Dave Dorman New Star Wars Crimson Empire Art, Horror Art, Some Studio Pictures and Some News

Dear Friends,

First off, here’s a video of the new SPECTRUM 18 book: My art is featured at about 2:18 and 5:18 in this video: http://bit.ly/uOTP3G

Also, here’s the new-on-the-retail shelves cover I did for the first new STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE comic by DARK HORSE:

STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE COVER ART By DAVE DORMAN

I got a nice review from Geeks of Doom, which you can see here: http://bit.ly/rSyjuC

I hope some of you are coming out to the “MALEFICIUM” multimedia horror art show at Kosart Effects Studios & Gallery on Saturday night in Westmont, IL – a Chicago western suburb. It is on the order of more of a New York show with the caliber of talent involved, so we hope to see some of you there. I did a fun new horror piece here below, and in keeping with my sense of humor, I did a little “Rocky and Bullwinkle” thing with the title, which I am calling  “The Portrait of an Artist as a  Tortured Soul ,” or: “Cthulu! Gesundheit!”

Cthulu: Gesundheit! by Dave Dorman Oil and Acrylic on Canvas

Okay, here are some goofy pictures of a quick walk down to my “Dave Cave,” a.k.a. my studio. We have a house built into a hill, so we have a walkout basement, and I have taken the entire basement over as my studio. It’s sort of like a “garden apartment” with a lot of light coming in the windows, which are above ground. I didn’t stage any of this, just took some impromptu pictures, so forgive the mess. More pictures to come, but I really must clean some of the mess before I go posting them on the web.

Here’s what you see when you come down the basement stairs. My wife and I are big fans of BBC comedy League of Gentlemen, hence the Royston Vasey signage. At the foot of the stairs is a piece that brings me a lot of joy, a Star Wars painting by my friend Christopher Moeller. On the right you’ll see the hint of my Rocketeer cut-out, which was a character created by a dear friend, the late, great artist Dave Stevens.

Entrance to the Dave Cave...Beware!

When you get to the bottom of the stairs, here’s what you’ll see – my treasured autographs from 501st Members from around the world that I gathered during Star Wars Celebration shows. It brings me a lot of joy to see these every day.

You Are Now in the Dave Cave...

Another Viewpoint of the Entrance to the Dave Cave

My father-in-law built me all of these wonderful built-in shelves and I really use them. You’ll see there’s a “Dog Fight” game on my shelf. My brother Jeff and I played this game as kids. We were never allowed to keep our toys as we were military brats, always moving from base to base and having to give up all of our toys. I saw this one day on eBay and I HAD. TO. HAVE. IT. Now I’m addicted to toys, and intent on keeping every toy I have. Sometimes I share with my son, but not always.

Here are some paintings you may recognize to the right wall walking toward my great room of the Dave Cave. The cleavage painting in latex on the right is for sale. Make me an offer.

Right Hallway of the Dave Cave, Leading Into the Great Room

Here is the wall to the left, walking down that same hallway.

Crimson Empire Cover Art Rests on the Left-Side Hallway Wall

Dave Dorman – New Art, Updates and A Special Thanks

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of creating a fresh piece of art at WildClaw Theatre’s fund-raiser, “Dance of the Demented” at Chicago’s Viaduct Theatre. Event organizer Charlie Athanas of The Devil’s Candy Store and creator of all great art for WildClaw Theatre as their board member, put together a cool event with 3 live deejays, women posing, a burlesque show and more. I met some very nice people there, including someone named Steve – here are links to his site and his blog:

http://www.seaillustration.com
http://drawntoday.blogspot.com/

I was also impressed by the sketches of tattoo artist Jeff Paetzold, whom you can find on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/scorpionnipples. If you happened to be there, he was the guy accompanied by the Dita Von Teese look-alike. It was also great to hang out with his dad Bill Paetzold, a gifted creative who owns http://www.paetzolddesign.com. As always, it was great fun to see Anthony Kosar do his stuff, as well as Ray Frenden, Tony Akins and Joe Lester.

During “Dance of the Demented,” I started a painting of a woman in a straight jacket about to stab a young woman with a giant scissors.

Painting from Dance of the Demented WildClaw Fundraiser

A special thanks to Steve Smith for his photography.

I will post the finished art piece on this blog when it’s complete. I hope you all like it. I worked in a dark, moody color palette of greens, rust colors and black.

This last week TURBO VAMPS, the Chicago punk horror band I mentioned previously, launched their New Order tribute song on iTunes, so be sure to check them out if punk horror is your genre.

In other news, be sure to check out this blog on March 1st. On that day, I will have a MAJOR announcement to make, that will hopefully personally affect some of you reading this blog. I can’t say more than this, but it is HUGE news.

Until then, thank you for reading.

Dave.

Dave Dorman Special Guest at SDCC 2010

Hi Everyone,

As always, thanks for reading my posts. I received great news this week that San Diego Comic-Con would like me to be a Special Guest this year. It is a great honor to be recognized by the folks at SDCC, especially since the Con is at its apex in terms of popularity and traffic through the show. To the folks at “Attack of the Show,” I AM available to you for interviews this year. As always, I will have an end cap booth this year, same bat time, same bat channel with WriteBrain Media. I’m kicking around ideas as to who will be with me in the booth this year, and I may have a really fun announcement to make, but I’ll have to wait a while longer to share that news.

The Joe Kubert School has asked their distinguished alumni – and also me – to join in an international gallery exhibit, so I just shipped some fun pieces to them for display in Spain, which officially makes me an “internationally exhibited artist.”

We are still working with Farpoint Media on the logistics of my podcast, and I will keep you all posted on that. I do know it will be available via their site and iTunes. Anyone interested in advertising on our show, please let me know. It will be a weekly show about “insider” news in the comic book industry, interviews with artists, writers, creators, pop culture celebrities and more. I hope you all really like it, because it’s a huge investment in time and energy.

In other news, I will be a featured artist doing a live painting at WildClaw Theatre’s big fund-raising event, “Dance of the Demented” at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago on Saturday, February 20th. My other artist friends painting there will be Charlie Athanas, Tony Akins, Alex Wald, Ray Frenden Anthony Kosar and Jessica Joy. This event is a horror/art mash-up, so be sure to bring your sketch pads or tablets. For details, please visit http://wildclawtheatre.com.

Speaking of horror-meets-art, my best friend’s son is in a band called the Turbo Vamps. This is a punk rock horror band in Chicago, so if you like this kind of music, check them out at http://www.myspace.com/turbovamps.

I want to say a special thank you to Chris Ryall, Editor in Chief at IDW for mentioning me on his blog, and to all others out there who post my stuff and comment on my work. I appreciate it.

Also, a special thanks to Colin Wilson, who just emailed that he saw the Imagine F/X issue featuring me in December. For those of you who don’t know Colin Wilson’s gorgeous art work, I’ve been a fan of his for years and finally got to meet him in person this past year. He is committing to making the 15 hour flight to San Diego again this year, so watch for him there. He’s a great person and it’s an honor to know him.

I don’t want to go buzzkill on you, but I must mention that we are mourning the loss of my wife’s longtime business partner, motorsports legend, Mr. Jan Gabriel, or as gearheads know him, the voice of “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” He was a mentor to my wife and a steadfast friend to our family. He even filmed our son’s baptism. The loss is huge for us. Keep his family & friends in your prayers, if you’re the praying sort. If you’re New Agey like John Edwards’ mistress, just send good vibes.

I also send a shout out to my brother Jeff, sister-in-law Vicky, niece Stephanie and nephew John who are being snowed in this weekend in greater D.C. Stay safe, Bro & Co. To my sister Nancy in Alexandria, LA and her husband Dave, I have revoked your license to complain about your weather.

To Howard Feltman up in Michigan, I hope you’re staying warm.

Until next time, thanks for reading,

Dave.