Happy Holidays from Dave Dorman & Some Cool Gifts to Share

Dear Friends,

If your household is like mine, Lucasfilm, Amazon and Apple retailers got the majority of your greenbacks this year. Santa was good to me this year and here’s a highlight of my favorite gifts and holiday cards:

I got The Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic, by Chronicle Books, a fine art book that also has lengthy descriptions on the creation of the game itself, not just the preproduction artwork. My son and I have been playing and are on Level 15 so far. It’s a wonderful game.

Me with my new Star Wars: The Old Republic art book

I also received Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, by IDW Publishing, which is the best book I’ve received all year. It is a beautifully made compilation of Toth’s early formative years as an artist, and it’s the first of three books to cover Toth’s career. It’s an exciting start to the series and I’m really looking forward to the subsequent volumes. The production on this hardcover book was just amazing and the material that the authors dug through and found to represent in this book was truly astounding, covering Toth’s formative work, both in comics and illustration. I highly recommend it. If you are an Alex Toth fan, you should also pick up my friend John Hitchcock’s book, which chronicles his correspondence and friendship with Toth in the later years of his life. It’s a real treasure. John is a master storyteller and if you’re ever lucky enough to hang out with him, you will see what I mean by that.

My Favorite Book in 2011: The Life and Art of Alex Toth

I was also happy to receive this Christmas card, postcard and trading card from our friend Kevin-Kim, TK-1023 in the German Garrison of the 501st. That was a nice surprise. (My son is in his new Star Wars pajamas from Santa).

My Gifts from 501st German Garrison Kevin-Kim, TK-1023

In other news, we’ve been working hard on updating my Facebook fan page. With the rate at which I’m getting friend requests on Facebook, I will have to split my time between my Facebook Fan Page and my Facebook personal page as I fear I will run out of spaces to add friends on my personal page. I do plan to maintain both, but please “Like” my Facebook Fan Page; we are working hard to get that page up to speed this year with decent graphics, contests, fan exclusives and more. We will be doing a Fan Page for my own creator-owned series The Wasted Lands and I will announce that here shortly.

In other news, I am very pleased with the traction my artist friend Dave DeVries is getting with his own creator-owned concept, The Monster Engine. His site went viral again this month overseas and people all over Asia and Europe are discovering him. This project is really deserving of a TV series, a movie and a videogame and I hope we see it happen in 2012.

Thanks, as always, for reading my post. I’m @DaveDorman on Twitter and I do respond to direct Tweets, and I’m an open networker on LinkedIn, so please connect with me there as well. I am happy to review your products online (tech, movie, books, comics, music, nerd and geek products are my sweet spot) and to do so, please write to WriteBrain Media, Attn: Denise Dorman, P.O. Box 417, Carpentersville, IL 60110 and put “Dave Dorman Blog Review” in the subject. If you need marketing, social media or PR advice, follow Denise @writebrainmedia on Twitter or “Like” her fan page at Facebook.com/WriteBrainMedia.

Dave.

Blogger Dave Dorman Now Offering Product Reviews

Dear Friends,

In accordance with FTC blogger review rules, I am now making myself available to review products. Please know that regardless of who sends me an item, and regardless of its monetary value, I will give my readers an HONEST PRODUCT REVIEW. Product managers, please let me know in writing if it is time sensitive for me to review your product and provide me with a clear deadline. As you know, for a freelance artist, paying work always comes first, so if I get deluged with items, the types of products I will give priority to for reviews will include the following:

• Electronics (Tablets, videogame platforms, drawing tablets, PCs, you name it)
• Art Products (illustration boards, canvas, pencils, paints–oils and acrylics–brushes, inks, digital art products and software, etc.)
• Videogames
• Software
• Art Books
• Comic Books
• Sculptures
• Action Figures
• Toys
• Board Games
• Music (my preferences run to female singer/songwriters, world music, instrumental music, and Peter Gabriel/Genesis/YES-style music)
• TV Shows/Movies (I can’t get enough foreign films, so bring ’em on!)
• Apps (I have an iPhone 4)
• Fiction Books (tastes run to action-adventure, horror and sci-fi, e.g. Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale)
• Organizational Products (think Container Store-type products)
• Anything related to Pop Culture
• Cooking tools and spices

Any products that I can’t or won’t keep, I will donate to the needy families of my charity, USACares.org, or to fellow artists in need. To participate in a Dave Dorman Product Review, please send your items to:

Dave Dorman, Product Reviewer

P.O. Box 417

Carpentersville, IL 60110

If you have any questions, please feel free to email my publicist, denise@writebrainmedia.com.

As always, thanks for reading,

Dave

• http://Facebook.com/davedormanartist
• Twitter: @DaveDorman
• Linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

 

Dave Dorman’s The 5 Essential Truths of Art Directing

Dear Friends,

After a lecture at Chicago’s Columbia College this past Thursday night for Dave P.’s character visualization art class, my wife Denise asked me to write an article on boiling down art direction to five essential truths. Below is what I came up with.  I sit on both sides of the desk, doing the art for art directors, and doing the actual art direction, so I have very definite opinions based on my 30 years of experience. I even taught a class for the Florida 4th District Advertising Federation on How to Art Direct the Art Director. All of you artists and art directors following me, let me know if you agree, disagree or have tips you would like to add to this list?

Dave Dorman’s 5 Essential Truths for Art Direction

#1. You MUST review the artist’s comprehensive portfolio. Don’t judge an artist by just one piece in their portfolio. Look closely at all of the elements.  Ask them to show you the pieces that aren’t online. Does anything contained within match your needs for your project? What are the strengths of the artist? What are their weaknesses? Do they or can they paint in the style you need? Ask yourself, “Is this artist capable of giving me the art I need for this particular project?”

Real-World Example: Someone looking at my portfolio might think I only do muscled super heroes or hyper realism, but truth be told, I did a lot of manga early in my career for Robotech covers, I did toy design for Hasbro,  and I did very loose children’s illustration for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings trading cards.

#2. Always provide a thorough review of the project with the artist. Ensure they understand your needs for the art and that they are comfortable in delivering the goods. An artist who does killer character design may be strong in creature art, but weak in landscape or architectural backgrounds.

Real World Example: Just because I did a detailed background on one painting doesn’t mean that I want to put that amount of work into every single painting I do. Personally, I hate painting architecture. If an art director wanted me to do a Stephan Martiniere cityscape, I would be up front in declining and saying, “No thanks. Here’s Stephan’s phone #.”

#3. A good art director should never ask the artist if they paint traditionally or digitally. First off, the art director’s eye should be trained to see the difference. There are effects you cannot get with digital, and there are effects you cannot get with traditional. Secondly, the final art is the final art, delivered digitally, no matter what tool(s) you used to get the final product. Any Star Wars painting I do with light sabers, I am taking into Photoshop to get that perfect glow on the light saber, although the original piece is oil on illustration board or a combo of oil and acrylic. Mind you, I could whip out my old air brush and get that same effect, but why go through the hassle when I can do it in PhotoShop?

Here's a painting with traditional and Photoshop Combined

With the plethora of art directors now being of the age that they came through their art education via digital art and very rarely–if ever–touching traditional media to produce their final art, I have seen a definite bias in those art directors to choose artists who work in the directors’ preferred medium: digital. The art should speak for itself regardless of the medium in which it’s created. I believe that if the art director is contacting the artist to do a project, then they are judging the artist by the art they see, whether it’s digital or traditional.

Real World Example: I had an art director call me once, absolutely raving about my Alien art. She had a big project for me, and I was eager to do the project, because it was right in my wheelhouse. Then she asked dreaded question: Do you paint digitally? I don’t, and the project instantaneously evaporated, despite the fact that my look and feel was a perfect match for her project. I believe this art director is short-sighted and I hope she has wizened up since then.

Graphic Novel Cover of Aliens: Hive by Dave Dorman

#4. Never, EVER assume an artist is outside of your budget. If you like someone’s art, speak with them FIRST about your budget before you strike them off of your list. Any freelancer can attest, we have months when we make a king’s ransom, and we have months when we go hungry. There’s rarely consistency unless you’re working on a videogame project, and even then, that consistent money can go away after a year or two.

Real World Example: As a traditional artist, I will often take on projects for little to no money, because I know I’m working on a licensed piece and I will have an actual painting that I can sell to collectors for top dollar once the project is completed. Obviously, digital artists are at a major disadvantage here! I once did a cover for the now-defunct but uber-cool GEEK Monthly magazine, for their San Diego Comic-Con issue. I was the first-ever painted cover they’d published. They were afraid to ask me to do a cover because they assumed they’d never be able to afford me. I did the piece for free. My piece was a modern day Transformer alongside a 1980s Transformer. I did it for free because I knew it was great publicity for the audience I wanted to reach, and then there was the value of the physical painting. I turned around and donated the painting to my favorite charity, USACares.org, to help raise funds for their not-for-profit, helping financially challenged active military families.

GEEK Monthly Cover I Did for FREE

Side note: I wish someone would revive a magazine like GEEK Monthly. It was brilliant, I never missed an issue and I miss it.

#5. As an Art Director, it’s your duty in fairness to your artist to have your project details organized properly. 

Real World Example: I once painted a beautiful sci-fi comic book cover, based on a major license you would all know. AFTER I delivered the piece, they broke the news to me that they didn’t have likeness rights. You can imagine my disappointment. I think the fans were less than satisfied with the piece, probably thinking to themselves that it was lame without the likenesses.

Another Real World Example: I painted a beautiful sci-fi cover for a major license you would all know, but they were in the midst of filming the movie, and they were afraid to provide me with photo reference of an actor I had never seen before, for fear it would “leak out.” First of all, that would never happen on my watch, and it was frustrating for me that they trusted me enough to paint their licensed characters, but not enough to provide me with proper reference. They literally provided me with a postage stamp-sized photo reference and I could not get the facial features right without decent reference.  Eventually they capitulated, but it took a lot of back and forth.

So…let me know your thoughts. I am interested to hear your frustrations with artists and art directors and your “master list.”

In other news, I think I will be converting my Facebook Group Page for The Wasted Lands to a Facebook Fan Page soon, so please watch for that. For those of you unfamiliar with it, The Wasted Lands is my own I.P. (Intellectual Property) – an alternate universe, adrenaline-pumping motorcycle western action adventure with Steampunk aesthetics. If you like it, let me know. Given the rate of growth of my personal page on Facebook, I will likely transition it over to a Fan Page soon as I’m going to hit the limit soon to people I can friend.

I recorded a 2-hour interview last night with Alpha Nerd podcast out of Australia, so I will be posting that link here as soon as I have it.

Well, I’m off to watch Godzilla v. Mothra with my son. It’s so much fun having a mini-me!

As always, thanks for reading,

Dave.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/davedormanartist

Twitter: @DaveDorman

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/thedavedorman

Website: http://davedorman.com and http://wastedlands.com

Publicity Firm: http://writebrainmedia.com | @writebrainmedia

 

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.

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.