Gracing my holiday cards this year is my painting titled “Portrait of a Pin-Up” of the lovely Sabina Kelley.

So, I survived another year at the NY Comic Con! Every year seems to get bigger and better. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by my booth. Your comments and support are so greatly appreciated. Those who came by early received this year’s limited edition poster, featuring my latest painting of model Kim Falcon in a 40’s style patriotic pose.

featuring “American Pride”, 36×50 in., oil on linen (original available)
I was happy once again to have both men and women interested in my art. In fact, I think the women might have edged out the men. Sunday was kids day, and my youngest fan was an adorable little girl (maybe 2 years old) who refused to move from her eye level view of my painting “Casting Call“, which must have appeared to look like a fairy princess to her. I was pleased to make her smile by presenting her with a business card and her dad was happy that she then agreed to move along. All in all, it was a very successful albeit tiring weekend and I’m excited to get back into the studio to continue creating.

I’m in booth #2039 this year and hope lots of you will stop by and say hi. There will be a new commemorative Comic Con poster unveiled later today. I’ll post a picture after the booth is set up. I just posted a video interview taken at last year’s show on my what’s new page - go check it out!

Distinction Gallery, Escondido, CA is including some of my pin-ups in their upcoming show, Immortalized. The gallery opening is Friday, September 9th. Hope some of you can make it!

The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, September 9th, 2011 from 7-11pm highlighted with 22 classic custom cars and hot rods as organized by Sponsor Hot Rods and Custom Stuff, Cuties for a Cause pin up girls passing out goodies, STONE beer, catered food and wine provided by VINZ Wine Bar, live music by Gino and the Lone Gunmen and awards for artists and sexist pinup girls.

I worked on my portrait of Sabina Kelley some more yesterday in the studio with Paul McCormack and again today on my own. I took the painting outside today to photograph it in order to get a better picture to post. It’s a beautiful sunny day here. Bright light is the best for photographing paintings, otherwise you can go crazy trying to prevent shadows while achieving the best representation of color. The first photo below is the photo I took outside. You’ll see that there is a little piece of white paper taped to the easel just about the painting. That’s used to set a white point in photoshop which helps to correct for color shifts. This is a much better representation of the painting than the one I posted yesterday which was photographed in low light and got washed out when I tried to adjust the white level.

The next image is just the above photo cropped with a border added. You can see that during these two days I worked a lot on the details of the hair and also completed both her shoulders. There is still some refining to do, but I’m excited to get this piece completed.

I’ve continued with this oil painting of retro pinup model Sabina Kelley and am happy to say that it’s nearly completed. I’ve been learning a lot of new techniques throughout the process and can’t wait to get started on my next pinup in oils. Here’s the progress so far:

I stopped posting to this blog a while back in the hopes of updating it and my website, but the project got tabled. I’ll be updating both sites and getting a new one underway soon, but in the meantime I’m back to blogging here. I’ve tried to incorporate this blog with facebook, and my posts do get updated on my page there. Please stop by and check it out.
I’ve been continuing with my pinups while exploring new mediums. Most recently, I’ve been fortunate to be able to study oil painting with Paul W. McCormack, whose beautiful watercolor portraits caught my eye some years ago and inspired me to continue with my work. I’ve always challenged myself to achieve more, so it doesn’t surprise me that painting oil portraits in the traditional style was next on my agenda. A bit more surprising is my new found love of plein aire painting. I’ve always loved getting outdoors, but the need to complete a work quickly was never my style. My art has always has taken a more studied approach. What’s good about this type of painting is that I’m forced to make quick artistic decisions - about value, hue, saturation, edges - and get it all down on canvas before the light shifts or the weather changes. Learning new things is always good, and I’m excited to see how I can incorporate these new skills into my pinup art.

I had a great time meeting lots of pin-up fans this past weekend at the NY Comic Con. I appreciate all the wonderful comments from men and women alike - it’s that kind of feedback that really keeps me inspired! Perhaps the best comment of all came from a little girl on Sunday, who upon passing my booth and viewing my pinups commented simply, “Pretty!”. I loved that! In fact, female patrons outnumbered men about 2:1 and lots of them dragged their man along to view my work. I guess pinups are a hard sell when compared to the legendary Spider Man
Now that the convention is over, I’ll be going back to work on some commissioned and spec pieces as well as posting more in-progress shots. First I need to get cleaned up around here - I caught an episode of “Hoarders” on tv last night that scared the begeebies out of me! Time to get organized!!!!

This is the 3rd Year I’ll be showing my pinups at the New York Comic Con in NYC. It’s always an exciting weekend, and I look forward to unveiling some new pieces along with old faves. Hope to see lots of you there!

A new series of guitar picks featuring several of my pinups will premier later this week at NAMM 2010 in Los Angeles, CA. The picks are licensed exclusively by Steve Clayton, Inc., a US based, family run custom guitar and accessories business with many years of experience. It was a pleasure working with the owner Steve and his daughter Chrystal to develop this line of picks based on my pinup girls, since we all know how well pinups and music go together. If you’re going to NAMM, check them out (and pick up some of my pinup picks) at Booth #4590, Hall C … and don’t forget to tell them I sent you

the image above is from the new 2010 Clayton catalog which will premier at NAMM 2010