Hell With the Lid Off 2011

My friends at Kelly's Bar & Lounge here in Pittsburgh have again commissioned me to create the advertising for Hell With the Lid Off, their annual barleywine festival.

A signed & numbered limited-edition 11" x 17" full-color offset poster is now available at my online store, and I will also be offering them during the festival. Last year's poster recently sold out.


Kelly's will also have a two-color tee shirt available during the festival. Here's a preview of the tee:

Hell With the Lid Off is a great event, which features Kelly's famously great bar food, multiple flights of craft-brewed barleywine, and a sellout crowd. Highly recommended.

Beef Special

Saturday Beef Special

12" x 12" Acrylic on Masonite, 2008

Another preview from Stubble & Smoke,
based on a sketch posted on May 6.

Meat appears frequently in this show.

Blue Plate Special

April 2008 Sketchbook Page
Study for one in a series of meat-related paintings

Required Reading

I'm in the middle of a time-consuming project that isn't terribly blogworthy, so here's a look at a book in the "active" pile:


This is a groovy hardcover containing hundreds of photos from 1960s and 70s Italian sex comedies, plus a nice 20-track CD of soundtrack music from the same era.

Dusty Groove mail order gives a very accurate description on their order page:

A really crazy little book -- one that's filled with sexy images from Italian comedies of the 60s and 70s -- and packaged with a special CD to match! The book itself is practically softcore porn (so be aware of that, you sensitive viewers!) -- 326 full color pages with images from the films, most of which feature ladies in some state of undress. The production quality is quite high -- almost at an art book level -- so you might be able to justify this one as "art", even though it really contains very little information on the films -- just lots of naughty pictures. But the CD's also pretty great too -- and features 20 classic sex comedy themes that include "Sessomatto" by Armando Trovajoli, "Isola Tuttofare" by Piero Umiliani, "Fail Piano Fai Presto" by Gianni Ferrio, "Quel Gran Pezzo Dell'Ubalda" by Bruno Nicolai, "Curiosita Infantili" by Fred Bongusto, "Vieni Avanti Cretino" by Lino Fanfi, and "Rio 70" by Nylon.
© 1996-2008, Dusty Groove America, Inc.

Great stuff, and a nice intro to a rich and delightful area of musical exploration. There are sample photos and audio previews at Movie Grooves.

Online prices vary widely. I've seen it from $15 up to $45, so it's worth shopping around.

Odalisque (Final)

The final version, at last!

This is going to end up being reproduced about as large as a priority mail postage stamp, but what the heck...


I experimented with some texture techniques here (to compensate for the lousy anatomy!)

Odalisque, in Context

Composite sketch of the front cover, with the nekkid lady in place (flipped horizontally).

Odalisque (2)

Here's a revised version, tweaked a little. Definitely more Reubenesque.