gigs and progression

Had a few gigs in the past week. Mostly Michigan and PA. It was weird swinging back and forth like that but nice to be so close to home. I went out to work last night and even though it was a UFC fight night, people were cool. I was a little worried, especially with a full moon! But I met a caricature artist that worked at the Cleveland Zoo a few years ago, made a new friend with a guy who lives down the street and the Boys From County Hell (A Pogues cover band) were playing at P.J's. Fun night to be out.

Stacie is working on the new website as we speak. She's learning Dreamweaver, and as much as I want that website up THREE WEEKS AGO, she is learning it and I think it's something that'll be right up her alley (as soon as it's not so frustrating for her). I am in desperate need to move on with the growth plan and start getting more traffic to the site, but I am willing to wait longer if it means she gets something substantial out of the experience. We can always tweak it later and make it better. It's a great design, I can't wait to show it off!

I've got some things coming in again. I've got another Custom Drawn order. A guy wants me to do some prototype mock up sketches for him- yea! I get to be CREATIVE!! Chip Foose was all booked up I guess... = P I am currently finishing up the last of the car renderings from last year. Ima working on the T-Bird this time. I've decided that since it went over so well last time I would start taking snapshots of my progress as I go along. Here is the T-bird as of 2pm on Sunday the 31st. I've got almost 3 hours in it at this point. I think it's coming along easily so far but I always do at this point. It's when I start filling in the solid shapes and coloring it that it gets difficult. Also, I saw some renderings in Google Sketchup that have blown my mind... Might have to re-visit it in the near future. AMAZING.

When I color this in I plan on showing examples for different price points to put on the new CDS website. That will make it easier for people to get an idea of what I can offer and make it easier to order.
That's all for this week. I'll post more progress on Wednesday.

New video, referrals and a real cute picture from a young artist

New awesome video!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI3QhuCaFGw





Also, here is something cute that I am adding to my new website (which Stacie 
is learning to build as she builds it so it is coming along slower than expected...) 
Anyways I thought this was priceless! This little boy totally made my day!


“I just wanted to once again let you know how much we all appreciated you and your beautiful artwork on our campus once again. As always, it was a pleasure to work with you. You are truly a fascinating and talented individual and I know that you will leave an indelible mark on so many lives. In fact, my 8-year-old son, was totally fascinated with you and insisted that I include his caricature of his little sister. Since I promised him that I would include his artwork for you, I am including that in this communication. Who knows? You might have inspired a future artist! I know that though this may mean absolutely nothing to you, it means a whole lot to one little boy in Lubbock, Texas, and I wanted to keep my promise to him to send it to you. Again, I thank you for everything. You are one of our favorite performers and we certainly hope to have you visit Texas Tech University once again. And I especially thank you for taking the time to make the caricature of my two children. I have framed it and placed it in my office and received countless compliments. Take care and we hope to see you again soon!”
(I remember this little boy watching over my shoulder while I was drawing. He and his sister were very talkative and kept us all in stiches for about half an hour. His drawing totally made my day! It was adorable and pretty good for an 8 year old and I told her so in a reply.

“As a parent, I thank you so much for your kind words about my little ones. That means the world to me. Good luck to you with all of your future presentations”

- (Excerpts from letters between myself and) Sonia Moore,

TTU Daytime Committee Advisor, Tech Activities Board, October 5, 2009

found a vid of me!

Just found this video of myself from this fall's gig at Texas Tech!

life drawing 1-10

Went to life drawing in Murray Hill last night. We had an old black dude for a change (we normally have nude females) 
I wanted to practice my different styles so I did one in my spot illustration style and one in a more finished illustration 
style. Unfortunately the lighting was bad on my side of the room (there was a heavy light glare on his left and so I had 
to work with a heavy shadow on his right side. This posed a challenging problem so I went with it. This is obviously 
just a study but I feel I learned something from it for sure. 


Spot caricature style: 



Illustrative style:



I signed my name and dated the first caricature of 2010 last night. They say whatever you're doing on New Years is what 
you'll be doing for the next year.... That's pretty much true in my case. I've thought about that every year when I sign my 
name to the first caricature of the year. The past few years it has been at a college event, which is exactly what I wanted.
Well, I plan on doing more illustrations in this year, so I hope that is true! My goal is to have a few published drawings 
next year and be on my way towards transitioning into doing more illustration work than gigs. (but I will be doing gigs till 
the day I die I'm sure!) One thing I DON'T have planned for the next year is working in a bar, even though i will probably 
do that on occasion till I die too. Hopefully I won't ever have to RELY on it again though...

Got a new construction splash page up on the www.adampate.com site. Stacie is learning Illustrator and Dreamweaver and says she wants to be doing more design work. Getting back in the swing of things after the long weekend. Going to be a busy couple of weeks drawing and designing (in between shoveling the snow out of the driveway...) I hope your 2010 is going well so far too!