A disturbing look into the sketchbooks and random drawings of Scott Quick, "Mid-Missouri's James Joyce". All drawings copyright me, Scott Quick, "Mid-Missouri's James Joyce", etc.
Last Saturday, while my son was playing Pokemon at a local game-shop. I don't really think Americans have a weight problem, we just need bigger chairs. I liked the orange tape wrapped around the shoes of the guy above. I wonder if that's a thing now.
A week ago or so. My son has been playing Pokemon at a local gaming shop. This has provided me with rich opportunities. Of course, as a citizen and a taxpayer, I was concerned about the phallic nature of the young mans hair style above.
Yesterday. I've been working on a piece for a relative involving old family photos. I'll be using pen & ink ( I think) so I'm timidly trying to get back into shape.
Sometime last year, while watching "The Train" starring Burt Lancaster. A genuine No-Prize goes to the first who can identify the French actor depicted above!
Last week, maybe Saturday. Blue Coler-erase pencils require such an aggressive hand to be visible, that it allows for a lot of re-work not always possible with regular lead pencils. Eventually you wind up with a drawing that can be read as braille.
Last week. What emerged from my subconscious was a knight- possibly envisioned by Marvel Comics around, say, 1975.
A few weeks ago, before the weather turned, sketching kids at a weekend group Suzuki violin lesson. A few weeks later, I was sitting opposite a parent who was silently practising his bag-pipe fingering and blowing while the kids worked in class...and I'm the one who's self-conscious about sketching in public.
September, 2009. It isn't until I posted this that I realized I'd stolen the positioning of the "fingers" on the leading hand from Steve Ditko, legendary nut and co-creator of Spider-Man.
Sometime this week. My son was recently watching some of the old Batman Animated series of Bruce Timm's. He's drawn to the Man-Bat episodes, I think because they lend themselves more to Gothic horror instead of crime. I took the Man-Bat and aged him appropriately.
Row 14 on an anonymous flight from Spain to JFK Intl., New York, 1999. Philosophically, my favorite sketch of the whole trip.
A cafe somewhere in Madrid, Spain 1999. And what cafe wouldn't be complete without rows and rows of dried ham hanging above the bar?
Parque Maria Luisa, Seville Spain, April 1999. Quite a beautiful day as I recall.
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?".
Drawn while sitting on the beach in Almeria, Spain sometime in 1999, with a Micron marker.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Early 2001. An impromptu sequence illustrating my full time job at the time. I'd gladly trade my current job for that one.
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.
Spring 2001, Children's Palace, Rockaway Mall, NJ. From memory. I'm terrible at making up tattoos. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
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
Last night. A work week wrap-up as it were. The latest issue of the Missouri Conservationist had arrived and on the cover was a close-up photo of a butterfly. This soon came tumbling out. Dark and mysterious are the ways of genius!
Drawn last month from the "Get Out" section of the paper. A local songster appearing live at a local venue. Like I'd ever leave the house! You can tell it was a good time- he's giving the "thumbs up" sign.
Last night. A pretty realistic depiction of houses if they were battle-ready, maneuverable and sometimes had trunks like elephants I think.
An impression from the San Diego ComiCon. Admittidly, it doesn't take much for me, but spending time at these things causes a severe drop my faith in humanity. I'm all better now.
The other day I was thinking about the role of hoses in the visual history of science fiction. Compositionally, (I don't think that's a word) they can be slapped on anywhere for no reason other than to serve the needs of the picture plain. (Was that a sentence?) Just ask Wallace Wood, well, you can't, but if you could and he was in a good mood, he'd point to any of his beautiful EC Comics work from the 50's. Corrugated hoses plunging here and there from panels, helmets, consoles, etc. Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" certainly would lack visual punch without them. I think about important things.
He who allows us to share a home, sometime in June. Like the universe, Topper is 
From last year- I wanted to use this as a letter-head, or at least print up business cards with this image. My wife pointed out that it doesn't exactly exude confidence. 
This is how I felt flying in the late 90's .... imagine how I feel about flying now! Of course, now that I'm a big-time blogger, I fly First Class clenching a single-malt scotch.
A marvelous set of bookplates, handsomely crafted for the discriminating book lover. I recall I was trying to break out of a rut around this time. I was coughing up any and all weird imagery I could paste together. We were expecting our son that year, and around this time, my wife reminded me it would be a good idea if I kept my sketch books on a high shelf. Maybe even under lock and key.
