The Daily Graphite

What Is Art? -- My Latest Project

2012-01-23T13:23:00.006-05:00

I started working on another picture book. While walking through the fantastic sculpture garden at the PepsiCo headquarters in Purchase, NY, my four year-old nephew asked me what one of the sculptures was. It was a totem-pole looking sort of construct, and while at a loss for a simple and accurate description, I said "It's art," to which he replied "What is Art?"

It was such a keenly felt retort that it gave me an idea (and a title) for my newest story. I'm not ready to give it all away, but I will say that it's about a rat, whose name is Rat, and his search to answer the very difficult but important question, What IS art? Something I'm still trying to pin down myself.

He tries to paint a landscape, but this goose gets in his way:

The adventure begins again. Stay tuned-- I'll introduce his mentor, Pigeon, next.

Adam

A Big Day for Me

2011-12-22T09:48:00.008-05:00

My first published children's book, Asiago is now on pre-sale through Amazon.com. View it here! It's a really strange and wonderful feeling-- I began working on the book in September 2009, and here we are at year's end in 2011 and it's available on Amazon.

Here's the first drawing I ever did off Asiago, before he was tailored to fit a children's story and he was just a little guy wearing and old-fashioned bathing suit living in my notebook:

And here's where we ended up:

To everyone who's been following along with The Daily Graphite this past year and a half: thanks so much for sticking with me. This project means a lot to me and I look forward to sharing more and more art as we venture into 2012.

-A

The Back of the Book!

2011-12-06T11:57:00.003-05:00

Slowly but surely, I'm putting up more and more drawings from my first published book, "Asiago." It will be available this coming spring. Really quite a trip for me; if you go back to some of my first posts, you'll see that I began sketching for it over a year ago. Now I'm eagerly anticipating the finished and printed book to hit shelves.

Tree Fort

2011-11-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

Gone To The Dogs

2011-11-18T01:53:00.000-05:00

A pen illustration colored digitally:

Carrier Pigeon

2011-11-15T18:19:00.003-05:00

Archer Sketch

2011-11-14T10:23:00.003-05:00

Might be a painting down the road, once work clears up a bit...

Self-portrait

2011-10-14T19:57:00.000-04:00

Worm Poop

2011-10-14T19:51:00.004-04:00

Adam McHeffey Sampler

2011-10-14T19:47:00.001-04:00

Damien Jones

2011-07-20T22:56:00.006-04:00

Damien Jones is an in-the-works animated comedy written by fellow SUNY Purchase alumnus, Kris Wellman. I had a blast doing these concept drawings for him. Putting the antichrist in a high school setting is such an imaginative starting point for an illustrator. Here's what I came up with.

Our Protagonist, Damien Jones

Sometime after Rosemary’s Baby and before the end of mankind, the Antichrist grew up. He went to high school, asked a girl to the dance, sucked at gym class, and learned valuable life lessons all along the way. His name was Damien Jones.

Riffing on the traditions and tropes of “Saved by the Bell”, “Boy Meets World” and The Omen, “Damien Jones” is the coming-of-age tale of the chosen end time ruler and his adventures at a suburban, public high school. Raised by loving, normal, Satanist parents, Damien is an astoundingly well-adjusted young man who up until now has been oblivious to the grim purpose of his existence. Now he must balance keeping his identity a secret, getting good grades, figuring out how to use his sinister powers, and most importantly, trying to fit in.

His friend, Eric.

His father and mother.

His guidance counselor, Ms. Slotsky.

Asiago

2011-06-01T09:30:00.002-04:00

Coming Spring, 2012:

Golden Macaw

2011-04-02T14:33:00.002-04:00

Some macaws I drew in watercolor and sharpie. They'll be used in a show flier for Purchase Student Art Gallery's Fluxus Friday, which my band, Swear and Shake, and one of my favorite local bands, These Animals will be playing. Golden macaws are my dad's favorite animal.

2010

2011-01-22T13:41:00.000-05:00

Pencil vs. Photoshop

2011-01-12T19:36:00.001-05:00

Image one is in colored pencil. Image two is in digital color. Who wins?

Skulls

2011-01-08T16:07:00.001-05:00

A Christmas present:

Storyboards

2010-12-18T09:30:00.004-05:00

My friends make movies. I often draw their storyboards. Have a look at these two purposeful projects.

Life

2010-12-07T16:20:00.002-05:00

Cardinal

2010-11-16T11:16:00.001-05:00

Usually I draw and then color with the help of some Adobe software. This time I colored digitally, printed, drew the black in with a Sharpie, and scanned it back in.

Some Small Portraits

2010-11-15T19:07:00.000-05:00

For a business card, for a friend.

Hand-drawn 1

2010-10-23T14:02:00.000-04:00

Something quick:

Jokes on Me

2010-09-10T16:14:00.005-04:00

I did this for a job, as well:

But can I tell you a secret?

I didn't realllly mean to plagiarize him so badly. My drawing was for a field guide. It feels good to come clean. Brian Bolland is arguably the best line-drawer in the Batman world, and inarguably one of my favorite comic book artists ever. And seriously, if you've never read The Killing Joke, prioritize; it's the origin story for the Joker.

His name is Dante

2010-09-10T16:03:00.000-04:00

Happy Almost Fall

2010-09-10T16:02:00.000-04:00

Another Made-Up Face

2010-08-31T14:14:00.000-04:00

These Animals Band Tee

2010-08-27T00:35:00.000-04:00

Marcel

2010-08-23T23:22:00.002-04:00

Francis

2010-08-23T23:21:00.000-04:00

These Animals Tee

2010-08-23T23:20:00.000-04:00

Trail Guide Cover for Rye Nature Center

2010-07-08T10:37:00.000-04:00

Great Uncle Gouda

2010-07-08T09:44:00.001-04:00

Insects

2010-06-29T09:35:00.001-04:00

Fall already?

2010-06-28T14:11:00.002-04:00

An idea for the Rye Nature Center's 2010 Fall Benefit:

More Little Pictures!

2010-06-28T13:55:00.001-04:00

SEASONS

2010-06-28T13:48:00.007-04:00

SEVENTY-ONE

2010-05-26T14:51:00.002-04:00

Three different drawings for three different cards for the Rye Nature Center.

2010-05-15T12:04:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone!

I know I haven't posted in a while, it's been such a crazy week! I graduated college and moved into a new apartment in Connecticut. I also need a new scanner. I don't mean to make up excuses, but I just didn't want anyone to think I died or stopped drawing, because neither of those is true.

In conclusion, I'll be back.

Love,
Adam

SIXTY-SEVEN

2010-05-06T11:24:00.002-04:00

I painted that drawing, Russ. 12x12 acrylic on canvas.

SIXTY-SIX

2010-05-04T16:22:00.001-04:00

Russ Barrnett drew for me his boxer, Gibson. I really think it bares quite the resemblance.

SIXTY-FIVE

2010-05-03T16:19:00.002-04:00

Something that happened in my notebook that I kind of liked:

SIXTY-FOUR

2010-05-03T16:14:00.001-04:00

A sleeping classmate:

SIXTY-THREE

2010-05-01T13:06:00.004-04:00

For the fans of post number fifty-three, I present the colored rendition. I used the same process here as I do for my Asiago, drawings: graphite by hand and then digital color.

I'm particularly happy with those little sparkles in the water. I did them with the Photoshop gradient tool. Here are my settings:

SIXTY-TWO

2010-04-29T23:28:00.002-04:00

A portrait in mechanical pencil I did at the request of my sister. Click to enlarge:

SIXTY-ONE

2010-04-29T10:06:00.010-04:00

Although this blog was designed exclusively for the purpose of my artwork, I'd like to introduce all of my readers to another child of mine: songwriting. Just to get an idea of the sorts of things I do when I'm not drawing, here is an .mp3 demo of a tune I wrote, and with the help of Kari Spieler, recorded. Let me know your thoughts! I promise I'll go back to illustration and visual meandering tomorrow.

SIXTY

2010-04-27T01:11:00.001-04:00

FIFTY-NINE

2010-04-26T10:06:00.000-04:00

FIFTY-EIGHT

2010-04-25T10:05:00.000-04:00

FIFTY-SEVEN

2010-04-24T10:04:00.001-04:00

FIFTY-SIX

2010-04-23T19:04:00.004-04:00

FIFTY-FIVE

2010-04-22T18:52:00.002-04:00

If you liked post# 34, then I think you'll be excited to see the finished product:

This was shot with 35mm film, and is part of my final project for "Printing Color Photo." Thank you, Sam (again) for modeling (again).

Asiago Preview

2010-04-21T01:11:00.007-04:00

Just posted a sneak peek video!

FIFTY-FOUR

2010-04-20T17:54:00.004-04:00

Another sketch with the same purpose:

I borrowed this character from Asiago.

I'll let you know when a more finished version of these sketches run.

FIFTY-THREE

2010-04-19T17:52:00.001-04:00

A preliminary sketch I did for a newspaper ad:

FIFTY-TWO

2010-04-15T09:48:00.002-04:00

Asiago trying out a beach towel cape:

Demo for Kris

2010-04-14T10:47:00.004-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

FIFTY-ONE

2010-04-14T00:38:00.003-04:00

For the fans of post nineteen. I've done a color study of Asiago, sick from eating the garlic baked clams. Gross.

FIFTY (nice!)

2010-04-13T21:42:00.006-04:00

Talk about accidental art. I love how this next image came into being. While in Cozumel, I shot a few rolls of film, one of them included an awesome image of Russ Barrnett sleeping on the dock. When I got back to Purchase, I was so unorganized that I reshot using the same roll of Kodak Gold 35mm film. The results were 23 unusable and indiscernible images, and this one gem: The image of the dandelions was exposed yesterday, a solid two weeks after I took the image of Russ. What you see is organic film, not a touch of Photoshop, just a stroke of luck and a solid hour of manual color correction. It's the textbook definition of bricolage, and something I'm really happy with.

I uploaded it full-sized, so all you Barrnett fans can use it as your desktop background.

FORTY-SEVEN

2010-04-10T15:32:00.003-04:00

This is page two from my book. You'll have to imagine this post and the last one next to each other, on the same spread. Asiago has pretty much been taking over my life, so I hope you enjoy him and his antics.

Click to enlarge greatly!

FORTY-SIX

2010-04-09T01:02:00.002-04:00

Page one from my book, Asiago.

Click to enlarge greatly!

FORTY-FIVE

2010-04-09T00:58:00.002-04:00

Okay, back on the grid. Mexico was amazing, and I'll put sure to post plenty of drawings from it. This was me since my last post:

As you may imagine, I'm having a bit of trouble becoming acclimated once again to New York. But I promise, my pencil has been moving this whole time.

FORTY-FOUR

2010-04-01T11:10:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone! I was asked by Adam to post something while he was away (sorry it's taken so long). Funnily enough, I just woke up from a dream involving Adam returning from Cozumel clearly stating that his trip was just "O.K." I'm sure that's not the case, anyway.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to post something that Adam was involved with, and it just so happens he played a dead man in my latest video scene project test movie short film, whatever you'd like to call it! Here it is:

Oh, by the way, my name is Sam and I'm Adam's roommate, although not for long. It's been a good two years, my friend (Adam), and I shan't forget them, not until I lose my memory.

2010-03-26T12:13:00.003-04:00

Dear Friends-

I'm going to Mexico for a week. I'll be sure to post plenty of drawings from the trip in the first week of April. But until then, I've asked some friends to do some "celebrity" posts. I'm not sure what sort of art they'll be posting, but I can assure you it will be fresh and different.

Much love!

Adam

FORTY-THREE

2010-03-24T11:19:00.004-04:00

And the facing spread, here:

This is the colored version of post #10.

FORTY-TWO

2010-03-23T00:08:00.001-04:00

As promised, here is the colored version. Tomorrow I'll post the facing page!

FORTY-ONE

2010-03-22T21:49:00.007-04:00

You might remember an almost identical drawing of a vampire and his friend from post #11.

I'm happy to announce and lucky enough to have found representation from a literary agent in helping me shop the Asiago project to an editor. But in doing so, I had to tighten some things up in my drawings- a challenge I took pretty seriously. Let me know what you think of the changes, and visit tomorrow, where I'll post this same thing colored in!

FORTY

2010-03-21T23:44:00.004-04:00

Some graphic design work I'm putting together for the Rye Nature Center.

THIRTY-NINE

2010-03-20T23:32:00.001-04:00

Bust of a model:

THIRTY-EIGHT

2010-03-19T00:19:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday, Lucas!

THIRTY-SEVEN

2010-03-18T23:53:00.001-04:00

I didn't quite get around to drawing today, but to quench your visual thirst, I scanned some things in that I had in my backpack. Enjoy!

THIRTY-SIX - Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T13:56:00.006-04:00

Last year, I wrote my one verse lyrics to the classic tune, "Irish Lullaby." Here is the lyrics sheet:

THIRTY-FIVE

2010-03-16T23:57:00.003-04:00

These are all the bird mask sketches I'll be doing. The next step is actually making these bad-boys. Here is the snowy egret:

THIRTY-FOUR

2010-03-15T19:46:00.001-04:00

As promised, I give you the hoepoo bird in mask form:

THIRTY-THREE

2010-03-14T20:03:00.003-04:00

In the near future, I'll be fashioning masks for the upcoming production, For The Birds, a new musical in two acts directed by fellow Purchase student, Kris Wellman. Details on the play can be found here, but as a teaser, here are a few sketches for those masks.

I'll be posting two more tomorrow, so check back!

THIRTY-TWO

2010-03-13T12:38:00.003-05:00

Comic book illustrator Scott McCloud says to try this: drawing something somewhat familiar from memory, and then drawing the same thing with reference in order to test how accurate your visual memory is. Although you can type anything into Google and get pages upon pages of reference, I still thought I would give it a shot. The first motorcycle is from my memory (apparently all motorcycles in my head have fire shooting out of the back), and the second is rendered from an early Google hit.

THIRTY-ONE

2010-03-12T11:59:00.002-05:00

If you're from Long Island, you feel me on this one. My train was delayed seemingly forever yesterday, prompting these quick pencils. I'm just now finding out more in depth why. Apparently there was a terrible incident at the Deer Park station.

THIRTY

2010-03-12T00:24:00.004-05:00

I thought this was a funny sequel to yesterday's post. I seriously have no idea where the inspiration for these last two sketches came from.

TWENTY-NINE

2010-03-11T23:49:00.006-05:00

This is how I get through certain classes. It's just a sketch, but I think it's fun and weighty.

TWENTY-EIGHT

2010-03-10T12:10:00.008-05:00

I never intended on posting photography here, but thanks to new-found access to the darkrooms on campus, and Kaydee letting me borrow her 35mm Nikon, I've been having a blast doing chromogenic color prints of paper airplanes.

8x10 prints of these are available, if anyone is interested.

TWENTY-SEVEN

2010-03-09T12:58:00.002-05:00

Feet

TWENTY-SIX

2010-03-08T16:08:00.003-05:00

Some drawings from life:

TWENTY-SIX

2010-03-07T18:34:00.003-05:00

Pen & ink and charcoal on charcoal paper I got from Bjorn.

If all goes according to plan, I'll be posting some life drawing work tomorrow!

TWENTY-FIVE

2010-03-06T23:11:00.001-05:00

TWENTY-FOUR

2010-03-05T23:13:00.003-05:00

Once again, I am without scanning capabilities. So here is a terrible picture of an even weaker sketch of the very awesome Shelby Cobra. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get my hands on some acrylics in order to redeem myself.

TWENTY-THREE

2010-03-04T22:35:00.003-05:00

Another concept piece for What Is Art?, another picture book that Sam and I are thinking about. This one is more polished than the last, but it's still a bit rough around the edges.

TWENTY-TWO

2010-03-03T18:39:00.002-05:00

Concept-sketch for a prospective project about a snake and his quest to find out: What is Art?

TWENTY-ONE

2010-03-02T09:03:00.001-05:00

Some castles made of sand:

TWENTY

2010-03-01T10:06:00.000-05:00

NINETEEN

2010-02-28T10:39:00.004-05:00

But garlic is just about the worst thing for a young vampire.

EIGHTEEN

2010-02-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

Baked clams on the boardwalk seem harmless enough.

SEVENTEEN

2010-02-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

More sketches from Asiago on the way.

SIXTEEN

2010-02-26T01:14:00.003-05:00

I am snowed out of the library for gosh knows how long, so I won't be scanning anything new tonight. I swear I have lots of new sketches to show, but for now you'll have to put up with this older pen drawing. I traded the original to Ray Favata for some original Doug concept sketches.

V5SE33D6GWAC

FIFTEEN

2010-02-25T00:31:00.004-05:00

I did this portrait of Nicholas about a month ago, but I thought it would be worthwhile to post again here. Plus, I couldn't get to the library scanners today. It's graphite on bristol board, and it took me a few solid hours to complete. Click to enlarge!

FOURTEEN

2010-02-23T20:52:00.001-05:00

A triptych painting for Blake. Happy 21st Birthday!

THIRTEEN

2010-02-21T20:47:00.001-05:00

TWELVE

2010-02-21T12:01:00.002-05:00

The reason I couldn't post yesterday:

In all seriousness, be on the lookout for Samuel Aaron Bennett's new short film, Who Is Ethan Jayne?, in which I may or may not be playing the role of a dead man.

ELEVEN

2010-02-19T00:03:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is some more from Asiago. If all goes according to plan, I'll do some color studies with these over the next couple days.

TEN

2010-02-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Splinters are just about the worst thing that can happen to a young vampire.

NINE

2010-02-17T00:53:00.001-05:00

This is the last of these guys, I swear

EIGHT

2010-02-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

And again. . .

SEVEN

2010-02-15T18:20:00.000-05:00

Playing with that water-soluble ballpoint pen again.