Dave Dorman Reveals Peek at New ALIENS Art and His Fall Schedule

Dear Friends,

Here’s a peek at my new ALIENS art, launching at New York Comic Con in October, my fall appearance schedule–hyperlinked for your convenience–and a brief interview for the folks attending my free Mathnasium of Whitefish Bay, WI event, where I’m appearing on October 2nd to teach art. Without further adieu, here’s the scoop:

September 17-18, 2016 – Panama City Creative Con, Panama City, FL

October 1, 2016 – Discovery World Museum, Milwaukee, WI

October 2, 2016 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. –  Mathnasium, Whitefish Bay, Whitefish Bay, WI

October 6 – 9, 2016 – New York Comic Con, Javits Convention Center, NYC

Want to book me at your convention or event? Please contact denise@writebrainmedia.com

ALIENS 30th Anniversary commemorative art work-in-progress painting by Dave Dorman for NYCC 2016 Launch

Rohita Shah Interviews #1 Star Wars Artist Dave Dorman:

RS: Can you share with our readers your connection to Mathnasium Whitefish Bay?

DD: You (owners Kal and Rohita Shah) are like family to us, and our sons have been best friends since kindergarten. In fact, Kal and I coached their football team together, which remains a very happy memory for me. I’d never been to Whitefish Bay until you moved there, and in a perfect world, outside of my home in Florida, I’d be living in Whitefish Bay. I like that it’s a community where you can walk to everything you need, and nearby Milwaukee is a great city with a great art museum.

RS: What will attendees of the Mathnasium Whitefish Bay event on October 2nd, 2016 experience?

DD: I’m going to teach drawing geometric shapes and how they can be easily transformed into your favorite STAR WARS characters. I will be doing two classes–one at 11 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. Additionally, I’ll have my prints for sale–Star Wars, Batman, Alien, you name it– and I’ll sign anything anyone brings for me to autograph. Autographs are always free.

RS: What projects have you done lately or are working on now?

DD: I’m working on STAR WARS comic book covers for Marvel Comics, superhero trading cards for Upper Deck, and a commemorative ALIENS print for the 30th anniversary of the 2nd  ALIENS film. This piece premieres at New York Comic Con on October 6th. I’m also taking in requests and doing a lot of commissioned art for fans worldwide.

RS: What advice would you give young artists?

DD: The main advice I’d give them is to draw as much as they can. The more you draw, the better you get. Draw everything, not just what you like to draw. A good artist should be able to easily draw whatever they’re being asked to draw by an art director or client.

RS: Do you recommend any art schools?

DD: That’s such a personal choice, depending on your particular focus. I’d spend time evaluating each program to find the one best fitting your direction. I had a false start at St. Mary’s College in Maryland, where I majored in art and they had me doing these large, contemporary art gallery pieces, which was not at all my interest. I switched schools my sophomore year and attended the Joe Kubert School in Dover, NJ. That school taught me comic book illustration, which is what I thought I wanted, but then I realized, I was geared more towards telling a whole story with one single illustration, which led me to doing cover art. It was only the Kubert School’s second year in operation, so Joe Kubert advised me to graduate early (he said they’d already taught me everything they could) and he encouraged me to go on my own to learn color illustration. My color work is self taught, but it all boils down to the amount time I spent in front of my drawing board. It took me until I was 25 to sell my first piece, the Heavy Metal magazine cover I did. 

 

Dave Dorman Art Now on EveryDayOriginal.com Art Site

Hi Everyone,

I have joined a new group/website and I wanted to share it with you. It is called Every Day Original (http://www.everydayoriginal.com/). It is a group of very talented artist; some are my friends in the fantasy art field, some are new to me, but all are worth taking a look at. The concept behind the website is to add an original piece of art every day–a small piece priced at $500 or under–and it can be any subject matter the artist chooses. There are quite a few artists already on the site, so you won’t necessarily see a piece from any particular artist for weeks at a time. I think this is a great idea to get exposed to many different artists and new styles of work.

 

 

Dave Dorman contribution to Everyday Original, “The Creature.”                             8″ x 10″, acrylic and oil on gessoed wood block

Which brings it to me. My first piece is going up today! I would love it if you could take a moment and point your browser to the EDO site (http://www.everydayoriginal.com/) and take a look. While this is my first piece and reflects some of my film/ genre interests, future pieces will allow me to play with other interests and subjects that I would not necessarily get to work on in my commercial work. But fear not! You will occasionally see something that is very familiar as well! (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more….)

So please take a minute to see some wonderful work by some very talented artists… and me!

Thanks all!

Dave

Dave Dorman Horror Art from Dance of the Demented WildClaw Theater Fundraiser

Dear Friends,

My friend and fellow artist Charlie Athanas posted this on Facebook, and I thought you might be interested to see a piece I did at a WildClaw Theatre fundraising event called “Dance of the Demented” in 2010. As you will note, I did a much looser style of painting here and I was pleased with the result. Let me know what you think of it?

Here’s the original photograph:

Colleen Elizabeth Miller, Model

 

And here’s the painting (a black and white version of it):

A Black and White version of my Horror Painting

And here it is in color (sorry for the angle of the image):

Color version of Dave Dorman WildClaw Theatre painting

And here’s an XCU on the face:

XCU of the face in Dave Dorman horror art painting

 

 

Where You’ll Find Dave Dorman This Weekend

Dear Friends,

Update: Here’s a pre-holiday sale on my convention Giclee prints – just $25, since I won’t be doing any more conventions until 2014: http://www.davedorman.com/dormanartprints.shtml

First, a warm thank you to all who came by to see me at Detroit Fanfare last weekend. Also, a belated Happy Halloween to all of you. With my love for horror, it’s one of my favorite holidays of the year, and I can honestly tell you it’s even more fun when you’re a dad. For my many Indian friends, I wish you a Happy Diwali this weekend. We will be celebrating Diwali with our Indian friends at our home on Sunday. This may be the first brunch where I’ve had to forgo bacon, but I’ll take one for the team for friends.

Okay, here’s where I’ll be this weekend, most relevant to those of you who will be in the Chicagoland area this weekend:

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd:

2 p.m. – 4 p.m. – BLICK ART SUPPLIES, 79 Danada Square East Shopping Center,  Wheaton, IL. I’ll be doing a live painting demo and I invite you to join me, take video, take pictures, learn my tips and techniques. I want to do a fun horror piece tomorrow to celebrate the season. Here’s their link with a map: http://www.dickblick.com/stores/illinois/wheaton/

4 p.m. – 6 p.m. — Dinner, somewhere…with my family & friends…

6:45 p.m. – Whenever our son starts getting whiny – Kosart Effects Studios & Gallery, 760 Burr Oak Drive, Westmont, IL for the annual, critically acclaimed horror art show, MALEFICIUM, curated by my longtime friend J. Anthony Kosar, whom you may know from his big win last season on SyFy Channel’s FACE OFF competition. This is a must-attend show if you love great art and great horror art. I have two pieces in this particular show.  Here’s a link to more info on this really fun show: http://www.kosartgallery.com

WASTED LANDS GAME UPDATE:

I wanted to also share with you an update on my WASTED LANDS game, IRON WARS. We are currently designing the train game pieces for the board, courtesy of my Z Brush friend Dave Taylor of Imagination Rendered in Valparaiso, Florida. In terms of game play, we received great reviews from the game testing we did at GenCon and we believe it’s ready for prime time. Now I am doing the art for the trading cards.

WASTED LANDS STORY UPDATE:

I’m currently creating art for a Wasted Lands story I’m doing for Heavy Metal magazine, as well as art for my Wasted Lands Story Bible. If you’ve never read my WASTED LANDS graphic novel RAIL, please check it out here for FREE: http://www.sequentialink.com/comic/rail-page-01/

Okay, that’s my news for today. If you want to connect with me on social media, here’s my 411:

• Facebook.com/davedormansstudio
• Facebook.com/davedormanwastedlands
• Twitter: @Davedorman
• LinkedIn.com/in/thedavedorman

For Appearances, Demos, & Signing Events, please contact my Publicist, Denise Dorman: Denise@writebrainmedia.com | (630) 845-4694

As always, thank you for reading. I will be posting progressives of my Blick Art demo here after tomorrow. Make it a great, art-filled day!

Dave

DAVE DORMAN STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE PRELIMS FOR SALE: OWN A PIECE OF POP CULTURE HISTORY

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who attended the HorrorSociety.com-sponsored horror art show MALEFICIUM last night at Kosart Effects Studios & Gallery in Westmont, IL and hung out with my wife Denise and me. From today through mid December, you can book a viewing by appointment only, so contact J. Anthony Kosar if you want to spend quality time surrounded in rooms full of art by me, Tony Akins, Charlie Athanas Kyle Bice, Brian Busch, Melissa “MissMonster” Curphy, Samantha DeCarlo, Ray Frenden, Aron Gagliardo, Ashton Gallagher, Tom Herzberg, Doug Klauba, Kenn Kooi, J. Anthony Kosar (the Boaris Frankenswine life-sized pig he did is off the hook!) Rich Kryczka, Joseph Larkin, Joe Lester, Darick Maasen, Matthew McCarty, Menton Matthews III, Aaron Miller, Bill Reinhold, Chad Savage, Jason Seiler, Tim Shumate, Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson and Bill Ystrom. There is SO MUCH gorgeous horror art, horror action figures and sculptures, it’s almost too much to take it all in, but all of the hipsters and cool kids are seeing it, so you should, too. There are prints for sale of the art as well and we hope you take advantage of this limited time opportunity.

I wanted to mention that the auction ends today for my Star Wars Crimson Empire pencil prelim, the artwork which is now on the cover of the Dark Horse Comics issue in your local comic book store. Here’s the link to place your bid and own a piece of pop culture history: http://bit.ly/tWZvlQ 

Dave Dorman's Star Wars Crimson Empire Cover Art Prelim, Now on eBay

My CAT WOMAN erotic girl art is also still up for sale on eBay, auction ending tonight as well – to view that, see my last blog posting or click here to place your bid! http://bit.ly/w09S8L

Today I’ll be painting all day, with the occasional break to see what you’re all up to on Facebook and Twitter, finally carving our pumpkin (we’re thinking an Angry Birds face design), and then watching “WALKING DEAD” tonight on AMC. FYI, I may be switching my personal Facebook account over to a FB Fan Page, which makes no difference to those of you connected to me, but I guess I lose a few pictures or something. No biggie. I have them all saved on my computer. It’s getting to the point where the 20 new friends per day are going to exceed my 5,000 limit for friends and once that happens, I don’t want to be hanging out on two different pages. If you want to connect with me on all of my social networks, here’s my 411:

Dave Dorman on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Dave Dorman on FaceBook: http://fb.com/davedormanartist

Dave Dorman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davedorman

As always, I thank you for reading, commenting and taking an interest in my work. It’s what keeps me going and keeps me painting.

Dave.

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 Updates on Horror Art and More

Dear Friends,

I want to say a special thanks to the Imperial Guards who protected me at Dallas Star Wars Fan Days:

The Imperial Guards and Me at Dallas Star Wars Fan Days 2011

And here’s Lando Calrissian’s Doppelganger:

Dave and Lando, Lookin' for the Colt 45!

I am the proud new owner of my friend, author Jay Bonansinga’s, new book (image below):

New Walking Dead book by my friend Jay Bonansinga

Jay and I were judges together last fall for the 10-Minute Horror Play Competition DeathScribe 2010 for Chicago’s critically acclaimed WildClaw Theater. If you’re like me, you’re already firing up the popcorn for the next episode of  AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

My art will be part of a wonderful horror art exhibit, Maleficium, at Kosart Effects Gallery in Westmont, IL, running October 29th through December 2nd. I will be joined by some top names in art, including Doug Klauba, Bill Reinhold, Charlie Athanas, Ray Frenden, Jason Seiler,  Ben Templesmith, Jill Thompson, Tony Akins, Menton Matthews III and too many more to mention. I am hoping my Chicagoland friends will join us for the grand opening 6:30 p.m. to Midnight, which promises to be a great time with plenty of cool raffle items (including some exclusives from me) but if you can’t make it, you can see the art by appointment only until December 2nd. Just call 630.310.8353 to book a time.

I hope to have some more fun announcements for you very soon.

Thanks as always for reading,

Dave.

Dave Dorman Horror Painting Auctioned Tonight

Dear Friends,

Tonight’s the night – my favorite horror theatre group, WildClaw Theatre, will be holding their “Masque of the Red Death” Gala Benefit to raise funds for more terrific horror play entertainment. Here are some images of my painting they are auctioning off tonight; I was inspired by the idea of an eerie Victorian asylum and it came out on canvas.

Dave Dorman's "Inside the Asylum" Horror Art; Acrylic on Canvas

Extreme Close Up, "Inside the Asylum" by Dave Dorman

I hope you can make it out tonight and join us. There will be no shortage of celebrities, surprises and memorable moments. Thanks for reading.

Dave.

Some New Dave Dorman Art & Horror Art Jam Japan Fundraiser Tonight in Chicago!

Dear Friends,

For those who may not follow me on Twitter or Facebook and didn’t already see this, I want to let you know that I have been in contact with Tsuneo Sanda, one of my favorite Japanese Star Wars artists, and he assured me that he and his family are all alive and well. That was a huge relief to me.

Below is a piece I created, private commission, based on my Wasted Lands character, M. D’Cease, who is the most bad-ass coroner this side of Dodge City (except there’s actually no Dodge City in the Wasted Lands…). Let me know what you think.

M. D'Cease, Coroner, Mortal City in Dave Dorman's The Wasted Lands series

We all love the Japanese-inspired horror movies (frankly, I appreciate just about anything Japan inspired), and tonight we Chicago artists are giving back to our friends suffering in Japan. My friend Charlie Athanas invited me to join in the event called “A Gathering of Horror” and it is an “art jam” of Chicago artists and illustrators creating something together to help raise money for Japan earthquake/tsunami victims. If you can join us, please do. It starts at 7 p.m. and goes to 11 p.m., after which much drinking, camaraderie and hijinks will continue to ensue, well into the early morning hours. Here are the details:

Where: Lucky Number Grill – Upstairs Loft

1931 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL

When: 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and beyond…

If you’re in Chicago tonight, try to join us. I promise, you won’t be bored.

Also, I’m in the throes of planning an exhibit in Herndon, VA for August of this year, and include a 2-day workshop. If any of you are interested in learning oil painting from me, in the most non-traditional way possible, let me know. It will likely be the first weekend in August. I may have a second exhibit running in Reston, VA as well, and I will keep you posted on that.

If you are on LinkedIn, please feel free to link with me. I’m on Twitter as @DaveDorman and I’m on Facebook as well.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

 

Dave Dorman Progressive ZOMBIE ART

 

http://www.VinniePenn.net

Dear Friends,

Sorry it’s been a while, but I’ve been very busy painting. Yes, I’m working on the Dark Horse Star Wars Crimson Empire cover art, plus a ‘Droid Hunt piece for the 501st Midwest Garrison, plus I recently completed this piece below, including the logo design.

Project Description: This is book cover art for my friend, New Haven, CT Clear Channel deejay/author Vinnie Penn, who wrote a really fun zombie tale that takes place in Connecticut, my mother’s home state.

Art Direction: Denise Dorman, WriteBrain Media

Logo Design: Dave Dorman

Here are my art progressives for your perusal and comments:

My Digital Prelim Rough with Comp Colors

 

Dave Dorman Pencil Art for DJZom-B

My 1st Layer of Underpainting

2nd Layer of Underpainting for DJ Zom-B Book Cover

Details Are Becoming More Defined

 

Me, Happy With the Art So Far…

More Detailing, Painting Nearly Done

Vinnie Penn Asked Me to Do a Marvel-Like Logo Design

Final Cover Art with Logo for DJZom-B

Thanks for checking out my art, and as always, for being supportive of my career. Let me know what you think. Also, a special thanks to author F. Paul Wilson for his great lecture the other night at the Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, IL. Denise & I really enjoyed seeing you again.

DAVE

Follow me on Twitter: @DaveDorman