Dave Sullivan The Illustrator

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

2011-10-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

It was a hectic summer for me, what with moving to new digs and a few family events, but my wife and I are slowly settling into our new environment in the 'burbs. So, now I'm back, and having illustrated Thanksgiving and New Year's in earlier blog entries, I thought it was about time to post a Halloween image. My friend Phil the Zombie offers my personal greetings for this Halloween season in the above illustration, subtly influenced by the old EC Comics of the early 1950's. This piece is also available in various forms for licensing on StockIllos.com, my personal stock art site.

GALLERIES GALORE!

2011-05-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

As part of my ongoing quest to create more synergy for my web-presence, I have created three new web galleries which I have now added to the list on the right. All three galleries are somewhat different in form and content. I try to give each one its own feel as well as some visuals and text not found in the others, and I will be adding new images periodically. Click here for my TopIllustrations.com page, here for my Behance.net galleries, and here for my new FolioFox galleries. My Behance page is now linked directly to my LinkedIn page, with thumbnail images appearing there for easy connecting to the galleries. You have to be signed up with LinkedIn and go to my Full Profile page for that, though. The image above is a montage of some of the illustrations you will find in these online portfolios. As always, you can click on the image for a larger view.

HAPPY 2011!

2011-01-03T01:24:00.000-08:00

Nothing says "New Year" like a recycled piece of art!! The above image of the New Year's Baby casting aside icons of last year's holidays has been available (in slightly different form) on my stock illustration site StockIllos.com for a couple of years and also appears in several other online galleries. Nevertheless, the message it delivers is this: The holidays are over. Let's get back to work! So, Happy New Year to all. Let's hope it's a good one, full of cheer, creativity and prosperity for all those reading this blog and the many others who have yet to discover it.

As always, click on the image for a larger version.

RETRO-COOL - New Art!

2010-12-13T02:55:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays to all! The above image is a CD cover I did for my old friend Bobby Keyes. It's in a new retro style I'm developing, influenced by some of the classic album cover artists of the 1950's and '60's, but with a slicker, more modern twist to the line and color. Bobby's going back into the studio to record more tracks for this album, so it won't likely be available until later in 2011, but more info regarding his two other excellent CD's is available at his website at www.bobbykeyes.net. Click on the CD image for a larger version. It's worth it!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

2010-11-22T02:47:00.000-08:00

In an elaborate visual metaphor for the life of the digital-age, freelance artist, Turkey-D wails on his favorite axe in an attempt to scare away that guy with the other axe!! (click the pic for a larger image)

Frank Petronzio

2010-11-06T03:11:00.000-07:00

Frank Petronzio was my art teacher during my last two years of high school. He was a dedicated and skilled teacher, an excellent painter, and taught art the way it should be taught: with lots of personalized guidance and encouragement for each student to pursue his/her own artistic vision. Frank took particular interest in my work and taught me watercolor techniques that I use to this day. He was warm-hearted, free-form, fun and inspiring. Each memory I have of Frank still brings a smile. Every moment I spent in his company was a pure pleasure, and that's mighty unique in my experience.

After high school, I went to college, pursued my career and lost touch, though I would sometimes hear about him from my family and some mutual friends. About two years ago, I attempted to contact Frank, after finding out about his whereabouts by chance. I sent him a fat package of my professional work and copies of some old art I'd done in his class. Sadly, I never got to see him again, as he passed away not long thereafter.

Frank was an old-school artist and predated the Internet by many decades, so there is precious little about him to be found on the web. Details of his life and career can still be seen here in this obituary. There is a touching slice-of-life encounter detailed here, and my old friend and exceptional artist Debbie Clarke posted this remembrance on her blog shortly after his passing.

I rendered the above likeness of Frank in my heroic style, as he was and always will be one of my heroes. It's based on his photo in my yearbook and the way I like to remember him.

I was in attendance at Frank's memorial service, and it was standing room only. Frank Petronzio would have been 91 this Sunday, November 7th. Happy birthday, Frank.

RETRO-COOL - From the Archives

2010-09-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Some millennia ago, a couple of friends of mine and I had the idea to form a new band. It was to feature Pat on saxophone, Chuck on banjo, and me on electric guitar. Chuck came up with the name: "Missing Persons." This inspired me to come up with the logo, a slightly enhanced version of which appears above. Shortly after I rendered the very cool group portrait, we discovered someone else had been using that name, thereby putting the kibosh on the whole invisible men concept I had utilized. After a couple of rehearsals, we decided that the sax, banjo and guitar idea worked better on paper than in practice, and that was that. Recently, I came across an old photocopy of the B&W logo art, cleaned it up and added some quick color and texture enhancements in Photoshop, and created this simulated LP cover seen here for pretty much the first time anywhere! Click the pic for the 600 pixel image. By the way, I'm not all that short. Those guys are just really tall!

New cartoon art posted

2010-03-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

I recently added nine images to my gallery on Picture-Book.com, expanding my total portfolio there to 30 illustrations. The art on that site is all rendered in my two cartoon styles which, as you can see from the above art, is quite different from my comic book work. The "Kitchen Chaos" illustration above is from my latest promo card and is a revamped version of a B&W piece I did for a Spanish language textbook a while back. Click here for my Picture-Book gallery, or here for my home page and four galleries at Dave Sullivan.net. As usual you can click on the image to see a larger version.

THE NOWHERE-MEN™ ART 2

2009-12-17T03:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a brand-new character also featured in The Nowhere-Men™. Hour Father™ is an enigmatic time-traveler who summons a time vortex with his pocket watch. HF has a habit of showing up at critical moments in the time stream, uttering his catch phrase, "It's about time." and disappearing. His motives are thus far unknown. For this illustration, I stuck mainly with traditional flat colors, which I tend to prefer with crisp line work, eschewing the airbrushed tonalities I used in the Joe Comet™ piece. For some reason, to me it looks like an old Charlton Comics cover, which suits me fine! My comic art style influences are mainly from the '60's and '70's, with stalwarts like Ditko, Colan, Kirby, Buscema, Heck, and Kubert high on the list. This is Hour Father's web debut, by the way. You saw it here first!

And of course, you can click on the image for a larger version of the art.

THE NOWHERE-MEN™ ART 1

2009-12-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

Behold the mysterious being known only as Joe Comet™! Joe is one of my characters from The NoWhere-Men™ (see www.thenowhere-men.com). This cover concept was rendered in pen, brush & ink, scanned and digitally colored in Photoshop. I pulled out all the stops on this one, using lots of airbrush and other effects to enhance the eerie mood of this scene from Joe's origin story. The first NoWhere-Men story, featuring Joe and the entire cast of heroes, is scripted and in thumbnail form. I hope to serialize it online in 2010. The NoWhere-Men project is a continuing work-in-progress. Some of the "Cataclysmic Cosmic Comet Comics™" characters created by both me and my cohort Dave LeBlanc go back to our teen years (long ago!). Joe Comet and a few others are more recent creations from the last decade or so. Click on the image for a larger version of the art.

BUY AMERICAN!

2009-12-17T02:54:00.000-08:00

In addition to my other artistic pursuits, I've worked in educational publishing for many years. Recently, I've encountered a disturbing trend. Some publishers and studios are now outsourcing to other countries for illustrations. In many cases, though not always, the art being outsourced is secondary to the more critical pieces; but the reason is simply that overseas artists are willing and able to work for as little as 25% of what American illustrators expect. What's wrong with this picture? Lots! I have seen some of this art, in some cases when the foreign art was poorly drawn and I was asked to then produce new illustrations, which were far more professionally rendered. Now, besides the obvious advantages of going to an experienced, accomplished artist and receiving a superior product, there is another reason to employ us Americans: Illustrators are consumers, too! It's good for our struggling economy to employ Americans. That's why Uncle Sam wants you to stop outsourcing your art jobs. Get better results and feel a warm, patriotic glow at the same time!

2009-06-12T02:15:00.000-07:00

Recently, my friend Mal Shaw asked me to create a cover illustration for his band Full Moon Revue's new CD. Mal's a terrific drummer whom I know from his numerous appearances with The Dave Foley Band. FMR is a studio band comprised of several excellent musicians. The illustration depicts them in a style reminiscent of some of my early work. Influences include Jack Davis and Mort Drucker among many others.