Turning One Lemon of an Evening into a Lemon Martini, Star Wars Style

So last night, I went downtown with my friend Michael Knight to meet my friend Charlie Athanas at the Gallery Provocateur, which was having their ending party for the Frank Frazetta Tribute Exhibition that kicked off during C2E2. My painting was in the show and I hadn’t seen it displayed yet.  I was sorely disappointed to discover that there were only a couple of actual paintings – the rest were inkjet print-outs on canvas, er, giclees, of the digitally created art. It was completely not what I was anticipating. However, my compadre Charlie Athanas has a talent for always pulling a rabbit out of thin air.

Charlie suggested that we go meet his friend—Steve Heminover–who is world-renowned for his laser shows. We ended up about 15 minutes away from Gallery Provocateur, in this unpopulated industrial area that was frankly a little spooky and unsettling. We pulled into this gated parking lot and drove into this space where doors closed behind us – a textbook James Bond adventure, right down to the technology and innovation laboratory where we ended up.

We entered the freight elevator, still guided by a disembodied voice telling us where to go and what to do. I had flashbacks to my Keith Moon incident when I was a bodyguard at the Capitol Center in Maryland during The Who concert (it’s in the first chapter of my new book, if you’re unsure of what I’m referencing) and then we ended up getting a tour of Aura Technologies, Inc., this huge tech facility.

Charlie, ever the king of understatement, nonchalantly mentioned that when he worked there in the ‘80s, Steve used to have the computer that generated the Death Star laser animation for the first Star Wars movie.  Now I was totally in my element, as was Michael, who may love Star Wars more than me, if that’s even possible.  Steve took us to pay homage to the historic technology relic.

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Athanas (L-R: Michael Knight, Dave Dorman, Steve Heminover)

The actual computer is entirely the wall behind all three of us in the picture. Steve briefed us on the technical details, explaining the computer  had 2.5 megabytes of memory and when they really pushed it, they could get it up to 10 megabytes with enough disc cartridges.Here’s a link to Larry Cuba’s YouTube video explaining how they made the sequence.

Steve was connected to Larry Cuba and the University of Chicago, which had the “Electronic Visualization Lab,” the very first place you could get a graduate degree combining art with computer science back in the ’80s. You have to remember, in those days, there was no access to computers of this magnitude unless you used a corporation’s computer after hours, or you had access to a university computer.

Charlie, a technology renaissance man in his own right, was doing music for the animations coming out of the Electronic Visualization Lab. His friends there—many early influencers in the prestigious art-meets-technology group SIGGRAPH — encouraged Charlie to explore computer graphics, and the rest is history. Charlie and Johnie Hugh Horn, plus a gaggle of friends, created the Ralph the Punk animated music video, which was selected to be part of the 1985 SIGGRAPH Art Show and the SIGGRAPH ’85 Film and Video Show world tour. The 1985 SIGGRAPH Art show also featured a piece from Larry Cuba, Calculated Movements, coincidentally enough.

Just for fun, here is the index for the ’85 SIGGRAPH Film and Video Show, Issue 22.

Issue 22 SIGGRAPH ’85 Film & Video Show
	PDI Animation Assortment Calculated Movements – Cuba Luminare – Sanborn and Winkler Growth III: Origin – Kawaguchi Mt. Fuji – Nakajima The Last Starfighter Excerpts – Digital Productions Nursery Song – Technofront Ralph the Punk – Athanas and Horn Precision Bathroom – Weil and Helman Flow Fantasia ’85 – Sasaki CFD Workstation – NASA Ames Telepresence Technology – Rappaport

Dave Dorman Paints Frank Frazetta Tribute in this Step-By-Step Post

Hi there.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season this year. Freaky current events connection alert: I’ve been on that Sugar Loaf ski lift that snapped recently, with one of my best friends, Phil Burnett, whom you will read about a lot in my new art book. That news story shook me up a little. Like me, Phil is a military brat, and the main protagonist in my Wasted Lands series, Thomas, is named after Phil’s son, whom we all lost way too soon. Thomas is forever in my thoughts and I immortalized him in my story.

Quick, quirky Phil Burnett story: Phil lived in Iran for a time as a military brat, and during Star Wars Celebration 3, an Iranian TV station interviewed me on the floor while Phil was there working in my booth. Imagine their surprise to see Phil, my blond, light-eyed Caucasian friend translating for me!

So Christmas this year was really wonderful at our house despite my father-in-law being hospitalized. Thanks to all who kept him in your prayers and on your prayer lists. My wife spoiled me via Amazon this year. Here’s my fulfilled wish list: Donato Giancola’s Middle Earth, Drew Struzan’s new collection, Stephen King’s The Little Sisters of Eluria, illustrated by Michael Whelan and the book of Hammer Movie Posters. I bought three F. Paul Wilson books for my wife, which I will also enjoy just as much. My writing partner, award-winning author Del Stone Jr. was also very generous to us and if he’s reading this, his gifts are still coming. He bought me an amazing t-shirt commemorating Eglin Air Force Base, and a really cool night light for my son, which shines the planetary system on the ceiling at night. Jack is very impressed. A special thanks to Julie and Dean Feece (RPG Gift Cards) who had us over for Christmas dinner.

What was special to all of you this year? Did anyone receive my new book, ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN, as a gift? If so, send me photos of you with my new book – I will post them here. Please take the time to review the book on Amazon – it makes a world of difference to me.

This past fall, I saw a call on Facebook for artists to contribute to a Frank Frazetta tribute show judged for entry. Judges include taste makers like Spectrum’s Arnie and Kathy Fenner, Brom and Simon Bisley. Since Frank Frazetta was one of my greatest art influences, I had to jump in. Below are the step-by-step images showing my progression of this painting, titled “Attack in the Snow.” Please let me know what you think.

Dave Dorman Pencil Rough of Frazetta Tribute Painting

Pencil Rough #3, More Refined

Dave Dorman Pencil Rough #4

My Color Palette

Laying Down the Background Paint

Adding Main Figures in Foreground

Adding More Detail to the Main Figures

More Detail Rendered, Nearly Completed

Final Image, Frank Frazetta Tribute Painting “Attack in the Snow”

Thanks, everyone, for checking out the progression of my art. I look forward to reading and responding to your comments. If any of you are on LinkedIn, Twitter (@DaveDorman) or Facebook, you can find me there and I’ll be happy to connect with you. Be sure to follow my wife, Denise Dorman, on Twitter, as she sometimes post things going on here that I’m in the thick of and don’t have time to post. She’s @WriteBrainMedia.

Have a great day and I’ll be back soon. The logistics of the holidays and visiting my father-in-law sort of got in the way of me posting a lot lately, but I’ll be better about it now that things have settled down somewhat. I want to thank those of you who wore Star Wars gear to celebrate the Star Wars Girl recently. That was right in the midst of the chaos here, so I didn’t post your pictures as I would have liked to in a timely manner. My apologies for that.

Take care, everyone,

Dave

 

Dave Dorman Announcement: You Read It Here FIRST!

Dear Friends,

As promised, here are some pictures of my first paint brush, gifted to me by my father and on Sunday by my wife & son; it’s now a permanent shadowbox display in my studio, keeping company with my Little Nemo calendar and my clock:

Dave's 1st Paint Brush Hanging on Wall in Studio

This was my best Father’s Day gift, second only to my son. And here he is:

Me & My Mini Me on Father's Day 2010

Here’s a close-up of the shadow box:

My Father's Day Gift This Year

Speaking of Jack, he was inspired by a recent visit to a planetarium and created this little piece of art:

Dave Dorman's 5-Year-Old Son Draws His First Astronaut

As he described his drawing, a family argument ensued as to which planet was looming in the upper right, with Jack insisting it was Uranus. Unfortunately, my wife cannot keep a straight face if her life depended on it when anyone utters the planet “Uranus” (the traditional pronounciation), so now Jack knows the magic word to say to Denise at the worst possible times, like the library, or…while she’s receiving communion.

If you received the most recent Imagine F/X magazine issue honoring Frank Frazetta (a.k.a. my favorite magazine), the picture of Frank & me that I shared with you in a previous blog is on Page 8, with a quote from me on how Frank inspired my work. It was his Conan the Barbarian work that first grabbed my attention, and it was Frank Frazetta who taught me to paint. I’m so glad I was able to tell him that in person.

In other news, our friend and Denise’s client Stan Bush, who has the #1 Geek Anthem of All Time (Transformers theme song, The Touch) just got his song ” ‘Til All Are One” in the new Transformers game from Activision, which came out yesterday. Huge congrats to Stan on that coup. We will have him on our pop culture podcast, “It’s Comic Book Day” in a forthcoming episode. This is a free download on iTunes, so be sure to sign up for it. You’d be surprised at all of the people Stan’s written for, performed and recorded with – a who’s who of rock ‘n roll. Even better, he’s genuinely a decent person in a tough business.

Rumor has it I will be on Dennis Miller’s radio show in July, so once Denise firms up the details, I’ll let you know when to listen in. Actually, you should always tune in to Dennis Miller (that is, when you’re not listening to my podcast) – the guy’s LOL hilarious every day and his choice of diverse and interesting guests is never dull. 

I want to give a shout-out to one of my favorite podcast/media personalities, Mike Dodd of This Week in Geek. If you haven’t discovered his podcast yet, definitely check it out. Denise & I may be making a regular appearance there soon, so be sure to check here for news on that.

And now, I’ve saved the best news for last. You read it here first! All of you know about my new book, Rolling Thunder: The Art of  Dave Dorman. I’m proud to announce that 10% of my earnings will go to mine and Dennis Miller’s favorite charity, USACares.org. I will have another really fun surprise announcement to make about my new book in an upcoming blog post, so again, be sure to check back with me. Here is a shot of my signed, limited edition version book cover:

Signed, Limited Edition Book Cover

As always, I thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the art.

Dave.

Frank Frazetta: Thank You for Your Art.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I cannot believe Frank Frazetta is gone. Of course, none of us thought he’d last a month after Ellie passed, but yet, it’s hard to let go of the single greatest influence on my art career. I will write more a little later when I’ve cleared my head, but here is a photo I’d like to share with all of you of Frank and me. I haven’t been this sad since we lost Dave Stevens, another great.

A Great Moment Captured Forever: My First Meeting with Frank Frazetta