For All the Superman Fans out there...

Look up in the Sky... by Samax.
pencil sketch, finished in photoshop.
click to enlarge
So far, so good... got a few commissions, trying to make some money while I look for my next assignment. I've never been a huge Superman fan, but I figure you need to be able to draw him if you're interested in drawing superhero comics. I actually get asked to draw him a lot at conventions and stuff... I have fun with it by playing up the idea of how intimidating it must be to be around someone so powerful (even for other superheroes). If I ever wrote Superman, I would explore the alien part of his nature... he grew up on Earth, but he is not one of us.
anyways, I hope you enjoy the pic. if there's something you'd like me to draw for you, get at me!
peace,
-samax

I'm Now Taking Requests!

Hey Party People!
The project i was counting on to pay my mortgage for December got pushed back to 2010 (and is possibly being canceled altogether), so I need to generate money the old-fashioned way. No, i'm not talking about prostitution, I'm taking commissions on the super-cheap. i'll take payments via paypal up front. (see price list below)

$10 will cover a one color sketch (i.e. b+w or another color instead of black), delivered by email. you can also choose to get the original drawing on bristol (or in full color, or a digital print) for a little more.
i can do a simple portrait, a cool drawing of your favorite character, or design your original character for the listed prices. adding extra characters, backgrounds, and just generally being real picky will cost you extra (LOL!) also, if you want any lettering on your piece, i suggest a digital delivery or digital print. no one is beating down my door to be a letterer...

one color, digital delivery -----> $10
full color, digital delivery -----> $20
digital print one color --------> $20 (includes shipping)
digital print full color ---------> $25 (includes shipping)
original one color on bristol ---> $25 (includes shipping)
original full color on bristol ----> $35 (includes shipping)

Options

1 color, Digital Delivery $10.00 1 Color, On Bristol $25.00 Full Color, Digital Delivery $20.00 Full Color on Bristol $35.00 digital print, 1 color $20.00 digital print, full color $25.00

if you have questions, let me know!
holla!
-samax

Still Growing...

Marley and mommy are going out of town to a friend's baby shower, so daddy (that's me) will be left at home to work. here's a few pics of daddy's little girl...Marley w/ my best friend Mario
getting her eat on
drank

Amazing...

hey everyone. hope all is going well for you. Here's a drawing of my favorite superhero that i banged out last night. i did a really quick drawing, then fancied it up in photoshop. I know it isn't a perfect drawing, but i like how it turned out. i think i'll put it in my new book, Spontaneous 2009 that's dropping in December. while you're having a good time this weekend, i'll be at home drawing. Hopefully, i'll finish some things up and will be available to take some commissions next week. so if you're lookin' to get a drawing or portrait or something, stay tuned!
peace,
-samax

here's another character design

still poking around, trying to tweak this character design for Lace. figured i would drop it here before i go to bed. I've drawn this character before, but it's been awhile, and i wanted to try some different things with her. the story this is for takes place in Philly, so i know she pro'lly won't be wearing shorts and a midriff, but i drew this before i thought of that. oh well...
i hope you like it anyways! stay tuned for more...
peace,
-samax

He Read My Mind

when my man David Hopkins wrote this one page story for me to draw for his new book One Night Stand, i think he was trying to guess what I wanted to draw... and he was right! even though i procrastinated until after the last minute (i finished this monday night), i still think it turned out really well! in this book, David has written a series of one page stories, each drawn by a different artist, about sex, love, and in some cases both. long-time readers may remember that i participated in similar book Mine All Mine , also written by David. it was so much fun, that i was happy to try it again! anyways, One Night Stand will be in stores December 30th, and i may be able to wrangle some copies for purchase here as well.
let me know what you think!
peace,
-samax

character design:RAZER

here's a quick character design for a comic me and Jamar are working on. this is the protagonist of the series, but i don't know if it's really what he will look like. i've just been wanting to draw the characters since we first started talking about doing this, but never had time. so i drew this yesterday with photoshop. anyways, there will be more posts about this project so stay tuned.
peace,
-samax

It's all about Me(dia)

the fine folks at Purple Magazine thought well enough of my efforts to do a nice little interview with me as part of their "SuperSelf-Making 101" special also known as Purple Magazine #8. also featured are my peoples Dazjae Zoem and Robert Trujillo, so get familiar! you can download the issue gratis or check in with Ultraviolet Underground for the print issue in a couple weeks. even if you think i'm over-rated (hater!), cop this issue for the fresh cover by painter-emcee Corinne Stevie, tough guy!
peace,
-samax

Genius At Work

this speech by Elizabeth Gilbert parallels in many ways my own thinking about creativity.
there are those times when the product is so much greater than the sum of hard work and talent. I find it very easy to believe that God gives me some of the better ideas and flourishes, and that it's my job to dig through my soul to find them.
but rather than ramble about it, i'd love to discuss it with anybody who watches the video. what did you think of her comments?

DONE!

i finally finished Permanent Residents (the 69 page graphic novel i've been working on over the summer) and sent the files to the client late Friday night. as much as i enjoyed working on the book and the multi-cultural cast of characters, I am very glad to be finished with it. after sleeping in on Saturday, my homeboy Corance (creator of Champion of Children, and 1/5th of the mighty GhostWerks crew) came over and kicked it with me and my daughter and then went with me to the the sneakeasy to watch movies. it may not sound all that eventful, but it's the first day in weeks that i didn't do any work. i REALLY needed the rest...anyways, i wrote reviews of Zombieland and The Informant on Sunday, and got to work on some smaller gigs i had lined up. i have a few small projects to work on, and will be doing all sorts of things before i start the next big assignment for this client in December. readers here should see more frequent posts of artwork and stuff, now that i'm out of the deadline dungeon. as usual, i welcome your comments questions, etc and thanks for reading, and i'll see you around!
-samax
Ziontific.com

On Newstands all over Dallas/Fort Worth

i'd be telling a "bold faced lie"- as my nanna would say- if i tried to tell you i wasn't proud as can be to have my artwork on the cover of the Quick this week (even MORE proud than i was to be ON the Quick earlier this month). i have no idea at all how many issues of this they roll out every week, but it's gotta be in the tens of thousands, at least!

for those not in the DFW metroplex, the Quick is a local entertainment paper published by the Dallas Morning News and available free of charge all over the area. they come out every Thursday and are full of events, restaurants, and other assorted crap for you to add to your "to-do" or "wish-i-had-time-to-do this weekend" lists. the issue will be everywhere you look until about Tuesday, then right on cue another will take its place the following Thursday. when i worked the graveyard shift at a call center, they dropped a bundle everyday at around 3am that stayed in the break rooms of the building all week. The idea that my art will be sitting in the break room at my old job, that my former coworkers (including the haters) will sit and read from it while they drink their coffee or energy drinks (without realizing it's my art they're holding)... that's exciting to me!

that's the funny thing about being an artist. i WANT people to gravitate to my work... to look at it, and say "now THAT'S cool" or generally to get something out of it. but i'm not all that interested in fame. i want my work to be recognized, but not necessarily to be recognized myself too much. all month, people have been stopping me and saying "weren't you on the Quick?", and while my 15 minutes was fun, it means more to me that my artwork is on the cover, even though most people won't even know it's my work. but I will know.
that's what's up...
-samax

New Illustration

All my Dallas/Fort Worth area people, pretty soon you will start seeing this drawing around town... i was contracted to draw an image for the cover of a local publication for their issue about the State Fair of Texas. the cowboy is Big Tex, a massive inflated figure at the fairgrounds in Dallas. Big Tex is an iconic figure in Dallas, synonymous with the State Fair, so I chose to do a piece focused on him (because of the kinda guy I am, I decided to draw him walking). this piece was drawn 100% in photoshop, in case you're wondering.
anyways, i hope you guys like it... and for all the local readers, when you see this, it's all me!
peace,
-samax

ArtParkLoveMagic

Saturday at 2pm is the ribbon-cutting for the Art Park Statues, one of which was painted by me. i will most definitely get more pictures of my piece (much thanks to dude Pat Favors who was cool enough to take this one of me working on it). if you're in Dallas tomorrow afternoon, drop by. i'll take some time away from my drawing table (gasp!) to attend, so you can kick it with me and the other artists at N. Good Latimer and Commerce!
DartLoveMagic
in fact, there's a ton of artsy festivities in Deep Ellum tomorrow. my peoples from ArtLoveMagic are helping kick off the opening of the Deep Ellum DART rail station just down Good Latimer at Gaston. click the flier above for the 4 eleven.
it's been very hectic lately... if you didn't already know, my work on my blog/magazine ghettoManga landed me on the cover of one of the local newspapers, i spent several days traveling to downtown Dallas to complete this Art Park painting, and my daughter Marley celebrated her first birthday this week (09.09.09... photos coming soon)! and that's to say nothing of the freelance projects i'm working on! things are going great, and I am very thankful, if a little exhausted. for those who attend tomorrow, i'll see you there... otherwise, i'll catch up to you on the internet!
peace, love, etc.
-samax

that 70's comic

so here's a sneak peek at a panel from the page i'm working on right now. it's from page 25 of Permanent Residents, from a vignette that takes place in the year 1977. click the pic to view it a little larger! i'm having fun on this book, and I'm looking forward to drawing this chapter, which was my favorite when i read it in the script. one of the fun things about working on this book is switching to different time periods and characters. it makes it harder, but also more fun! well, that's enough for now, i gotta get back to work!
-samax

My Fan Art Got Published!

i submitted this drawing of Unknown, one of the characters in Ross Campbell's Wet Moon OGN series, a while back. even though he told me that he liked the piece, i didn't know that he had decided to use it until i bought my copy of Wet Moon Volume 5: Where All Stars Fail to Burn and got it home to start reading it. so i opened it up and looked at the back to peep the fan art section and there i was! i had hoped my piece would get in, but it didn't stop me from feeling surprised. i love seeing my work reproduced, and in this case many thousands of copies went out to comic shops and book stores all over the country! very exciting! if you wanna buy a copy, it's available on Amazon.com
peace,
-samax