Adam's Blog

After some frustration a few days ago, I decided to break out my gesture notes by Walt Stanchfield. In the book he mentioned writing notes on your drawings which I thought was a great idea. I do makes some notes but it's mostly stupid little sayings I come up with in the moment, not really ideas or critiques.

To keep me focused I've been keeping these two files by Glen Keane open. And I will literally write, if I demanded the attention, communicated the action, etc. It's been really nice to look at my drawings thru this perspective immediately, then make some changes on the spot.

For the past year I've been trying to mix up the media I sketch with. I always use blue pencils but I figured instead of using lead pencils so much I'd experiment with red Prismacolor pencils. It's been nice mostly because Prismas glide much smoother and since they have wider leads it keeps me from getting too detailed--unless I draw bigger.

These were some random sketches from cartoonist studies from my sketchbook. At the last minute I decided to paint the last gal in Photoshop.

Part of my todo list this year is to work in Painter more. I heard Andrew Jones say something the other day that was pretty profound for me. He said (and I wish I could remember how he said it verbatim) Painter is a better "creating" tool, and Photoshop is a better "finishing" tool. I realized all these years I always used Painter as a finishing tool when I really should be spending more time creating in it. So I did this little study from scratch in Painter. I have yet to find some specific brushes I like, but there's a helluva a lot of them to choose from so I'm not worried about it.

This pic was based on an image I found at Cartoon Retro. Niso Ramponi was also known as Kremos, google either name and you will see some beautiful artwork.

Garrett is having a contest for his Brom Kah anthology. Some info can be found at Digital Webbing or at his blog. I'm not "in" the contest because I'm working on the book regardless, but I think it's a great way to make $200 and be involved in a solid project.

I swear for the past few weeks I have been eating, sleeping, and drinking the gesture. Every since I found Rad's blog, he opened my eyes to being able to see gestures more clearly. This sketch is a little looser than normal because I approached it like a thumbnail then did a color test with the palette. So this is technically more like a rough sketch or a big ass colorful thumbnail sketch. I drew it in Photoshop, colored about 90% of it in Painter 11, then added a few things in Photoshop.

This is the cover for a new Terminal Press comic called I Am Become God. It's the brainchild of metal band front man Rob Dukes. It's pretty violent and creepy, ya know, being about a serial killer and all. It was a very cool project to work on. I colored this cover as well as the interiors. Garrett Adderley penciled the cover and the interiors.

This was a fun book to color. I don't know what it is about seeing a superhero beat up on a bunch of bad guys....

This is Dangerman-1973's character. He asked me to do this probably a year ago and I never got around to it. As I started coloring it, I now officially hate her right leg. Oh well, time to go to work.

The penciler (Matteo Lolli I believe) on this issue had more of a realistic style than I'm used to for MA Spidey but I thought he did a good job with it. I loved the storytelling on these two pages.

I don't have time to draw much of anything since I am moving this weekend, but I didn't want to go too far in 2010 without a post so I scanned in some gesture/contours that I did a week ago (from photos of course). I've been thinking a lot about some of the things I want to do differently as an artist.

Last year my priority was to develop the habit of drawing everyday and working on my anatomy. I succeeded because now I do draw everyday and my anatomy is better (though, still a long way to go). Now it's time to transition from daily half ass sketches to actually producing a good drawing some times. I was looking at LoopeyDave's stuff over at deviantart a few days ago and I'm always blown away by that guy. Among other things, it was a reminder that I need to slow down and put the time in to get the look that I want.

Happy New Year everybody!!!

This sketch was inspired by one of my favorite artists Ignacio Noe. Noe's first works I saw was some adult stuff he did for Kiss Comix--I was totally blown away. Back then he was doing acrylic washes and stuff and now he's moved on to digital and his digital work is absolutely amazing too. Noe's painting style is actually probably the biggest influence on my comic coloring over the past year or so. Ah, the irony.

I've been sucking wind lately on the C.O.D., just been too busy killing myself with work to contribute anything worth looking at. I'm finally slowing though. Thank god.

I started O.K. with the C.O.D. and lately I've been suckin' wind. I've been working ungodly hours for me so I have been too tired to do much of anything extra. So I took 30 minutes tonight to do this sketch.

As far as I'm concerned, a guy who gets caught cheating is not news. Why the media is still going crazy over Tiger and his mistresses is beyond me. Actually, the only thing that is news to me (on this topic) is why did Eric Benet cheat on Halle Berry? ....I still don't get that one. Not that Elin isn't fine too...but damn.

I've been having some really crappy sketching going on lately. I think it's because I've been working some really exhausting hours this month and my creativity is at a stand still. Since I keep running into zombie and horror titles, I figured I'd keep the creepy mojo going.

Yesterday I didn't draw much and today wasn't much better. I'm drained by a preschooler who won't sleep...it's not even the deadlines... This was like my 20 minute tribute to Tadahiro Uesugi. I'd like to do something like this again, but actually put some time into it.

I was on a friend's Facebook and eventually came across this picture. This outfit was so HILARIOUS I had to bust out a quick gesture. ...it was just that good. And yes, Facebook pictures are not safe either. Muhahahah!

We decided to paint movie stills as part of the C.O.D. It's funny because I used to do this all the time but stopped for some reason--probably frustration... So I used my "warm up" time the past two days to do one study. It came out ok for a quickie, but it reminded me of two things. One, I have to start with a good foundation. Most of the time I spent on this sketch was just trying to align features of the face. Had I knocked that out to begin with it would have gone much faster. And second, I started to forget what the hell a basic shape was. Once I put my basic shapes hat back on, it started to go smoother.

This was a still of Megan Fox from Jennifer's Body by the way. Why I chose a face shot, I have no idea. I admit it was challenging to draw classic proportions again. Next time I'm breaking out the Loomis books. :)

Today was a really crappy sketch day, I couldn't get anything to work--including this drawing. I'm just surrendering to fight again tomorrow.

This was based on a woman I saw at the gym yesterday. Not much likeness in the face, the butt's pretty accurate though. :)

I bet you're wondering what scares me, heights, snakes, Rosie O'donnell in a thong...not so much. What scares the hell out of me is the Progressive girl. I don't know what it is about her, she just kinda creeps me out. ...in that psycho x-girlfriend kinda way. ...actually that's kinda hot. :)

I did two drawings for the C.O.D. this morning and they came out HORRIBLE. This was something to do with my time to ease my nerves.

I originally set out to do a Ragnar kinda Bob Peak thing and I ran into a problem. The "problem" is called time. So far this COD is helping me think out my box but I can't allow it to take up too much time so I barfed this out. Looking at it now I hate the composition, but god I love drooling alien worm dudes.

Jonathan and I are going to do a Chick-O-Day Challenge. All that means is we're going to draw a girl a day for the month of December starting today. Not that I need much motivation to draw a woman most days... :) We may have topics sometimes but we're mostly just drawing babes. I haven't done something like this in a long time so this should be really fun. Jonathan's art has inspired me since high school and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does.

A buddy of mine, Christopher Sotomayor, will be teaching an intro to comic book coloring class over at Comic Experience with Andy Schmidt . But don't go because he's my friend, go because after 10 years of coloring professionally I still learn from the man!

I've still been starting my mornings with different gestures. The only reason why I posted one was because this one was the least embarrassing. :)

Done with a pen and an aging Copic marker.

Adding the markers to my repertoire has been nice because the mall isn't as busy in the winter so the markers give me something to do while I wait for more people to walk by.

Two posts in the same day? WTF?!? Did some scanning again to break up my afternoon. About a month ago I started using a marker in my live drawing so I did a few gestures one morning from photos. ...hence the nakedness.

I felt watercolory this morning.

I work out most days about 5:00AM. At that time usually you see the same people every morning and every now and then you'll see a different face. Especially if she's hot...

Scanned in a few things from the sketchbook this afternoon.

Almost there...

I always love the pumpkins that Paul Richards does every year. Instead of just sitting on the sidelines I decided to draw a few of my own. After a few attempts and even more sleep deprivation I decided to make a Spogebob theme. I did the color one first but I didn't like it. Here's both versions.

Ah, leave it to me to screw up something as pure and spiritually aligned as yoga. Actually I love yoga, I just don't do it often because it's expensive and because it hurts. I would tell ALL artists to learn some postures though. When I'm really busy (working 12+ hours a day) I stretch between pages and it helps me tremendously!

A BBWU of model September Cariño. I should have sticked closer to the ref looking at it now, but oh well.

No time for a digital "warm up" this morning. So I just scanned part of a page I did this morning and horsed around in Photoshop a bit. Probably should have made Dracula paler, but oh well.

I always loved some of the different Ice Queen/Maiden costumes out there. So this is my Ice Queen.

Today's warm up. I've been acting like this isn't the month for Halloween! My favorite time of the year... (mostly cause it's not so damn hot).

After admitting to myself I haven't been doing warmups, I guess guilt started kicking in. After discovering Dominic Philibert yesterday, I decided to do a head this morning.

A little Cap and Spidey action.

I realized I haven't posted anything in a while, and I'm thinking it's because I haven't been doing my warm up sketches lately. What I have been doing is more drawing in the field and sketching in my sketchbook before I get on my computer. So I may have to scan a thing or two and play with it--starting with this one. Just messing around between coloring pages.

I saw Jennifer's Body this weekend and enjoyed it. And no, I didn't enjoy it because Megan Fox kissed a girl. ...though it didn't hurt. :) I sketched this last night before bed. No ref, just something quick and spontaneous.

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Suddenly, I seem less superficial.

A couple of months ago I randomly picked up Mysterious the Unfathomable and immediately fell in love with Tom Fowler's work. If you're as unfamiliar with Fowler as I was, it seems he does a lot of work for Mad so his art style is in that vein. The book came out earlier this year so I had to order the back issues. Artwork aside, it was a really cool comic! Jeff Parker and Fowler did an awesome job on designing and creating this book. And my favorite part, Fowler draws Mysterious and other characters with big beer bellies. Even when I'm life drawing, I love the big guts--when it's not mine I'm guessing.

I drew this last night in pencil. I scanned it in and colored it in Photoshop. I was looking at some Pete de Seve last night (who is blogging now by the way), so I got that watercolor feeling still in me from last night.

This was the first time I've ever been asked to do a cell shading kinda thing. Had anyone asked me I probably would have said I don't "color like that". But like always, deadlines have a way of speaking to you. Like normal, there's a lot I don't like but there are some things I did like about this issue. I just approached these pages how I normally paint and it came out ok.

My warmup for the day.

I haven't done a random pointless sketch in so long...until tonight. I had a tough weekend so I've been way too unmotivated today. So I was thinking about True Blood this weekend and I slopped this guy together. One thing I did learn though is I'm starting to digest more and more why people paint B&W then color. This was an ok sketch but as I messed up the palette I kept painting over it. Had I worked in B&W to begin with I wouldn't have had all these problems. ...not like I was trying to accomplish anything in particular though.

Another character sketch... This one drove me crazy.