stART at the Station Artwork

I completed a couple more illustrations for stART at the Station that is taking place this coming Sunday December 2nd!! I plan on having four more completed before the show.

Coming up this weekend... Blackstone Canalfest

 

I am going to be taking part in Blackstone Canalfest Street Festival this coming Saturday from 11AM till 5PM right along Harding Street in Worcester's Canal District.

 

I will be selling copies of my brand new graphic novel The Casque of Amontillado as well as new arts and new prints.

 

Some of the other usual suspects will be appearing at Canalfest including painter Scott Holloway, Jon Hansen and Scallywag Ceramics, ukulele man Rich Ad Leufstedt and local siren Helen Sheldon Beaumont will be performing live just to name a few of the names you'll see at the show.

 

Hope to see you all there on Saturday!!

New England Bloody Roots Music Festival at Ralph's

Helen Sheldon Beaumont, chair of the Worcester Arts Council as well as the lead singer of Guns of Navarone and Petticoat Junction has invited me to take part in New England Bloody Roots Music Festival which will be taking place this coming Saturday at Ralph's Diner 148 Grove Street in Worcester MA.

Helen has been a huge supporter of my work over the past several years through various shows and events around the metrop so I am more than happy to take part when she sent out the call for artists.

So here's the deal. I will be selling my books, art and prints from 12Noon till 6PM. During that time some of your favorite local musicians and bands will be taking the stage starting at noontime and playing long into the wee hours of the morning.

I will also be taking the opportunity to promote and sell my latest collaboration with local poet Susurrus Din.

So come on down and meet us at Ralph's and get your copy signed!!

My Yearly stART on the Street Blog

I'm pretty gobsmacked (I think that's probably the best way I can put it) that stART on the Street is nearly upon us once again. It just seemed like this whole year has really gone into hyperdrive or someone hit the Improbability Drive because here we are in September with stART less than FIVE DAYS AWAY!!

Then again, I suppose I've had enough going on this year that made the whole thing fly by.

But here we are. Another year and another stART!! It the show I look forward to most every year as far as the art shows and festivals go in Worcester. And there are quite a few really great shows either taking place or starting up in the area that people should take part in.

But I still have a soft spot for stART. I've been doing the Fall show since they started hosting it on Park Ave in 2006. I think it was 2006 at least. And it seems like every year the people involved in putting stART together always go far beyond what they do the previous year. And every year the show just seems to get better not only with making the show a great deal of fun for the general public.

But also how user friendly and helpful they have been to all the vendors (including myself) who take part in the show every year. If something doesn't work with arrival procedures and set up the year before, they go out of their way to make it as organized and pain-free as possible the following year.

If you're a young artist who is really looking to get his work out to a larger audience I highly encourage you to take part in as many local shows like stART or Indie Art Market at Beatnik's as possible.

I mean, even if it's a Craft Fair at your local Church don't look down your nose at that. It's exposure for your work that as a young artist you can use to your advantage.

Don't get me wrong. Personal websites, Facebook, Twitter and web blogs are all fine and dandy with getting your work out there. It's a marketing tool so use it for all it's worth.

However, the only way you will ever get people to really care and interested in your work they need to get to know the face behind the art. And these shows are your best bet at doing so.

The only way you are going to build a fanbase (at the loss of a better word) is to get out there and become your own advocate. As much as you are an artist you must also consider yourself a small business as well. This way you show there is a pulse behind the art. You are selling both your art and yourself to the people.

And don't sell yourself short. The worst thing you do is give people the impression that you think your work is not that great. At the same time, I suppose don't get an over-inflated ego over your work.

But you can give the impression that you enjoy what you do. Just because a few people may not like your work doesn't mean everyone hates it. The best advice I was ever given as a young artist was by a fellow local artist Don Cadoret who told me "There's an audience for everyone".

And doing a show like stART on the Street is a good way of finding that audience and getting people to know you a bit better. From there you can not only build a fanbase but also build a list of clients who might take an interest in regularly buying your work and maybe contacting you for commissions.

You'll never know until you take a chance.

And as I say every year, if you have one or two bad shows don't write the event off as a waste of time. If you make back on what you spent for the table that's a good... um... stART.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Keep trying and don't give up. The only way you're going to be able to make a name for yourself is getting out there and promoting yourself through these events. Many of my fellow artists who happen to work in comics and illustrations like Derek Ring, Alison Cowell, Veronica Fish, Brian Nelson and Bob Noberini have done these shows in the past and have had some very successful shows.

So, if you're new to the event and happen to walk by my table, stop by and chat. I hope to see you all there.

More New Sketches

I'm going to try and finish up a few more sketches before Sunday but here are the latest batch of pen and ink sketches completed for this year's stART on the Street festival. I always try to include a good number of artwork pertaining to local places and establishments in Worcester.

Although, I do throw in a few of my favorite things as well ;-)

stART on the Street is TOMORROW Sept. 19th!!

Apart from Halloween, Thanksgiving and Oktoberfest, this is the only other reason I look forward to the Fall. I've been doing stART on the Street since 2006 and I've enjoyed participating every year!! The people involved getting this event off the ground manage to find a way to outdo themselves every year.

I have new artwork ready for the show. As I've explained in past blogs, much of this artwork started out as a way to sell stuff that I wasn't able to sell on E-Bay. But it seemed to take on a life of it's own. The work that didn't get even a passing sniff online has sold almost immediately. Now I'm actually creating new illustrations for the event.

But there's so many great artists and crafters to check out, I highly recommend you take a stroll down tomorrow. The event is happening along Park Avenue between Pleasant Street and Elm Street from 11am till 5pm!!

They might have expanded it to down towards Highland Street but I'm not sure. Nonetheless, come check it out!! You'll have a great time!!

Reference Material and book recommendations

While chatting with local artist Joanna Matuck last night at my show she asked me where I get a lot of my reference material for clothing of the late 19th and 20th Century.

Well, I have three really great books I go to. One of which is Costume 1066-1990s by John Peacock. It probably THE best book I got while I was at college. I had originally gotten it because I was doing a Doctor Who related story for my senior project. The story featured the Third Doctor as portrayed by Jon Pertwee and I needed to find as many pictures of frilly shirts and Inverness Capes as I could.

I was still fairly green when it came to the internet and finding reference material on that so I happened upon this book when I was visiting one of the small local bookstores around the college.

Little did I know at the time how much this book would be a huge influence on my artwork. It was probably THE BEST book I got while I was in college. Mind you, I also got the books Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud as well as both Graphic Storytelling and Comics & Sequential Art by Will Eisner during that time period.

But this book is STILL the best book I got in college.

Two other books I got much later were MEN A Pictorial Archive From Nineteenth-Century Sources 412 Copyright-free Illustrations for Artists and Designers and WOMEN A Pictorial Archive From Nineteenth-Century Sources 488 Copyright-free Illustrations for Artists and Designers. Both books by Jim Harter.

Both books are not only great resources for drawing fashion from that time period but also for the line work. It's great for artists who work in crosshatch or wish to learn the technique.

I recommend you search Amazon.com for them. I'm sure they must have an updated version of John Peacock's book by now that goes past the 1990s. When I got my copy, we were still a year away from entering the new Millennium.

And if you get the opportunity, please check out Joanna Matuck's blog. Her artwork has an amazing Art Nouveau approach to it very similar to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and my personal favorite artist Aubrey Beardsley. Please click on the image below to check out her site:

Happy Holidays one and all

Well, I was up at 4:53am this morning getting all my last minute holiday bits and bobs done. My cold last week kind of knocked the wind out of my sails on getting anything productive done, so here I was at a ghastly hour of the morning where everyone is either still fast asleep or still fast a sleeping it off getting all the stuff I should have done three or four days ago done.

But the point is moot. I had everything pretty much in the can by 7:30am and wrapped by 8:30am. Or theresabouts.

Now it's about nearly 10am and I'm probably going to need one more small cup of coffee to keep me reasonably sane throughout the day. My usual supersized Nightmare Before Christmas mug of coffee really isn't cutting the mustard this morning. So, I think I'm going to have to have a seven-per-cent solution of caffeine just for good measures.

I hope all my family and friends have a very Happy Holidays this year. And if you happen to be in the area of the Shrewsbury Borders on Friday, stop on by and say hello between the hours of 1pm and 5pm!! I will be taking part in a Decembers Authors Showcase. The Borders in Shrewsbury started to put this event on in the Summer and it's become a real hit. Both with the writers and the people that show up.

I will be signing copies of both my books in print at the moment and promting both The Spaghetti Strand Murder and Polly and Handgraves. Both of which come out next year.

Borders Books and Music is located on 476 Boston Tpke. in Shrewsbury, MA!! So come on out and spend a few hours with some really talented writers from the Worcester County area!!

Thank you for coming out yesterday!!

For everyone who happened to stop by the November Authors Showcase, thank you kindly for coming out to see and chat with myself and other extremely talented artists from the Worcester County area.

They're planning on another show December 26th, so I hope to see all y'all there!!

November Authors Showcase

If you happen to be in close proximity of Shrewsbury Street and Boston Turnpike Road, why stop on by and check myself and other local authors out at Borders Books and Music this afternoon at November Authors Showcase!!

Hosted By: Borders Books and Music
When: Friday Nov 28, 2008
at 1:00 PM
Where: Borders Books and Music
476 Boston Turnpike
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545

I will be onhand to sign copies of Diary of the Black Widow and Confessions of a Peculiar Boy... And Other Stories.

20 Artists of Worcester - Book Signing - Gallery Show

Some very good friends of mine were part of this book called 20 Artists of Worcester and there's going to be a gallery opening and book signing for it's release. The show will be taking place:

Date: Friday, November 14, 2008
Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm
Location: The Davis Art Gallery - The Printer's Building
Street: 44 Portland Street, 3rd Floor
City/Town: Worcester, MA

To find out more about the show and some of the great artists featured in the book, log onto their website at:

http://20artists.wordpress.com

So, if you happen to be in WooVegas that night, come on out to what's going to be a really great show!!

A month or so in the making, but tonight's the night!!

So, show up around 6:30pm until whenever your fingers fall off for a night of art, beer and socializing with other great artists, writers and musicians from the Worcester MA area!!

I'm hoping to have this become a once a month event either at Ralphs or another bar or pub somewhere around and about Worcester. I'm also hoping to incorporate other aspects to the event like the possibility of an eight hour comic book jam sometime either in July or August where the artists promptly show up at 6:30pm and in that eight hour stretch of time they are FORCED TO create an eight page comic book story which will appear in a short group anthology.

Another thing I'm very excited about is good friends of mine Andy Fish and Tom Grady who I work with through both the UCF Anthology and the Worcester Art Museum are planning something really great at WAM. To quote Andy himself:

Uber Artist Tom Grady and I are attempting to launch a version of Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School Life Drawing sessions here at WAM on either Thursday or Friday nights, and it looks like it's pretty close to happening. Dr Sketchy's, in case you don't know, combines art with snacks and laughs as we attempt to have some fun with some figure work all the while working hard not to take ourselves too seriously. There will be a nominal charge for the model fee-- something along the lines of $5 and it's completely drop in but limited to 20 people. MORE as we work out the final details.