Happy Travels

This sketch kicked off a day of waiting around all day at Laguardia airport this summer waiting for an open seat that would take me to Saskatoon, then home for a few days. I won't miss standing around in the lounge for 12 hours this holiday season, eating chips and looking at women. I can do that at home. So , for those travellers out there, have a safe flight and fly continental. I'll be in Brooklyn eating some chips in my kitchen. I might have a beer or two also. Do they have a bar at Laguardia?

subways and halls

I was drawing this lady on the ride home last week, the lady next to me (who was coughing incessantly) asked to see the final sketch, she really liked it, I thanked her and then asked if I could draw her. This happened right about the time we pulled into Dekalb, so with only two stops to sketch her I ended up with chicken scratches and although she may have been happy to keep my drawing of her I didn’t even give her the option. I showed her and exited at Union St. , she smiled . Then as I walked away, she coughed.

Girls on cell phones

A lot of girls talk on their cell phones while walking the streets and I find it really annoying. I suppose that a lot of guys do as well, but I mostly notice the women.

Napkins and chasers

I was chased by a gang of 4 thugs about 30 mins after sketching this at Long Tan bar on 5th Ave. I was also carrying 2 bottles of wine (one white, one red-shiraz I believe). Imagine the dilemma I was in, do I turn and confront them?, do I surrender?, should I throw the bottles at them?, should I throw the bottles aside? If I throw one bottle, and keep one, which one should I keep? I was leaning towards keeping the Red, and I was convinced I’d be spending the next month in the hospital, when amazingly I reached a crowded intersection and they ceased their pursuit. The only other time I ran nearly that fast was when a girl chased me out of the Cherry Tree Tavern on 4th Ave this April for drawing a tattoo of a penis on her back. (She kind of deserved it though).

Napkins oh yeah

Long Tan bar the night I was supposed to be at Becky's wig party. Sorry Becky, next time?

Canal Bar Sketch

So during my bout with the Epstein-Barr virus I could barely swallow a glass of water, my throat ached so badly. I think I'm 90% over it now, that last 10% is always the toughest to get through, I'm sure I'd be fully recovered if I wasn't out enjoying life with the likes of my friends, Jim Beam and Sam Adams, But then again 90% is the new 100%, as is 30 the new 20 and let's not forget that Ginger is the new Cinnamon either.
While I was out enjoying my local pub, Canal Bar, I sketched this guy across from me, he kept impersonating Cartman from South Park. Thankyou for that.

Sketches of some girls

Just doing a little sketching here and there, the top one was over a few beers a few weeks ago with some friends of mine from the soccer team, I was demonstrating my lackluster pick up skills by drawing this girl, talking to her and really getting nowhere. She was really pretty but a tad stuck up, so she didn't get to keep the drawing. That's how it works, ladies.
The red ink pen rendition is of this gorgeous gal that Keith Gelhorne and I noticed from across the bar at Long Tan on fifth ave., done in my kitchen while listening to Edith Piaf and sipping on some Magic Hat.

sketches for short

holy crap 2 posts in one day! roughs for a short piece I'm working on for myself. I figure if anyone reads this they can tell me "Phil, how's that personal project going?" to make me feel guilty that I never finish anything I ever start!

After a couple of drinks with Bryan and Sean I drew this.

memory sketch from the train

Man, This guy kept coughing on me this morning on the train ride in. I was trying to read Harry Potter and all while dodging spit, I guess that's what airborne is for, eh?

Quite the Adventure

These are just a couple of designs I worked on for the latest Tek piece. The first version of Tek wasn't spacey enough, I agree.
The girl is Tek's gf, Jana, who used to be named Ginny. The Colbert peeps were/are alot of fun to work with, not too picky at all, they let us worry about the art, while they worried about the story. Man, I wish I could have my summer back , I'd trade a couple of Tek season 2 deleted sequences for a weekend off in July.
If you see it on Youtubes or something let me know how we could improve. Simon Ampel did a smack up job on desinging the other half of the characters, my fav. being the dying agent (voiced by Jon Stewart). We all did a bit of everything, Bryan Cox did some nice bg's of the assembly , and Max Porter had designed the bg's for the pitch we did to get the job in the first place, plus a few other bg's in this episode. Anyways, we're waiting for the second script, I don't really like fall, so I won't be missing much.

100% Genuine Napkin Drawings

So we were out last Wednesday eve, started at Toasties for an innocent beer, it turned out that Michael Ferraro happened to see Bryan Cox and I and we went back to his studio to check out his latest project and then off to (I forget the name now) on University and 12th...Jacks? maybe. But Steve the bartender there hooked us up with some Fondue and some whiskey, and we drew on some napkins. We folded them into 3 sections, working off the previous artist's lines, not knowing what they had drawn. I call the first one the Beetle, and the second one Radish Man.

Subway Rider

I rode the subway behind this guy a few months back, and saw a sketch i'd done of him from the back while cleaning up my files at work. I figured he'd look something like this from the front.

My brother on a Scott towel

It's been so long I forgot that I even had a blog, not that I've got a huge following YET!! or anything....This one was drawn at 5:30 am after a night out with Patric Lockerby in Brooklyn. He was sleeping, I was watching him, 'cause If I wasn't he'd have missed his flight.

Memory Sketch

From friday, this gentleman was seated across from me as I was returning from the Mets game with a friend. I still have another person to sketch from that evening, I haven't forgotten.

Monday Night

Thanks to Autumn for all the great recommendations for places to go in Miami...if anyone else has some, let me know.
This is her friend, Liz, who seemed stand-offish at first, but warmed up to Jon and I by the end of our stay at Prey bar. Thanks for sending me the picture.

Char designs.

I thought I'd dress her up in Knee highs, and a t shirt that my friend Todd is makin'.

Drawing on gum packets

I sketched this guy playing guitar last night, waiting for the train.
I didn't have a sketchbook on me......so I used an excel gum package instead.
He was really amazing, had a crowd, and all, and these girls were dancing. I gave him 5 bucks. I know it looks like two different people, but I didn't have my glasses on me, and besides, it was 1 am.

Rainy Day

I took a portal to lunch today, then I walked back to work, and this girl was walking in front of me.
When's this rain going to stop? Feel like I'm back in Vancouver.

Phone Sketches

I was catching up with Justin last night, we spoke for at least an hour, then I looked down and realized I had been doodling the whole time, and these are some of the results. They both started with just one eye, and evolved into something completely surreal. The subway scene I put a bit of thought into, starting with the kid in the middle, then smudging it , realizing he was wizzing by in a train, then adding in the rest. not as exquisite as my shot in the Tripplettes of the train slowing down matrix style with all the char's just sitting there. I realized a couple of years later that I had no idea how to properly clean up and inbetween, (it took me far longer than it should have, but Sylvain was too crazy running around to notice)......only after my friend Mario Carmel at Pascal Blais showed me, (2-3 years into my carreer as an animator). Then I thought it'd be a good idea to work on Sinbad as a clean up/ IB artist for a couple of months to really say I knew how.
what was this post about again? oh yeah, I was just chatting with Justin, and this is what I drew.
Free drink of whoever can tell me which train they're riding.

Union Square drawings_02

Some more sketches from Union Square park on my lunchbreak. The guy was watching the dogs at the dog park, the girl, selling something, probably worked for Greenpeace, and the last guy could sure use a break.

Subway napkin drawings

a true napkin drawing, on the subway around 11pm last night. A couple of nice older ladies saw me doing these sketches and handed me one of their notebooks to draw them. They didn't speak english, but they seemed happy with what I gave them. I only had two stops to scribble something down... that's never happened to me before, it was really cool!

memory sketch from coffee break

Simon drew the same guy as well....I think he was actually bigger. but, this is great practice nonetheless.
tomorrow I'll try and post another one.

Simon on a napkin

Simon Ampel, he was actually in a bad mood for once, and I think I captured it in this napkin drawing last friday at Old Town bar over lunch. Thanks to the gentleman who bought us the round of Guinness for switching tables.

Draw-a-thon and Union Sq. Park

Hey Chris, what's going on? anyways, nice prank you pulled on me this morning. It was way more clever and funnier than taping Simon's cel Phone to the cieling the other day! yeah, so what else can I really say but I'm thrilled that spring has finally arrived in NYC and we can finally go out and sketch on our lunchbreaks. I attended my first ever Draw a thon on Saturday, no better way to cure a hangover than draw for four hours straight and have some punk rock band from New Jersey blast away on their instruments behind me while i tried to tell stories with ink and pencil. It was fun, but I could have done without the punk rock, or whatever it was. Hey, I'll definetely be at the next one. Just a couple of sketches from that day, got more but It's one thirty am , and I should really get home. or should I just sleep at the studio.

Eric Merola

This is Eric. I don't have a nickname for Eric just yet, you see, it's been tough to hang out with one another because our schedules just don't jive. We sit near each other, so I didn't have to really move around to sketch this gesture of him working (or typing an email). The last time we hung out we both woke up with terrible hangovers (in our respective apartments), but that was like.....in NOVEMBER! We saw Borat, and drank beers and some Irish Cider (yuk) and...well, neither one of us really remember what happened next, although there was quite a mess in my kitchen the next morning, lucky we don't have mice.
I'm going to add his website to the links , as well as Brian Cox's . They're both really talented artists and great guys to work with.
I'm supposed to hang with Eric in the next couple of weeks, but we might have to wait until payday, say, April 1st?

For Bryan

Some people need to change their attitudes around here. Brian sitting next to me can be so damn negative, and Brian this is for you. No, you don't have to always smile and be in a good mood, but your low energy is dragging me down. Or is it the fact that I've been partying for 6 days straight? No, It's all Brian's fault. Yawn. Oh, and I got the chance to meet Stephen Colbert today, more on that later. PEACE!

subway study for short film -01

It's been a while since I posted anything, but It dosen't mean I haven't been sketching away. I received the Steve Silver Sketchbook as a gift from a friend as a thankyou for helping out on a music video, and it's just so inspiring to flip through the pages. Maybe one day I'll be an inspiration to someone :), until then , back to drawing.
This, on the Wacom tablet, for my upcoming short (for real) titled "My weekend in 30 seconds or less"

Weekend Subway Sketches

Just trying to make a point to sketch more on my way to work and play. Even opting for the local train , cause there are more seats available. now that's dedication, eh? Chris, now I can look in the mirror again tonight.

CANAL BAR

On monday I went to the Rangers game with Omar. This is not a drawing of Omar, however. It's of some guy I don't know, maybe had I been sitting closer to him I would have said hello. I did make some new friends however. Leslie the barkeep and Mick the owner of the Bar. Nice little place, right around the corner from my apartment.

Sat sketches on my Laptop

Just some of the people around me at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope. It's the place I come to send emails when I'm not at work, and it's full of people just reading , sketching and playing cards. If anyone wants to find me on a Sat, you need not search very far.
Check Out David Cowles' blog, I added it to my links section. I just finished working with him on a music Video for a pretty famous local band, I'll post some links up to it when it's okay to do so, probably not anytime soon.

Ali J.'s Birthday Party

2 rules I live by, there's about 12, but I'll mention only the 2 relevant to this post, well, 1 really but I digress.
Rule 6. Never lie to your parents
Rule 2. Never let the birthday boy/girl pay for any drinks on their birthday.
This napkin sketch, keep in mind was done very quickly, in a lounge on the Lower East Side, called LAVA GINA, i kid you not.
It was dimly lit, and I was well on my way to being lit dimly.
Happy Birthday to Ali J.
(more to come from this night...I found someone had drawn me and it looks rad.)

Lizard

someone had mentionned to me that I may have been a little harsh on that last posting of the girls butt, and maybe written some things that I shouldn't have, and I agree.
So in the future, I'll draw the whole figure, and maybe spend an extra minute or two on the butt for good measure., and to not be sexist draw men as well, but no guarantees on rendering a man's behind so delicately.
Today I digged up a happier image, one from a few years ago in fact, I want to re visit this character and come up with a story, I think we need to teach the kids these days about recycling and perhaps this is the lizard that will.

Coffee stand

On the cintiq tablet this morning. Sometimes you just have to draw something other than a monster and an 8 year old girl.

Friends of Mine_02

Friends. yes, living far from home, friends become family, and what better than a family dinner at a local chinese food restaurant in Fort Greene. What better , you ask? I'll tell you , how 'bout walking 10 feet past the Pearl of China and into a bar that serves 1 dollar PBR's (that's Pabst Blue Ribbon). I don't remember waking up recently after a night out and actually finding money in my wallet, or stuck to my back for that matter but this morning I had a crisp 20 and man, I can't wait to spend that today on lunch.
As promised, more true Napkin Drawings, with everyone contributing this time around. For those that don't know my family in Brooklyn, There's Todd T., Kristin V. and Kristin C., Vanessa and Clayton, or as we christened him last night, Cassius Clay. Todd's nickname is Black Irish, and I'm Pictshuz for those keeping track.

Where's Omar.

Where's Omar, one might ask. Well, yesterday afternoon I found the elusive Ecuadorian on the East Side, watching some football game with a bunch of Drunk College kids. I love this guy, I mean, he's got balls. He walks up to this girl I had been drawing (cause, who really wants to draw dudes???), and he hands her the page of my sketchbook, and says that He drew this for her, she seemed really embarrassed because , after all it wasn't a drawing of her face or anything like that, it was a drawing of her butt. Her friends really liked it and thought it was a good representation of this girl's ass, meanwhile, Marc and I were just smiling from the sidelines, when they asked Omar if he could draw their behinds as well......I don't know how he responded to that.
Now these are a couple of quick sketches I did afterwards, she was standing right in front of us for what seemed like forever, until her douchebag boyfriend showed up, (Marc's words, not mine). She should be proud of an Ass like this, Her posture could improve though, she was standing like a goose or a duck.