drawings

I’m Back! The Marijuana Chronicles, Inherit the Dead and more…

I’m back. Not that I was ever away, not from my life that is. (Though I sometimes dream of escaping, buying some secluded island like Marlon Brando did, but would I have to ruin my career and gain 200 pounds? First, I’d have to get a career like Brando’s, then make enough money to buy an island, two things that are highly unlikely, so… never mind.). What I meant was that I was away from my website, but now that it’s been rebuilt I’m going to stay current and I hope you’ll follow me. I’ll be updating my activities as a writer and artist, things I believe you will find interesting as opposed to what I’m having for breakfast or my afternoon snack (though you can ask if you really want to know). So, this past year, where to start? Maybe with the books I recently put together. The first, for Akashic Books, “The Marijuana … Read more

Celebrity Crime Files Intro

Check this out! It’s a combination of computer generated animation and my art.  I made the drawings that were used in this sequence for the television show Celebrity Crime Files on TV One network.  If you watch the sequence all the way through you will see my drawing of an unfortunate fellow who caught the business end of the bullet trajectory at the very end.  

Strathmore Artist’s Pad Cover and Interview

Strathmore selected some of my work to be printed on the cover of their 400 Series Charcoal drawing pads.   To mark the occasion they also did a small interview with me on their website.  Here’s an excerpt: How did you interpret using the Strathmore Thistle for the pad cover artwork?  Anything else you’d like to share about your piece? I used the thistle as part of a plant motif that frames my portrait of the artist, Marcel Duchamp, and one of his artworks, and ties the drawing together. How did the Strathmore paper you used for the project affect your drawing (or painting) techniques? The paper’s tooth set up a wonderful texture for the charcoal, which I allowed to show through. I use Strathmore bristol plate when I draw with pencil because of it’s smooth surface, but the charcoal paper was perfect for exploiting the effects of this particular medium. (Read the rest here)  

A Writing Life Imitates Art – Publishers Weekly

By Karen Holt Jonathan Santlofer writes his heroes tall. “I’m 5’7″ so I like to compensate,” he says. And he writes them brave, something else he insists he’s not. “I’m a big baby. If I see a knife on the table, I think it’s going to jump up and stab me.” But Santlofer and his characters do have one thing, a big one, in common—a preoccupation with art. In his mysteries, art fuels everything that matters. Killers conflate violence with artistic expression, while the good guys look to visual art for clues to catch the villains. As for Santlofer, he was a successful painter for decades before he became an author. He has been pursuing both careers since publishing his first mystery, The Death Artist, in 2002. With his fourth book, Anatomy of Fear (Morrow, Apr.) he combines his two talents, in what the publisher is calling “a novel of visual suspense.” A police sketch … Read more