Paul Adam

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2010-04-19T00:56:00.003-06:00

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This blog has moved

2010-04-19T00:56:00.001-06:00

Mutation

2009-08-06T23:16:00.002-06:00

I was thumbing through my buddy, Paul Richards', sketch collection and was totally inspired. I picture this guy whippin' out a guitar and belting out "A Country Boy Can Survive." Here's some Beechnut in yer eye!

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2009-06-01T20:52:00.003-06:00

I mentioned before on here that I'm working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Last Friday, Bioware debuted a Developer Dispatch featuring those of us on the team that worked on the Trooper class. I got to be in the video but my 'stache does most of the talking.

Developer Dispatch: The Trooper

Also today we unveiled our big awesome cinematic trailer. I did the designs for the troopers and lightsabers. Check that badboy out.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Cinematic Trailer in HD

The Woman and the Dragon

2009-05-18T19:03:00.002-06:00

Around Easter I was part of an art show called "Biblical Proportions". Each participating artist was asked to pick something biblical to depict. I went with the powerful imagery of the Woman and the Dragon from Revelations.

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Revelations 12:1-3

I've gotten so used to doing all my work digitally as of late and I was beginning to feel REALLY rusty, so I busted out the watercolors. Rusty is an understatement. Here's a bit of the process, warts and all.

Colerase sketch:

Having not worked traditionally in a while, I did a digital study of the colors to figure out my palette and whatnot. I adjusted some of the dragon anatomy while I was in there.

I painfully transferred the line work to watercolor board (I need to figure out a better way to do this) and started laying in some of the yellows and reds.

Little by little it started to come together. I did some of the finishing touches with acrylic.

Here's a High Rez version.

All in all, it felt really good to do a finished color piece in traditional medium. Hopefully I can get around to doing these more often. There were a lot of talented cats at the show. Check them out here.

Strongman Back Cover

2009-04-23T01:09:00.003-06:00

I had a request to post the back cover as well. It's a bit different than what wound up in print but here it is:

Looking for a copy of Strongman? Ask for it at your local comic shop or snag one HERE!

Staple! Cometh

2009-02-08T12:00:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again. Austin's big independent media expo, Staple!, is coming up on March 7th. I'll be there with my standard supply of sketchbook ashcans. I finally got off my butt and made some postcards and t-shirts too. I'll be splitting a table with Charles Soule, writer of a new book coming out of Slave Labor Graphics called Strongman. I did a cover for him a while back. He'll have books on hand.

Strongman cover (title graphic by John Rubio:

Axe Bunny T-Shirt:

Life Drawing - Cami

2009-01-31T14:08:00.002-06:00

Yay. More life drawing. It's funny, I'm so used to being able to hit undo or transform something into place if I mess something up in a drawing these days. Ya can't do that at lifedrawing... BUT you can do it once you get home and scan it in. Take that undersized head! I also added some white into the drawing. Thank you, Photoshop.

Life Drawing - Molly

2009-01-19T17:11:00.003-06:00

I finally got my ass out of bed early and hoofed it to lifedrawing this weekend. Molly was a fantastic model, I didn't quite capture her likeness but I think I'm in the ballpark. I usually prefer the quick pose format for life drawing, but the long pose format was just the discipline I needed.

Star Dude

2009-01-05T01:54:00.002-06:00

Since I last posted, the project I've been working on has been announced. For the last year and a half I've been working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you haven't already, check out the official website (http://www.swtor.com) for concepts, trailers and other media.

In the spirit of Star Wars I did a quick sketch of some unrelated random Star Warsy goodness.

Study Buddy Exercise 2 :: Palette

2008-09-10T22:05:00.003-06:00

Wow, I really need to work on my color perception. This thing totally owned me. However, I managed to not sample any colors from the original. Yay me.

Toast

2008-09-08T23:16:00.002-06:00

My buddy, Clint, has an awesome lil character named Toast. So, for Clint's birthday, I thought I'd take a stab at doing my own version. I think I spent way too much time on something so simple but, here's the final drawing along with the prelims.

I did a couple doodles until I had something I liked. Here's my rough. It's pretty sloppy but it was close enough to what I was going for.

Next, I lightboxed my rough. I fixed little mistakes here and there as I went. Toast looked really good with his scarf so, since butterflies don't normally live in the cold, I had to nix it and use a bird instead. I don't think the art police would bust down my door for a butterfly, but it made more sense to me this way.

Ugh, more problems. Crooked bird, weird feet, squashy head, no background -- bring on the Photoshop!

That's more like it! Now time for inks...

I hate redrawing stuff over and over like this but sometimes what's in your head doesn't fall out on the page right away you've got to keep pushing forward, right?

Anyway, if you want to see more awesome Toast art head on over to Clint's blog!

Study Buddy

2008-09-01T22:08:00.003-06:00

My friend Paul Richards cooked up something cool on his blog called Study Buddy. You essentially team up with a friend and give each other exercises in Mass, Palette, Detail, and Composition. Each exercise should take about 5 minutes. Here's the first exercise on my list for mass:

Bleh, I can already see all kinds of mistakes on this, but that's what this is about. On with the learning!

SDCC 08 and Zombie Sketch

2008-08-08T00:17:00.005-06:00

A big thanks to everyone that came by my table at San Diego Comic-Con this year. It was also great to see some fellow artists in person. I'm still catching up on sleep, email, and work. Big props to Zach, Christopher, Paul, Faith, and Karine for keeping an eye on my stuff as I snuck off for swag runs. I had a blast doing sketches for peeps. It was so hard to give all those babies away without having scanned them. If you got a sketch from me and feel like scanning it in please email it to me.

I've been listening to a lot of Stephen King audiobooks and the Shining soundtrack late at night. I now have to check the back seat of the car, closets, and behind shower curtains for ghouls. I found this guy shambling around the back of the house. He stood still long enough for me to do a quick portrait.

Dragon Study

2008-03-31T00:59:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to improve my big reptilian skills lately. Here's the result. Things got a little noodley towards the end. Next time I'll plan it out a little better. Man, I wish I had someone kicking my butt to get this stuff right 10 years ago.

ANIMAL BAND!

2008-03-17T00:45:00.002-06:00

*click to enhance bigosity*

My good friend Christopher just published his first children's book, Animal Band! Above is the adorable main character of Animal Band, Thomas. You can pick up the book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's a great book for the wee ones... but you don't have to take my word for it.

Congratulations, Christopher!

"Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high..."

Woodland Elf

2008-03-12T00:40:00.003-06:00

*Click to bigulate.*

Here's a little dude for my woodland goblin to eat. Maybe he would just beat him up and take his farthings.

Staple! 2008

2008-03-03T20:50:00.002-06:00

I've finally recovered from Staple!: The Independent Media Expo 2008. What a great show. Big thanks to everyone who came out. And extra big thanks to people who stopped by my table! I was out there selling my latest Sketch Ashcan. Here's the cover:

If you weren't able to make it out to the show and would like to buy a copy, send me an email. They're $5 (shipping included). I've also got the 2 previous volumes reprinted if you'd like those as well. Each book comes with a little quickie sketch on the inside front cover.

Speaking of quickie sketches, I did one for someone at the show but they forgot to come back and pick it up. I thought it turned out pretty cool so here it is.

If you were at Staple this past weekend and forgot to pick up your book from me, please send me an email and I'll mail it off to ya.

Woodland Goblin

2008-02-07T23:26:00.000-06:00

Just something I was doodling on at the coffeeshop the other night.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T01:55:00.000-06:00

Life Drawing Via DS

2007-12-03T01:21:00.000-06:00

click to enlarge

The other week I went to a life drawing session. I decided to go late in the day, so I only had my standard sketching supplies. I like to have something a bit blendy or big like charcoal, a grease pencil, or black prismacolor and some newsprint, but I didn't have any of that. I then remembered that I had recently loaded Colors on my DS. This is the result. I had a few hiccups. Turning the DS sideways for drawing in a vertical "portrait" orientation was near impossible. Also, if you accidentally touch the drawing surface in two places at once, you will draw an unpleasant streak across your screen. I'm sure there is a way to use this to your advantage, but at the time it was annoying especially with no undo. All in all I think it turned out to be a fruitful experience.

Magic Fingers MacDoogal

2007-11-29T00:35:00.001-06:00

I recently participated in Sam Hiti's Fistacuffs competition in a tag team along side talented bastards Alicia Traveria and Zach Taylor. Our team was "The Handicapables." Above is my contribution: Magic Fingers MacDoogal. MacDoogal is a fearsome opponent with his wicked-magical fingers, magic hat, and horde of demon bunnies, but above all else he is a gentleman. Head on over to the FACA blog to see how we did!

Workin' the Space Warehouse

2007-11-05T00:35:00.000-06:00

I hit up Wurstfest this weekend. There's nothing quite like meat on sticks, pastries, beer, and polka to let you know you're alive.

Jenna Toejam

2007-10-30T11:11:00.000-06:00

Wow it's been a while. Above is Jenna Toejam. I entered her in the Fist-A-Cuffs Arena-Girl competition. Hopefully she'll make the cut!

I'm going to push to post more frequently than I have been. We'll see if I actually follow through on that. So much of what I've been doing lately has been under wraps. Happy Halloweenween everyone.

Zombie Fish Dude

2007-06-08T01:24:00.001-06:00

A while back I posted a sketch of this guy on my site. I decided to go back and give him the paint treatment. He wound up changing a bit here and there. I guess he's less of a zombie now and more just plain evil fish dude.