Adam's Blog

I also did a reunion this weekend but I was so busy I didn't take a single picture. Usually I just forget the damn camera...

Ray Tate over at Comics Bulletin gave Spider-man a nice review. He even said a nice thing or two about my color. How nice...

It's late and I should have turned my computer off two hours ago. So what do I do, a sketch of Lawrence Fishburn's daughter. Is your daughter doing a porno really that bad? LOL The funny thing is when I first heard of this story they said Fish's daughter made a "sex tape". No, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee had a sex tape, Montana is MAKING PORNO. Big difference. And she's actually pretty good at her new job...that's what I hear anyway. Ahem....

I had to break out some of my Walt Stanchfield notes and I came across this quote.

"Reading and observing are two emancipators of the dormant areas of the mind."

This really hit me because I've been spending my last two weekends caricaturing at the mall. Even though I'm not doing my life studies or sketches or anything while I'm there, I'm soaking up everything around me--how clothes fit, stance, body language, etc. So even though I'm not drawing I've been feeling like I'm learning something.

I have business cards, but I want some that are specific to Caricature Me Super (my caricature biz). A lot of caricature artists use their own caricatures on their website, marketing materials, etc. and I thought it would be a good idea too. Originally I wanted to go all Jason Seiler on this pic but I ran out of time. So I may start messing around with the file later and spruce it up some. But in the mean time, here I am.

Sketched with a black Prismacolor pencil, colored in Photoshop.

At first I was going to ad a little background and just draw her with tattered clothes (to show she was in combat) but I decided it would sell the idea better if she hauled a bad guy in with her. Plus it shows she couldn't wait until after she dropped off the thug. When superheroes need chocolate, apparently they want it ASAP. ...talk about comfort food.

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.

This is page 15. I'm pretty sure Lolli drew it, not sure on the inks, and my colors.

I just saw this at RoadKill Tshirts and cracked up.

Here's the cover for the new book. I'll give more info later, but it will be out around Comic-con.

This is page 12, 15, and 16. It was very nostalgic for me to be able to color an episode with Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi and my fam go WAY back. Plus beating up ninjas is always fun...

This is the cover girl for my next sketchbook. Not quite as...revealing...as I might normally do but of course there is a reason for everything. I'll have the whole cover uploaded soon.

I'm not much of a TV person as far as continuing shows and sitcoms are concerned but one show I don't miss is True Blood. I loves me some True Blood and season 3 starts this weekend. I had to work right off the back this morning so I didn't have much sketch time. I did the pencils this morning and the B&W paint job tonight. Bill is ok but I lost the likeness of Sookie. I tried to fix it in Photoshop and I swear it's worse now.

I saw Christina Aguilera's freaky new video on MTV, and I thought ho boy. Not that she wasn't a lil hoochie on the last album, but I think she's trying to out sleaze Lady Gaga. Christina's proving GaGa's not the only one who'll wear latex and kiss a girl. It's amazing how far we've come. I remember when Madonna did such antics and got boycot everyday. How things change...

Usually I spend 30-60 minutes on my warm ups but I figured since I wasn't too busy I'd spend a little more time on this one. I also wanted to do this so I could paint a not so saturated pic. Pale/muted tones can still give me fits so this was a nice exercise. This is my second "exercise" for the morning, so I don't know if I'm in the mood to work today.

The whole point of this little exercise was after I drew the picture I'd scan it in so I could have a B&W copy of the original art. After I scanned it in I colored the whole thing in Photoshop without even thinking about it. What is my probblem? it's like I can't stop using Photoshop.

This is my friend Lesa.

About a month ago I jointed the ISCA. In the forum they have daily drawing topics and since I TOTALLY didn't feel like working this afternoon I decided to attempt today's which is Suze Orman. I swear I only attempted this because I wanted to draw her pointy teeth. I'm not that happy with it, but it's blogable (my Tom Bancroft word for today).

I did these sketchcards for the CEC Expo. They are for a fundraiser for the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation (say that three times fast...). It was fun to do. Like the last cards, I had to crank these out pretty quickly but I'm starting to get a feel of how I'd like these cards to look.

Now that I'm doing live caricatures for parties and what not, I make sure I add a "live" sketch or three into my daily drawing. This guy (like most) are just random pictures I find online. Once I start doing some people I know, I'll start taking pics. It's always nice to see the caricature with the person it's supposed to be. I mean, how else can you tell if it sucks or not? LOL

I did this with a Copic but I scanned it in and colored it in Photoshop.

I saw this girl last night walk past me and I knew she was going to end up being a "warm-up" sketch for the next day. Yes, she was pretty smokin' hot in her little black miniskirt but that's not what impressed me. Later that night I saw her dart across the field and I was totally impressed how quickly she could run in 5" heels. Not to mention none of her junk fell out the trunk. I'm thinking she used double sided tape...

I was drawing a face (the first one) with intent of using it for the business card I am working on. Then I just got carried away from there....

The TV show V went from a mediocre show that I was surprised I watched every week to a show I can't wait for. It's not great...you know, like True Blood...but it is a lot better and worth watching now. One big shift was Morena Baccarin's character (pictured here) Anna. She was emotionless and pretty boring--which is the nature of the aliens, but bad for TV. Now she's all evil and conniving and what not so...you know how I am about my evil bitches. :)

I did this quickie while pausing the TV. Looking at it now I should have changed (or caricatured) her mouth. Just to sell the fact that she was devastated. I'm just not selling the whole teeth quivering thing here, even though that's similar to how her mouth was in the shot.

I think the theme of the last week is 'types of drawings I haven't done in a long time'. I kicked today off with a color study of a Gil Elvgren painting. Gil was the man!

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.