Ron Hextall - Happy Birthday, "Famous" Nick!

Drawing for my nephew, "Famous" Nick's 13th birthday - his all-time hero, Ron Hextall. Nick wears Hextall's number. A couple years back I had the privilege of designing the logo for his hockey team's jersey:


Happy birthday, brother!

Sketches of Fishtown # 107 - Big John Bosak

It has been well over a year since I have created or published an issue of "Sketches of Fishtown". After the second book release, I just needed a little bit of a break. I also worked on some art shows and other projects. I will be publishing these drawings and anecdotes as often as I possibly can. I started the project back up because this one is very special to me. John Bosak was my gal Joannie’s uncle. I initially drew this portrait for Joannie’s mom for Christmas. But before I even knew Joannie, Johnny was always good to me. A few years back, when I would be sitting alone bartending on an empty Wednesday night, Johnny would see me through the window, come in, and keep me company. He also asked me to draw a congratulatory picture of his son for this paper a few years back, when his son came home from the military.

John Bosak had character and a great sense of humor. He was unique. Drawing John’s portrait reminded me of why I started this project eight years ago - because Fishtown, with all of its unique facets, history, and people, is a place worth remembering. It’s a place worth celebrating. If you have a memory, an event, or a person worth remembering and celebrating, please share your words and photos: sketchesoffishtown@gmail.com.

Christmas Season 2011 - Part 3 - Portrait of John Bosak

I did this portrait for Joannie’s Mom. It is her brother Johnny – Big John Bosak. John passed away last year. He was one of those big, strong, fun-loving Fishtown characters that everyone knew. If you ever met John, you did not forget him. He used to come visit me when I bartended at Moe’s a few years back. Wednesday nights were pretty slow after the pool team left, so John would come in and keep me company.

Joan asked me to draw this portrait and make prints so she could give them as Christmas gifts to all of her brothers and sisters. She also gave prints to John’s kids. We had the archival giclee prints made by Chris Wofford over at Giclee Today. Chris did an amazing job, and I plan on using him to do my giclee prints in the future. I gave Joan the original framed ink drawing for Christmas.

This will also be the drawing I use for the return of the “Sketches of Fishtown” project. I’ve had over a year off, but I plan on picking the project back up in the coming weeks.

Historic Trauma - Zelda Fitzgerald

This is an illustration of Zelda Fitzgerald for Merion Matters, Inc. This will be in Advance News Magazine's Nursing publications accompanying one of the "Historic Trauma" articles. I've done a few of these over the years. I really liked doing these themed portrait illustrations. They've made a nice little portfolio. If you'd like to see more, please CLICK HERE.

As I am moving on from Merion next week to pursue more freelance, this will probably be my last illustration for the company. It's been a great experience designing and illustrating for them. I met some great friends and had some excellent supervisors. Moving on is never easy. I am sad that I won't be seeing my coworkers on a regular basis anymore, but I also look forward to what lies ahead.

Update: Frédéric Chopin Historic Trauma Illustration

I finished this piece for Advance News Magazines. I posted the pencil draft of the illustration HERE. Since there only seemed to be one photograph taken of Chopin shortly before he died, the reference I had was kind of ghoulish. Nonetheless, it was a fun picture to draw. I took a slightly different approach this time. I kept the original drawing in pencil in my sketchbook and did the inks on tracing paper. I actually did the inks on several layers of tracing paper and scanned them in as separate layers in Photoshop, giving me a little more play once I got into the colors.