Go buy this book. Buy more than one. If you are interested in drawing this is what you need to be studying and learning from. I study and copy his work. A lot. If you want to draw like a master you must study the masters, and he is a modern master. I've learned so much about angles, details (oh those bricks!), the way the light hits the side of a building and, most importantly, taking the time in order to really see. For me his work is right up there with Van Gogh, Hopper and Kirby. He has drawn a lot of the places I am familiar with in and around Brooklyn and Manhattan. His drawings bring back wonderful memories of places I haunted in the 1970's when I lived there and the world was a much different place.
From the very first he describes how fear drove him to do what he has done so far in life, and how his art has saved him.
That is real stuff. Motivated by fear and going for it anyway.
When you make art because you have no other choice but to do it you are in a wonderful place. I like the way he works through adversity. He goes for it with a Uniball pen, watercolors and prismacolors. Mistakes happen. But he works it. Here is a guy willing to produce art without a safety net. He works so hard at it that even if 90% of his art turned out to be mediocre the other 10% would be stone cold masterpieces. In my opinion his masterpiece percentage is much higher than 10% already.
And anybody who liked Joe Pepitone knows what being a real Yankee fan in the 60's was all about!
One last thing...I noticed on the back of the book it said "to be continued". I hope there will be a volume 2.
Nice job Tommy. Thanks!
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