Joe Pekar’s Blog

got back from Heroes con and got right back to work. thanks again to everyone I saw at the show…it’s always a great show there. everyone’s so friendly…I couldn’t ask for a better time.

In other news, some of my paintings are being displayed at “Pom Pom’s teahouse & sandwicheria” in Orlando. I’m part of a two artist show called ‘The Female of the Species’. check out their myspace link Pom Pom’s myspace. Erin Aniol is the other artist. Erin’s myspace
The show runs the month of July, with a reception on Sat. July 12th @9pm. So if you’re local make sure to stop in…there’ll be lots of drinks, food and art.

We put the art up on the walls last night after the restaurant closed. Big thanks to Danny G. for helping it all go smoothly and to Pom for letting us put it all up in her restaurant in the first place . Here’s some pics I took last night while we put them up.

the pictures aren’t that great…I still haven’t completely figured out how to use this digital camera I’ve got (I took a lot more pics, but most were blurry as hell), so I posted a couple better images in the Original art section of the gallery pages.

Paintings gallery.

I’ve got quite a few other things in the works that I’ll be posting about shortly (well, as soon as I get them all finished )

(oh, and if you’re on the email mailing list, just click the link in the email to see the pics I posted )

-Joe

short little post tonight. Heading out to Charlotte, North Carolina for Heroes Con. another of my favorite shows. I always get to meet a lot of great folks there. Hopefully I’ll see some of you .

in other news, coming up for July, I’ll have a gallery showing here in Orlando. more info on that when I get back. (still working on a few new paintings for it )

-Joe

Got in late last night from my trip to Calgary. Man, what a show. Love going out there (even if I didn’t get to stay longer like I did last year). Big thanks to Kandrix Foong and co. who really put on one of, if not *the* best convention around. And the volunteers go above and beyond to make sure everyone’s taken care of (even li’l ol’ me). They treat everyone like a superstar .

It took a while to get out there…5 and half hours from Orlando to San Francisco, then 3+ hours to get to Calgary. ugh. but it was well worth the trip because Friday night before the show all the guests were treated to a great dinner at Coco Brooks. (A terrific pizza chain out there…lots of different kinds of pizzas!)
The show started on Saturday and I got started early. Here’s a couple pics of the setup we had. (folks that receive email updates about the blog won’t see the pics, so you’ll have to click the link at the bottom of the email )

(Here’s my setup right before the show opened….slightly out of focus…gotta figure this camera out )

(Here’s our whole booth setup befor the show started. That’s Andrew Wilson on the left side who’s also an art director at Rockstar games, and not pictured is Wade Schin who works for Valve. and every time we meet I always geek out because I’m such a nut for the Half Life games he gets to work on . They both did a book together thru BrandStudio…if you don’t have it, go to http://www.brandstudiopress.com/store/ and order one…it’s a fantastic book.

(Fellow artists and also with books thru BrandStudio Robin Mitchell in the foreground and Matt Stewart behind him. and BrandStudio head honcho Alberto Ruiz in the rear.)

Not sure what these girls were up to, but I figured since they weren’t wearing much clothes a picture was in order

did a few paintings on Saturday. Here’s pics of the ones I remembered to take pictures of .

Got to draw lots of tattooed girlies at the show. that’s always fun, so thanks to everyone that asked for those .

Saturday night was dinner at a steakhouse with ILM artist John Giang, San Fran artist/DJ Dale Berry and Calgary artist Jason….crud, I don’t think I ever got his last name, doh! but a great dinner with great food (and terribly attractive waitresses). then spent the rest of the night in the hotel room working on sketches .

Sunday of the show was just as much fun. sold out of everything again like last year. but I got *a lot * of people asking why I didn’t have a new book . A lot were expecting the Zombie Girls pinup book that I put on the back burner. might be time to get that one started up again.

After the show on Sunday some of us were treated to *another* dinner by Kandrix and co. A restraunt called ‘Joey Tomatoes’. Terrific food. I had the Lobster Ravioli…sigh, i’m still hungry for more of that. and more attractive waitresses. Not sure what’s going on with the hiring policies at restraunts in Calgary, but they’re doing a fine job.

Then spent the whole day Monday travelling back to Orlando…thanks to Jim Demonakos for the ride to the airport (who’s busy getting ready for his show the Emerald city comicon in Seattle…which I unfortunately won’t be at…gotta remember to plan ahead for shows. doh! next year for sure tho!)
Got to the airport around 10am. Got home at 11pm. ugh…long day.

so to everyone I met in Calgary, thanks a million for making it a weekend to remember.

now back to all the commissions people are waiting for…

Also on Saturday May 3rd (Free Comic book day) I’ll be at ‘A Comic Shop’ (http://www.myspace.com/acomicshop) again from noon til 4pm. so if you’re in Orlando, stop by. I’m sure i’ll be doing some free sketches or something.

-Joe

Couple things I thought I’d mention. I’ll be at the Calgary Comics Expo on April 26-27th again this year. ( www.calgaryexpo.com )Last year’s show was amazing, I met so many friendly people! Looking forward to heading up there again. (not looking forward to the cold though…it’s been cold here in Florida lately…it’s been around 60 degrees or so! )

Also on April 26th, I’ll be part of a pinup art gallery show at ‘No Regrets’. art gallery/tattoo shop. Check out their myspace site for more info.
http://www.myspace.com/noregretsart. I gave them a few new paintings to show off, so if anyone’s local to Naugatuck, Connecticut, stop by

Also, sorry about the lack of updates lately…still having a blast doing my new caricature career at Disney. Unfortunately I’ve been doing a lot of extra hours at the park lately, so my schedule has gotten a bit screwed up lately. hopefully I’ll be back on track after coming back from Canada.
I’ve met so many interesting people there…for someone who practically used to be a hermit, it’s nice getting to meet new people every day. and then getting to make fun of them when I draw them.

-Joe

Wow, has it really been since last October when I updated this thing? that’s bad, even for me!

I’ve actually had a bunch of things keeping me occupied (mostly non-pinup or girl art related, so that’s why I never bothered posting about them)…plus I’ll always prefer to draw than type. but I’ll talk about them now…

I’ve been doing some video game concept art recently which has been a blast. for a short time I was actually thinking about getting back into the games industry (those that have been around for awhile may remember I used to work as an animator/modeler/texture artist for a game company here in Orlando for quite a few years.). I even spent time putting a proper concept artist portfolio together…but I realized I was quite content to just work as a concept artist some of the time, not for a full time position at the moment, so I put that portfolio on hold. (I’ve posted a couple of them here and there in the galleries)

Then I thought I’d like to try my hand at tattooing(!) but that one kinda ran out of steam rather quickly. I think I’d rather just look at and draw girls with tattoos, rather than putting the tattoos on them. at least for now, who’s to say I won’t change my mind again! I have chatted with a few different tattoo artists and I’m still fascinated by the whole process, so I’d love to learn it when/if the opportunity ever arrives.

Which leads me to where I am now. Some of you may have noticed I’ve been adding some caricature pics to the ‘Junk Drawer’ gallery. Caricature art is something I’ve been getting more and more interested in for the past year or so, and finally decided I’d like to do more with it. So I’ve taken a job at Walt Disney World as a caricature artist. Seems like the best place to get on the job training . And it’s the closest thing I’ve found to a comic con ‘job’. Getting to draw and chat with people while I’m working, what could be better? (I think being stuck in my home office for so long has made me miss the outside world .)

I also started on a new artbook for this year, but I’m not sure when it’ll be ready (if at all). I’ve changed ideas on it about 4 or 12 times already (as to what to include). Plus all the planning that goes into cons is a pain for someone as disorganized as me. and if I do another book, that means a ton more cons I need to travel to to sell it. We’ll see what happens on that front.

On the comic front…I just had a cover published by Zenescope for their comic ‘Grimm Fairy Tales’ #23. It was their variant “WonderCon” exclusive. I may do more for them in the future, we’ll see. (I just posted it in the ‘Girls’ gallery, so check it out )

I’m hoping to update the site soon, and maybe break into different themes, pinup girls, caricature, concept art, etc. (I’ll need Maggie’s help on that thought *cough* *cough* ).

I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but awhile back I had to take down the comments people could leave on the images in the galleries. There was just too much spam being posted on them. I really enjoyed hearing what people thought about things, but I ended up having to delete a buch of comments every day and it was taking just too long. so hopefully when there’s a site update (*cough* maggie *cough*) I can turn the comments back on.

and speaking of cons….I’ll be at MEGACON here in Orlando this weekend. March 7-9. I’ll be sitting with fellow artist Amano Jyaku (who does terrific work). We’ll be in the ‘White’ section of artist’s alley, Table 17. so come visit and see my new look! (actually, to conform to the Disney rules, I had to shave my goatee! Apparently I seem much friendlier these days, and I don’t scare kids away from me now )

Thanks for everyone’s continued support of my work while I’ve been away, and I’ll try to get back to posting more regularly.

-Joe

Haven’t updated in a bit…so figured I’d take a moment.

This weekend I’ll be at my first Art Fair here in Orlando (on Sunday Oct. 21 at Lake Eola in Orlando). Which should be interesting. I’ll have a tent (thanks to my in-laws for sharing) and a bunch of original paintings I haven’t shown off yet. We’ll see how it goes, so if you’re local stop by.

Some of you know I used to work in video games for quite a while…but ditched most of that work a few years ago to devote most of my time to drawing girls. Devoted to my faithful drawings like a monk. except I don’t wear a robe. and I guess monks aren’t supposed to think about girls. Ok, so not like a monk at all. But I’m still devoted to my ‘faith’ . Tangent aside, last week game company Valve released their newest game package, ‘the Orange box’. Which included the continuation of the Half-Life series, as well as a few other brilliant games like Portal and Team Fortress 2 (which has some of the best art direction I’ve ever seen in a game..and it’s a blast to play too!). Some people are fan-boys for comics or artists or tv shows…this is what I’m a fanboy for. The first Half Life game is what got me interested in making video games instead of pursuing animation for film and tv. So if anyone ever wants to get put to the top of a sketch list at a con, ask for a sketch of one of the characters from that game .

Speaking of cons, it looks like I won’t be going to Texas for the Wizard World show in November. I decided to take a break from traveling around the country for now. Sorry!

-Joe

Two things…

1.) Apparently it’s not quite time for a break just yet. I’ll be doing a store appearance/signing on Wednesday, Sept. 19th at Bad Apple Comics in Leesburg, FL. I’ll be there from 4pm til 7pm. doing sketches, showing off some new stuff, selling books or just sitting around reading comics. depends how busy it is I guess . Also one of the guys from the show ‘Who wants to be a Superhero’ will be there. ‘Parthanon’ is his name. I’ve never seent he show, but he’s probably never seen my books, so we’re even . Actually it should be a lot of fun, so stop by the store. The Lake Square Mall. Located at 10401 US HWY 441 Unit 404, Leesburg, FL 34788. Or check out their Myspace page:
Bad Apple Comics

2.) after a brief ‘discussion’ with my wife…apparently I’m *not* in the market for an intern. cute or otherwise.

-Joe

Thanks to everyone that stopped by in Baltimore, it was a great show again (last year being my first time there). Did a lot of sketches, people picked up a lot of the books…even though there were a ton of famous comic guests and artist alley guys and gals. I’m always flattered that a lot of folks make time to find me . Met a lot of great new people too.

Now that Baltimore’s over though, no more shows for a bit. Still haven’t made up my mind on Wizard World Texas or maybe the Big Apple c0n in NY. But I’ve had enough flying for a bit and dealing with all the headaches that come from traveling. (Like all the planning that’s needed before a show, from the flights and hotels to the show registration…too much to keep track of for my brain. One of these days I’ll have to get an intern to take care of that stuff. So feel free to tell your friends to start sending in resumes… and pictures if they’re cute!).

I’m also thinking about completely changing around the galleries and website one of these days. some of the pieces on there are really old it’s been almost 4 years now. So hopefully that’ll be coming along soon. That’s up to Maggie (the booth babe from a couple years ago, remember?) if she wants to help *hint hint*

ok, back to painting…

-Joe

Got back from DragonCon earlier this week, but was too worn out to write up a nice report about the show. Suffice to say, it was an amazing show! Thanks to everyone that stopped by my table. And thanks to everyone that showed up for the Pinup Art panel. That was a lot of fun…even if my public speaking skills weren’t up to snuff . Hopefully everyone enjoyed what Scott Rorie and I had to say. The crowd at this show was perfect…everyone seemed interested in talking about art or painting. I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome to the show . Also picked up a couple books…one was The Art of Tara McPherson (great book design), Sidekicks (Image comics, by Paul Jenkins and Chris Moreno…funny as hell with great art), and Sketchi (artbook by Charles Allen Harris). I think I got some other stuff too, but these were sitting right here infront of me .

I was also amazed at all the cool costumes. As someone that can’t put together anything (once it leaves the 2d world, it becomes a disaster in my hands), I was impressed by a lot of the work people put into their costumes. lots of great reference for me too . Looking forward to next already. The only downside…being seated directly under the air conditioning vent. my teeth were chattering by the end of each day.

Getting ready to head out once again, this time to the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. Last year was my first time there, and it was one of my favorite shows of last year. I’ll be at table 52 in Artist’s Alley, so hopefully it shoudn’t be too hard to find me to say Hi. Hope to see some of you there!

-Joe

Thanks to everyone that showed up to the Toronto show. It was quite a nice experience. I also got to see a bit of Toronto, thanks to my cousin Jaime for showing me around. Lovely city, I already miss it.

And now that I’m just about unpacked…it’s time to pack up again for Dragon*Con! After an aborted attempt to go there last year, this year looks like the real deal . I’ll be in their Artists Alley. Which is in the Hilton hotel, in the dealers hall. I’m told I’m Table #8. So try and find me. especially if you’re a cute cosplay girl in a revealing outfit.

Also, on Saturday (Sept. 1st) I’ll be on a panel about PinUp art called ‘Pinup Art - why a resurgence?’ and here’s the description they gave me… ‘Enjoy those Betty Page Pin-ups? Why are they suddenly back in the spotlight? Join these pin-up artists and get some answers.’ It’s @ 2:30pm in the Hanover G room at the Hyatt hotel. This’ll be my first time taking part in a panel, so hopefully I won’t embarrass myself too much. (As public speaking has always been something I’ve avoided since grade school.) Maybe I can use the old ‘picture the audience in the underwear’ trick. Of course if there’s any cute girls in the audience I’ll be too distracted to talk…*sigh*. anyway, I hope to see some of you there.

-Joe