Happy Halloween

A little late, I know, but I decided it was the perfect excuse to post new art here. My Halloween was fairly uneventful, I did however celebrate the holiday with two parties earlier in the month one of my own and another held by a friend and last night I went to the annual costume ball at the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Like most people, now that Halloween is over I can focus my attention on the anticipation of the Christmas season. Speaking of which, I have decided to post my historical Christmas cards until next year. At the moment I only have rough sketches done for all of them and I would have to finish drawing coloring and formatting all six designs on top of school and work and I don't want these to be rushed. So next year save up your pocket change so you can buy a set (or two) of my historical Christmas cards. You will find them educational as well as aesthetically pleasing.

In Business News....

I have opened up an Etsy Shop!. Right now it's empty, but soon I plan to fill it with delightfully illustrated things. For those of you who don't know, Etsy is a website where you can buy or sell wonderful handmade goods. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's worth a browse.

Also, I'm planning on making historically based Christmas card. There are going to be six cards in total (2 cards per 12 card set) each based on an individual time period and a Christmas tradition from that period. There will be a colored illustration on the front and a brief explanation of the tradition on the back. So look out for those! Coming Novemberish/December 2009!
Ideally, I would like to have them out by Thanksgiving which means I would have to send them out for printing in mid November which means.... I have to get started! When I do eventually make them, they'll be on sale on my Etsy shop (or personally, if you're a family member or friend).

Also, one day I plan to make a sketchbook full of doodles, preparatory sketches and a few finished illustrations. And I recently came into some fun sticker paper, so I might be selling stickers. All of these will be available from me on Etsy.

Let the adventure begin!

I'm recovering from my bout of food poisoning/some unnamed stomach bug so here's some few days old artwork. One of the things I got for my birthday was Manga Studio 4. Wizard Magazine called it one of the best programs for comic book artists, and at the affordable price of $40, how can you refuse?!
I haven't been able to discover all of the magic that this program contains, but I really like their realistic pencil and inking tools. The head above was inked with Manga Studio and then colored in Photoshop. I'm iffy on the coloring process of Manga Studio, and since I have Photoshop I might as well use it, right? I'm also in the process of trying to improve my coloring style as well.

Flour Sacks

It's 3 am and I'm waiting for my virus scans to finish so I thought I would regale you all with what I'm doing in school.






This exercise is supposed to teach how folds and things react to form and dimension. Usually with an assignment I start losing momentum the more I work on it, but I seemed to gain it with each new idea I had. More of this and less of drawing ellipses please.

RIP Sketchbook

Today marked the end of my sketchbook, but the circle of life keeps on turning and a new, clean crisp sketchbook awaits! But for now, here are some more notable drawings from the past three months of drawing and doodling.


During the summer I was listening to the Harry Potter series as read by Jim Dale. I can always tell when I'm listening to the Harry Potter series because my sketches will divert their attention to the scenes from whatever book I'm reading. In the case of the first group, it was Deathly Hallows mainly during the Battle of Hogwarts. The second group just has various heads or other body parts from Harry Potter as well as the Green Lantern comic book series and of course, it wouldn't be a Michael Bucci Sketchdump without Anne Boleyn!
So there we have it, I shall see you again at the next sketchbook clean out day.

Stern Woman is Stern

Has it really been ten days since I last posted?
School has started for me, and it's going to take a while for this whole online routine to sink in but I'm liking it so far. Not to mention I'm probably one of the few people in my class who are in their early twenties, but I am enjoying it; it's certainly a new experience.


The drawing above is one of the many faces in my sketchbook. Usually when I'm bored or uninspired I'll just draw a face in profile, this one happened to take the form of a stern Victorian matron. I don't know what it is, but this drawing always makes me laugh. Why is she so stern?! I certainly know my values would never be compromised so long as she was my chaperone.

Goodbye Summer

Good bye summer, we hardly knew ye. I am convinced that even if summer vacation lasted for two years it would still seem like I was on vacation for a week.

Today is my first day of Grad School so don't be surprised if this blog gets even less attention; although I fully intend to keep updating with sketches produced from my downtime and re-tellings of my graduate adventures, but until then enjoy Athena.



I drew this as a gift for a friend and just loved how it turned out. Athena is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom among other things. Along with the owl and her classic Medusa head shield I also stuck in a little bit of iconography of my very own. The tree on her helmet signifies the olive tree she gave to Athens which won her the title of the city's patron goddess.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great summer and is prepared for whatever responsibilities lay before you.