Supes!

How's it going everyone? Here is another painting that I recently finished. This one was for my Dad's birthday. He, like me, has been a life long Superman fan. He grew up watching the George Reeves TV series and I grew up with the super friends and of course the Richard Donner/ Christopher Reeve Superman movie. Most of my family, both immediate and extended, could tell you all kinds of stories about me running around with my super cape that my mom sewed for me. Great memories! Anyways when thinking about a possible birthday gifts I thought this would be a fun one. Happy birthday Dad!

The Dark Knight

 I really  had a lot of fun painting The Joker so I thought that I needed to do a Batman caricature to go along with it.

I have a teacher/ friend by the name of Will Terry. His art work is really vibrant and amazing. I've taken several classes from Will at UVU over the past couple of years.  In Media Techniques 1 and 2 (both taught by Will) we explored traditional mediums such as oil,watercolor, acrylic and gouache. Often we would be painting from photo references. One of the many things  that I have learned from Will is to pick good quality reference. I've found that when I'm creating caricatures the reference photos that I choose make all the difference in the world.

Such is the case with Batman and the Joker. For The Joker I wanted to be a little more painterly so super sharp HD photos weren't much of a priority. When I painted Batman I wanted to have more detail so I searched for higher resolution images. Overall I'm happy with how they came out but you can tell how much more tight and detailed Batman is over The Joker.

I also have included an updated version of The Joker. I was showing the first Joker painting to another teacher/ friend Don Seegmiller. He had some great suggestions to improve and simplify my painting.  One thing that Don point out were some bad tangents in the back ground. He suggested to stray from the reference and recreate the prison cell. After talking with Don this is what I came up with. I tightened up the eyes and simplified the hair. Also I though it would be fun to have the shadow of the bars fall on character to create some depth. Personally I like the mood of this one better it's a litter more creepy.

Why So Serious!

I can remember as a kid going to see the first Tim Burton Batman Movie in the theater. I loved everything about it. Batman (Keaton) and the Joker (Nicholson) were so rad! When the Chris Nolan Batman movie was announced I was super excited to see the Caped Crusader on the Big screen again. Batman Begins was awesome! Christian Bale rocked and I was eagerly waiting for the sequel to come out. I was so nervous that it would suck, but when The Joker showed us his magic trick I new that I was in for one heck of a ride! Heath Ledger was so good as The Joker that he, in my opinion, stole the show from Bats. The Dark Knight joins the elite list of sequels that were as good if not better than their first film. Films such as The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back and Terminator 2! Why so serious! (Photoshop and Painter)

Grandpa Bailey

What's up my fellow bloggers!? Finished this painting a couple of days ago. This one is a little more on the personal side for me because the subject is my Grandfather. He is 90 years young and is the most amazing pianist. He's been playing the piano since he was 2 years old so He's had a few years of practice. He has traveled the world playing for sold out crowds all over.

On the Fourth of July my Grandmother, also 90, passed away. A couple weeks after the funeral Grandpa and I were hanging out at his house and he asked if I'd be interested in doing some art work for him. I replied with an enthusiastic YES! He gave me a reference photo and left the rest up to me.

My Grandpa has a terrific sense of humor. I can remember as a little kid coming over to his house and watching Laurel and Hearty. He and I would read the funnies (comics) in the new paper together. He always has a good joke to tell. So with that in mind I decided to have more fun with my reference and paint a caricature of him. Hope you all like.

Man's Best Friend

 Lately I've been doing a lot of value paintings. Over the years I've been taught by several mentors to focus on value in my work. They would teach that if I got the values correct the colors would work almost no matter what. When I paint I tend to think in black and white. I do this mostly because before I started painting I would draw with pencil and ink. When working with graphite or ink the real trick is to control your whites. "Don't let your darkest dark be lighter than your whitest white" is phrase that I hear often in school. I love this saying because it is the real key to balancing your image. As with everyone I'm still am learning with every drawing and painting and look forward to learning more and more.

Holmes

I was out to lunch the other day with my friend Phil. On the wall of the sandwich shop we were eating at was an old vintage tin sign with Sherlock Holmes on it. I thought it would be a great idea for my next painting. When I got home I quickly sketched out my version of Sherlock. Later that night I was supposed to do a digital painting demo and figured that this would be a great time to start the painting! It was a fairly quick painting and I finished it just in time for the art show last friday. (pencil, Photoshop and Painter)

The Art Haus

Sup everyone, here is a special invite to all of you. Come and join us at the Art Haus Show this Friday night. The featured artists are Phil Cannon, Salvador Medrano and Myself. There will be Original Art and prints for sale! So stop by and and check out some great art work.

Lets pick up the spare!

I was Bowling on the Wii last night with my kids. Thought out the entire game I kept on getting eight or nine pins down and would occasionally pick up the spare. While we were playing, I thought back to the old NES games of the 80's. When I was a kid my parents would take us to Toys R Us and I would walk up and down the video game isle and look at all the awesome covers.  I love how the cover art would sale the game. I'm pretty sure those covers were a huge factor in me loving cartoons, video games and comics so much. Before I went to bed I quickly sketched this out and painted it this morning. I thought it would be fun to turn the equipment in to cartoon characters. I wanted to paint in a background but ran out of time... maybe I'll turn it into a vintage looking NES game cover! (colored pencil and photoshop)

Jared Salmond Sketch Trade!

Hello everybody!

 Jared Salmond here, one of Adam's schoolmates for the last two years or so. Adam graciously accepted my offer to do a blog trade so here we go! I've been redesigning the ninja turtle villains over the last month or so and Adam suggested I do a new one. Leatherhead was one of my favorite and weirdest ninja turtle toys, I used a bunch of reference to pull the design a little closer back to a real gator, enjoy! Make sure to visit my blog at jaredsalmond.blogspot.com for more fun stuff! Thanks Adam!

Glad to have you on the blog Jared! Thanks for the awesome drawing! I have posted the drawing that I made for Jared's blog. You can find out more about it by checking out Jared's blog! Thanks again Jared!

Today's warm up painting

Here is about a 40-45 minute warm up painting that I did this morning. All done in Corel Painter. I usually use Photoshop to paint digitally but lately I have been liking Painter. The brushes feel a little more natural and the blending brushes are fantastic!

Art Show Sketches!

My good friend Phil Canon arranged for us to have a little art show up in Salt Lake City  on August 10. We are going to be displaying some cool art work, have some prints and original sketches for sale. Here is a little preview of some of the sketches that I will have up for grabs. If you are in the area on August 10th stop by, should be fun! 

The Bride of Fronkensteen

 One of my all-time favorite movies is Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein pronounced "Fronkensteen". If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you do, it's absolutely hilarious! Here is my throwback to old monster movies. I finished this painting a few weeks ago. I don't know why I haven't posted it sooner. The original sketch can be found below. (Graphite, Photoshop and Painter)

Sketches!

I am so excited! I just finished a super intense Statistics class, actually it's my last math class ever! For those of you that don't know math is not my strongest subject. I always struggled with it. Here are a few sketches I thought you might like. stay tuned for more drawings and paintings. Hope you are all having a terrific summer! 

 Daily Sketch: The Bride of... (graphite on watercolor paper)

 Daily Sketch: Spray can Monsta! (colored pencil, ink, and marker)

 Daily Sketch: Frog mobsta (colored pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Construction-bot (colored pencil, ink and marker)

 Daily Sketch: Shark (colored pencil, ink, and marker)

 Daily Sketch: Invincible. Hands down one of the best comics out there! (colored pencil, ink and marker)

 Daily Sketch: Fries! (colored pencil and ink)

 Daily Sketch: Fries! Speed Painting. (colored pencil, ink, Painter and Photoshop)

Daily Sketch: The Amazing Spider-man. (colored pencil, ink, and marker)

I'm Batman!

I had I little time this morning so I painted my Batman sketch. The original sketch can be seen in the previous post. (Photoshop and Painter)

Daily Sketch Catch Up!

Sorry for totally slacking on posting some daily sketches. I have been drawing everyday but, I've been super busy and haven't had time to scan and post them. So here is a bombardment of drawings from the past few days.

 Daily sketch: Monsta Eel (red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Larry the Alien (red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Faces (red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Lil' Monstas (ink, marker and red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: "Ace" (blue pencil)

 Daily sketch: Fast Eddie (ink. watercolor, and blue pencil)

 Daily Sketch: TED the Trekkie... I mean Trekker. (ink, marker and red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Batman Jim Lee style (ink and red pencil)

 Daily Sketch: Sad Bird (red pencil)

Daily Sketch: Monster Birthday Cake for Jordan (ink, marker and red pencil)

Daily Sketch: Grizzly Bear

As some of you know I grew up in Southern California in a city called Temecula. I attended Temecula Valley High School in the mid 90's. We were called the Golden Bears and naturally our mascot was the bear. As much as high school sucked, I had an amazing art teacher Ms. Carunchio. I took every class she taught. She has had a huge influence in my art work over the years. I've tried to track her down but haven't had any success. So if any if you faithful readers know where she is let me know!

 Today's sketch was done in acrylic paint in my watercolor Moleskine sketchbook. Haven't painted with traditional medium since the last semester ended. It felt good to break out the paints and spend a little time painting.

Daily Sketches...

Sorry that I've missed a few days posting sketches. I had a pretty busy weekend as I'm sure most of you had. Big shout out to all our armed forces and people who have protected our freedom! Here we have a couple of sketches from the good ol' sketch book. Both were drawn with colored pencil and the top one was inked with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. If you haven't tried one of these bad boys you need too! By far one of my favorite tools in my arsenal. You can get a variety of line quality and textures that technical pens can't achieve. Yes there is a frustrating learning curve ,which I am still on, that also produces awesome happy accidents.

Daily Sketch: Pinocchio vs Cardinal

I thought of this Idea for Pinocchio a couple of days ago. I sketched it yesterday and painted it today. Hope you like it, I had a lot of fun creating it! Sketch was drawn with red pencil and the painting was done in Photoshop and Painter.

Daily Sketch: Monkey-Pirate

Today I started a new sketchbook! I know big deal right? For the longest time I drew in a Canson sketchbook or on  some loose leaf paper that I get from a local paper supply store (sorry it's not Dunder Mifflin). I still use the loose leaf paper because it's easy to scan and I can get a variety of of different textures and colors. The last few years I have been using a Moleskine sketch book for my personal use. Mainly because they are small and easy to lug around.

The first Moleskine book that I bought was awesome! The paper quality was thick and smooth. My markers and ink pens worked really well on it. I was stoked to pick up another after I "killed" off the first book. To my dismay the second book was awful! The paper was really crappy and thin. My drawings using pencils were fine but, It had a hard time absorbing markers and ink. Apparently, I purchased a journal with blank pages. I tried to make it work and after tons of drawings, I decided to retire it.

Today's new sketchbook another Moleskine. I know surprise surprise. This one however, is made for art and is filled with watercolor paper. Over the past year at school I took a series of traditional painting classes @ UVU taught by Will Terry and developed a love for watercolor and acrylic painting. When shopping for a new book I thought it would be neat to have one that could sketch and paint in. I'm stoked for my new Moleskine and look forward to sharing some drawings and paintings with all of you!

Daily Sketch: Math Gorilla

So I just took a midterm test in Statistics. Let just say I didn't so well and our friend here is telling you what I think of my test scores. I don't know what this class has to do with making me a better artist. Guess I'll have to suffer through it like so many others before me. Take care and for those of you in the same boat as me... Good Luck!

Daily Sketch: Superman

Today's daily sketch is the good old man of steel himself. (Prismacolor pencil, ink and marker) I really should start a blog that is just daily sketches. It'd be fun to have multiple people participate and do themed weeks. If anyone is interested in contributing said blog let me know .