First Look: Dave Dorman Original Wizard of Oz Art Premieres This Weekend at VISIONS OF OZ Show in L.A.

LOS ANGELES, CA—March 1, 2013— Dave Dorman’s “Dorothy Daydreams” original painting will be included in the upcoming Creature Features Visions of Oz gallery art show being held at the Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles, California from March 3 – 31. Dorman’s painting, rendered traditionally in oil and acrylic mediums, is a visual homage to the L. Frank Baum literary classic Oz books.

Said Dorman, “It was an honor to be invited to participate in this tribute. For Dorothy Daydreams, I returned to the spirit of L. Frank Baum’s young protagonist, capturing some of her desire to escape the harsh and desolate reality of her Kansas dustbowl farm for the fantasy of a much more colorful, imaginary world.” Dorman will be showing the art progressives from pencil illustration to final painting this weekend on this blog.

Dave Dorman’s “Dorothy Daydreams” Painting. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 24″ x 36.”

Creature Features curated this multimedia exhibit, showcasing more than 100 works from a diverse group of artists. The collection includes illustrations, paintings, sculptures and full-sized recreations of favorite Oz characters. Also included in the exhibit will be historical memorabilia such as rare editions of the original L. Frank Baum books, props, concepts and artwork from various Oz-themed film & TV projects and many more surprises.

Museum tours are $10; OZ exhibit-only admittance is $5. For more information, visit CreatureFeatures.com/VisionsofOz or call (323) 225-2700. Heritage Square Museum is located at 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles. The museum’s website is http://heritagesquare.org.

About Dave Dorman

Eisner, Inkpot and Bram Stoker Award-winning illustrator, writer and creator Dave Dorman was voted the #1 Star Wars Artist of All Time by fans of the property worldwide, and his art book Star Wars: The Art of Dave Dorman was an international bestseller. His landmark, critically acclaimed graphic novel, Aliens: Tribes, won him an Eisner and Bram Stoker Award as well as changing the way the publishing ad entertainment industries viewed the medium. Dorman’s own critically acclaimed Intellectual Property,  The Wasted Lands—the Sergio Leone-meets-motorcycle western epic tale of good vs. evil in a dystopian society recovering from “the Iron Wars”–continued to raise the bar in the graphic novel publishing arena and set a new standard. Another Dorman I.P., Dead Heat, is the Bram Stoker Award-winning horror anthology of his tales of the protagonist motorcycle zombie known as “Hitch.” Dorman’s autobiography, Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing) encompasses an estimated one-third of his illustrious art career, which includes licensed works of such classic properties as G.I. Joe, Indiana Jones, Predator, Robotech, Batman, Captain America, Spiderman, Judge Dredd, Transformers, Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft and many more. Corporate clients include 20th Century Fox, Rhythm & Hues, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Upper Deck, Topps, FASA Corp., and many more.

Dorman is a sought-after instructor who has taught at American Academy of Art, Savannah College of Art & Design, Reverie (Massive Black/ConceptArt.org), Columbia College and The Gnomon School. His video art tutorials are available at The Gnomon Workshop. 

 

Media Contact:

Denise Dorman, Publicist

WriteBrain Media

P: 630.845.4694

E: denise@writebrainmedia.com

– # # # –

Announcing My 30th Anniversary Print #2: COBRA Night Viper

Dear Friends,

It’s time to announce the #2 Giclee in my year-long 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Series. This exclusive set of celebration prints commemorates my 30 years as a professional artist, showing milestones in my artistic career. For more general information on this series please see my previous blog announcing it by clicking here… I thank Hisstank.com for picking up the story as well. That was really great. G.I. Joe Fans, if you’re not on that site already, you need to know about it.

In case you didn’t read my last blog entry, this paragraph recaps the back story on my involvement with Hasbro and G.I. Joe:

Beginning in the mid 1980s, I started working for Hasbro as a freelancer for their R&D Department. I was hired to create paintings of their characters, in development for toys, to be rendered realistically as if they were real people. This assignment was perfect for me, as I love to work on figures and challenge myself to translate the toy designs as they might look if you saw them on the battlefield. These works were to be used as presentation pieces to the Board of Directors to help them choose which characters got produced as actual toys.

For the first wave of figures, I was told to concentrate on the character with very little background added. I did about 12 of these during that set. In the next wave, I was asked to add a proper looking background to the figures. This helped place the figure and give it more context and realism. I continued to do that for the rest of the art done for Hasbro, until the early 1990s. I produced around a hundred paintings for them and it was a very fun run.

For 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Giclee #2, I have chosen the COBRA Night Viper as my representative art for this time period in my career, because it has always been one of my favorite GI JOE paintings. This was one of the first I did featuring the full background, with the color and atmosphere of the piece really giving a great feel of stealth and character.

COBRA Night Viper by Dave Dorman

Like all prints in this series, this one will be issued in extremely Limited Edition Giclee’s of 30 copies, each signed and numbered by me, Dave Dorman. Each will have a special embossing on the print in the bottom right corner and also come with a Certificate of Authenticity. The price is $30.00 including free shipping in the US, an additional $18 for shipping outside the US. Please click here to order this print….http://www.davedorman.com/30thprint.shtml

Next month’s featured print hint: “If Adventure Has a Name….”

For those of you following Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich’s situation, no matter which side of it you’re on, he’s a fellow artist and human being, and he’s hurting and needs our help. To help Gary, our friend Steve Niles created an online fund-raiser to help with geting up on his mortgage and medical bills; if you’d like to help Gary, please click here: http://www.steveniles.com/gary.html

Another fund-raiser I’m involved in is helping my Chicago comic book artist friend Doug Klauba’s beautiful son Gianni, pictured here:

Gianni Klauba, Son of Comic Book Artist Doug Klauba

Gianni is a special needs child who needs costly therapy and an iPad to help with that therapy, so please click on http://giannispad.com if you can help him. I contributed an Artist Proof of my Darth Vader’s Persuasion of the Outer Rim to help with that, and I know our friend Alex Ross has contributed this original Batman piece as well, so please bid on all of the art to help our Gianni!

Bid on Alex Ross' Batman Art for Gianni Klauba!

I will be teaching how to draw Star Wars art in an afternoon workshop with Doug Klauba on February 25th at the Southwest Elementary School in Evergreen Park to raise funds for their PTA. For those of you who watch Big Bang Theory, let me know if you’ve spotted Doug’s artwork on the set yet?

In other teaching news, I will be presenting at the prestigious American Academy of Art (Alum include Douglas Klauba, Jill Thompson, Alex Ross) in Chicago on Wednesday, February 22, 2012. I was told by an organizer that the students have been stealing the posters off the walls that announce my lecture and include a low rez image of Lord Vader’s Persuasion of the Outer Rim, so I hope people actually find out about it and show up to see me.

I also want to let you know that I will be donating an original oil Star Wars painting to non-profit indie school Elgin Academy, and online bidding will start on March 1st. I am told  one of their auction items is 2 tickets to San Diego Comic-Con, which are impossible to get and were sold out during last year’s show already. If you’re in need of two five-day San Diego Comic-Con passes, you’ll want to keep an eye on this page. Those passes include a dinner with me in San Diego, if you don’t mind dining with a dedicated carnivore.

I thank you for poring over this rather lengthy message, but I had much to announce today. My next blog will be my interview with my friend Mark Nagata, who owns MaxToyCo.com, a wonderfully exclusive Japanese Monster Toys company.

Have a great rest of the day,

Dave.