THE ILLCOHOLIC

Breakthrough Contest

2011-09-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I entered Richard Solomon's Breakthrough contest. Although I didn't win, I was chosen as a staff pick. You can read the spotlight on their blog here. Congratulations to the winner, the runner ups, and the other staff picks. The caliber of work is truly astounding.

Iron John

2011-07-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

Did this for the Grimm fairy tales challenge on theartorder.com. Iron John is one of the stranger fairy tales that I've read. Part of it involves a hairy wildman being extracted from the bottom of a lake in a forrest...yeah.

Zombie Tourist

2011-04-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

This was a quick job that I did over winter break of 2010. The art director wanted a zombified tourist in NYC who wasn't overly decomposed, but rather freshly turned.

Elie Wiesel

2011-03-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

Another one from the Ringling Library Town Hall Lecture Series. This is a portrait for one of the greatest humans to ever live, Elie Wiesel.

18" x 22", Charcoal

Jay-Z: Decoded

2010-11-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

This past summer I received my first freelance book illustration job, and it was quite a doozy. I was hired by Rodrigo Corral Design to illustrate Jay-Z's memoir Decoded which just hit bookshelves on 11/16/10. Here are some of the originals next to their respective pages in the book. All of these were done in graphite. More to follow soon.

Tata Gala 2010

2010-10-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here's my entry for the 2010 Tata Gala. 20"x30" charcoal and acrylic on Strathmore 500. It's a Maenad with a vineyard on her head and wine pouring out her mouth. I'd drink it.

Never Say Die

2010-10-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

So I found this awesome beer at Total Wine called Old Rasputin. It's an amazing imperial stout, but even better than the beer itself was the packaging. It inspired me so much that I just had to do a portrait of the mad monk. This was done in charcoal as a live demo at the fundraiser night for the Illest Of Ill show.

Gloria

2010-09-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been forever since the last time I had a chance to draw from life. Today I decided to drag myself over to f.e.w.s. because it was the long pose session. I feel a bit rusty, but I guess that's only to be expected. Did a warm up of about 20 minutes and then a portrait in about 2 hours.

Samedi mockup

2010-09-06T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here is what it might look like if it were printed and on your sexy body.

Baron Samedi

2010-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is my pitch for the t-shirt design for this year's Illest of Ill here at Ringling. In case you were unaware, Illest is an annual student run show that is currently in its 5th incarnation. Each year only the best of the best works of illustration by underclassmen are chosen by a world renowned guest illustrator/judge.

About the shirt: The LOA are the spirits of voodoo who act as intermediaries between humanity and the creator god called the Bondye (Bon Dieu, or good god). Baron Samedi is the leader of the Guédé loa, the spirits of the dead. He's the ultimate party animal in voodoo, with nonstop swearing, filthy jokes, and an ever-present glass of rum and big fat cigar. Samedi will dig a person's grave and greet them when they die. If he refuses to dig their grave, then they cannot die. He will also ensure that corpses rot in the ground so that they cannot be brought back as zombies.

Article about my portrait

2010-08-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

Capitalist Suicide

2010-05-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at printmaking. It's a linocut with a monotype for the money. I didn't have access to a printing press so I burnished it on with my key fob, but I kind of like the streaky effect that resulted.

Captain America

2010-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been obsessed with Captain America. I think it started when I read The Ultimates...such a good comic. Anyways here is a bust of Cap and the charcoal study for it. I might do a painting as well.

framed

2010-03-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here he is all framed up.

Philippe de Montebello

2010-03-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

Well it's been quite a while since my last update, sorry about that. Things have been quite busy though, which I'm very grateful for. Here is my latest painting that I just finished at 7:30a.m. this morning. This was done for the Ringling Library Town Hall Lecture Series (same as the Bill Clinton portrait from last year). This time it's a portrait of Philippe de Montebello, the longest serving director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I will be delivering it to him on 3/31 so I'm pretty relieved that I finished it tonight/this morning, but I'm still pretty nervous considering his credentials. Hopefully he approves of it. Enough rambling, need some shuteye before class plus I'll have to go pick up my suit from the tailor, then write a paper due tomorrow that I have yet to start, and then drive up to Tampa to pick up my little bro who's coming to visit during his spring break/my hell week.

2010-01-20T16:32:00.000-08:00

1st figure painting of the new semester. 2 class sessions so far but we might get this model again in this pose sometime in the future.

bleach experiment

2009-12-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

I saw an article on http://www.gomediazine.com/ about using bleach in a spray bottle and masking off parts of a shirt to make designs so I decided to do a little experiment. I used a crappy old brush and Clorox bleach on this ratty old Converse t-shirt to make this vintage looking Honest Abe. Kind of like a holiday present to myself since it's so unbelievably boring here in Sarasota with all of my friends M.I.A.

sculpture studies

2009-12-24T21:30:00.001-08:00

went to the Ringling Museum the other day and did a couple of ink studies from the sculptures

figure paintings

2009-12-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of figure paintings from the 1st semester of my junior year. Trying to get better with oils. Each one is between 3-4 hours. Pictures taken with phone so quality is sub-par. I'll scan them when they're dry

Clinton

2009-09-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

Very exciting news. Former President Bill Clinton is coming to Sarasota on 9/30 to give a lecture. My college sent out a call for entries for students interested in painting a portrait for Mr. Clinton. I was informed on 9/22 that I was the chosen one! Tomorrow is the big night so I've got to clean my self up. I had invested about 3 days into the portrait before I realized that everything was wrong with it so I scrapped it and started anew. Here is the finished second version.

30 portraits in 30 days: 6

2009-09-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

here's tonight's portrait: General Lee's Lament (acrylic, ink)

30 portraits in 30 days: 1-5

2009-09-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'd say it's about time for an update. Things have been really busy at school, much more so than I had expected, but that's a good thing. I'm currently working a rather epic project, 30 portraits in 30 days with a different medium for each one. They are, in order: Henry VII (red conte, vine charcoal), Louis CK (graphite, gouache), Lil' Wayne (coffee), Achilles (charcoal, halloween blood), and Frank Frazetta (watercolor, b/w ink)

Engagement Party Caricatures

2009-08-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here are the caricatures I did today at my second gig doing this stuff. I'm starting to feel like a whore for having to tone down the level of exaggeration that I want to do with some of these. This one woman made me do hers 3 times (see if you can spot all of them). And the old people complained if they looked a little old. I'm an artist, not a friggin' miracle worker. I personally think that wrinkles (well most of them) add character. A lot of people could use a thicker skin.

Tony Ryder workshop

2009-08-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

I just attended a 3 day workshop with the incomparable Tony Ryder at the Long Island Academy of Fine Arts. I have been in awe of his work ever since I first saw it in 11th grade. I never thought I would get to meet some one that I had such a high regard, let alone get to study with him and have a couple laughs over lunch. Definitely one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He never shuts up while teaching, but that's a good thing because he is the master of humorous analogies. Anyways here's the portraits that I did over the last few days as well as Tony's demo at the bottom.

first gig

2009-08-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first gig doing caricatures. It went really really well and I can't wait until next weekend for my second gig. It was slightly challenging because everyone a the event was Japanese and I had almost no practice drawing asians (nor did

I speak Japanese). I tried really hard not to rely on stereotypical features but in some cases it was unavoidable.

craft fair crap

2009-08-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pieces that I did at the craft fairs (I forgot to take pics of most of them)

caricatures

2009-08-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

So that whole art craft fair thing turned out to be a real bust. I did two more shows in very affluent areas and the crowds were dismal and nobody was buying. Even the other vendors who were selling more conventional things couldn't believe how bad the turnouts were. I made just enough to break even on the rent and figured I'd get out of that whole business while I'm ahead. On the bright side I managed to get booked for a couple of gigs to do caricatures. Since I haven't really done caricatures before I figured I'd better practice before showing up hahaha. So here's a couple of practice pieces, all done with a Faber-Castell PITT big brush pen on 11x17 Canson Biggie paper. I've been timing them to songs so each is less than 5 minutes which is way quicker than what I thought I was gonna do. Needs more practice though...

summer classes

2009-08-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

I just finished the last day of my summer classes at Suffolk Community College. I guess it was good in keeping me on a pretty strict sleep schedule which will definitely come in handy next semester. Anyways here's a piece I did for my psych 101 class instead of writing a research paper. It's for an article from Psychology today that examines why we see some things as great art, like a Michelangelo sculpture, and others just kitsch, like a Santa Claus lawn ornament. The article also talked about how when our brain first processes visual information it actually looks a lot like a Mondrian painting which is why we are drawn towards lines and contrast. Whatever, here's the piece that I rushed out the night before it was due.

Olympic Beer Pong Table under paintings

2009-07-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

Alright the under paintings are done-ish

started Zeus

2009-07-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

this evening we have the beginnings of the Infamous Adulterer, Zeus

pong table progress

2009-07-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

did the chick and Cerberus this evening

Mythic Pong Table

2009-07-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

This is the start of a folding 8' x 2.5' beer pong table that my friend's and I built. The theme is "Olympic Beer Pong" so on one half we have Hades and on the other will be Zeus. Here's the start of Hades. I think his left hand might be too big even with foreshortening. My goal is to have it done by this Sunday, so there will be updates every night.

1 hour portrait demos

2009-07-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of portraits that I did as demos for my booth. The first is William Tecumseh Sherman (graphite) and the second is John Bell Hood (charcoal). They were famous civil war rivals incase you were wondering

My 1st bad business experience and 1st street fair

2009-07-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying that things have been really busy as of late. I was supposed to be teaching at the Art League of Long Island, but they let me know the DAY BEFORE I'm supposed to start teaching that the class is cancelled. I can understand that with the economy the way it is, but not giving me a heads up until the 11th hour really pissed me off. So in order to scrape some money together this sumer I've decided to try and peddle my wares at a few craft fairs. I just had my first craft fair on Sunday. It was the Hicksville Street Fair. The week leading up to it was one of the busiest of my life. On top of the nonstop errand running to get all of my booth materials together, I'm also in summer classes from 10am-2:30pm mon-thurs. Luckily I got everything together just in time. The event itself was a mostly a learning experience. I encountered an unforeseen factor in the constant gusts of wind. I also realized that the signs advertising my prices were WAYYY too small. The crowd was also pretty low-brow and seemed more interested in Egyptian bed sheets ("One for 20! Three for $50!" is all I heard for the better part of the day lol) than art. The next show that I'll be attending is in a much more affluent area so hopefully I'll have better luck.

2009-07-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

My good friend Jerry found a couple of cheap leather bound flasks a while ago. I finally got around to painting one today. It's acrylic sealed with mod podge. Just in time for July 4th ;)

Look at those tree trunks!

2009-07-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

A very big congratulations to my best friend Nick D'Agostino for placing 2nd in the heavyweight division of his first bodybuilding competition. Not bad for only 20 years old. I can't wait to use him for reference. He's on the left in the blue speedo. The other guy's face is teh lolz

2009-07-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

I finished this portrait of my uncle a couple of weeks ago. acrylic

2009-06-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Some more Warhammer stuff. Here's the finished Warrior Priest of Sigmar. The second one is Drakenhof Castle... vampires live here incase you couldn't tell.

2009-06-09T12:54:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of portraits I started. The first is my favorite comedian, Jim Norton. The second is my uncle. The last one was for my friend Craig who is in love with Kratos from God of War. I did it in about an hour before I gave it to him for his birthday because I have serious procrastination problems.

2009-06-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not so sure about the warm color of the armor, I'll probably tweak it colder.

I started this last night, I'll probably post a couple of progress pics of it. It's a warrior priest of Sigmar from my favorite fantasy universe, Warhammer.

2009-03-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of at a loss for words right now, but I just found out that I have received a $1,000 award from the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition for my caricature of H.P. Lovecraft.

Here's the gallery of winners:

2009 Scholarship Winners

2009-02-23T11:53:00.001-08:00

and still some more dump

2009-02-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

...moar...

2009-02-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

some more sketchbook

2009-02-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

more sketch dump

2009-02-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

sketch dumpage

2009-02-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

sketch dump

2009-02-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

sketchbook dump

2009-02-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

well I finally got this image to upload. Last time I tried it just would not load no matter what. God, I hate this site.

2009-02-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

so it's been forever since I updated (because it's the biggest pain in the ass to upload directly to this site, and my photobucket account got screwed) but anyways, here are some helmet studies

2009-01-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

I had to paint a hairy animal in my media class. I couldn't decide on one so I chose to the hairiest person that I knew, my illustration teacher from my freshman year. To keep with the theme of the project I popped a couple of animals in his beard. Acrylic

Cronophobia

2008-12-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Wow I haven't touched this thing since I made it, I think it's time for an update so here's the first project from my illustration class this year. The assignment was to illustrate a phobia in black and white and I got chronophobia (fear of time/death)

figure stuff

2008-09-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

here's the longer figure drawings from my intermediate figure class

2008-08-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of figure drawing's from freshman year at college

2008-08-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is a project from my summer job as an artist for Trader Joe's (an chain of organic grocery stores). My boss wanted herself and another manager as cows to go above the dairy case. It's Liquitex Basics on foamboard and it's going to get cut out when finished. I originally had her squirting her udders to create a milk wave for the other guy to surf on but that got nixed do to the store being family oriented. So instead I opted to have her kicking over a bucket of milk for the other dude to surf on with a stick of butter. This was also my first time painting black skin and was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

2008-08-05T12:37:00.001-07:00

I was hanging out in the game room at Hofstra and for some reason they had a closet full of canvases and absolutely horrible acrylics that looked like they hadn't been touched since the college opened, so I decided I might as well make use of the free stuff and here's what I came up with in a little less than an hour