Adam's Blog

When I approached the warm-up section in "the book" I almost glazed over it because I was thinking I already do warm-up sketches, right? Well, McDonnell talked about having a "predetermined area of focus" and in essence make it a mental exercise just as much as an artistic one. I realized I was lacking all of that in most of my warm-ups.

While I was at Comic-con looking at average people dressed as superheroes, it got me thinking about comics. Usually I make up my own but this time I felt like using an existing character. This is the first sketch I did of Ms Marvel going to a Godiva Chocolatier after fighting crime. Unlike the last sketch I did where I just did an over-paint in Photoshop, I drew a second version of this that I will post tomorrow. ...probably.

While walking to my room I cracked up when I saw that action figure packaging sitting with the pizza box and water. I thought, "only during Comic-con". The gay Storm Trooper was even better.

Now that I have a copy of The Art & Feel of Making it Real I want to start putting this book into practice immediately. First I read the book from front to back now it's time to start doing exercises etc. When I teach I always tell people if you really want to learn something you should apply the information immediately, and you should teach it to someone else. That's not original material, I actually think I stole it from Stephen Covey, but nonetheless it's effective. So in addition to reading the book I'm going to post some of my WIPs.

This is a drawing I did yesterday. This is a quickie but the message is someone grabbed her butt and she's not happy about it. There's plenty of anatomy to fix but the main thing for this exercise is telling the story. I first went into Owen Fitzgerald mode and stretched her a little further out. Speaking of stretching...I also gave her a longer neck and tilted her head a little more. By lengthening her a little and tilting her shoulders the other direction it pops her boobs more and shrinks her waist--which is usually a good thing. :) I also moved her right hand a little so it looks more like she's massaging her bottom versus resting her arm.

A little practice from the ISCA site. I managed to meet Court Jones this weekend at Comic-con and he gave me some good pointers for my live caricature. I originally approached this like a live caricature and it did it pretty quickly on paper. Later I scanned it in Photoshop and did the paint.

I had a blast at Comic-con this past weekend. It's always more like a family reunion when hanging out with the Terminal Press crew versus just 'selling stuff at a con'. Both Good Artist Gone Mad and Epiphany sold well over the four days. Since I haven't been to a con in two years it was really nice talking to people. I had some realizations though.

1. I'm getting old, or at the very least I'm becoming more of a parent. My low point was missing Hoops and Yo Yo and Dora the The Explorer. Do you know what kind of street cred I would have at a preschool to say I hung out with Dora and Boots?

2. It is hella entertaining to watch a nerd pick up a totally hot chick with World of Warcraft jargon.

3. Mark McDonnell is an amazing human being.

I'm always coloring over pencilers and inkers in comics so I figured it was time to color one of my new favorite artists--my four year old daughter. I stole the idea originally from another artist, I just can't remember which one it was. I think it was one of those bad-ass animation guys like Sam Nielson or Todd Harris but I don't remember.

As my daughter would say regarding Plakton and this jelly fish, "they are happy."

I will be attending San Diego Comic-con Thursday July 22 to Sunday July 25th. I will be at the Terminal Press booth (1221) pimpin' my stuff and doing caricatures and random sketches.

I don't mind anyone shopping the price of lettuce let alone multi-million dollar salary deals but I cannot wait for the Lebron sweepstakes to be over with. The only thing that really bugs me is that Lebron says he's looking for a playoff contender. Well, the reality is Cleveland is a playoff contender. They probably would have won the East the last two years if Lebron himself hadn't kept choking. Yeah...I said it. That's like me thinking my coloring will improve if I move to DC comics.

A quickie for the ISCA forum. I noticed something strange tonight. When I do a digital sketch for some reason my caricature button gets turned off. I don't know if I'm too close to the pic or what...but it's weird. Had I done this on paper she'd probably have a huge nose and forehead.