New Dave Dorman Art Catalog for Sale for ROTOFUGI Show

Dear Friends,

As you know, my first-ever one-man gallery show “PI ala Mode” is opening at ROTOFUGI in Chicago, running April 6-29, 2012. This show will feature quite a few new and previously unseen canvas paintings with theme of “Octopi,” because, as you know from previous posts, I’m a believer that you can never have too many tentacles! In addition to this art, there will be a selection of other art and illustrations from my private collection, both published and unpublished. This show will be running through the weekend of C2E2 in Chicago, so if you are coming to town for the convention, make a plan to head downtown and check out Rotofugi! I plan to be at the gallery in person on Friday around 7:30 p.m., following my horror panel at C2E2.

I have assembled the Dave Dorman Gallery Show Art Catalogue, which I am pre-selling online:

• Each piece of art in in my one-man show is included, with information about each piece. This is  full-color book with the card stock full-color cover premieres my newest art and some pieces never before published
• Size is 5.5″x 8.5″
• Limited to 250 copies, signed and numbered
• Price =  $20 with $5 postage via Paypal ONLY
• This is a great companion piece to my career retrospective book Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman
• Order it exclusively here: www.davedorman.com/picatalogue.shtml. 

Added Incentive: 

Extra Bonus! This Weekend ONLY: All orders made by Monday April 2nd will receive a copy of both, the show poster and postcard, also signed by me.

So…order yourself a slice of Pi ala Mode and treat yourself to one of life’s little indulgences!

30th Anniversary Special Edition Giclees Update: I had a slight problem with getting the embossing stamp, which delayed the prints slightly. This has been rectified and we will get back on track with shipping out the overdue prints next week. For those waiting to hear what the third print will be, I will announce that next week as well.

Thanks again my friends and fans for your continued support of my work!

Dave. 

(I’m @DaveDorman on Twitter)

Six Lucky Fans Will Come to My Home, See Me Paint and 1 Will Win the Painting

Dear Friends,

It all started this past Thanksgiving. We were with our friends, and my friend’s step-dad was very excited to meet me, have me sign my Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman book for him, and then watch me draw the remarque and just generally hang out all day and talk art and pop culture. Our friends Mary and Julie lamented that this was a rare occurrence for a fan to have personal access to me, and that got this whole crazy ball rolling. Before I knew it, my wife, Mary and Julie had a night planned out at my house, with Julie cooking a gourmet meal (she’s great), and the fans getting unprecedented access to my studio, my collections and a chance to see me painting live and in person. That’s how this whole thing developed. So, we’ve worked out the logistics, such as when it should be held (April 14th, during C2E2, altho’ not affiliated with C2E2 in any way), how to get the fans here (by limo) and what we should include. I will do a live painting demo while everyone’s here, and one of the Lucky Six will win the painting. So…here’s the eBay auction under my wife’s account, which will award one seat per week for the next 3 weeks. I will also post an auction under my account, awarding one seat per week for the next 3 weeks. We will end up with what we’re calling the “Lucky 6,” or six fans, who will get an unprecedented backstage pass to my private world and art. If any of the winners are artists, they will also get a portfolio review, critique and all of the advice they could possibly want. Also joining us will be Discovery TV’s host of GEEK LOVE, and founder of Sci-Fi Speed Dating, Ryan Glitch and his lovely fiancee’ and business partner.

I also want to let you know that ROTOFUGI, one of the hottest, hipster galleries in Chicago for the Juxtapoz/Hi-Fructose magazines and designer toy collectors crowd, has invited me to do a one-man show from April 6th – 30th. I am enormously honored. The timing on this is wonderful, because anyone rolling into town for C2E2 April 12 – 14 can easily cab it over to ROTOFUGI for my one-man show. I’ve named the show Pi Ala Mode: A Tentacley Delicious Feast with Delightful Amuse-Bouches. As you might have guessed, there will be plenty of octopi-laden art, along with a backdrop of eclectic pieces, something to delight anyone’s palate and/or palette, from my 30-year career.

I will have more fun news to post in my next blog about some really fun and creatively rewarding upcoming projects. I’m under embargo not to discuss them until the companies I’m working with do their press releases, or I’d love to be telling you already. I hope all of you Star Wars friends reading this have picked up my latest Dark Horse Comics Crimson Empire book (#5 in the series of 6).

As always, I thank you for reading and for your time and interest.

Dave.

Dave Dorman in Chicago Tribune Today

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you who came by my table yesterday at WindyCon. It’s very rewarding to get feedback from all of you on my work and it keeps me excited about the work I’m doing.

Today journalist Sarah Frink wrote an article on me in today’s Chicago Tribune about the odd jobs I held while trying to break into the business and learn my craft. Here’s the link to the article: http://trib.in/v8lxHz 

Of course, if you already read my memoir/art book, “Rolling Thunder, The Art of Dave Dorman,” by IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing last year, you already know most of this story.  The book is now marked down to $20 for the regular version and $50 for the signed, limited edition version. These make great holiday gifts for that special person in your life who loves comic book art, sci-fi, fantasy and horror art, plus I included a lot of my personal fine art work in the book as well. Be sure to check it out if you don’t already own a copy!

I hope all of you are having a great Sunday. I’m back to the old drawing board today. If you want to connect with me on my social networks, here are my profiles:

http://facebook.com.davedormanartist | http://twitter.com/davedorman | http://linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Thanks for reading,

Dave.

Which Comics Dave Dorman Bought On Comic Book Wednesday

Dear Friends,

As I write this, the TV is confirming the rumored death of Qaddafi and showing the graphic Al Jazeera footage. I congratulate the Libyan freedom fighters on this new chapter in their lives.

I feel it’s my personal responsibility as a comic book artist to help raise awareness for other amazing talent in the industry. Today I want to make you aware of Leinil Yu if you are not already. I bought  the comic “SUPERIOR” by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu yesterday (see image below) during my weekly trek to Dreamland Comics in Schaumburg, IL:

LEINIL YU ART ON COVER OF SUPERIOR COMIC

In my opinion as an artist and also an art director, I find Leinil Yu  to be one of the best comic book artists working in the industry today. His style is dynamic, he’s a great visual storyteller, and he renders every image with so much style. Other pieces he’s worked on (according to the back cover) include Secret Invasion, New Avengers and Superman: Birthright. I hope you check out his work and it brings you as much joy as it does me.

LEINIL YU COMIC - BACK SIDE

In other news, my good friend Charlie Athanas called me last night and invited me to join him for a really fun electronica concert tomorrow night – Amon Tobin – and I’m really looking forward to it. Here’s a link to Amon Tobin’s concert sampling, to give you a feel for his work: http://bit.ly/roDni4 

Below is an image from last Monday night during the fund-raiser for Chicago’s best horror theater group, WildClaw Theater, which was a lot of fun.

Charlie Athanas (artist), Doug Klauba (artist), Me, John Terendy (videographer)

And here’s a nice mini-review of my book “ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN” (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing) by Alina Bradford: http://bit.ly/pmUNk6

If any of you reading has a young child, I recommend checking out the movie “Real Steel” with Hugh Jackman. I took my 6 year old this past weekend and we both really enjoyed it. Next up, we’re looking forward to getting the Captain America movie, coming out soon on DVD, to add to our collection because we both loved it in the theater.

Reminder: My Podcast through Michael Mennenga and Babylon 5 actor/producer Jeffrey Willerth’s Farpoint Media is http://itscomicbookday.com (there are a lot more episodes, but I’m waiting for the producer to catch up on edits) – it’s free on iTunes.

On Facebook, I’m Facebook.com/davedormanartist and on LinkedIn I’m an open networker: linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

On Twitter I’m @DaveDorman

As always, I thank you for reading!

DAVE.

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

Osama Bin Laden Takedown Now Available as a Dave Dorman Print

Dear Friends,

I am selling prints of my painting of Osama Bin Laden getting surprised by the Special Forces on eBay for $30, with free shipping. Here is the link: http://bitly.com/lju0aV.

This is a piece I painted long before history was made by the Navy Seals, but the reality is close to what I had earlier imagined. This art is included in my new book, ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN (IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing). Here are some images of the print:

As always, thank you for checking out my art.

To follow me on Social Networks, here I am:

On Facebook, I’m Facebook.com/DaveDorman

On Twitter, I’m @DaveDorman and my hashtag is #DaveDorman

On LinkedIn, I’m LinkedIn.com/in/theDaveDorman

On iTunes, my FREE podcast is “It’s Comic Book Day”

DAVE

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

 

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.

My Friend Anjie Ketterer Wore Purple on October 20th

Dear Friends,

Here is my friend Anjie Ketterer, sporting  purple attire on October 20th to support everyone out there getting bullied and being a peaceful social activist in raising awareness and putting an end to the bullying and cyberbullying that goes on out there against anyone who is deemed “different” in any way.

 

Anjie Ketterer Wears Purple on October 20, 2010

 

I’ve been busy creating some really fun low brow “deformed art” for a social networking project for the past couple of days, so my apologies to Anjie for not posting this sooner.

Join Me Tomorrow: I’m Signing  at Blick Art Materials in Wheaton, IL:

What: Signing for my new art retrospective book and memoir, ROLLING THUNDER: THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN by IDW Publishing/Desperado Publishing

Where: I hope all of you can make it to Blick Art Materials at 79 Danada Square tomorrow in Wheaton, Illinois

When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Special For the Star Wars Fans: There will be members of the 501st Midwest Garrison there, fully dressed, so if you have children, come to get their pictures taken with the storm troopers!

Driving Directions: Here’s a link that will give you directions if you’re from Chicago or surrounding suburbs.

A Special Thank You: I want to give a shout out to Kevin Sandstrom, my friend who is the manager there and was kind enough to arrange all of this for me.

Video Preview of My Book: Here’s a link to a video of a fan flipping through my book so you can preview it before you buy it.

Social Networking: If you want to connect with me on Twitter, I’m @davedorman, I’m on FaceBook and I’m also on LinkedIn and I will never “I Don’t Know” someone, so feel free to connect with me there.

Thank you for reading,

Dave.

Some Dave Dorman Horror Artwork: Too Scary for Busch Gardens!

Dear Friends,

This story is in my new book ROLLING THUNDER THE ART OF DAVE DORMAN, but I wanted to share this art with you in honor of October, my birthday month and everyone’s favorite month for horror.

A few years back, my business partner Stephen D. Smith, formerly the Editor-in-Chief of the well respected MonsterScene magazine and an authority on haunted and theme park attractions, was asked to come up with a cool haunt idea for Florida’s Busch Gardens. We talked it over and knowing they had an asylum aspect to their haunt, we came up with this really fun character named DEMENTIA. Unfortunately Busch Gardens’ focus groups deemed our character– and her back story of being physically and emotionally destroyed by an uprising in the asylum– way too scary. So without further adieu, I introduce you to our beloved DEMENTIA. If there are any producers out there reading this, we have a wonderful story and we would love to see this in film one day from someone like Ghost House Pictures, whom we know does horror right.

 

Dave Dorman's Dementia Pencil Illustration

 

And here she is below, fully rendered. I was so passionate about this piece, I completed it in just 24 hours. There’s nothing I love doing more than creature, character and costume design. The backwards 13 in her forehead is the result of DEMENTIA getting her head smashed into the door of inmate room #13.

 

Dave Dorman's Dementia Painting

 

In other pop culture news, I picked up American Vampire yesterday at the comic book store in Schaumburg, IL. Denise and I are fighting over who reads it first. Only one of the two stories is actually Stephen King writing, which I think is confusing to many who think they are buying a solely Stephen King graphic novel. Still, it looks to be a lot of fun. Speaking of fun, I saw Resident Evil Afterlife in 3D the other day – have you all seen it? If so, share with me here what you thought of it.

If you get a chance, please check out my passion project, Project 52 – http://www.indiegogo.com/Project-52. I’m working towards my goal of $52,000 to make this happen for USACares.org. If you can give even $5, that guarantees you or the person you designate is mentioned in my new book. I would love to see you in there. My thanks to all who have already generous contributed and gotten us to the $2710 mark in just a few days!

Thanks for reading,

Dave.