His Still Life

Two point O

2011-02-06T14:32:00.003-05:00

Version 2.0 of www.STEVEPONZO.com is finally here!

It's bigger. It's better. It's filled with new artwork for everyone to enjoy and there will be plenty more on the way.

A huge thanks must go out to the great Tim Cohan for his brilliance and patience working on the site with me.

So please take a look around and let us know what you think.

Children's Book: 3rd Full Color Page

2010-07-07T01:59:00.003-04:00

Here is the final full-color page from "Peanut Butter and Ellie." All the drawings are finished and I plan to post some of the sketches soon. The book dummy will be fully completed after one last re-write, which I should finish up in a day or so. Then, hopefully this bad boy gets picked up and you'll have a full 32 pages of pure puppy enjoyment sitting on your book shelves. Fingers crossed.

currently reading: "Werewolves of Montpellier" by Jason
currently listening to: Ugly Casanova- "180 South OST"

Landscapes and Scenery

2010-06-07T22:28:00.009-04:00

Quick interlude from the book dummy (which will be done this weekend and sketches will be posted shortly thereafter).

I was looking through an old sketchbook and came across these pages that I really enjoyed.

currently reading: "Birchfield Close" by Jon McNaught
currently listening to: Black Keys - "Brothers"

Children's Book: 2 full color finishes

2010-06-05T12:39:00.007-04:00

The "Peanut Butter and Ellie" book dummy is officially under way. I opted to start at the beginning and worked up to completion the first spread in the book. You might recognize the figures in this drawing. I had drawn them up a while back and used them on a little promo piece which I posted a few weeks back. I had always planned on using the image as part of the book so I worked up an environment, and now its finally complete.

The other full color page I wanted to do was a single page image that really stood out from the rest of my original thumbnails. It's a scene after Ellie makes a mess in the house and Peanut Butter has to throw Ellie in the tub. This takes place right after she is dropped in and PB reprimands her. I think its a really pivotal scene in the book and was a great choice for a finish.

I now have seven days to get the rest of the pages up to respectable sketch quality. Some are going to be tighter than others, but on my shortened time table it will have to do.

I hope you like the work so far. Let me know what you think.

currently (re)reading: "Hellboy: Conqueror Worm" by Mike Mignola
currently listening to: Menomena- "Mines"

Children's Book: thumbnails

2010-06-01T01:45:00.008-04:00

Hey everyone. I recently began production on my first children's book. I've decided to work up a story for a drawing I posted a while back entitled "Peanut Butter and Ellie."

First I laid out the entire book and created thumbnails for each page.

Since this first round of sketches I've tweak some things here and there, moved some images around, added a few pages and then cut some others to make it all fit just right.

In the next two weeks, I will be creating 1 - 2 finished color spread and I'm shooting to have the other 30 pages done as fairly tight sketches. I have A LOT of work ahead of me, but I'll make it happen.

On June 12th I have a meeting set up with a BIG publisher, so these coming weeks will be filled with non-stop drawing, very little sleep and a lot of excitement. I'll be posting a few sketches and the finished full color piece as soon as I complete them so keep checking back.

currently reading: "Hellboy: The Wild Hunt" by Mignola and Fegredo
currently listening to: Tokyo Police Club- "Champ"

Fowl excuses

2010-05-04T01:33:00.006-04:00

- Alice Update: Ugh... usual excuses, I got busy, it got side tracked.

The sketch above is what I was working on recently for the piece. Actually, this is an older and way rougher sketch I did. I seemed to have misplaced my more recent drawings. These are the characters from the caucus race. I was trying to combine them with the pool of tears scene. I put a lot of time into the characters and I really liked everything I came up with, but in the end they weren't working for where I wanted to fit them in this odd visual narrative. I'm going to see if I can rework them and move them to another area of the piece, but I'm going to push that until after I finish up everything else.

Up next is attempt five on the cheshire cat. After that I have to throw a mouse into the water, and then all that's left to do is wake Alice up from her sleep beneath the tree.

- One of my drawings was posted on the awesome website Yay!Everyday. Be sure to look around, there is a ton of great stuff.

- At work we just got started on our fourth children's book. Should be a hectic, yet really enjoyable few months to come.

- Recently, I've been spending a lot of time job hunting. I'm currently re-working my resume for the billionth time. Lets hope that all pans out so I can focus more of my free time on the drawing table instead of on cover letters. I promise more frequent posts are coming. I'm in the process of scanning another batch of figure drawings, so check back soon for those.

currently reading: "Bottemless Belly Button" by Dash Shaw

currently listening to: Matt Pond PA- "The Dark Leaves"

The Last Board Room

2010-02-25T20:59:00.007-05:00

When I was looking through some of my old work I came across this piece. I feel like this was a turning point in my style. I still really like how it turned out, but it wasn't living up to the standards of now. So, instead of redrawing the whole thing, or even just doing a version with cleaner lines (which I will do at some point), I opted to just change up the color scheme a bit. I think it gives it new life. I like looking at it a lot more now. The thumbnail version holds up better than the close up since you cant see my unrefined line work but again... i think its got something.

currently reading: "Gray Horses" by Hope Larson

currently listening to: Jason Lytle- "Yours Truly, The Commuter"

awww

2010-02-20T05:03:00.003-05:00

This was a little something I drew up for my girlfriend. I'm slowly but surely putting together a collection of one off illustrations from our years together. This one was the first night I spent at her place, and the "songs from under the covers" was the name of the mix cd I had made her. The mix is a lost art but I must admit, I'm pretty awesome at it.

In other news I'm still hard at work on "Alice." I reworked some colors, and made huge progress on the water, and I'm a few more working hours away from finishing up the four characters from the "pool of tears" section, the dodo, lory, eaglet and duck (who are all metaphors for the four people on the boat trip where Dodgson first told the tale of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).

currently reading: "Mesmo Delivery" by Rafael Grampa

currently listening to: Rocky Votalato- "True Devotion"

quick update

2010-01-29T02:19:00.004-05:00

I'm back from my ski trip to Colorado and I'm still in one piece. I'm eager to get back to finishing up Alice but I recently I've been flowing with ideas for my graphic novel. So I'm taking a few days to do some research and writing and character doodles. Alice is taking a quick breather but I'm hoping to get some work done on her this weekend and if not 100% getting stuff done next week.

2/5 update: earlier this week I managed to get myself some tennis elbow sans the tennis part. I think I got it from a plethora of jui jitsu classes, so.... jui jitsu elbow? Either way for a few days it was kinda difficult to hold a pencil for a prolonged period of time. So this has hindered my drawing progress to say the least. But today it feels pretty ok and I'm hoping by tomorrow I can get some work done. Weird injury, I don't recommend it.

Alice teaser

2010-01-15T15:25:00.004-05:00

I'm heading off to Colorado for about two weeks for some amazing skiing, but before I left I wanted to leave everyone with a little teaser image for my magnum opus of my 11ft Alice in Wonderland image I've been working on and not working on forever.

I didn't want to give too much away, but you can definitely make out some hints of characters. The Mock Turtle was the most recently completed character so i thought I'd make an "in progress" version of him front and center for everyone to get excited about.

I promise this will be done soon. Although I did once again scrap my Cheshire Cat. Take four on him. The only other characters left to finalize are from the pool of tears scene and then the big kicker finale scene to bring it all home. Now that I'm typing this it seems like I have more work to do than I thought, but its coming along quickly these days. Shouldn't be much longer now.

currently reading: "Essex County" by Jeff Lemire

currently listening to: Spoon- "Transference"

Introducing...

2010-01-05T02:23:00.004-05:00

Above is the first piece I've done of my children's book characters Peanut Butter and Ellie. I felt i needed something solid before the idea would start coming along at a faster rate than it is.

I've had this title and a basic idea of a plot floating around in my head for a while, I had the moral, i had Ellie's character in mind and even a rougher version drawn up, but it wasnt until i sat down recently and drew up a design for Peanut Butter title that the story started to solidify in my mind.

I've been taking notes, and making thumbnails trying to let the story grow out of the sketches in a natural way. I'm letting the drawings tell me what they want. I'm really excited about this project. It's going to be a long term thing, but I couldn't wait to introduce everyone to the pups.

currently reading: "Paradiso" by Marcus Sanders & Sandow Birk

currently listening to: Built to Spill- "There is No Enemy"

Merry Winter

2009-12-25T01:20:00.004-05:00

It's Santa's birthday! merry christmas everyone.

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. Here is my little gift to everyone. Enjoy!

currently reading: "Punisher Max" by Garth Ennis

currently listening to: Eels- "End Times"

Design Portfolio

2009-12-15T04:37:00.001-05:00

The Bell House part 3

2009-11-30T23:25:00.006-05:00

Here is the final piece. I like painting leaves, can you tell? I had fun working on it, but I dont foresee doing another house portrait any time soon.

The color is a bit off and its not totally in focus because I'm dumb and forgot to scan the finish before I gifted it out. This is a quick picture I shot of it with some minor photoshopping. I think it does it justice though.

Until next time folks... happy a few days after Thanksgiving.

currently reading: "Purgatorio" by Marcus Sanders & Sandow Birk

currently listening to: Robbers- "Flesh"

The Bell House part 2

2009-11-25T01:56:00.003-05:00

Here is the work in progress. I laid in all the flat colors except for the tree trunks, I kinda ran out of brown paint at the moment.

Details still to come in; the grass, window shades, chimney, roof, shingles, tree bark and lots and lots of leaves.

currently reading: "Thor" by JMS and Oliver Coipel

currently listening to: John Nolan- "Height"

The Bell House part 1

2009-11-23T01:10:00.007-05:00

A while back I was asked by a family member to do the obligatory "hey you're an artist can you draw me a picture of my house?" thing. I kinda put it off for WAY too long, but i figured I'd crank it out this week and surprise my aunt with her masterpiece at thanksgiving.

I drew up a sketch of the house, simplified it to contours and then i transferred it to this great handmade paper.

I know that at the moment it doesn't look like much but I promise once I put my brush to the paper it'll liven up quite a bit.

Monday or Tuesday I'll be posting the image with all the flat color laid in and after that I'll take the next few days to add in the details and I'll share the final with you then.

currently reading: "Inferno" by Marcus Sanders and Sandow Birk

currently listening to: Manchester Orchestra- "Mean Everything to Nothing"

Cheshire Cat take two

2009-10-05T23:01:00.007-04:00

A few months back, before I got all distracted by life, I mentioned I was working on an Alice in Wonderland jumbo piece. I showed you an alternate version of the white rabbit and a terrible terrible sketch of the Cheshire Cat. Well, I finally got back around to working on it and first thing I wanted to do was show you my new and improved cat. It looks strikingly similar to the creepy cat that is currently living under my deck and scaring the hell out of my dog.

I'm currently fighting myself on the best way to get from the caterpillar to the tea party. I keep thinking I have it right then I get mad and tweak it a bit. Regardless, that should be done within a day or so and then after that i'll be about 2/3 of the way complete (just so you dont think I'm the slowest artist ever, this piece is is currently over 11 ft long and it basically tries to kill my computer from the inside out). So yah, its big, but it will be finished soon. I'm shooting for the end of the month. Left on the checklist is the mock turtle, some waves, and a tree, oh and then i'll probably go all ocd on the piece and clean up everything like a nut case.

currently reading: "Paper Biscuit" by Ronnie Del Carmen

currently listening to: Monsters of Folk- "S/T"

Ellie

2009-09-28T23:00:00.008-04:00

I kinda took the summer off from producing work and spent most of my time thumb nailing ideas, creating concepts and began working out a few graphic novel and children's book ideas. Then I had some router issues, a scanner dilemma, an agent fiasco, a fruitless job hunt and hundreds of other things that really shouldn't have distracted me but alas... I'm back now.

Over the next couple days I'm going to just throw a few things at you from some of the different avenues I've been exploring.

First up, this is the main character for a children's book I'm in the early early stages of. Basically, I have the best title ever and a few character designs. Not really what you'd call a book just yet, but it will be.

This is Ellie.

She is a straight up caricature of mine and my girlfriend's crazy little lady. She will be getting into some sort of adventure or trouble... or ... other story idea.

I was originally going to use this character (or one similar) for one of my graphic novels, I still may I'm not 100% sure which story is which just yet. I started with a longer form comic idea and then a children's book idea popped into my head and I've been ironing things out ever since. There's a lot of back in forth in my head. I think the beagle graphic novel still needs to be told... but i think it'll have to be a little less cute.

Just to give you a quick walk through of my thought process...ahem... graphic novel about a dog, a dog in a forest, hundreds of other character ideas, no plot, some semblance of a plot, a shadow monster, OH great children's book idea about two dogs, do that instead, no plot, thoughts about what a children's book should be, what's the message?, what's the lesson?, back to thinking about the graphic novel, kinda got a great idea working its way out, then out of left field... what if i change the dog to a person, still in a forest, there are creatures with no eyes, and all sorts of religious allegory... and so on. Basically I have three crazy stories from one idea and i cant keep it all straight. ugh.

Oh well, until I sort out some of this insanity I'd like you to meet the real Ellie.

currently reading: "Preacher" by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

currently listening to: Brand New- "Daisy"

Business cards from yester year

2009-06-03T00:53:00.004-04:00

Hey folks, I made it home alive from my cross country trip and now I'm shaking off the rust and getting back to the drawing board. I've worked a bit on the Alice in Wonderland piece but that I'm taking my time on that one, lots of fun reference and lots of planning it all out. My baseball drawings are underway as well. I started with CC Sabathia and its coming along, I hit some speed bumps but I'm ironing them out. I need to stop just jumping into finishes without really planning out the page. I tend to do that a lot with personal pieces and its dumb. Always thumbnail kids.

I'm also tinkering around with a cd review illustrations for the new Eels album (which is amazing) and while I was doodling I came up with a cool Counting Crows idea, so I figure I'll work those up at the same time and fingers crossed things work out. I'm thinking I'm going to try and be a bit looser with those, maybe even get away from the digital coloring.

Since I dont have much new stuff to show you at the moment, I figured I'd post some old business card designs I did a while back. The first two are for a friend's upstart company, I wasn't sure which version I liked better so I posted both. The last card was for a bed and breakfast ran by folks with the last name Coffey, so I went with a coffee theme GET IT?! Graphic design and I aren't the best of friends but I'd say we're buddies.

Also, be sure to keep checking Peculiar Bliss for some random little doodles from me and a slew of other great artistic minds. I wont be double posting anything, so what you see here wont be there and vice versa. Double the fun.

currently reading: "Bone" by Jeff Smith

currently listening to: Eels- "Hombre Lobo"

upcoming projects

2009-05-04T14:31:00.008-04:00

I'm currently working on a couple of projects at once. The first is a baseball drawing, i may do a few of these to really drive home my obsession with the Yankees. The first is moving along pretty quickly. CC Sabathia is up first, then probably Jeter and we'll see where I go from there. Joba? Swisher? Burnett? Tex? Arod? the possibilities are endless.

The second project is something I started a while ago, got frustrated with and put on the back burner until recently. Its a very large vertical piece featuring all the characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I hit a few road blocks when i first started the piece but i recently came to some solutions and I'm eager to finish it up. I think it could be my best work to date.

Here is a couple little tastes to wet your appetite. These are unused versions of the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat. I drew these up but realized I needed to switched them around to fit the piece better. The rabbit is pretty similar just in a different pose, the cat however is going to be way different aka it wont suck as bad as that one does.

I really want to dive into these piece but as of tomorrow I'm hoping in a mid 90s Saturn and driving cross country for a few weeks. I plan to sketch a lot on the trip and when I come back I'm going to dive right back into all these projects and post a lot of road trip drawings as well.

In the mean time be sure to check out the new art blog I'm contributing to Peculiar Bliss. I've posted a few new doodles over there, and plan to keep pace with all the other great artist who post there as well. enjoy.

currently reading: "Solanin" by Asano Inio

currently listening to: Kevin Devine- "Brother's Blood"

Sub-prime

2009-04-08T00:05:00.006-04:00

After months of listening to NPR talk about the sub prime housing market, I decided to do my part to help the world economy... but instead I just drew this quick sketch. For some reason a wonky house in a bear trap seemed to make sense and sum things up in my head. I really enjoy the semi-cubist feel of this and will continue exploring some more drawings in this style.

currently reading: "Escapo" by Paul Pope

currently listening to: Eels- "Daisies of the Galaxy"

Figurer Drawings

2009-03-29T15:58:00.022-04:00

It's been a while, and from now on I'm going to be updating on a regular basis. My years between updates phase has ended. To make up for the horrible lack of posts I'm overloading you with 17 of my favorite figure drawings I did over the past year.

currently reading: "Swallow Me Whole" by Nate Powell

currently listening to: Hold Steady- "Stay Positive"

Passive/Aggressive

2008-06-03T02:53:00.012-04:00

Oh god... I'm horrible. I totally forgot about this whole blog thing. If I ever said I'd update this regularly I apologize. I'm awful. I started this thing so it would force me to keep track of what I've been doing and to force me to keep doing what I've been doing, and so far its really not living up to its intent.

Anywho, I hope to right that ship. I'll start posting sketches, thumbnails, rambles, doodles etc. just to keep the flow going. And if (when) I start slacking off again I'll start posting some of my favorite figurative work from recent adventures in naked people drawing just to hold you over.

But before I get to all this bigger and better stuff, I figure I should post the final versions of the Obama v. McCain pieces I started showing you folks earlier. You'll notice I never posted a Hillary piece... and honestly I wish I still had to do one, I supported her. But wouldn't you know it, my cartoons are more politically in tune than I am. Ah, politics... you're a fickle bitch.

But alas... here is the final image I've oh so cleverly entitled, "Passive/Aggressive"

currently reading: "Chiaroscuro" by Troy Little

currently listening to: Death Cab for Cutie- "Narrow Stairs"

Barack Obama

2008-04-12T01:17:00.008-04:00

I've been waiting to see who the democratic nominee would be so I could finish up my little presidential candidate diptych. However, if Pennsylvania doesn't solve things, which it surely wont, we could be waiting until August for an answer. So, in lieu of sitting around until then I opted to just draw up both Obama and Clinton. I've had this Obama sketch done for about two weeks or so and was sitting on it for no apparent reason, but I decided it was time to post it.

The McCain sketch I was happy with after my first try, Obama here took two tries to get right. And from the look of things Hillary will be taking at least three. I should get around to a good Hillary sketch this weekend, honestly I will, I swear.

Here is a quick rough color comp. for your viewing pleasure. He's still lacking arms and a concept but those things will come soon enough.

currently reading: "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" by Seth

currently listening to: Sun Kil Moon- "April"

John McCain

2008-03-01T20:16:00.020-05:00

I've recently decided that I was going to focus my time on one aspect of my art. Pick a general theme and run with it for a while. I opted to work on caricatures and wanted to focus on politics and musical groups.

My first project is going to be the leading presidential candidates. I started off with John McCain for a few reasons:

1. The epic Obama v. Clinton democratic nominee thing is still raging on. Perhaps Texas and Ohio can clear things up this coming week. So I didnt want to dive into one person and then find out that the other actually wins the thing.

2. It's a blast drawing creepy, wrinkly old dudes.

Without really planning a concept to put behind the illustration, I just pulled out my trusty old newsprint pad and started working on a likeness. Here is when something crazy happened, on my very first attempt I nailed it. It looked like him, felt like him and I thought the facial expression was great. I can't say this has ever happened before, I usually agonize over things. I'm one of them OCD perfectionists, but man this was a fun surprise. Here is the sketch.

After I banged that out I scanned it in, cleaned it up, erased out his suit and drew in the outline as well as the hands and gun. I then began coloring Mr. Mccain in good old photoshop. I use a lot of layers but I condensed them all here just to give you an overall scope.

After I combined everything I thought the jacket looked a little too flat so I brought back in the original hatch work from my sketch and laid it over the black and ended up with this.

I'm planing this to work as a little dipdych with the Democratic nominee, which will stand to the left of this piece. I'm hoping to get started on that right after the primaries on the 4th. Hopefully I'll have a better idea of who to draw.

currently reading: "Epileptic" by David B.

currently listening to: Colour Revolt- "Plunder Beg and Curse"

My First Blog

2008-03-01T19:52:00.002-05:00

Here she is, my very own blog.

I started this up so for a few reasons:

1. Everybody is doing it and I feel left out

2. I wanted to give everyone/anyone who enjoys my work, and visits my official site a chance to read my rambles and see my work in various stages of completion. Here you'll be able to see new work the moment it's complete. I'll be discussing meanings and showing everything from thumbnails to finishes.

3. I want everyone to see how I work, and maybe during the course of all this I'll figure some things out about my work and myself that maybe I was missing.

Cheers