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.

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.