I feel as though I am on the cusp of something bigger. I envision myself drawing a comic book some day. I always have envisioned this. It’s always been there, this fantasy.

2012 - Things changed again. I got bored of the shoe thing, the incredible time and effort and the little money involved. I also got fed up with doing things for other people and the fun got lost. Then I rediscovered my passion for drawing. Specifically, comic book stuff. Spider-Man especially. I loved it all over again. I’ve gotten better and better and better. Quite honestly, a lot of my improvement comes from the positive encouragement and kind words I receive through social media, especially Instagram. I’ve had people tell me that I have inspired them to find their creativity again. People are asking me to sign or dedicate my work!

2011 - Things began to change for me when I stumbled upon some videos on YouTube. They were of artists that were drawing on sneakers. Sneakers! This absolutely blew my mind and opened me up to an art world I had no idea existed. With some encouragement from my wife, she bought me a cheap pair of Walgreen’s shoes and I got to work with just a black and red Sharpie.

Thanks for checking out my first art book. The plan here is obviously just to show you some of my work but to also provide some insight, pointers, history and other things. I sincerely hope you enjoy.

I have been drawing literally as far back as I can remember. I had always assumed I would be a professional artist up until I hit college and starting taking courses in it. I realized that I absolutely hated doing what other people wanted. Drawing was my thing, for ME. It was fun mostly. At that point, a hobby. I quit majoring in art after the first year and went an entirely different direction. I kept on this course for around a decade, drawing here and there but never really taking it seriously or imaging a career in it for practical purposes. I graduated college with a Bachelor’s, then with a Master’s, got married and had an incredible daughter.

I grew up on the original Turtles cartoon. Watching it now, it’s pretty awful. But the characters are timeless. My renditions of the Turtles seems to be a favorite among my

followers.

TMNT

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These 2 were for a kids birthday party. A very early commission. I typically detest childhood versions of characters.

The Ninja Turtles and old school Nintendo. What more could you want?

"This was a commission piece that was to be modeled after a TMNT cover.

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pencils inks colored and some digital touchups

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(top) Casey Jones "(left) Donatello with Splinter, Deadpool and Spider-Man filling in.

The Shredder. I don’t know

why I draw hands so large often times. I

just do.

Usagi Yojimbo. Badass in the snow.

SPIDEYBy far my favorite character to draw. I don’t care what iteration it is. Spider-Man is a perfect fit for my style. His fluidity, range of poses, humor and

ability to express emotion, even with his mask on.

A couple blackbook sketches.

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You see, Spidey’s shitting himself because he’s so scared of Venom. And he’s also thinking, “Oh, shit.” Thus, you have 2 shits in the same picture which makes it pretty epic.

Spidey riding a Chocobo from Final Fantasy. This was my donation to the 2014 GAAM show.

Spidey and Deadpool doing their best Dark Knight Returns impression.

Spider-Man can have a surprising range of emotion for such a limited mask. And this is only his head. Combined with shadows, his very agile and the fluidity of his form, emotion and Spider-Man go hand in hand.

the Spider-Pirate came after a disastrous mistake on a normal Spidey bust. I had messed up on his left eye. It couldn’t be repaired, so I just filled it with black, then threw in a pirate flag behind him. Picture saved. I think a mark of true creativity is being able to find the beauty in the mistakes.

Carnage. I added a tongue just because. This was done when I was in a pissed off mood, I let the emotion come through in my drawing. Carnage was the perfect character to vent on. It was very raw, and fast when I worked on it. A rush even. It’s a great feeling as an artist when you just don’t give a fuck and you just fucking draw.

A trio of Synister Syndicate members.

Shocker

Speed DemonBoomerang

Spider-Man from the 1967

American cartoon series. Note the lack of webs on

his chest.

Spider-Man from the 1977

American live action tv series,

with the awesome goggle eyes.

Spider-Man from the Japanese live action tv series. he had his own

mega robot!

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OTHERThough the Turtles and Spidey are my favorite characters to draw, I have been challenged to vary my comfort level through lunchtime drawing requests and commission work.

One of the things I struggle with the most is backgrounds. I’m lucky to have so many creative

minds amongst my followers. This is one of those pieces that I was stumped on and an Instgram

follower recommended that I set it in a padded room. This allowed me to use a subtle grey tone and a nice pattern of squares in the background. Absolutely perfect, didn’t distract the viewer and

enhances the foreground. The other idea I was going to use was to place the scene in one of the

girls’ bedrooms. I was going to put a window behind them, with Batman and the Joker peering in. "

Also, this went to France which I think is pretty cool.

something I did in a black booka confused Batman

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"(below)This was an image I had pop in my head one night. I dropped what I was doing, knowing it was something that I just had to draw. So glad I did.

(above) One of those sketches that was pure fun. I used a brush pen, white out pen and a white out brush on this one.

A different style for me. It was fun to practice drawing females on a pin-up and such an iconic image.

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This is my stab at a Star Wars collage. It was originally a commission that was centered on Han & Leia. I decided to surround them with the Dark Side as a way to illustrate that their Love endures all… or whatever. I lit the two of them similarly to the scene where Han gets frozen. The whole “‘I love you,’ ‘I know’” scene. I wanted them to visually jump out from the darker figures behind them, the Death Star centering our view on their gaze into each other’s eyes. I’m pretty proud of the way Vader came out.

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Man, Transformers are hard to draw. It’s like a bunch of cubes stacked on each other, each one has to be believable in 3D, with correct angles and shading. On top of that, it’s gotta be shiny! A great mind-bending challenge for developing artists.

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