Part-Time Dog Featured on TheIspot.com

"The kid’s dad keeps rolling up newspapers whenever I walk into the room. But he must know that if he swats me, I’ll just have to bite him on the ankle. I want to tell him, “Look, you’re a grown man. I’m a grown man. Neither of us wants this to escalate. Let’s work it out.” But I’m on the clock, so I just walked up to him, said “Arf,” and tried to look both mature and resolute. This is pretty tough to do when you are eye level with someone’s crotch. I don’t think I pulled it off."

It's pretty unusual for me to post this frequently, but I just got a note that made my week. Jami Giovanopoulos, VP of TheIspot.com wrote, “I think this is just about the funniest, smartest work around! I can't wait to see what happens next ... in the meantime, I gave you a shout in our newsfeed: You are live in Art News and Theispot Blog.”

For those of you not familiar with the illustration world, TheIspot.com is the premiere illustration portfolio site on the net. Getting a shout-out like that from the site that features the best illustrators in the business is an enormous head-sweller. At least that's what my wife said. Twice.

For those who want to mosey on over, the blog can be found here. (You can also check out my portfolio on TheIspot here.) Thanks, Jami!

But don't let Jami stand alone. Blurb my book! Sing my praises! Remember I'm six foot one, 210 pounds of curly-haired need.

I couldn't wait to send out the news, but I needed some progress on the book to justify a new email. Fortunately I had a drawing at the ready, one I'd been looking forward to doing for a long time. Easily the most disturbing picture I've ever done when viewed out of context, nu? Forward it to all your friends! Then enjoy some fascinating and drawn-out conversations with human resources!!

This week's dog is the inimitable Rosie from the inimitable Allan Cunningham. Thanks, Allan!

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

P.S. Don't forget the fundraiser for The Dysfunctional Theatre Company, Rob Brown's (the model for the Part-Time Dog) troupe, at Deacon Brodie's Bar at 370 West 46th Street from 6-10 PM TONIGHT, October 1. For more info, click here. I'm going to try to drop by myself to hoist a few for a good cause.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Squaresville

"Slow day at the bookstore. I read about dogs. Turns out that they’re color blind, and now I keep staring at my shirt, trying to decide whether it’s yellow or green. Also, I think my ears are perking up whenever I hear a high-pitched noise."

–––––

Would it be too precious to say that I chose the square format for this book because I was deeply influenced by Gustav Klimt's Secessionist Movement? Yes? Would you believe me anyway? No? Howzabout if I said that the square format fancy-pants Holbein drawing pads I like so much are considerably cheaper than the rectangular pads? You'd buy that? So let's see: somehow you've intuited I'm pretentious, insincere and cheap. Wonderful. This has been a fine Yom Kippur all around.

Why this matters is because this panel is nominally a crowd scene, but in a square format it's hard to fit in much of a crowd. Two and a half people is what you get, and that's not much to get the feeling of Boerum Hil across. If the ratio of hipsters to normal people (1.5:1) in this image seems a little high, remember, I have to live here.

This week's dog is Jake, sent by Belinda Hoosech of Lake St. Louis, MO. I'm from University City, MO, myself, which is about 45 minutes or so east of Lake St. Louis. And while I've lived in New York for more than 20 years, because I am not some type of pinko commie, I am still loyal to the St. Louis Cardinals, who just clinched their division. I am assuming that Belinda, and also Jake, neither of whom give off a pinko commie vibe, will join in when I say: Go Cards!

One other St. Louis-area native of note, Rob Brown, the model for the protagonist of this book, is hosting a fundraiser for The Dysfunctional Theatre Company at Deacon Brodie's Bar at 370 West 46th Street from 6-10 PM this Thursday, October 1. For more info, click here. I'm going to try to drop by myself to hoist a few for a good cause.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Excuses, excuses

Been busy. Deadline crunches. Last-minute jobs. No time for drawing. No time for painting. No time for verbs.

But now I'm back into the groove. As usual, time away from this project encouraged me to improve it. Hence the new, streamlined look and a couple of new features. Now when you click “Forward to a Friend” up top, a new email self-generates that both directs your friend to the Blog and automatically cc's me, thus guaranteeing your extra contest entry. If you hit “Subscribe,” an email will automatically be created with my address and a request to sign up. And if you hit “Unsubscribe,” I burst into tears without any annoying lagtime.

My one regret about this format is that I'm no longer including the entire project as a readable page in the email. It's not gone -- it can still be found on the blog, or when you click on “Read the Story So Far” at the top of the page. But because it was Flash-based, enough people couldn't get it to work in their email reader that I figured I might as well drop it. (If you want it back in, or if you find any features aren't working, or if you have anything else to say, please send me a note.)

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Something Old, Something Else Old

The drawing this week is actually pretty old. It's the first direct pen-to-paper piece I did when I was starting Part-Time Dog, and I realized that, flaws and all, I liked its energy more than I did the more worked-over pieces I was doing at the time. Hope you agree.

In terms of new art, I encourage everyone to flip through the book in its entirety. I've tweaked pretty much every drawing so far, and completely redrew last week's page, which I wasn't entirely satisfied with. Actually, that page is once again the first version of the drawing I did, which in retrospect I liked it better than the more carefully rendered one I posted last time. Yes, a theme seems to be developing here.

This week's dog (find it in the book) courtesy Chris Mueller!

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

Open publication