Adam's Blog

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.