TR!CKSTER & Comic-Con Are Upon Us!

Like a hailstorm of badgers, San Diego Convention Week has arrived! I'll be there with the rest of the freaks & yahoos, mingling with fans & colleagues, selling art & merch, and avoiding sleep like The Plague. But, unlike previous years, this time I will NOT be setting up at a table.

Comic-Con Schedule
For anyone attending Comic-Con proper, you can catch me at the Oni Press booth at 12 noon on Sunday, July 24. I'll be one of the many artists signing during their Kids Day "Yo, Gabba Gabba!" Blowout! www.comic-con.org, www.onipress.com

TR!CKSTER Plans
If you're in town for the Con, you'd be crazy not to check out Tr!ckster, the simultaneous, creator-owned con that's happening across the street. I'll have merch available in their retail space, including the brand new art book WRECKING SKULL and the Puffed TPB. And I'm exhibiting several original works in their gallery. I'll also be on hand at Tr!ckster off and on, in case I'm needed for any live art or symposiums. www.trickstertrickster.com

Guerrilla Art Strikes
Since we'll both be free from the confines of a booth, longtime colleague Jim Mahfood & I have decided to rock Guerrilla Art Strikes during this fine Con Week. We'll be setting up renegade "studios" from Wednesday through Sunday, on a bar patio, by a hotel swimming pool... or maybe even on the bed in your hotel suite!

Jim and I will post our Guerrilla schedule (time, place, etc), between the morning and early afternoon of each day. Fans & collectors are welcome to show up and commission drawings from us, discuss our creative process, buy us drinks, propose marriage, etc.

Keep up on our exploits via the usual social networking suspects:

Dave Crosland
www.facebook.com/DaveCroslandArt
www.twitter.com/DaveCrosland

Jim Mahfood
www.facebook.com/FOODONEART
www.twitter.com/JimMahfood

"They say the good die young, so I added some bad ass to my flavor to prolong my life over the drum."
- King Gum Crosland

"Almost there. Almost... there."

Just about done with the Dark Side piece I've been posting progress shots of, these past couple weeks. I thought you folks would enjoy one more look at it before the final touches are applied.

"It's like a newborn baby, unseen sound so hold it. I worked too damn hard for you to fuckin' download it."
- Dave

Weekend Works in Progress

Just a few tidbits from this weekend's work frenzy, involving commissions and assorted wonders. Enjoy!

"You think you can cook? I got a grappling hook!"
- King Gum

Pulp Fiction

I'm about halfway through a series of Pulp Fiction, over-sized sketch cards for a longtime collector. Of course, I had to start with Jules and Vincent. I've been re-watching Tarantino flicks lately, and these two are the epitome of his wise-cracking, multifaceted, chatty-Cathy gangsters.

"... every opus like a needle through the eyelids of man, I propped the body on the beaches of Leviathan land."
- Gum.

Sabertooth Bee Eater

If you've seen my art for the past year and a half, then you know that I have a penchant for drawing Savage Women and Brutal Beasts. Oddly enough, nobody ever really asks me about those pieces. And I had never gotten a sketch request for anything along those lines, until now.

That streak was broken during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, where I had the pleasure of rocking one of my most unique convention sketches to date -- "a sabertooth tiger eating a bumblebee!" Mad respect to the collector who asked for this piece, and who was kind enough to scan it for me. You rock!

"But if you're trying to save you're pride, you're trying to save your pride! Far as I'm concerned that shit is goin' down in flames!"
- Dave

Pulp Fiction Werks & Samurai Sketch

Above are some recent tidbits from the heap of commissions I'm working on, plus a little character design from an upcoming something.

I've had a bunch of false starts on the Pulp Fiction pieces, and for longer than I'd care to think about. But it looks like I'm finally over the hump. Whew!

As for the samurai, can't say much about him. I will admit, I'm having a bit too much fun with all this samurai research and reference hunting I have to do, while fleshing out this rugged warrior and his wicked world.

"Rats, what a waste. It's more cash ta chase."
- Dave

Dalek In Progress

These are some progress photos of a new rendition of fan-favorite, DALEK! He's up to his old exterminating ways. Oh, Dalek. So hateful... so lovable.

Just a tiny taste of the stack of drawings I'm catching up on. Whew!

"You got something I need... kind of dangerous."
- Gum.

Commission Crackdown

As much as I love this art powerhouse I'm running, It looks like I'll need to shut down one of my generators before it blows the whole operation. In the past year, I've been fortunate to have a lot of art collectors contact me for commissioned work. But now I've found myself with a considerable back-log of pieces I need to create.

While I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting for their drawing or painting, I need to tackle this windmill before it reaches epic proportions. With that said, I won't be accepting new commissions for the next week or two. Between the list of requests I've already got going, the new comic I'm making and other goodies I'm preparing for Wizard World Anaheim and TCAF, my plate is full. I'm talking Thanksgiving-plus-Christmas-plus-Seder full!

The downside: you'll have to wait a little bit longer to hit me up for that awesome Galactus drawing you've been saving up for. The upside: I'll be posting all the commissioned work I'm catching up on, right here on the blog! So this week, look forward to lots of strange new imagery. From Pulp Fiction to Star Wars to The Sandman, I'm about to knock out some serious bangers.

"Keep your schnoz clean, ears open, chompers zipped up. Food-clothes-medicine, 'cause hungry-naked-sick sucks."
- Dave

On The Slate - 10/25 - Mas Sketch

These are more sketches from my commission noodling session. A good sketch session is great for clearing out the cobwebs and finding the energy behind a solid, finished piece. It's also a nice way to tumble around a single concept, in order to discover the best way to execute the final. Of course, that's the mindset when working on an illustration for a job. But I like to be able to bring that to the table on my more independent work, as well.

"They were all Honeymooners and I met every one.
That story is over, but my rhyme ain't done!"
- Gum.

On The Slate -- Loaded .45 Commission

Today's On The Slate is brought to you by the The El Michaels Affair's "Enter The 37th Chamber."

- Sunday Gum.

On The Slate -- Portraits and Predators

Up early with a lil' Grizzly Bear, Soul Position, and Samurai Champloo.

"Pleasuuuuure, HOOOO!!!"
- King Gum Crosland

On The Slate -- Band Portrait Pencils

Today's installment features in-progress shots of a commissioned band portrait. Lately, I've been trying to keep the energy in my drawings nice and loose. Despite some of the harder lines, what I'm going for here is freedom and motion. I find that this keeps the subject matter exciting and in flux, right up until I lay in the last bits of finished line work.

"We went from 'Do you want more?' to 'What you want NOW?"

- Gum.