The View from Up Here

I did these today. I did the pen & ink drawing first, I think it turned out pretty well.

I then wanted to try the same thing in sumie style, didn't turn out so great.

I wanted to have a decent looking sumie painting so I did a plant (in a spoon), they seem easiest in that style.

I ordered the book the other day to teach myself. Maybe that will help me get the style down better.

~Adam

Portman Portrait

Well, I'm sorta finished with the Natalie Portman collage/mosaic portrait I started the other day. Made entirely of pictures of scantily clad hot chicks cut out of men's magazines. Here's what I ended up with.

I was thinking about throwing some washes over parts of it to smooth out some of the color. Can't decide if that's a good idea or not, though.

~Adam

Tuesday is Art Day for Adam

Over the summer I'm working full time and between that and the many nights I have obligated myself to other things I don't have as much free time as I'd like to just do art. (run-on much?) But I'm taking off every tuesday just to get things done around the house and work on whatever project I have in my head at the time.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Portrait". So I decided to do a mosaic/collage portrait of Natalie Portman, because she is hot. I got started on it today, it's much harder than I imagined and I'm afraid it's not going to turn out all that great, but, what the hell. Here's my progress so far.

In the middle of working on this I got distracted (never!) and ended up doing a digital speed painting inspired by Mathias Verhasselt.


Just wanted to put something up for the day. I should get bad to work on the collage.
~Adam

A Shot at Sumi-E

After watching Andy Lee work his magic for a while yesterday I decided to take a shot myself at some sumi-e painting. I picked up some ink and and did some practice paintings on newsprint. Here's what I ended up with.



Well, it's certainly not as easy as he made it look, but I'm satisfied with what I did, it was a first try after all. I decided I should get this book. Who wants to spot me?

~Adam

Wizard World Philly 2006

Yesterday I took a trip to Philadephia with my friend, Joe, to attend the Wizard World Convetion. I spent most the the day in the "Artist's Alley" area talking to illustrators, looking through thier portfollios, and watching them work. I had a handful of them do do a sketch in my sketchbook.

First I talked to an indie comic artist, Jason May, who I had sketch a neat spider looking robot.

Next I found a couple of guys that work on an indie horror comic, The Corpse, and had one of them, Ken Heaser, draw what seems to be their major icon.

The next couple of artists I didn't really talk to much, just asked them to do some sketches. I didn't even catch the girl's name that drew the "girl looking back" for me. She was very cute, though. I guess I got nervous. She had a website but it doesn't show much of her work, more her partner's work.

I asked Tom Ryan to sketch me his favorite character, and I'm not sure who it is. Maybe Mr. Freeze from batman? Tom doesn't have a website and is not affiliated with any comic books.

I spent over an hour watching Any Lee do his work. He calls it "Modern Zen Art", it's a mixture of Sumi-e style painting and comic illustration. Original and very fun to watch. I asked him to sign my sketchbook with his brush, to help me remember his style so I could look him up later and he instead did a sketch of me, it took him about 15 seconds, I was very impressed. I later asked him to paint a dragon for me and he gave me a free print along with it.



Last, but by no means least, Andy Macdonald of NYC Mech, did a very impressive drawing of one of his mechs for me. It was really amazing to watch the page go from nothing to this in just 20 minutes.

It was a great day and I can't wait until next month when I'm going to the International Comic-Con in San Diego to see even more artists.

I plan on doing some sumi-e style paintings of my own soon.
~Adam

I Have No Discipline

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to try to get myself to develop some discipline with my art. I need to keep doing it regularly to keep in practice or else I won't get better, I'll just go suck more. So if I ever go more than 4 days or so with no post, feel free to email the hell out of me telling me to post.

My post today kinda sucks, it was just some rushed stuff so I'd have something to post, sorry.

This first one is a quick sketch of my stepfather, Chuck. The angle is a little funny, but it somewhat resembles him at least. The mouth is the main problem I think.


This one is a self portrait. An "up the nose" shot. Sexy, eh? I need to get my own camera so I can take reliable pictures, sorry the quality is so bad on this one. Anyhow, main problem is obviously the huge forehead. I'm really not a martian, I swear.


Until next time,
~Adam

Odds and Ends

I've been gone, doing work, for a few days, so I've missed lots of posting opportunities, sorry. But I'm trying to make up with a bunch of crap here. (unfortunately I had a crappy camera so pics are not great)

First here's some final shots of the Tree vs. Pyramid.



Here's my last sculpture project (which I can't say I liked very much). I had to make a wearable piece of art based off a random object that was given to me. The initial object is the pointy meat thermometer looking thing at the top. (You may notice my sunburn racoon eyes in the middle, hooray work)


And finally some quick sketches I did of my little sister looking out the window this morning.



~Adam

Finished Asian Drawing

I fixed the perspective issue and added washes to the Asian Building drawing. What do you think of it now? I can't decide if I like it more with or without the washes. Or maybe just without the color washes would be better?

(Click for larger view, as usual)

I'm brainstorming and sketching out some ideas for this week's Illustration Friday topic, "Angels and Devils". Keep an eye out for the results within a few days.

~Adam

Ink Practice

Here's some of the result from a little ink and wash practice I did. Not great, but I felt like posting something.

~Adam

Happy Mother's Day

A quick drawing I did for my mother. Cheesy?
It's not as good as I'd hoped it would turn out. I did not have a real flower, just some photographs. I just wanted a good reason to play with ink some more I guess.

(Click for larger view)

~Adam

Asian Style Inks

I did a failry quick ink drawing last night based on a panel in a "Lone Wolf and Cub" graphic novel. I like it fairly well except for the one major perspective flaw. I intend to fix that and later apply some washes to really finish off the piece.


I really like working with ink and I like what I end up with. I plan on doing a lot more with it over the summer.

~Adam

Surgeon General's Warning:

You've probably heard somewhere by now that our country has a problem. Well it has many problems, but the particular one that I'm referring to is the inability to think for one's self. You can no longer buy a cup of coffee without being warned that it's hot! That, and the obesity problem are what inspired the project that I just finished up.





I was thinking of making stickers, ala "Mr. Yuck" to slap onto particular foods on a run throughout he grocery store. Anyone want to help me? If you want to try something less imposing, you can click on the Mayo label picture to get a larger version which you can print out and stick onto your own Mayo jars at home, just to be safe :)

~Adam

Buried Treasure!

Sorry it's been such a long stretch since the last update. I've mostly just been busy fixing up projects and haven't done anything new. However, I do have something that I've fixed up and have not yet posted, so here it is!

It's a memory box, modeled after Bettye Saar's work. None of the objects are actually created by me, just the arrangement. It looks much cooler in person than in the pictures, unfortunately. (Click for a much larger view)



And here is a final shot of pencilman after I got him back from his evaluation. I tried to add some more dimension with black oil paint. It didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped. I also finished off the bottom of his feet so he stands much better, though you can't really tell that from the photos.



The school semester is just about finished but I have lots of ideas for things I'd like to work on over the summer, so hopefully I'll have even more posts in the next few months because I'll be doing only the stuff that I really want.
~Adam

Digital Art Cocaine

I can no longer live without a "Cintiq - Interactive Pen Display". Who wants to spot me $3,000 to buy one? I'll probably need another $3,000 for a competent machine as well.

Check out this video of a guy using one. It's amazing.

Thanks for contributing,
~Adam

Paint is good

At first I didn't like it so much, but I think I'm really beginning to enjoy painting more than drawing. I worked a couple more days on the clematis painting and I think it's pretty much done at this point. Here's a couple shots.



And here's a sneak preview of my next drawing project :)



I turned in Pencilman and the Tree & Pyramid today. I'll post final shots after I get them back next week.

~Adam