Captain America: Civil War

I saw Captain America: Civil War last night!!! All I have to say is WOW!!! Such a great film. Fun and light hearted while being emotional, dramatic and compelling at the same time. Well done Marvel... Well done! Oh and Spidey was awesome! I think that Marvel finally got him right. 

Painted this Cap vs Ironman MMA piece to celebrate the new film! Can't wait to see it again!!!

King of the Field

Recently I attended a lecture at BYU by the amazing Cory Loftis. He was the Lead character designer on the hit Disney animated film Zootopia! If you haven't seen this film yet you need to drop whatever you'er doing and go see it right now! Everything about this movie is amazing! The design, the color pallet is a pure visual buffet! The story is cute, super funny and teaches a great moral. I loved this movie!

Cory's  lecture was incredible. He was able to show never before seen art and talked a lot about the process of developing compelling stories with believable characters and environments. It really helped me to recharge my batteries and reset me motivation. 

Also, I'm coaching my son's soccer team this season and Thought it would be fun to do a quick Zootopia inspired soccer painting to bring on the season! 

TBT: Rocket Raccoon!

Seeing as it's Throwback Thursday I thought that I'd share a painting that I never posted on here before. I've posted it other places such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. Those outlets are fine and all but the images are small and you can't really see some of the fun details that go into one of these paintings. 

I painted this last year to use as a print for the Salt Lake Comic Con. The sketch below was created using 11x17inch bristle board, prismacolor pencils and Copic markers. The Painting above was made in photo shop using a Wacom Cintiq 24 HD. The sketch served as a really good foundation for the final painting. Not much of the sketch really changed, all I did was enhance it with some extra pixels. If you'd like to pick up a copy you can visit my store.

Batman V Superman!!!

Here's a little something I painted for the new Batman V Superman movie that came out this weekend. I know a lot of people are mad that these two heroes are duking it out. The fact is that they've gone toe to toe numerous times in the comics over their differences of opinions and it all worked out for the best. 

I saw it twice and being a comic book fanboy I picked up a lot of the subtle correlations between the comics and the motion picture that the average movie goer might not. Also, I feel like it was written more for the comic fan in stead of the general public and there's going to be a lot of confusion from those not in the know. 

It's definitely a very dark film and goes to places that most people aren't going to like. Overall I liked it and I'm excited to see where they take the franchise!

The second picture is of my brother and I in the early 80's rock'n our superhero gear!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's day! 

Hazard Hunters

Fire and Electrical Hazard Monster

Slips and Trips Hazard Monster

Falling Objects Hazard Monster

Powered Equipment Hazard Monster

Sharp Objects Hazard Monster

Hazard Hunter: Buck

Hazard Hunter: Viki

What's up everyone one? I thought I'd share my latest work assignment with all of you. As an illustrator, I get asked to work on a lot of really fun projects and this last one is no different.

Recently I was contacted by a client who asked if would be willing to draw up some monsters for a project that he had at work. The project was called Hazard Hunters and my job was to design monsters for potential safety hazards around the warehouse. Also, in addition to the monsters I need to create two Human characters that would be the hunters or wranglers of the hazard monsters.

All in all is was a great project to work on! I mean lets be honest I get to draw monsters for a living!!!  Now on to the next assignment! Take care everyone!

Darkwing Duck: I am the terror that flaps in the night!!!

Yesterday the prompt for Sketch Dailies was none other than Darkwing Duck! I loved that show growing up and had to take a break from my normal Illustration work to paint up a little tribute to my favorite feathered crime fighter! Painted in Adobe Photoshop CS6 using a Wacom Cintiq.

I also included a gouache painting/ study I did last summer of Darkwing Duck as well. Forgive the sloppiness and the tangents this was one of my first attempts using gouache. It's a fun medium for sure I really enjoy painting with it. I'll have to make blog post that features some of my traditional paintings.  

Rest In Peace Goblin King!

Rough Sketch

Anatomy line art

 Rough costume sketch

 Final line art

Color flats

Value and highlight rendering

Final rendering with texture and generic background

 Little tribute painting I did for the late David Bowie. My first real introduction to him was through the movie Labyrinth. I remember when I was a little kid and my cousin brought the movie over when she babysat us one time. I was totally freaked out by the Goblin King and the weird dismembering pink bird creatures. Even though it sacred me half to death I loved every minute of it. Rest in peace Mr. Bowie! 

Made entirely in Photoshop using a Wacom Cintiq 

Final rendering with texture and generic background

Bing Bong Commission

One of the best parts of being an illustrator is creating fun artwork for a living! I get the opportunity to work for amazing clients all the time. Recently, I had the chance to work for one of my best clients ever, my brother Brad. If you don't know him he is an extremely gifted film maker and animator. He can do things on screen that I only dream of. I'm always inspired by his creativity and thirst for awesomeness! A few weeks ago he commissioned me to paint this painting of Bing Bong from Pixar's Inside Out for his Daughter, Kaylin's 12th birthday!

As usual I had a blast working on this image. For me my digital art never really seems finished until it's printed and ready for display. For this piece I had it printed on a high quality canvas and I'll tell you it turned out amazing! I couldn't be happier with the final version! I took a few photos of my niece with her birthday present with my iPhone but the quality was so so. Happy birthday Kaylin!

Remembering Robin Williams

Remembering Robin

When it comes to celebrities I’m the last one to care about all the gossip and mess that surrounds Hollywood. However, every now and again there comes a time when a truly gifted actors life is ended and the world is at a loss.

Last year on August 11, 2014 we lost an amazing actor… Robin Williams. Williams had a long fruitful career. He was respected, admired and loved by millions of people through out the world. He was so diverse in all that he did. He could make you laugh. He could make you cry. Head could take you to places you never imagined and inspire you to be more than just mediocre.

Despite his tragic death his legacy lives on. I love to experience his movies with my kids. It’s fun to watch them develop the same love and admiration for his films that I have. One of our personal favorites is Steven Spielberg’s Hook. In that movie at the end Peter says to the notorious Captain Hook, “To live… to live would be an awfully big adventure!” 

It’s sad to think of the sever depression that he was experiencing behind closed doors. And evermore heartbreaking that he felt that taking his own life was the answer to escape his metal battles. I wish that he could have taken Peter Pans words to heart. Last year we truly lost a great artist. I hope that he has found the peace that he so desperately sought.

Robin Williams July 21^st 1951- August 11^th 2014

Illustration Friday: That's "Nature" For Ya!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Nature". While I was trying to think of an idea for the painting several different possiblitlies came across my mind; like someone taking a walk in the forest, or some kids gathered around a campfire telling ghost stories, or even Poison Ivy from Batman surrounded by plants and shrubs. 

All of those ideas seemed like the obvious route then this one hit me...

 I was on the phone speaking with a client and I randomly drew this quick sketch of two birds perched on a tree with a hawk in the background swooping in on them. Almost immediately this joke popped in to my mind; "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." Boom, now I had an idea to run with... The circle of life and a little karma mixed in. 

Here we have Thomas (green bird ) getting his worm snatched away by Nathaniel (red bird) who is unaware of his impending doom. 

Down below is the original sketch drawn on copy paper with a blue mechanical pencil and the rest was painted digitally in Photoshop CS6 on a Wacom 24 HD Cintiq. 

Have a great week everyone!

 Original Sketch

 Value Block-In

 Color Ruff

Final Painting

Sir Lancelot!

Today's post is kind of inspired by two different sketch/ illustration challenges. The Illustration Friday topic for this week is "Treasure" and one of the Sketch Dailies topics earlier this week was "Lancelot". So I thought it'd be fun to combine the two subjects in to one Illustration.

Here we have Sir Lancelot posing with his fresh kill, admiring his trusty sword and contemplating the  riches and treasures awaiting him for his gallantry in defeating the dragon.

*note I still need to add some color to this painting. I'll update the blog once its finished.

*If you want to be kept up on an almost daily basis come follow me on Instagram or Tumblr.

Sleeping Beauty Coloring Book Fun!

A few years ago when I was studying Illustration at UVU we were given a really fun in class assignment by one of my favorite professors Ryan Wood. The assignment was to take a coloring page from a coloring book or online somewhere and create a digital painting from it. 

I needed a little break from client work to recharge my batteries so I thought it would be fun to revisit Ryan's old assignment. My subject for this exercise is none other than Sleeping beauty. I found the image on a generic Disney coloring page google search. 

The great part about this process is that I can skip right to the painting because the line work and composition are essentially done. As with most of my digital work I start off with a value underpainting and "glaze" color over the top. All in all this painting took just a few hours. It's great practice when you are looking for something to paint or draw. Alright now back to work! 

-Adam

Illustration Friday: Nefarious

Sorry I've been away from the old blog for sometime now. I've been so focused on finishing up school that I have failed to post on the blog regularly.

For those of you that know me or follow me on social media sites like Tumblr and Instagram know that I post up a new sketches daily. That's great and all but aside from being super busy I haven't had a lot of time to post up more completed personal work. So, to rectify this I have decided to participate in the the Illustration Friday weekly challenge. Each week a new word or topic is chosen and the artists have one week to come up with something. This weeks work to illustrate is "Nefarious".

Here we have Little Don Vito Cannoli sitting in his study contemplating his next move against his arch-rival Don Tony Ravioli. This was painted in Photoshop CS6 using a Wacom Cintiq 24 hd.

Marc Davis Tribute

Rough sketch

Background block-in 

Background Color

Main Character Painting

Final Painting 

How's it going everyone?! I'm doing great as usual! For this weeks painting I'm once again pulling inspiration from Illustration Friday's Weekly topic. This week's IF theme was "Novelty". While trying to figure out what to paint I did a lot of research and watched a bunch of old Ed Sullivan Show episodes. They all had these great acts with some kind of gimmick. This got me thinking... One of my all time favorite novelty acts was the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland. The characters were designed by Disney veteran animator Marc Davis. So I decided to paint a tribute piece to Mr. Davis and create my own Country Bear novelty act. So here we have Lynyrd "Rascal" Bearenthall the 4th and his amazing unicycle cat juggling routine!