Adam's Blog

It has been a while since I've been able to make it to the mall and draw. It felt good hanging out sketching again. In Phoenix the temperature is in the 90's and girlies are finally getting back into shorts and tank tops. Truthfully there are weirdos like me that wear shorts year round but ain't nuttin' like Summer. :)

It's official, two warm-up sketches in the same morning means I don't feel like working today. Scarlett Johansson was pretty hot (though I'd say that anyday) and convincing as Black Widow. I thought she did a descent job. I would have given her arms had I thought I was going to take this drawing this far. Don't look now, two half ass drawings done today.

This morning I decided to paint the Pres in Photoshop. I initially did it on a reddish background but the whole thing was too dark so I just decided to delete it. I did the color without ref and I don't like it. It seems, I should have used ref. Oh well, on to the next one.

I'm looking at doing live caricatures (probably in a retail setting) so I need to not only practice drawing but test media as well. I did a few quick caricatures this afternoon with different pens to paint/color them later. I figured I'd scan in this Obama and maybe play with it in Photoshop later. But for now I decided to post it before I butcher it further with markers or gouache. LOL

I feel like I haven't posted anything in FOREVER....which is kinda true I guess. About four weeks ago I took on a second non-art job and that was the beginning of my ass whoopin'. Now things are closer to normal and I have time to sketch a little. These were some caricatures I warmed up with yesterday. Just some quickies with a ball point pen.

I've been following the new V TV show and it is painfully mediocre in my opinion. I think I'm going to watch tonight's episode, and if it doesn't get any better this will probably be my last episode. It's sad that this version is so weak, but when I figured out that they didn't use the creator of the original series it all made sense. That's like doing the X-files without Chris Carter. Geez.

As the commercial goes, "life comes at you fast..." Well, so do bills. So I'm doing $20 sketches for a limited time--that includes shipping and digital color. My DA page has a little more info.

I found out about two months ago that artist Pat Carlucci was fighting Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I had no idea what his condition was but I assumed it was something relatively new. Today I saw Pat passed away. Pat was one of the first babe artists that I found online. It was so refreshing back then to see a fellow babe artist doing his thing. I didn't know him personally, we traded e-mails and stuff a couple of times. I always thought he was really cool and approachable. Rest in peace big guy.

Paul did a really cool analysis of a Gil Elvgren painting yesterday so I felt compelled to do more of a headshot today. And who's got a head bigger than the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland? LOL

Actually I finally had to admit to myself, I LOVE evil bitches! I'm sure Helena Bonham Carter plays all sorts of roles but I absolutely adore her when she can play mean and wicked! And in Alice in Wonderland she's pretty darn evil.

Thru two-thirds of this issue Chat beats up on Emma and chases her down with animals. Then as you can see here...Emma gets a little pissed. This was a helluva fun issue to color! The only thing missing was these two wrestling in a pool of water wearing white t-shirts. Damn all ages titles.... LOL

Pencils: Christian Nauck
Inks: Terry Pallot
Color: me

Today's warm up was inspired by St Patrick's Day. ...now it's time to do a shot of vodka and pick a fight with my brother! ...just kidding. I originally wanted to give her one of those blank kinda faces so her eyes would look huge, but she looks more like she's frightened. Oh well, happy St Paddy's Day!

I haven't done that much sketching in the last couple of weeks, and most of the stuff I have done truthfully sucks. I've been in an experimenting phase and things just haven't been coming out right. So I decided I'd post this sketch I did today. Nothing special, but it's something.

Some quick morning gestures I did a few weeks ago. I did them with grey prisma markers but I added the beige tone in Photoshop. I had to scan a few B&Ws in tonight, so I figured I post these two.

While watching the Super Bowl I saw Charles Barkley's new Taco Bell commercial. While watching I was like, "WTF?" Do you remember the old days of the Old Spice and the "I am not a role model" Nike commercials? Now Chuck Wagon is promoting fast food...oh the irony. Nothing wrong with it of course, I just think it's funny. Especially considering how much weight Barkley has gained since he retired.

I didn't use ref, so there's not a big likeness. Just some fun while I was with child.

This book keeps getting more and more interesting to work on. Spider-man has girlfriend problems and to make it even worse he thinks the X-men are screwing with him--and he gets uber pissed. Writer Paul Tobin has brought so many different elements to MA Spider-man, it may be an all ages title, but it's a damn interesting story.

My colors. I don't have the book so I can't confirm the inker and penciler.

Today started off innocently enough, like most days. I drew this drawing in my sketchbook in I'm guessing 15 or 20 minutes then I figured I'd color it then get on with work. I knew I was unhappy with her hands and I figured I'd redraw them in Photoshop. I fought in Photoshop for over an hour with this image--and that was before I colored it! Right now I sit totally annoyed and I really need to get moving with my daily work load.

Moral of the story is, not too long ago I would have given up, not pushed forward, and tossed this drawing in the trash. But I didn't quit. So no matter how much one could hate this drawing, at least it's finished. ...now where are my meds?

After being smothered by my Spider-man deadline, I was finally able to come up for air today. This morning I attacked the angles and tension section in Walt Stanchfield's book. I'll post some of those sketches soon, but in the mean time here's some mall quickies.

This morning's sketch was just some random heads from online babes.

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...