Sketches and Life Drawing #2

Here are a few more sketches and a quick life drawing on the right.

Life Drawings

Here are some life drawings from my sketch book. I think its important to keep drawing from life to stay on point. I draw from photos so much but there is something natural and fluent when drawing from life, people move, blink, and scratch, wiggle, and it really keeps you focused to try and create a drawing that can stand through all that. More to come from my sketchbook soon!

Dallas Morning News Article! My first full children's book "Barack" is a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!!

Here is my interview which was on the front page of the Dallas Morning News!
Click here for Article

Interview with Irene Gallo : Art Director of Tor, Forge and Starcape Books

After seeing my painting in Spectrum, and meeting her a couple of times at the Society of Illustrators show, Irene was nice enough to contact me for an interview about artist a few years out of school. Fresh Paint!
Click here for Interview

The Interval

Sketch book Sketch book Sketch book, how important these are but i am sure I don't give mine enough attention at all, it feels abandoned and its vacant pages communicate this clearly. Although I am pretty busy now a days, there is a little downtime when waiting on editors and art directors to get back with me. Usually I use this time to do research, prepare boards, look at new art, read, search for new music or for anything inspiring in the world but ignore the option of just drawing for fun. I think I should absolutely add sketching to the list! Sketchbooks are so important for the creative mind and can be great to build yourself as an artist conceptually and to keep your hand and eye coordination on point. SO...... what to do??? I think I will keep my sketch book near me from now on. Here are the first few sketches from pictures I found, I will be doing some drawings from life as well soon!

The Work Area

Alright, here is a picture of my work area and a little preview of a new piece that I am working on. More in the direction of fashion-like imagery, I basically use the same thought process that I would approach any other painting, collecting tons of reference and inspiring visuals. You see torn pages from magazines everywhere, on the table, on the floor (even though I am quite fastidious), books from the library, and I also collect images from the web. All this is just to try and capture a feel for the painting and make sure I am consistently headed in the right direction. I also have a bundle of illustrators works posted on my wall, just to keep me inspired while I work and to always have new images that I like in front of me. I never hang up my own work, it just....mmmmm I don't know, it seems that you would have more progression learning from others, and artists that think differently rather than seeing your own images.

My First Book Signing at the Tom Joyner Family Reunion Convention in Orlando, Florida!!

AG Ford (left) Jonah Winter (right)



Hello all! Here are a couple of pictures from the Tom Joyner Family Reunion event in Orlando Florida where I had my first book signing along with the author, Jonah Winter of our new picture book "Barack". This was actually a first look at the book and a sneak opportunity for people to purchase before the release date of September 30th, 2008. We signed a lot of books and viewers were excited to see and read this inspirational story about Barack Obama. I myself am really excited to see the book hit stores and was overwhelmed when receiving a finished copy of the printed book. I had a really nice time talking with people about the process of book making, my experience with deadlines and the intensity of creating all the images for a full picture book.

Obama Sample for Harper Collins!!

This was a sample piece I did for Harper Collins which ultimately earned me the opportunity to work on my first full picture book for young readers. The picture book is based on the life story of the inspirational leader Barack Obama and is written by the award winning author of many picture books, Jonah Winter. I had a lot of fun doing this piece, especially from a historical perspective. I also wanted Barack's pose to have sentimental value and power, which is the reason I wanted him with his fist launched in the air with power. African Americans identify a fist in the
air symbolic of their struggle and a gesture that says "as African
Americans, be strong, we can make it through anything". It gives the sentiment of when John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fist's in the 1968 Olympic
Games which was the same year that Martin Luther King was
assassinated. I also wanted to show Barack in a position where he was
speaking to his people, this also gives you the tenderness you feel
when seeing a picture of Martin Luther King speaking, from which the
author makes reference to in the story. Be on the look out for "Barack" to hit stores late Sept 2008 (date may change), written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by AG Ford(me!)

Also, This piece was done with an acrylic under painting (value based) and then oil over top. Basically the same technique as the painting below, oil really helps the paint strokes look more appealing. I really wanted the strokes to be visible with a piece like this because it gives the painting emotion, and this is a passionate piece.

HOMER B!!!!! oils, 2 session painting, just for fun.

Here is the finish of my first shot at oils in a while. I tried to stay slightly neutral in the skin tones in order for the fire to glow. This took me about two and a half days which is way too long for a portrait but I was pretty experimental in the proccess. Im transfering into using oils more just because I think it is a more powerful medium. I usually use acrylic but after talking with other artists, I finally decided to make the leap and dive into some oils. I always felt like I would like illustrating in oil. Also shown is the drawing and the underpainting for which I then paint the finish on top. Once I have my value structure in place, I am basically just replacing the values with color while still maintaing the structure. Oh yeah, and this is a friend of mine, he enjoys art and likes graffiti, so I decided to do something kind of street and urban, its a bad pic but you get the idea, its time for a new camerea though, upgrade!

Beauty & the Beast drawing/thumbnails ( SCROLL DOWN for finished painting)

With this piece, I had alot of big ideas and imagery that I wanted to use when taking my own spin on this classic fairy tale. I went to the library and checked out every book on fairy tales that I could find and read atleast ten versions of The Beauty and Beast. The scene in the book which seemed to portray the most emotion, was the scene where Beauty left to see her father, and returned only to see the Beast left for dead in the courtyard. The moments before the Beast awakes, in my vision would be the moments of high drama and suspense, the brass and drums begin, along with the tear on Beauty's face, music at its climax, and then he awakes.

Beauty & the Beast

I thought I would add some detail shots due to this being such a large piece. I am happy with the end result of this piece and think that it is a good addition to my portfolio. Fairy tales seem to draw my interest and I think its a genre that I will continue to investigate.

Dorothy and Munchkins Thumbnails/Drawing (Scroll Down for Finished Painting)

When starting a new piece, the thumbnail process is extremely important and is usually the most difficult for me. Getting set on a good composition and idea takes alot of thinking and sketching out all the possibilities. Because I am a perfectionist, I always think I can make a piece better, which causes me to explore to the max. Here are just a few of my thumbnails.
Also here are my final pencils of the characters from which I then transfer to my masonite board. I then draw my landscapes directly on to the board and begin to paint. I basically use a very traditional way of painting; tranparent shadows and opaque lights, topped off with some glazing to polish and finish. Finish is below!!

Latest Dorothy Piece

This was a very involved piece that took me through an extensive journey of photo referencing, costuming, and a soft glazing process in order to maintain the color palette intended. My models used for the characters in the painting had fun with the costuming and the idea of being munchkins which made shooting reference enjoyable. Throughout the developement of taking all the photos, we seemed to pull out all kinds of tricks using drapery, safety pins, pillow cases and whatever we could find to assemble an innovative wardrobe.