what I heard.

Spain, 1999

For the next few days I'll dip into a sketchbook I kept on a trip to Spain in 1999. This is the view from the balcony of my wife's relatives in Almeria, a block or two from the Mediterranean Sea. The traveling party consisted of myself, my wife and her mother, and since I didn't speak Spanish, I was left to draw to my hearts content. It was a little like being deaf.

Line

Spring 2001, a review of known territory.

Shaman

In the era between the advent of the interstate system and the spread of cable tv, people in rural areas sought out holy men or shamans, when confronted by problems. They adorned themselves with symbols of power and locomotion, and were easily identified.

Naked Lunch

2001, yet another excuse to make one's sketchbook pages all waffled. A color study of an image I played around with for a while. Ironically, it was on manual typewriters like this one, that I learned to type in high school. Our school had 2 electrics and the rest were Underwood manuals.

Suspense Theater

Early 2001. An impromptu sequence illustrating my full time job at the time. I'd gladly trade my current job for that one.

Depression

Early 2001. I made a significant break-through in the study of depression. With the right light and enough hours consecutive sleep, I'd discovered that depression was caused by a slug-like parasite that latches on to the head and feeds through the tear ducts. I didn't learn much else about these creatures, although it appears they are attracted to day-time television. It didn't make any of the recognized journals.

Gangsta Dad

Spring 2001, Children's Palace, Rockaway Mall, NJ. From memory. I'm terrible at making up tattoos.

Nice Legs

Another from the early 2001 cache. I later developed the image into a painting complete with NC Wyeth clouds in the background, side-lit with green running lights. Breathtaking in its scope and detail.

In Jersey

Spring 2001, New Jersey. An unfair, stereotypic and completely accurate depiction of a fellow (at that time) Jerseyan. Sketched from memory after we stood in the carry-out line together at a new pizza jernt.

Daria's Inferno

Sorry about the delay, computer glitches laid me low yesterday. 2000 or so, while working for Hypnotix, technically this is their property. As you can see, this is drawn on the back of an animation exposure sheet. This is during the 6-8 months we spent working on the cd-rom game for MTV called Daria's Inferno. The challenge was staying "on model" using MTV's characters. A former teacher of mine, Frank Suarez, who had worked for MTV (every animator in New York had at one time or another) advised me to sit next to a Xerox machine and cut n paste copies of the model sheets in different positions. Sound advice to all animators. I sought release in sad little drawings of wretched animators suffering under the weight of pencils, etc.

Character Design

Early 2001. Designs for an epic fantasy graphic novel I attempt to resurrect every 5 years or so. In comics, what one lacks in story, one compensates with excessive straps, buckles, pointless articles of clothing, etc.

Fame

Early 2001. A friend of mine from the Kubert School had given me an "in" with an editor at Dark Horse comics, Phil Amara, to be specific. Knowing that he edited the Alien titles, I worked up 6 or 7 pages of continuity to show him. I emailed the pages to him. Now, in those days in order to download anything on the Inter-Web, you had to crank a little handle and talk to your local operator (Sarah was her name) and she'd connect with, say, Oregon and their operator would have to crank a little handle in the opposite direction until all the info was downloaded. It was quite a cumbersome process. All I ever heard from Phil was "cool!"

Phil never believed that Quick was my real name. Really now, if I were going to take another name I'd have borrowed something cool like McQueen or Frazetta. My friend John Patterson held a grudge against cartoonist Scott Shaw! because he incorporated the ! into his name. John was convinced it was a gimmick better suited for my name. I agree, but Scott Shaw! is better suited for the spotlight than me.

Alexis Diner, Rt. 10

Early 2001, an unsuspecting diner patron spotted by me from the shelter of a booth. Animation had given me a clean, aggressive line and daily practise. I really miss the tuna melts at Alexis Diner.

A Fertile Time

Jan. 2001. I had just quit my job as an animator for Hypnotix in New Jersey, to play "Mr. Mom" to our brand new son. Blue pencil was still the order of the day and I was enjoying not being at a job. Back then, when I wanted to draw but didn't have anything to work on, I would draw a set of eyes and compile ridiculous elements around them. And by "ridiculous" , I mean breath-taking and innovative.

The News

A few weeks ago. Yep, you guessed it, I was having a little "faith-in-humanity" problem. I stopped watching the news and I'm all better now.

Home of the Brave, etc.

June. "And a man shall come, clad entirely in terrycloth, and he shall be seen in public. And he shall shop and be comfortable. And bathe maybe not so much."- Book of Common Shame