Video Diary - Phil Hughes pt.3

 Latest progress on the Phil Hughes painting I'm doing for Kevin Rozell over @ Zell's Pinstripe Blog. Listen to me tell the story of why there's a chance the pic I'm using as a reference may have been taken on my 30th birthday.

Video Diary - Phil Hughes pt.2

 I sing a li'l Sinatra and drops some knowledge about the importance of composition and line of action as I continue work on my painting of Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes for Kevin of Zell's Pinstripe Blog.

Video Diary - Phil Hughes pt.1

 I've been commissioned by Kevin Rozell of the great "Zell's Pinstripe Blog" to do a painting of Yankees' pitcher Phil Hughes and I've decided to document the process with a series of video diaries. This could be really entertaining and informative or really corny and stupid. You decide:

Yankees Flickr Gallery

I've officially begun moving content from craigmahoney.com to various other hosting websites such as flickr. Craigmahoney.com will now act as a gateway to take you to this blog, my art on flickr, music on myspace (if I can't find something better), videos on youtube, and social media sites like twitter and facebook. It'll probably take me a week or so to set it all up, but you can see my Yankee art gallery on flickr now.

Babe & Simms - On Sale

Hey, kids. I'm having a sale on a couple of pieces of original, one-of-a-kind, wrought from my own hands, sports art. If you're interested in snatching one up, drop an e-mail to admin@craigmahoney.com.

"The Babe"

11"x14" marker on paper

$50.00

"Simm-ply Super"

Autographed by Phil Simms

14"x11" colored pencil on paper

$75.00

Buy Now - Original Yankees Art

In honor of the start of Spring Training, here's a few original Yankee pieces of mine available for purchase:

 

"THE MICK"

36"x48" acrylic on canvas

$500.00

"PINSTRIPED DREAMS"

17"x14" b&w pencil on paper

$400.00

 

 

"DJ'S HR"

36"x24" acrylic on canvas

autographed by Derek Jeter

$650.00

Baseball Season

After three straight weeks in the studio doing nothing but football, I'm letting those LT & Osi pieces marinate for a little bit while I move onto some baseball stuff. Below are two pieces I started last winter but let coagulate during that whole "getting a divorce/moving the studio/depressed and broke/why, god, why, won't it ever stop f***ing raining?!?!" period that I went through during the early part of the year.

However.

I am now in a solid groove and CM Studios is just about fully up and running. So, back to work I go on these two lovely pieces which should be up for your viewing and purchasing pleasure within the next 2 or 3 weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, you know 'em, you love 'em: Joltin' Joe Dimaggio and Mariano Rivera!



(Trust me, they're gonna look great.)

Giant and Yankee Art Sale

Now, that all the craziness of moving the studio and prepping for that Giants show is over, I'm finally getting down to the business of business. The new CM Studios Facebook page is up, I've got the Twitter feed rolling, and, soon, I'll even have the new website up and running as well. You'll also notice the look of this blog changing (if you haven't already). The groundwork is being laid for a long, successful run here @ CMS, but, this being the real world and all, I gots to pay me some bills to keep it rolling. So, the following is a quick inventory of all original artwork still in my possession and up for sale (and, whaddaya know, it's all Yankee and Giant stuff). If interested, e-mail cm@craigmahoney.com.

I'm also going through a lot of my "lesser" drawings, basically anything I did in the sketchbook that only took a few hours, and I'm going to choose the best pieces for a "Sketchbook Sale" at some point in the next month. So, keep coming back, kids.

"Eli's Escape" autographed by
Super Bowl 42 MVP Eli Manning
36"x24" acrylic on canvas

"Pinstriped Dreams"
17"x14" pencil on paper

"Simm-ply Great" autographed by
Super Bowl XXI MVP Phil Simms
14"x11" colored pencil on paper

"DJ's HR" autographed by
Derek Jeter
36"x24" acrylic on canvas

"Brandon the Battering Ram"
11"x14" colored pencil on paper

"A Bad Break"
11"x14" pencil on paper

Yanks' Bullpen Good?

Here's a pretty good blog post from the NY Times' Tyler Kepner making the case that the Bombers' pen might actually be starting to come together. Frankly, with the return of Bruney (and did he lose even more weight since he left?) last night, and with some great young arms in the minors, I think the bullpen will end the season as a strength. We just need more consistency from our starters. Outside of Sabathia, you don't know what you're gonna get from a Yankee starter from one game to the next.

The other 5 look this way to me right now: I expect Joba to bounce back off his last start and be good this year. Pettitte's gonna struggle, but still be a good 5th man. I don't know what I'm gonna get from Burnett day-to-day, but I expect mostly dominant starts sprinkled with a few disasters. I have complete faith that Hughes is going to be a front of the rotation guy down the line, but can he do it this year if Wang falters? And, what about Wang?

No, seriously. WHAT THE F**K ABOUT WANG?!?!

We'll have to wait and see.

Yankees Games thru 31 - 34

Game 31 - Wang the stopper. YANKEES 5, Mariners 1
Game 32 - Johnny's big day. YANKEES 6, Mariners 1
Game 33 - Rasner to the rescue. YANKEES 8, Mariners 2
Game 34 - Joba blows one. Yankees 3, INDIANS 5

Game 30 - Yankees 4, TIGERS 8

April ends, but the Yanks keep getting beaten up.

Thank God April's Over - Games 24 thru 29

I apologize for not posting in a week. I spent last Thursday night through Wednesday morning on a nice 5 day bender that included a singing gig, a trip to Manhattan and Yankee Stadium, and my 30th birthday party (That's right. I'm 30 now.) Maybe bender's a strong word, but for nearly five days almost my entire diet consisted of beer, cigars, and various grilled, fried and otherwise processed meats and cheeses. So... bottom line, no new Yankee pics for you.

Not that there was much to post about. I'll have more to write about later tonight or tomorrow. Let's just say it was not a good few days for the Yankees and I was glad I spent most of it in a haze. Here's the pics now:

Game 24 - Pettitte roughed up. Yankees 4, INDIANS 6
Game 25 - Another loss for Kennedy. Yankees 3, INDIANS 4

Game 26 - Wang the stopper. YANKEES 1, Indians 0
Game 27 - Moose the crafty veteran. YANKEES 5, Indians 2
Game 28 - Hughes is still cold. Yankees 4, Tigers 6
Game 29 - Thank God April's over. Yankees 6, TIGERS 2

Game 23 - Yankees 6, WHITE SOX 7

I was out last night and missed most of the game. I've got to go pick my nephews up to spend the day with them. Then, tonight my wife's throwing me a birthday party. So, I have no time or desire to do a drawing for last night's game, but I made a promise to do one for every game (even if it comes after a bloody mary and large coffee) so here you go. Enjoy.

Game 22 - YANKEES 6, White Sox 4

It looks like Mussina is going to be spending the season oscillating back and forth between "washed up" and "crafty veteran". Last night we got the crafty veteran. It also looks like LaTroy Hawkins is going to spend the season going from "Whew! He got out of that one!" to "You MFin' CS!!! Get the #*@% off the mound!!!". Last night he was an MF. Rivera is gold this season, though, and the offense is coming to life.

Here's Mikey Moose delivering a pitch:

Game 21 - YANKEES 9, White Sox 5

I've been battling a cold the last two days and fell asleep around the fifth inning of last night's game, but woke up at about 1:45am to catch Bobby Abreu's grand slam on Yankee Encore before passing out again. Here's a pencil rough of Bobb-Ay's Salami:

Yankee Games 18 thru 20

Due to my gig Friday night and a bachelor party in Atlantic City over the weekend, this is my first shot posting my sketches of the Yankees not-so-good weekend. I, obviously, had no time to work on them, but here they are anyway. I did put some time into that A-Rod caricature. To no avail, though as it looks absolutely not a damn thing like him. Clearly, my caricaturing skills need some more work.

Game 18 - Yankees 2, ORIOLES 8
Game 19 - Yankees 0, ORIOLES 6
Game 20 - YANKEES, Orioles 1

Game 17 - Yankees 5, RED SOX 7

Not a good night for Mike Mussina. You can't walk Manny every at bat, but I would seriously consider never letting Moose pitch to him again. Let's hope Hughes can right the ship tonight.

New Projects - Jeter, A-Rod

I am feverishly at work building up my portfoilio right now. Not only am I trying to become an exhibiting member of the Shrewsbury Creative Arts Guild here in NJ, but I'm also on a mission to develop some sort of working relationship with the major sports leagues and memorabilia distributors and manufacturers. It's time to make the jump to full-time professional sports artist and move my desk and easel out of my bedroom and into a studio. My ultimate dream right now is to have at least one of my pieces hanging in the new Yankee Stadium and the new Giant/Jet Stadium.

So, I'm jumping back and forth from one project to the next to keep each one (and myself) fresh, but I'll post updates on each as I go along. Here are some pastel sketches of what will become acrylic paintings. The first is a 36'x24" canvas of A-Rod hitting his 500th home run. The second is a 16"x20" canvas of Capt. Jeter doing his trademark "Veni, Vidi, Vici" fist-pump.

Game 16 - YANKEES 15, Red Sox 9

The first pitch of last night's Yankee/Red Sox game was thrown aboard the International Space Station and, afterward, the two teams went on to do some astronomical scoring (You see what I did, there? Pretty clever, huh?). I've got a truckload of projects to do over the next few months, so my posts are gonna be less words, more pictures. Here's a pen-and-ink jobber of A-Rod hitting his 522nd home run last night, a real moon-shot (See? I did it again!), thus passing Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for sole possession of the 15th spot on the all-time home run list.

Game 15 - YANKEES 5, Rays 3

Yesterday was Jackie Robinson Day throughout Major League Baseball, and every one of the Rays wore number 42 to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the day Jackie broke the color barrier in baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Then, just like the Brooklyn Dodgers, they went out and lost to the Yankees.

It looks like everything is starting to fall into place with the team. The hitters seem to be getting into a rhythm. Pettitte's rounding into form. Except for a few notable exceptions, the bullpens done pretty well, too. So, we'll see if they can maintain a little momentum tonight and tomorrow against the Hated Red Sox when Chien Ming Wang takes the hill to try and shut the Sawx down twice in one week.

Speaking of Wanger, there's a really great piece on what a huge phenomenon he is in his native Taiwan over at SI.com. He's literally the most famous and most popular person in the country, and they say his pitching performance even effects their stock market. Great stuff.

Below is a picture of the Yankees' own #42 after closing out the game last night. The last active player to wear it, and, in my mind, he beats Jackie out as the best to ever wear it, Mr. Mariano Rivera: