My Thoughts on Thanksgiving Weekend

Dear Friends,

I have so much to be thankful for this year, I don’t know where to begin. I’m thankful for those closest to me–my wife, my son, my best friend Steve Smith, my friend Charlie Athanas, my in-laws who have helped me out tremendously this past year, Colin Pritchard of Rocket No. 9, Kevin Sandstrom at Blick Art Supply, the 501st, (especially Chris Spice of top-rated Star Wars site Sandtroopers.com) the great art directors and editors I’ve worked with this past year, and also for all of you who take an interest in my art and are the reason I keep doing what I do. I am thankful for my U.S. military family, for USACares.org and  for The Dennis Miller Radio Show who has been kind enough to have me on to share my projects and my military art passion project, Project 52.

I especially thank all of you who have purchased my new art career retrospective and memoir book, ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN, by IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing, either for yourselves, or for a loved one as a holiday gift. Even if the book wasn’t mine, I would enjoy 4.5 pounds of art in hardcover to peruse over my mulled cider during the holidays.

Today I wanted to share another blog with you, written by my friend and fellow 501st member David Syczylo. David is the Snowtrooper who posed for me for this year’s Star Wars Celebration painting. He did an excellent job of explaining the poses, not to mention providing us all with a brilliant display he has created of my Star Wars Celebration prints:

http://www.djsyczylo.net/chronicles/DormanHoth/DormanHoth.htm

I hope you enjoy David’s blog as much as I did about how the Star Wars Celebration piece came about. The best part of this project? I have been very fortunate to get to know David over the past 6 months and he is a special person to me and my wife. You will never meet a kinder or more giving person. He drove all of the way to my home in northern Illinois from Indianapolis just to pose for me, and refused to take even  gas money. That’s the kind of guy David is. Ask him about his film career when you meet him. He has great stories.

Thanks for reading. More to come. I just did a Captain Marvel this past weekend for the very first time in my career, but I have to check with an editor first to see when I can post it.

Be safe this holiday weekend,

Dave.

P.S. I finally got to see “Walking Dead.” I’m hooked. What do you all think of it? Any of you watching? If not, check it out – let’s compare notes. My friend and fellow judge in the December 6th Chicago 10-minute horror play international competition Death Scribe 2010, Jay Bonansinga, is writing the novelization of the series and he’s an excellent writer.

Dave Dorman Demos Storyboarding Sunday

Dear Chicago Artists, Art Directors & Friends,

This Sunday, June 13th at 7 p.m., I will be doing a storyboarding demo for Chicagoland’s “Commercial Artist Forum” group, which I’ve been involved in for a few years, when my friend, Blick Art Supply regional manager Kevin Sandstrom, first formed the group, at my wife’s suggestion that what we desperately needed was a “creative salon” for artists. Today it is run by Colin Pritchard, of Rocket No. 9 (my wife’s & my webmaster) and Fotios Zemenides, who owns Zemenides Fine Art Gallery.

Here are the event details, if you can attend. There is an $8 fee, covering drinks, refreshments and the model’s fee. Bring your sketchpads!

831 N Wilke Rd.
Arlington Heights, IL 60008

Location: At the SEC of Wilke & Northwest Highway across the street from the entrance to the Arlington Race Track

In the Arlington Park Plaza shopping center (there is a Fast Food Joint, Radio Shack, Liquor Store, Cat Clinic, & Pawn shop in the center)

R.S.V.P. Space is limited, so please confirm your spot with denise@writebrainmedia.com

As always, thanks for reading,

Dave.

Paging Morgan Spurlock:Anybody Connected?

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well and as always, I thank you for your interest in reading about my career. We are in the throes of planning my father-in-law’s 80th bday party this weekend, so the pressure is on to clean up my studio. Why can’t folks understand that artists need to be surrounded by STUFF?

I just found this interesting tidbit on Levine Breaking News:  

 ***Morgan Spurlock is to direct a fanboy dream. The new documentary, “Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope,” is being made in collaboration with Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles and Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull. The film, according to various reports, will follow seven fans from around the world as they make their way to the Comic-Con event in San Diego.

So…if you can reach out to the folks behind the film–and for that matter, “Attack of the Show,” and encourage them to include me, that would be cool. For those of you who don’t already know, I’m being honored as a “special guest” this year at  San Diego Comic-Con International. At SDCC, IDW/Desperado Publishing will also be launching my new book, “Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman,” which is 5 lbs. and 320 pages of my art, personal musings and personal photo album. I hope as many of you reading this as possible can make it out for the 5-day comics & pop culture love fest.

Additionally, I will be doing a live drawings during the Full Body of Horror’s Event on May 28th in Chicago at the Lucky Number Grill, “Drink and Draw.” This is great fun for horror fans, artists and art fans, as there will be numerous people dressed in horror costume finery, posing for artists. Here’s a link to this event: http://bodyofhorror.blogspot.com/

 I will also be exhibiting at one of my all-time favorite shows, HeroesCon, in Charlotte, NC June 4-6th. It is a true comic book convention, devoted to COMICS and not pop culture, for a nice change of pace. The show planner Shelton treats us all wonderfully. Even better, my Band of Brothers – Scott Hampton, Christopher Moeller & John vanFleet will all be there. I hope to see comic book retailer and author John Hitchcock, who authored the greatest book on Alex Toth, called “Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodle Book,” by Alex Toth and John Hitchcock. John Hitchcock has more hilarious personal stories than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. His photo should be adjacent to the word “character” in the encyclopedia.

On June 13th, I will be teaching a free storyboarding demonstration at the Commercial Artists Forum in Chicagoland, courtesy of my Webmaster/Designer, artist Colin Pritchard (Rocket No. 9) and artist Fotios Zemenides. Space is limited, so if you plan to attend, please connect with them through their FaceBook page or through their LinkedIn Group. I do need to throw out the caveat that storyboarding isn’t my favorite form of storytelling–I’m more of a single image guy– so I’m just setting expectations realistically.

On July 10th, I will be part of a local event, a mini Comic-Con at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL. You will see a lot of familiar names exhibiting alongside me there. If you can make it, we’d love to see you there.

And now, I need to ask your opinion on something: My wife suggests that you would like to actually see me paint the piece I’m doing for Star Wars Celebration 5.  To get this captured on video, I will need to ask the permission of Lucasfilm. Is there enough interest out there in seeing me do this painting from pencils through final brush stroke to invest in a videographer for 2 weeks? Please let me know your thoughts, okay?

Okay, I need to head back to the drawing board for now- I’m finishing up a piece for client Howard Feltman – and pretending to clean my studio.

Thanks for reading,

Dave.