Adam M Botsford - Artist/Illustrator

More game sprites.

2012-01-16T21:02:00.003-08:00

Tonight I’m drawing Goblins for a personal project. These goblins will work as the primary adversary for my cast of adventurers.

2011-12-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

This was my most recent commission. It was a so much fun to do. I’ll admit a certain affection for the minotaur. He was a lot of fun to draw. The style is a bit different. I tried some new things. Namely using the lasso as a select tool then painting in low opacity over the selected area. It worked pretty well in some areas and looks choppy in others. But the buyer said it was well received. He was giving them as gifts to his co-adventurers.

Specials thanks to Andy for thinking of me for his gift giving. It was a pleasure!

New Character Design

2011-11-28T18:44:00.001-08:00

Exciting news! I sold another portrait. This was from a return customer who had a great design for an Exalted character. It was a blast to draw.
I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. It's fun, simple, and seems to express the style of the character. I started it with a hand sketch, then inked it, and finally colorized it in PS.

Here's to awesome people and art supporters! *cheers*

A little Halloween sketch

2011-10-31T21:55:00.001-07:00

New Art

2011-10-24T19:38:00.001-07:00

2011-10-16T20:20:00.001-07:00

New art from my Etsy page. Special thanks to this guy for the amazing idea. The theme: Greaser Dwarf

So far one of the toughest to try and render but I think the outcome was fun.

Don’t forget, for just $2.00 you can get your own special creation! Here

New Etsy work

2011-10-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

I just put up a new item on my Etsy page.

Custom Monster Artwork - Just $2.00

Purchasing this item will get you a custom monster design for your favorite table top game, adventure, or simply just for fun.

Whether you’re a GM or DM, a tabletop gamer, or just an art fan…having a custom image tailored to match your creativity can mean everything when trying make an impact.

What do you guys think?

Monster drawings

2011-10-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Working on some sketches for an Etsy project to draw custom monsters for games.

Chrono Trigger

2011-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Below are some paintings I did for my partner. He is a big Chrono Trigger fan. Apparently many of the people I know are.

The paintings were a lot of fun to do. They are light water color washes on plain archival drawing paper.

Portraits

2011-09-29T14:30:00.001-07:00

Another set of portraits came in for Dungeons and Dragons. I was very excited to do them. There are a few edits to be made but they should be done soon. I will post finished versions very soon. Check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kaotix

Character portrait

2011-09-28T17:32:00.001-07:00

As part of my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kaotix) I do custom character portraits. This was one of my most recent.

Sprite

2011-09-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

I made this walking sprite today as a part of a personal project. Forgive the overly simplified background. The goal here was the animation.

*And if you’re viewing the full page on a full size monitor…it probably looks a bit faded.

A quick list

2011-09-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

2011-09-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Random sketches from the past few days.

D&D Portrait updates

2011-09-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post a few of the Dungeons and Dragons portraits I did through my Etsy site. These are three of the most recent. They were a lot of fun to draw!

More "what should I draw"

2011-09-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

This time from...asleepunderwater

A random subject concept

2011-09-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

A concept created by a tumblr reader. Thanks for the idea theshelteredlife

In honor of the DC changes...

2011-08-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

In honor of the DC changes here is an image I did today of Lobo. Though Lobo isn't one of my favorite characters he's definitely an interesting one. And fun to draw!

A little traveler

2011-08-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Early in my day of living in Tacoma, I had this sketch idea or story idea of a little guy who would travel with me to various places. I did a set of drawings for him and my thoughts on it.

Some steampunk Mario sketches

2011-08-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

I'm archiving some old drawings and cleaning up notebooks. In the process I'm scanning old images that may or may not be repeats of old posts. But that said, whats old is new again...eventually!

2011-08-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here is some images from a personal project I'm working on.

Testing out Etsy

2011-08-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a little something I'm trying. It's my first every sale items on Etsy.

Custom Tabletop Gaming Character Portraits

Purchasing this item will get you a custom character portrait of your favorite table top game character. Whether you're player, gamer, or just a big fan...having a custom image tailored to your playing style is a must! Lend your character extra life through a stylized portrait. Or simply be the envy of the group with a dashing piece of fresh art for your newly rolled character. Even honor your long time character, that tried and true hero who has survived every orc and hobgoblin attack they pesky GM sent at them.

Jack Kirby

2011-08-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Over at the CLAW DRAW a few of us are working on a homage to Jack Kirby and his very unique style.

Here is my contribution.

New Painting

2011-08-01T10:48:00.000-07:00


*The URL was not in the actual painting...that would make for a tacky gift!

This is a painting (acrylic on canvas) that I did recently for a friend's birthday. It was inspired by two of his favorite things. Warhammer 40k and Cthulu mythos. Overall I'm happy with the simple style and layout. If I did the painting again I might detail some of the line work in the background with some vibrant blues or airy colors to create a creepier backdrop all said and done, I like it. The piece took me about 6 hours of working time to complete.

Local Celebrity

2011-07-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of puppet troupes. I'm extra fortunate that there is one here in the town I live in. The troupe is called Norman Tweeter Productions. You can find their works at http://www.youtube.com/user/normantweeter and I strongly suggest you do! Watch for more posts about them in the future!

Smurfette

2011-07-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

A little homage to both Smurfette and Barb Wire.

Check out some other Smurfetter images at : CLAW DRAW

Pixel fun

2011-07-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

I love old RPG games. It was amazing to me that so much character and design and feeling could be portrayed in tiny sprites and pixels. Here is an image from a project I'm working on where I get to recreate some of this same feel using pixels. These are rendered tiles of 20 x 20 pixels pieced together to make a test scene.

Starwars Mashup - Follow Up

2011-06-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

This piece was more apty titled by a Mr. Ben Davis as Alice in Dagobah.
This a colored version of the drawing I did. I'm open to thoughts, suggestions, and gentle criticism. Photoshop is still new but I learn fast.
Enjoy!

Starwars Mashup

2011-06-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the drawing I did tonight with some fellow artists. Special thanks go to Cory Kleber for his brilliant idea for this mashup. Alice In Wonderland meets Star Wars.

Enjoy!

*A color version will be up soon

Vagrant Story - Practice Image

2011-06-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

Here is an image I drew of the main character in Vagrant Story. It's all done in Photoshop.

More Sprites

2011-06-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

More sprite styles. I could use some pointers on this one. She's meant to be a knight or sorts.

Anyone know of some good knight characters to use as models?

Things I hear, Literally - Comic

2011-06-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

These comics are captions of things I've said or overheard in public. My mind often gets distracted by the most out-of-context or literal representation of the phrase.

This was something that came out when sitting at a bakery in Tacoma.

Goblins - Personal Project Cont.

2011-06-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some goblin design ideas for the project I'm working on. As any of you reading may have gathered, it's a fantasy project. It's still too nebulous to share details about but I'll keep posting images as I create them.

Vision

2011-05-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

On the blogs I follow I see loads of pictures of comic heroes that people were enamored with.

Here is one of my mine. Vision was to me what batman or superman were to most.

Birthday Postcard

2011-05-25T20:51:00.001-07:00

I'm planning a bit of an event for my birthday. Here is the first preview of things to come...my birthday post card image.

Any guesses as to what I'll be doing?

I never measure

2011-05-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

I love food. I love drawing food. In fact, I love drawing recipes. More of my recipes start out as sketches like this than some might guess.

The best part is being able to eat the results. I will be attempting to create a real life edible representation of this piece of art tomorrow!

Full Recipe:

*Ps: I never measure ...

Thor bandwagon

2011-05-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here is my rendition of Thor. It's a simple design but with a slightly different look.

A robot sketch

2011-05-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

More Randomness from a personal project...

2011-04-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some sprite pets...No that one is not Scooby Doo. It's actually my dog. Yes, she does resemble Scooby in many ways.

Davidol

2011-04-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

This was for a random drawing session with the Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians.

The concept was album covers. So I used a David Bowie cover and made a humor based rendition of it using David Letterman.

A side project ...

2011-04-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Leyendecker

2011-04-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Below are three studies I did of paintings originally created by J.C. Leyendecker. Leyendecker is in my opinion the greatest 20th century American illustrator. His style and skill is unmatched by most, and mimicked by many. What I like most is that his distinct (well mostly distinct given that his brother shared his aptitude for illustration) line work is kept even after the painting is complete. Every illustrator should be familiar with his work.

Sprite Practice - Personal Project

2011-04-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Practicing my pixel girls.

Hulkling

2011-04-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is Wiccan's partner Hulkling. He is number two in my set of gay super heroes. I believe both are most well known for their role in the Young Avengers comic series.

Final Class Project

2011-03-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post on here :)

Wiccan - Super Hero Preview

2011-03-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a series of gay comic book heroes. Not heroes I've created but those that already exist in the market. I will try to stick with openly gay characters and draw them with relative accuracy in costume.

Hero 1 : Wiccan

This is a preview of the sketch completed for Wiccan. I will make an effort to post a cleaned up full sketch and some colorizing.

Suckerpunch Idea 2

2011-03-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

Suckerpunch

2011-03-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a promo image for a Suckerpunch contest.

My goal with the image is to keep it simple and loose. It's a bad habit I have to get hung up on flaws which leads to me not finishing a piece.

This is in the early stages of editing. It's all hand drawn in Photoshop with a lot of reference images from the Suckerpunch trailer.

Simple Super Heros!

2011-03-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

These were some practice sketches. Mostly for the goal of learning how to use photoshop better and how to render complex images more simply.

A study from the recent Complex magazine

2011-03-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

A study of Simon Pegg from his recent article in Complex magazine.

Criticism: The right eye is off. It's too high and too large. And the mouth and hair need work.

Positives: I think the hand turned out well and in general the image was good.

Personal Project - Knight

2011-02-21T22:42:00.000-08:00

Personal Project - Preview 2

2011-02-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

Personal Project

2011-02-21T00:46:00.000-08:00

Valentines Post

2011-02-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late on the upload on this one but here are the Valentines day cards I made this year.

New Comic #2

2011-02-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

New Comic Idea

2011-02-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

A random update from my other blog...

2011-02-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

These are some time lapsed videos for a couple of little sculptures for my art class. The concept was originally was set to be two drawings. But I felt that the change to something less familiar with in order.

More updates here: www.reconadam.blogspot.com

CLAW Update

2011-01-24T08:12:00.000-08:00

A few little known secrets about a local political cartoonist.

R.R. Anderson

http://comics.feedtacoma.com/tacomic/

to a dedicated fan!

2011-01-13T14:51:00.001-08:00

Barb! Thanks for checking in. Though we haven't meet, we have shared a love of the others craft. You my art. I your apple butter!

For the next few months my updates will go to a side blog : WWW.reconadam.blogspot.com

Its work for my art class. A lot of introspective work.

Anyway, thanks Barb for the support!!!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick little card for the Cartoonist's League!

TSA and you

2010-11-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

Here is an image I created to express my thoughts regarding the new TSA scans. It's my first full fledged, fully official, political cartoon. Now, I just need to get it published somewhere... *ponder*

Gremlins

2010-11-15T23:13:00.001-08:00

As requested by Karin, here are some gremlins.

Postcard Final!

2010-11-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

And the results are in! Voila!!! Cute alien winter cheer!

More holiday works...

2010-11-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

One more image possibility for my holiday themed post card. I'll be polling for a vote soon.

Quick update

2010-11-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Original

Above is the link to the original posting of this piece.

Below is an image of it, now hanging in Amocat for the month of November.

Winter post card ideas

2010-10-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've started working on some images for my winter post card. Really it's the only reliable postcard I get out. So I figured I need to get started if I'm going to get one completed and set.

The theme given to me this year was an alien snowball fight. So here is my first little guy. These are all sketch images that will be cleaned up and finalized once one is chosen.

That said, I'm taking votes on which image to use and send as a postcard.
And remember, to get a hold of me if you'd like a copy of the postcard.

How the final looks

2010-10-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

The above is the cover image, and an of course a shout out to where I picked up my copy . The lower image is my drawing for the piece. I will confess, most of the other pieces are much better. Trust me! Go pick up a copy and you'll see what I mean.

A special thanks to Mark Brill for organizing and for The CLAW for just one more piece of total awesomeness!!!

Visit here for more details! : CLAWsomeness

October Images

2010-10-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

School has started and I'm way behind on art. But what I do work on, I will post.

Robot drawing

2010-09-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

This image was done completely in Photoshop 5. I'm learning quickly. I've had some great help from the THE CLAW. Overall, the drawing turned out well. It took me a couple of hours and a lot of layers but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Digital Art - On my learning path

2010-09-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

Tools: Intous 4, CS5

This was a quick practice study done from memory in Photoshop.There are countless flaws and I'm open to hearing them but the primary focus here was to learn the tool. This was all done on one layer in two sittings totally just under 2 hours. I've got a lot to learn! But I hope to do sittings like this more often so that I can record my learning.

Some Mario Art

2010-09-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

A little pieced together Mario Bros. art. This was acrylic on vellum. Most of the shapes are cut out and staged in layers.

A different kind of art...

2010-08-28T00:20:00.001-07:00

Zombie Hash - Web Comic #5

2010-08-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Work in progress number 5. In an effort to learn how to create a webcomic I continue to work with Chris on the http://zombiehash.blogspot.com/ site. It's a place for his creativity to have an outlet and for me to have an excuse to draw zombies. I've got some new software on the way ...right after I fix my computer. That should help boost the learning curve. Feedback is very welcome.

zombie comic 4

2010-08-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Be sure to visit : Zombie Hash

Subscribe to your zombie apocalypse researcher's blog for all your end of the world news.

Web Comic work

2010-08-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest of my webcomic attempts. Some more style changes for to meet the writers needs. All in all a good step forward I think.

Be sure to subscribe to Zombie Hash for more upcoming comics.

(Larger image available on the Zombie Hash page)

Web comic attempt 2

2010-07-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Here is my second go at the zombie web comic. Chris had some good ideas and I cleaned up the format a little. Still needs much work but it's better. And I'm happier with it. Any suggestions are welcome. Chris is a writing maniac. He already has 7 comics written...so if any pro comic artists needs a muse I've got one for you.

Dont forget to visit: Zombie Hash - In The Field

Zombie Hash

2010-07-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is my first run at the Zombie Hash comic. It's a steep learning curve, so don't feel bad if you don't love it yet. You will! More to come very soon.

Zombie Hash

webcomics

2010-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

I have two official web comics in the works. Two separate writers, two separate styles.

The first is meant to accompany a blog : http://zombiehash.blogspot.com/
This blog is a (supposedly) fictitious work written by myself and my cohort Chris Schenck.
More to come!

Ps: if anyone know a fast way to copyright or trademark a web comic name , let me know!

clock work toadstool sketch ...cont.

2010-07-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

Clock work toadstool?

2010-07-14T09:18:00.001-07:00

Updated Mario

2010-07-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Frost Park

2010-07-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Satyr

2010-06-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

As inspired by Justin Gerard's pages in ImagineFX

Though my piece pales in comparisons to Justin's it was a good study. Done on a basic sketch paper with a pentalic all graphite pencil (2B).

Forgive the image quality. They were taken with my cell phone.

Tile Preview #4

2010-06-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tile Preview #3

2010-06-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

Tile Preview #2

2010-06-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Claw Tile Preview

2010-06-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

Dungeons and Dragons - Char Sketch 1 "The Wilden"

2010-06-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

zine preview

2010-06-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is for a project with the C.L.A.W.

A banner?

2010-06-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

I attempted to do this banner as a practice run. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong that has the sizing off.
I need digital imaging 101 for newbies. *sigh*

A new blog post

2010-06-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'll start by saying...passive aggresively...that I'm not very happy with the blog site anymore. Posting has become an issue. The post composer is buggy and frequently gives me issues. Issues that I didn't experience when I first set up the site.

Now to the point. New blog post picture:

Read more about it here : Do you like Tacos?

Logos in Action

2010-06-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Steam PUnk Mario

2010-05-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Here a few glimpses from Tonights C.L.A.W. drawing.

*The pebbles are part of the voting process for who had the best "Reboot". See here for more details.

HERE: http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/

The image on the clipboard is a from Mark Monlux who was the winner of the C.L.A.W. draw.

New C.L.A.W. Work

2010-05-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Above are a few works I created for the C.L.A.W. group. The first two are for their changing site log. The last of the monkey is for a flag idea.

C.L.A.W. Self Portrait

2010-05-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

As part of my CLAW induction, I am to create a self portrait of sorts. Well here is my go at it.
Find out more at : THE C.L.A.W.

An interesting blog post.

2010-05-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another blog illustration. This one is part of the LiveJournal "Idol" competition : Week 26: The Angriest Little Vag That Could

Soft Music

2010-05-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last night I sat and sketched for a while. It was a quiet evening of having Ian nearby working on homework, me perched on the window seat and my pup curled up at my feet.

This was the image that come from my little drawing session. I'll be curious to try and edit it or colorize it later.

I'm happy with the overall design. I think it's interesting and stylized. Though, I do wish I could render hair just a little better. It's important that it match my style but it just doesn't feel complete to me yet.

The music playing while drawing provided by Kings of Convenience. Check them out.

Blog image

2010-05-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

To be posted with this blog :) Too much Atkins!

This is another image for my friend Jill's blog. Again this is in place of a web comic. Check her page out.

Evening sketching

2010-05-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Last night my roommate Cory and I sat at Borders in Tacoma and did some chatting and sketching. Well he did math homework and I sketched. I have this annoying habit of asking people what I should draw. And he patiently sits through my "no, not that , pick something else", which is counter intuitive given that I asked him to tell me what to draw...but tis the life of having roommates.

This is what he suggested I draw, or more accurately my interpretation of his suggestions for a "battle jesus".

I did this piece without pencil or eraser. It's all inked and sketched in ink. It was good practice.

Completed painting

2010-04-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

This painting was gifted for a birthday. Today is the birthday so I'll post as it wont likely ruin the surprise. The second image is the back. Those are reference photos I used that were given with the painting.
Below is a detail of the main rooster.