NYC: Saturday and Sunday

Second day we slept in til 11am. We were just broken from the previous day. We went to a diner on 8thy Ave and it was ok... No Florent.

After that we did so much damn walking we shoulda been sponsored. First up we headed to Ground Zero - which (and I don't mean to be disrespectful) was totally underwhelming. There was very little to commemorate the actual 9/11 event. It was basically just a huge construction site. From there we headed to Century 21 - which for those who know it, is a cross between Dimmeys and Myer. From there we headed west and around the bay. From the distance we saw the Statue of iberty in the distance and took some nice photos. More walking through Wall St (I expected a huge thoroughfare, but instead it was little more than some sort of marked off mall-walk.)

Then we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge which was seriously awesome. I was blown away by the view and scale of it. I will add me pictures when I get home.

Then we went home and slept for HOURS. Seriously, we walked SOOoooooooo far, we were dead. 11pm we headed out to Grenwich village for dinner at Oliver's (awesome food and beer) and then bar hopped for a couple of ages. I could barely string a sentence togethr without coughing. As such I had to leave some beautiful women and their lingering stares alone. Ahh well. Next time.

SAN DIEGO SIGNING TIMES

SAN DIEGO SIGNING AND SKETCHING SCHEDULE AT BOOTH # 2329 (Top Cow)

Thursday, July 26th 2007
1-2 PM Jason Badower (artist) - sketches - Zero G

Friday, July 27th 2007
1:30 - 2:30 PM Jason Badower (artist) - sketches -Zero G

Saturday, July 28th 2007
11-12:30 PM Jason Badower (artist) - sketches - Zero G

Sunday, July 29th 2007
3pm-4pm Jason Badower (artist) - sketches - Zero G

Chances are, I will hang around a bit, but don't bank on it... especially saturday where I'm going to light outta there like a bat outta hell fo the HEROES panel.

NYC: days 1 and 2

All that drama the other day began with a 1.5 hour delay in my initial plane flight. I ended up missing my connection and was then reassigned another flight. That flight was delayed and then cancelled. My mate, Simbo did all the heavy thinking and given how sick I was (in the endless queues I was so weak I had sit down and drag my ass like a dog trying to clean its butt). It was 4pm (we'd flown in at 9am and missed our 830am flight to supposedly originally arrive in NYC at 430pm) and the next flight was 11pm that night. We didn't want to wait 7 hours to take a chance that flight might be delayed. Better to come back tomorrow. Even better, our travelling insurance covered our stay that night because of the extensive delay (always read the fine-print kids!).

We did so, and arrived in NYC 24 hours later than we were supposed to. A total of 50 hours from the moment I left the house, to the moment I walked into our hotel room. Our good karma started when we found that we got upgraded. Our apartment is awesome. Three queen size beds, full kitchen, ac, tv and bathroom. It's clean and very, very cool. It's located diagonally opposite Madison Square Garden and it's a 10minute walk to Times Square.

That night we found a reasonably priced steak off Times Square, and fell into bed.

Unusually we were all totally awake by 6am. So we got up and ready.

I had been given a word.doc from a client that was put together by a friend of hers who was a native New Yorker. It listed places to eat and go. we decided to try the closest place called, Florent in the Meat Packing district. A beautiful 15min NY summer's walk later, and we're in a cosy 50's style diner with an incredibly good breakfast deal: bottomless coffee and OJ, eggs, meat (bacon/ham), toast and fries (I had salad) for $8. It's the best we've found so far.

We then milled back to Times Square, checked out some department stores (I scored a pair of rockstar sorta sunglasses) before hopping on the red Grayline double-decker bus tour. This was awesome. We sat up top in the sun and enjoyed the endless trivia about NYC from the tour guide, Peter. He took special delight in pointing out every piece of architecture used in the Spiderman movies. I was especially happy and filled up my camera.

After that we noticed our ticket stub to the tour gave us a discount to the Mariott hotel's Appetizer Buffet, so we headed up there to the rotating restaurant for drinks, unlimited appetizers and a spectacular rotating view.

It was here that our intrepid adventurers parted. I headed home (still sick) while the others headed to the top of the Rockefeller centre. Even though I was the sick one, the other guys hit the hay early while I stayed up and read Timeout (the event guide listing for NYC) to find that apart from some cheap eats, there was nothing interesting inside.

We were on our own...

ps. Sorry no picture. I didn't get time to upload the HEROES images I drew for the con: Claire, Bennet, Sylar and of course, Peter you've already seen.

50

I will elaborate on this later - but here's the details:
- chest seizing infection/flu thingo with extra helpings of fever and phlegm on day before I have to go.

- Gets worse on the day i leave.

- 6am I leave my house.

- 50 hours later I arrive in NYC.

Lemme recover before I blog some more, ok?

EMPEROR B&W page 1

Sorry about the lack of bloggage.

I've been pretty busy.

Here's something that I drew a couple weeks ago. It's for the Proximity Effect anthology for Space Dog. The story is called "The Emperor and the Concubine." It's an incredible story by fellow Aussie, JAn.

I can't wait to see Annette colour this. I just know that it's going to be one of those pieces of art that's just going to step me up another level. I'm going to learn so much from what she does. Right now, I believe she is still in London.

I still have to do the HEROES portraits, and I have a feeling I will unveil them at San Diego. I will post them as soon as I get back.

In the meantime, I'm full steam ahead on Zero G. I'm swamped by the amount of detail. There are up to 8 characters in one panel! It's a nightmare. A total nightmare to draw. I'm also trying to pull out all the stops and not cut a single corner. It's brutal. But I'm very happy with what I've drawn.

Wednesday next week I head to the states. I have SO much to do!

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Lee's birthday came around again, and while I can't promise him a picture every year, I could definitely bust my ass to get him one this year. The original is an A2 satin print. It's quite impressive (if I may say so).

Lee and his wife Nicola have been incredibly supportive of my artwork over the last year. We met online playing Everquest 2 and Nicola commissioned me to draw a portrait of Lee for his birthday last year (see the post called, "Lee" about this time last year). The three of us became really good friends since.

The other cool thing about Lee is that he is one the last bastions of big-time comic book collectors. The second largest weekly buyer at Comics R Us, it's guys like him that keep the whole circus running. The perk of this for me is that he lends me heaps of comics that I wouldn't normally buy myself for a variety of reasons.

Lee's longest run is Captain America. So it was a no-brainer that Cap should be the subject of the piece. The trick was communicating Cap's elegance, straight-forwardness and dignity.

Happy birthday Lee! Thank you again for all your support. Wait til you see Nicola's present!

TECHNIQUE: He's a line drawing (see above) which is actually incredibly simple. With a painted grey toned background for his form. The chain mail is a texture I found on the web and then built it to cover his body. It's actually two layers (a multiply layer and a 50% overlay). The shield is a compact disc texture that I found that I then painted over and smoothed out to become the curve and shine of his shield. I'm especially proud of this effect.