ThinkingBaker : a blog by Adam Baker

Eye Cee You

2011-08-05T23:54:00.001-05:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.... So, sorry for the typos.

Abolishers Expo

2011-07-30T20:23:00.001-05:00

Lots of stuff in the works for GMX this October. Lots of work to be done!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.... So, sorry for the typos.

Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree poster

2011-07-01T02:59:00.001-05:00

So, remember when I said I had three pretty big projects all falling on or around the same time? Well, here is the poster for the first one of three!

I have been lucky enough to be the designer for the "Official Smithville Jamboree Merchandise". Talk about being flattered! I mean, we are talking over 50,000 people who love their fiddle and bluegrass music and what I like to call "front porch music"

So with this great responsibility comes high expectations. This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Jamboree as well so I figured why not celebrate this special milestone with a limited edition signed and numbered hand printed silkscreen poster!

So if you are in the Middle Tennessee area this weekend stop by and say hello, as I will be onsite at the jamboree right next to the main stage selling these purty posters and many Tshirts that yours truly designed as well.

See you at the Jamboree!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.... So, sorry for the typos.

All work and no play..

2011-06-29T02:30:00.002-05:00

Right now, I am juggling three projects that are all very important in their own right. All three also have very close deadlines. But I have to say, they are all very enjoyable. Honestly, I'm still in shock that I'm even doing one of them. I mean talk about a chance of a lifetime!

I plan on blogging about all three projects very shortly. But in the meantime, would you like a peek?

No dull boy here!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.... So, sorry for the typos.

Bub: Character Studies

2011-05-31T19:59:00.002-05:00

Here are a few character studies I did of our good friend Bub form George Romero's Day of the Dead. The project this was intended for fell through, but I felt I should share them anyways because I love Bub so much and "Day" is by far my most favorite zombie flick.

Delinquent Debutantes

2011-05-24T11:10:00.005-05:00

I recently had the distinct pleasure of designing and illustrating the poster for an upcoming show by The Delinquent Debutants, a burlesque dance school here in Nashville. The show will be on June 3rd and it's a celebration of their one year birthday as well as the graduating summer student body class. You should REALLY come, I'm not just saying this because my super sexy girlfriend, Miss Bettie B. Cupp will be performing either. You can get you tickets HERE Get them now before it's sold out!!!

See you there!

Cheers,

Baker

Road to MidSouthCon 29

2011-03-23T15:40:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it's been pretty busy round these here neck-o-the-woods. But I just wanted to let everyone know, this weekend we (the Apparition Abolishers) will be returning guests at MidSouthCon in Memphis. So if you are in the area please come by and say hello! We will be revealing a new treat for everyone there as well.. One that I am very excited about and can't wait to see what others think!

Also, I will have seven pieces up for grabs in the Art show / auction. Not to mention a slew of prints available in the print shop.

This is just one of the sexy beasts you can get your hands on this weekend... See you there!

Happy lovers day

2011-02-14T19:00:00.001-06:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Amsterdam Times

2011-02-02T06:42:00.004-06:00

This fun little extra tidbit of the Apparition Abolishers universe was written by none other than our very own Christopher Harvey (aka Sir Quincy Peck.) Be sure to click the image to enjoy it's full capacity. It's a nice big size perfect for a screen saver or wallpaper. Also, for all you "hardcore geeks" out there, there are some fun pop culture references hidden in the piece as well, enjoy!

-b

The A.T.T. - Part 3 - The Finished Art

2011-02-01T16:30:00.006-06:00

I realize this post is a few days past due. I apologize for that.

So without further ado* here is a few shots of the finished art that the Automated Torque Telegrapher Maquette came in very handy for.

This last one of the newspaper was really fun because I knew the details were not too important and that allowed me to be quite loose with illustration. My good friend and fellow Abolisher, Christopher Harvey (aka Sir Quincy Peck) did the layout for this fine looking turn-of-the-century bathroom reading material. Tomorrow, I'll post a nice screen saver size version of the paper large enough to be able to read the fun articles, along with the original ink illustration.

-b

* WARNING- overly used cliché phrase in use.

*****************
You can view the A.T.T. in action in the Apparition Abolishers webcomic

See the sketches of the A.T.T. - HERE

And the Maquette - HERE

The A.T.T. - Part 2 - The Maquette

2011-01-26T07:00:00.011-06:00

At Goodwill you can get a "grab bag special," which is essentially a clear plastic bag for two bucks and as many broken toy parts you can cram into said bag. What you see on the left is the chaotic mess from one of these fun and hand-sanitizer-required-afterward expeditions.

James Gurney has been preaching about maquettes and their usefulness on his blog for ages. Although I had known about them in school, I'd never actually tried building one. With each new concept, I worked, re-worked... and kept re-working an illustration trying to capture something that I just could not translate without seeing it in the environment I was trying to illustrate. Using the maquette saved me a lot of valuable time because I could easily visualize what each shadow, or ray of light would look like because the photo reference for it was right there. Each illustration required less tweaking and I was able to complete them much quicker than with no reference.

When it came time to create the maquette of the A.T.T., I used the opportunity as another "sketching method." I still was not absolutely set on a design, and since I was creating it from scratch I had free range on experimenting. Using the interesting shapes of old toy parts, foam board, and other random materials, I was able to create my own Frankenstein of an Automated Torque Telegrapher. Once it was completely assembled, I painted it flat grey to make it appear more seamless, easier to capture shadows, and reflect light in photographs.

The fun thing about building maquettes is that you can be as precise or uncomplicated as you like. The ultimate goal is to get the information you need out of it, whether it be a certain pose, the perfect angle, or most importantly, how lighting and cast shadows fall on your subject. I've gotten quite a few miles out of just this one maquette. I've used it for several panels in the web comic as well as faux newspaper articles, and eventually I might make a "blueprint style" poster of the Automated Torque Telegrapher. Until then... it rests happily in my studio with all the other clutter of maquettes, books, and scribbles just waiting for the day I need to draw the A.T.T. once more.

In the next post, I'll share a few of the finished illustrations/designs that I have referenced this maquette for.

Until Then,

-b

*****************

You can view the A.T.T. in action in the

Apparition Abolishers webcomic

See the sketches of the A.T.T. - HERE

For some of the very best tips and tricks of illustration art,
visit James Gurney's blog - GurneyJourney,

The A.T.T. - Part 1 - The Sketches

2011-01-25T19:12:00.008-06:00

The Automated Torque Telegrapher, or the A.T.T. for short, is a "little" invention that the great Dr. Mortimer J. Torque created circa 1889. The A.T.T. had a unique way of receiving code and translating messages into hand written script via an automated mechanical arm. Considering the technology of the time, such a device was unfathomable.

I've found that trying to formulate ideas for things that do not exist in our world, without making it look too much like something that has already been done before can be quite daunting. Over the course of the next few posts, I would like to share some of the process of how I came about designing the A.T.T.

It all started with this tiny thumbnail. When I scribbled this, I kind of had a lose idea as to things I wanted: a fancy table-like base, an arm, and some cogs & steam for good measure.

Seems pretty easy right? Wrong!

I literally drew dozens and dozens of sketches and scribbles before I found a shape I liked. Below are a few of the "better" ones. At first, I was digitally drawing interesting silhouettes and then chipping away until I found something I liked... no dice.

I even did some traditional sketches in the ol' sketchbook. There was still nothing I liked, but I felt I was getting closer to the essence of what needed to be there.

Next, I tried a really fun method of mashing up photos just to see what would happen. In using this method I didn't find exactly what I was looking for... although I did get just enough information out of the exercise to move back to pencils and continue fine-tuning what I had going with a fresh concept.

Now at this point, I liked what I had, but felt I could do better. I had just bought James Gurney's book, "Imaginative Realism," and after seeing what he does with maquettes, I really wanted to try my hand at building one-especially since I knew I would be drawing this bad boy from multiple angles for more than a few panels, it just seemed to make sense to build one!

On the next post I'll show you in which direction I took all these jumbles of chicken scratch and how the A.T.T. came to be in maquette form.

Until then, Stay Classy.

-b

*****************

- You can view the A.T.T. in action in the

Apparition Abolishers webcomic

- Visit James Gurney's blog - GurneyJourney, for some of the very best

tips and tricks of illustration and great art in general.

¡Dia de lo Nachos!

2011-01-16T14:06:00.001-06:00

Well! It's 2011 now. 2010 was one of the worst financial years of my life... so far. But not to fret, I have made many plans and projects to hopefully make 2011 a much better year.

One of my goals (not resolutions, those are bogus) is to really try and make a regular posting scheduale here on my blog. Hopefully with doing that it will help keep me "accountable"

I think i might start tomorrow with a little Abolishers insight and an update of how things are going on that front.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-29T07:54:00.001-05:00

First attempt at carving a pumpkin. It only took four hours!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ApparitionAbolishers at GMX

2010-10-25T13:23:00.001-05:00

A few shots of our booth this past weekend at GMX. We had a blast and I personally am very thankful to who came out and supported our fun "dress-up group" by purchasing shirts and posters. In doing so, your contributions help us to fund future Apparition Abolishers endeavors.

And then there is this guy.. Just because.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rusty Koontz: Design Poster

2010-10-22T10:25:00.004-05:00

Here is the finished poster design for the Rusty Koontz. These posters are limited to only 50, signed and numbered by yours truly. You can stop by the Apparition Abolishers booth at GMX this weekend to pick up one while they last.

See you there!

Rusty Koontz design diagram

2010-10-20T18:20:00.002-05:00

This weekend at GMX I'll have a few Apparition Abolishers prints and shirts available one of which is the "Rusty Koontz Design Diagram" Here are a few sneak peeks of the drawings. Enjoy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New projects on the horizon.

2010-10-14T09:20:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have many projects I want to share on here and will be posting updates in the next week or so, so bare with me.
-b

Steampunk at Dragon*Con !

2010-08-30T22:41:00.001-05:00

Come see the Apparition Abolishers at "The Steampunk Exhibition" (SPEX) at Dragon*Con 2010. It will run SUNDAY from 4:00 PM EST until 5:00 PM EST in the Peachtree Ballroom at the Westin Hotel. The Westin Hotel (home to all Steampunk and Whedonverse programming) is only two short blocks up Peachtree from the front of the Hyatt Regency.

Soldier of Misfortune - Process

2010-08-21T20:10:00.003-05:00

This piece started out as just a test on a new type of technique with new mediums I was not too familiar with. But as I painted I grew very fond of this lil' feller. Below are a few shots I took while I was painting. Beginning with the pencils I had drawn on just some strathmore comic book paper. In the picture you will see it's wet because I had just mounted to a piece of masonite with matte medium. Once it was dry I went to town on this thing with gouache paint.

Justin Beaver

2010-07-28T21:45:00.004-05:00

Has anyone ever noticed Justin Bieber looks like a Beaver?

Just sayin...

Torque and the ATT

2010-06-18T23:01:00.000-05:00

The Automated Torque Telegrapher. (patent pending)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oodles of doodles

2010-06-18T08:23:00.001-05:00

Some gestures while I watch Horror of Dracula. Nothing too amazing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Jeff Preston has started a blog.

2010-05-26T07:57:00.004-05:00

My former instructor and good friend Jeff Preston has finally joined the 21st century and started a blog. This hopefully, will be where aspiring illustrators can turn to for their REAL Illustration Art History lessons and maybe a learn a few tricks of the trade by one of the most talented people I have ever met.

Old School Illustrator

Abolisher sneak peek

2010-05-22T22:26:00.001-05:00

Currently pounding out another comic page. Here's some iPhone shots because I'm too lazy to upload via computer right now.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Things to come.

2010-05-19T08:04:00.000-05:00

I just got back from WonderFest. Met many great people, reunited with others. I have tons of photos to upload and bought many new toys.

Also, I have a few new pieces I will be posting very soon with some process pics. Plus I'm on the very edge of finishing up the first new wave of pages for the Apparition Abolishers web comic.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Treat Your Mother Right

2010-05-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Mothers Day.

Quick Sketch - Diving Suits

2010-05-08T10:59:00.003-05:00

In the very near future, I will be illustrating Steampunk-esq Diving suits for the Abolishers. So I figured why not doodle some suits. Nothing fancy just scribbles now. 20 mins in photoshop. More to come once I begin the real thing.

Finally returning to the Apparition Abolishers

2010-05-05T23:09:00.000-05:00

After 4.5 months since my last Apparition Abolishers web comic post, I am finally able to jump back in and get this dang story going!

Here is a sneak peek at Torque's Telegraphing Automaton.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I NEED a Wacom Cintiq!

2010-04-18T18:27:00.003-05:00

So this weekend I was at a friend's house and had my first experience with a Wacom Cintiq.

Ten Minutes in. this happened.

Needless to say, I have wanted a Cintiq for about two years now but every time I get a little extra cash saved up to purchase one, something always happens and I end up having to buy new tires or other misfortunes.

So I have devised a plan (well, sort of): I will have my Web Store up in the next week or so and I will fill it with random things like prints and shirts for sale. All proceeds will go to helping me achieve my goal of purchasing a Cintiq.

¡Chupacabra!

2010-04-08T09:10:00.002-05:00

¡Oh mi, qué moustahe del lujo muy agradable usted tiene estimado Sr. Chupacabra!

SideBar Nation

2010-04-01T12:01:00.004-05:00

The awesome dudes at Sidebar Nation has posted a quick little mention about the Abolishers plus posted Jeff Preston's finished Illustration of us! Check it out here!

While you are there enjoy some of the very best movie, comic, and art podcasts around! Great stuff to listen to while painting.

I'm back from maskfest!

2010-03-29T10:10:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Been pretty busy from client work and traveling. Just got back from HorrorHound /HMA's MaskFest weekend.

Had a blast and met a ton of new people! Some amazing work was displayed as well as a few great costumes. Here's a few iPhone shots.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quick Sketch

2010-03-18T10:56:00.003-05:00

I promise I will have REAL Abolishers updates very soon. Just gotta pump out some client work first.

stay tuned!

-b

Quick Sketch

2010-03-18T10:46:00.003-05:00

A quick little sketch of Sir Quincy battling the wendigos.

More info on that later. :)

MidSouthCon - Final Poster

2010-03-12T08:30:00.001-06:00

By the time you see this, we have already loaded the Trailer, stocked the coolers, powered up the Plasma Weapons and are En Route to Memphis!

Hope to see you there, and if you see us... please come say hello! We will have these posters available as well as the super awesome, limited qty Jeff Preston / ApAb poster. Exclusive ONLY to the Con.!

See you on the other side.

-b

MidSouthCon... here we come!

2010-03-11T18:35:00.004-06:00

I owe you guys a peek at the poster I made for MidSouthCon. This will have to do, it's the pencils for the "group shot" that is on the MSC poster (which also has the portraits I created)

I will post the FINISHED poster tomorrow morn as we head out of Nashville to Memphis for the Con.

See you in the Morning! :)

OH YEAH! I almost forgot! JEFF PRESTON has allowed us to share a little treat as well.... but ONLY for the con goers! So the lucky people of the con will be able to be the FIRST to see the Apparition Abolishers Illustration by the Mighty Jeff Preston! whee!

Are you excited yet?

-b

Torque's Lab is coming soon!

2010-03-10T00:59:00.003-06:00

I know, I'm very sloooow. but.. I promise it's coming... just hang with me!

Thank you for your patience. :)

-b

Testing the iPhone upload...

2010-03-04T22:47:00.001-06:00

Just a quick test to see if I'm up and running mobile style....

(torque.... If he was a Saturday morning cartoon... Hint?)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's my birthday! Yay!

2010-03-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks Jeff for this SWEET video!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2010 Student ADDY Awards

2010-02-24T07:00:00.002-06:00

My Wizard of OZ series won a Silver ADDY last night at the Student ADDY Awards.

This was my last time entering anything in the Student competition rounding out an even number of 10 ADDYs total throughout my art college career.

Although I still feel my work is not up to a professional level as I would like to be, I will continue to learn and try my damnedest to get better. So, goodbye art for grades, hello Living the dream of "Please hire me to do art so I can pay my student loans... and rent."

Thank you to all the great instructors I've had at Nossi, especially Jeff Preston, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be working as a cook in a chain restaurant. As Arden always says... *"We're competition now"* and may the best artist pay the bills. :)

*note to self- I've got my work cut out for me...

The Road to MidSouth Con - JASPER

2010-02-22T07:00:00.001-06:00

Last but not least, we have Jasper Dunlap to round out the Apparition Abolishers. This concludes the portraits that will appear on the upcoming poster that will be available (from us) at the MidSouthCon in Memphis. (more info about the con here)

Next week will be the first look at the poster, although I might post some progress or comp shots of it this week. Stay tuned to find out!!!

-b

Fun Time Fridays - FARMVILLE!

2010-02-19T07:00:00.001-06:00

Farmville, oh how I loathe thee...

Torque's Lab - thumbnails part2

2010-02-18T09:51:00.003-06:00

The whole point of the quick thumbnails is so that I will have a map as to how I want the story to unfold. They are very crude as you can see, but their only intent was to get the story down onto paper while I still had it fresh in my head. That way I can later go back and reference them when I am drawing more realized layouts without worrying about the story continuity as much.

Now I am able to go back and basically redraw the scenes with a bit more attention to overall design more conscious of the perspective and details of each scene. Some of these images will be different in the final cut and some might not actually make it at all. It's just better for me to just keep drawing fast loose renderings and then be able to take away rather than struggle for content.

These will then go through another phase where I will bring them into Photoshop and fix all perspective issues and create pretty tight color comps before I go to the final pencils.

The goal here is to fully realize the entire painting before I even begin the paint process. I want to work out all my kinks early on so I can just have fun when the paint starts flowing.

I'll try and post some of the color comps next week.

-b

Torque's Lab - thumbnails part1

2010-02-17T15:52:00.004-06:00

After the abstract thumbnails I did about two weeks ago. I was able to revisit my original thumbnail sketches (below) and try to make what I thought was a bit crammed and bland into something a bit more exciting and interesting. The abstract thumbnails helped me find new perspectives and overall better layouts of what I thought should be an over the top underground laboratory of whom a few have considered "The Tony Stark of the Victorian Era." With a title like that, you can't just cheapen out on the grand introduction of his laboratory. I needed bigger and better. So what was a measly two pages, has now turned into EIGHT, most are full page illustrations too. Full of steam, gears, airships, nautical ship, gentlemen robots and the introduction to the first Abolisher. (finally!)

(initial thumbnail sketches = poo)

Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. :)

Tomorrow I'll post some more refined sketches and maybe you can actually understand what the heck you're looking at up there.

-b

The Road to MidSouth Con - SIR QUINCY

2010-02-15T11:26:00.003-06:00

Back again with another Abolisher portrait. This week we have Sir Quincy Peck. Next week will be our fourth and final portrait with yours truly aka Jasper Dunlap. and a sneak peek of the new poster which will be available at MidSouthCon the weekend of March 12th - 14th.

Thank you for viewing. and see you Wednesday when I will post the next stages of Dr. Torque's underground secret laboratory!

-b

Fun Time Fridays - My Little Pony ...Movie?

2010-02-12T07:00:00.001-06:00

This week's fun little post goes to this epic adventure...

MidSouth Con Bios are up.

2010-02-11T08:28:00.003-06:00

They put up our bios for MidSouthCon 28 today.

Just an FYI.

The Craftsman's Apron -logo design

2010-02-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

I do not normally like to post work from my day job, but I thought this logo was Victorian / steampunkish enough to pass as awesome. Inspired (and requested by client) to pay homage to Col. Littleton.

The Road to MidSouth Con - BRASSY

2010-02-08T09:10:00.004-06:00

Happy Monday! Here is the next installment of Abolishers portraits. This week we have the sexy yet scandalous Brassy Galore. Keep checking back as we are gearing up for MidSouthCon 28 on March 12th -14th as guest panelist. And a chance to receive an Apparition Abolishers poster exclusive to the Con.

Fun Time Fridays - Avatar Review

2010-02-05T07:00:00.003-06:00

My buddy Tom over at Geeks of Doom posted the Avatar review by the guy who did the 70 min. Phantom Menace review (If you do not know what I'm talking about... stop what you're doing, and watch it! ... well, after you watch this one. )

This guy hits all right points and nails every feeling I had towards this film. You might disagree with this entire review, you might hate this guy... but man does he make some VALID points!

Abstract Thumbnailing

2010-02-03T07:00:00.004-06:00

About two years ago a member of Gorilla Artfare and amazing artist Adam Paquette posted a really creative way of creating down and dirty super quick abstract-like thumbnails. I mentally filed his amazing process away and thought it would come in handy one day. Boy was I was right.

What you are looking at is a few results from my first attempt at this method. These crude little studies may not have perfect perspective or proper lighting. But they have proved to be invaluable to me for the conception of Torque's Laboratory.

Next week I'll post what I did with these gems to further push the imagery that is Dr. Mortimer J. Torque's private underground laboratory.

If you like to learn how I created these please visit the original post on Gorilla Artfare.

The Road to MidSouth Con - TORQUE

2010-02-02T10:02:00.004-06:00

Each week this month I will post a portrait of an Abolisher building up to the exclusive poster you can only receive at Mid-South Con (March 12th- 14th • Memphis,TN) Where we will be guest panelists.

More info coming soon!

Steampunk And Snow!

2010-02-01T09:21:00.005-06:00

Well good things have happened this past weekend. Jeff Preston, my mentor and former instructor has posted a little teaser of the Illustration of the Abolishers on his Facebook page. It is truly an honor to see myself illustrated by such a master.

And here in Nashville we finally got our once-a-decade good snow. So me and Joy and My good friend Gerald and his kids took advantage of this by enjoying the weekend with a little sledding action, or should I say Snow-Tubing action!

Gerald made a pretty sweet video of our escapades.

Needless to say, good times all around. I have another treat I will be posting a little later as well. So stay tuned!

Victorian Santa Claus - Christmas card

2009-12-25T01:02:00.012-06:00

Hello out there!

It's been a while since my last post. I'm sorry, I have an Abolishers post I need to make. But I figured since it's Christmas, I will treat you to a pretty in depth progress post of one of the Christmas cards I sent out this year. This is the final product, it's for the most part watercolors and colored pencils. With a few Photoshop tweaks (or "fixes") thrown into the mix.

Let's go back to the beginning. It's starts with a little thumbnail sketch about two inches high and only I can make out what the heck it is.

(Nevermind the image on the right for now, that will be a future card... for the future.)

Once I get a general idea as to what I want the layout to be, I start looking at inspiration, mostly the masters such as Leyendecker, Rockwell and Mucha. But also santa suits and different styles of suits. Now I was certain I wanted my santa to have the feel that he was from a time period of the past. With that being said, you may already know I am really into the Victorian era so I researched Santas from that time period.

That's where Thomas Nast comes into the picture. Nast was an illustrator from the 1800's and it just so happens he was the first to draw Santa as a jolly fellow with a sack full of toys for good boys and girls. The Nast Santa had red and white striped pants and a blue coat with stars shapes on the front. I loved the striped pants idea, the blue star vest... not so much.

The first appearance of the Knast Santa. Harpers Weekly 1863.

At this point, I have my thumbnail, I have my inspiration. Since I want my Santa to look somewhat realistic, I wanted some actual reference pictures to work from. That's where my good friend and fellow artist comes in... this is about how the conversation went:

Me: - "Hey man! I'm drawing a Santa Claus for a Christmas card... will you dress up like Santa for me so I can get some good reference shots?"

G: - " Yeah! That will be awesome!"

Me:- "Great! I already have the Santa suit at home."

G: - "Cool... wait... are you saying I'm fat?"

Me: - "uhh..."

*awkward pause*

As you can see, G is not fat... ( I love you man!) but he is a very tall, large build man. Perfect for my Claus. I wanted mine to be almost like an elder superhero of sorts. Like Superman's great grandfather.

So! after about 20 or so shots in my garage with Gerald in my Santa suit and wearing my Nacho cape. I get some really good shots to work off of. This one is actually a frankenstein of a few photos I meshed together for my reference piece. With this image I am now able to have a picture to reference lighting, the pose and just the overall image. At this point I could try and draw freehanded just by looking my reference. But my drawings always tend to lean towards the more cartoonish side if I go about it that way, which is not always a bad thing. But since I want this guy to look a bit more realistic and I started this three days before I had to send it out and only about 2-4 hours each of those days to work on it, time was of an essence so I opened my reference in photoshop and began TRACING (*gasp! the dreaded word!) Yeah tracing, Struzan so does it, Rockwell did it so can I, besides, unless your Alex Ross or Frank Frazetta it's the quickest way to get proportions right the first time round.

Once I get the main outlines of the figure and the more important key landmarks like the eyes, nose and hands. I remove the reference photo and start to add the finer details I want to see in the art. the bag of toys (note Unklbee there) the long list, the striped pants, large pipe. and I turned the Nacho mask into my Santa Trench coat. These are easier for me to incorporate on the computer just incase there is something I don't like, or I want to try a new idea it's a quick change without destroying what I already had if I need to go back. It's basically the most important step in this whole thing because it's the step where I figure out all my key points and work through any problems I might have. Once I get all the details figured out and I'm happy I print this out at 11x17 and off to the *light box I go!

*sorry! I had a shot of the finished pencils right after transferring from the lightbox, but I can't seem to find it. I might have deleted it from existence! boo!

I transfer my sketch to my watercolor paper then I soak it in water and stretch it to a piece of plywood. I let it dry overnight so it'll be good and dry and ready for paint the next day!

Now the few shots are just progress of the watercolors:

So.. I got a bit carried away and got into the zone painting after that last image. I forgot to take anymore photos of the colored pencils stage.

But here is the finished art after fixing a few color tweaks and adjusting the saturation and levels. You can see here I'm no Alphonse Mucha by a long shot so my shoddy attempt at intricate floush-y borders work was just that.. shoddy. So to "fix" that I would have loved to just power through here and start over painting a new border with watercolors and pencils but remember I was kind of pressed for time. Thank the Heavens for Photoshop! I'm a firm believer of Bevel and Emboss'd art is for rookies and a "REAL" artist would have hand painted all those highlights and textures on the borders... but at this point it was being printed to mail out literally within the hour so I had no choice but to do something I hate.

With said and done, that was the entire process of my Victorian- inspired Santa Claus. I sent quite a few out (about 150) to friends and family and a small few to some of my artistic heroes you know who you are. But after ALL that hard work and precise attention to detail..

the card that everybody responded to the most was just a last minute gag. A sweet xmas sweater from Goodwill, some gold jewelry and a groovy mustache is all it took!

Merry Christmas everyone!

-baker

thinkbaker.com is....

2009-11-17T10:42:00.006-06:00

Sorry if you have tried to visit thinkbaker.com recently. I am having an all out war with my web host service. Thus resulting in my good friend Barry with http://www.lookatbarry.com/ to come to my rescue. Yay for web savvy friends!

In the meantime, I will have a new Abolishers post in the VERY near future but just for giggles...

Joy wanted me to make her a flyer for her "Twilight Pajama Party" for the midnight showing of new moon.... so my only stipulation was if I could put this sweet doodle on there. All I need now is glitter paint and we have a masterpiece at hand.

-b

2009-10-14T20:20:00.004-05:00

Here are a few close up shots from page three of the ApAb web comic I am currently Illustrating.

Abolishers page 1 - inks

2009-10-06T16:38:00.009-05:00

As Promised.. here is the pencil / ink wash to the first page of the Abolishers web comic which is scheduled to begin this Saturday. (Oct 10th)

In the meantime, Dr. Mortimer J. Torque has updated our site with a special little treat from our good friend and talented artist, Scott Gipson of RocketFuelConcepts.

See you after Saturday, when I will post some more progress shots... this time.. IN COLOR!

Apparition Abolishers

2009-09-30T13:24:00.008-05:00

Well! Much has happened since my last post, most importantly, Dragon*Con. Over Labor Day weekend we packed a huge trailer full of droids, costumes and ... um "beverages of the fun kind" and headed down to Atlanta for the biggest convention of the South.. basically our version of San Diego Comic-Con.

One of our group costumes were the Apparition Abolishers or Steampunk Ghostbusters. Our costumes were a huge hit and we won the great honor of being "Best In Show" at the Masquerade Ball.

Here I am in my gear.

And a short clip of us on stage. (Thanks Zach)

The Abolishers were such a huge hit we have created our own site and now have character back stories as well as weapon descriptions. But most importantly, a web comic is in the works! Written by my awesome sister Jess and Illustrated by yours truly.

Here are the first three pages in sketch form, just to rough out the ideas and get a layout going.

Over the next few posts I will have progress shots leading up to the final art which will be available on the Abolishers website.... for FREE. ;)

We will be in costume at the GMX convention here in Nashville this weekend on Saturday, stop by our panel discussion at noon and say hi.

To see more about the Abolishers please visit our site or follow us on Twitter

Special thanks to bynk for the photo of me :)

Gone Fishin'

2009-08-27T00:22:00.001-05:00

Well.. white water rafting really.. maybe some fishing, who knows.

Speaking of fishin' here's a fun little doodle I recently whipped up that actually ended up on my resume as the background image.

Great Lake Swimmers @ Grimeys

2009-08-27T00:09:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday at Grimey's New & Preloved Music Record Shop, we had the absolute pleasure to meet and listen to one of my recent most favorite bands Great Lake Swimmers.

My good friend Lauren was much smarter than me and brought her camera to record this epic FREE event. here is one of the videos she recorded. I'll post the rest once she uploads them.

Many thanks to the Great Lake Swimmers,for excellent music.

Thanks to Grimey's for being the coolest record shop in Nashville.

And to Lauren for being generous enough to share her videos. :)

Review ReCap

2009-08-15T15:43:00.001-05:00

Well, the review is finally behind me now. It was alot of hard work and frantic last minute scrambling to get everything together. I must say it was well worth it too, I met many great people and possible new clients. I took home Third place in best Table display (oh yippee.)

For a fun little giveaway item, I found a place that sold "Gummy Brains" in 5lb bags and I thought it would be a tasty idea plus a way for people to take my info with them. So I drew up a fun little tag for the individually bagged candies (that my awesome girlfriend individually bag for me: ) and here's a pic of the final product and the box I used to put them in. (thanks for the box Kyle) In the top right corner you can see I made some stickers as well.

(sorry about the poor iphone pic)

I want to thank all the friends and family that stopped by and thank you for your support. And to all the future clients and competition.... watch out! I'm on the prowl and I'm hungry!

With that being said. I'll leave you with a picture of my inspiration behind "Unklbee and Me" (a post for another day) That's me.. holding the Unklbee card, and Aiden, holding the Aiden card. :)

Now, off to the RollerDerby. Go NRG!

Freaks & Friends: My Portfolio Review

2009-07-27T19:47:00.002-05:00

I will be having my portfolio review at the LimeLight. As I understand it, from noon to about 4 or 5 will be the time for professionals in the industry such as art directors and/or creative directors to stop by and view the latest batch of Nossi's finest.

Then, after 5 will be for friends and family to come. The award ceremony will begin at 6pm (i believe?) If your in the area please stop by and say hello!

OZ : The TinMan pt.3 FINAL!

2009-07-15T22:22:00.001-05:00

Tinman : ACCOMPLISHED

Part 1 - sketch & thumbnail

Part 2 - Details

The ZDS Project

2009-06-21T16:01:00.001-05:00

coming soon.....

OZ : The TinMan pt.2 (progress)

2009-06-12T21:06:00.002-05:00

A few screen shots of the TinMan revamp in the making. He is finished and has already been sent to the printers, but I will wait until they officially release him before I post the final.

OZ : The TinMan pt.1

2009-06-08T23:26:00.002-05:00

I recently had a class at school called "Illustration Specialization." That was basically a fancy way of saying, "draw what you want, as long as it focuses on the genre or type of work you would like to do professionally."

So I had always thought it would have been neat to do my own interpretation of the characters from The Wizard of Oz. The Tinman, The Lion, Scarecrow, and of course Dorothy. I also wanted to try something I had never attempted before. I wanted the paintings to "flow into each other" so when I was finished with the project, they could all be assembled together as one BIG long illustration. My mind set was to take on the project as if they were a series of book covers or maybe as character concepts for a game.

So I got to work with the thumbnails (which I did as one overall thumbnail) refining as I went along. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted for the Tin Man, so I started with him first.

Now I must tell you, right before I had started this project, I was introduced to the works of Justin Gerard and his amazingly unique process of which I had tried to mimic ... (and I failed)

(You should Check out his super awesome Hobbit projects he recently finished up.)

The process was to get the tonal value via thumbnail, which I did in Photoshop. then from that, print and pencil out the tighter pencil work. From there, using a very limited palette of watercolor to get all my textures and values (light vs. dark areas) Once I got my values in, I would scan in the painting and finish it off in Photoshop.

But... Like I said, I failed to execute this process as smoothly as Mr.Gerard. So here is a look at what happened the first time around...

Below is was what I turned in for the grade. I was very unhappy with it, and I knew i could do better.

The part 2 of this post, I will show the new and improved Tinman and a few progress shots of how I got there.

Thanks for viewing and being that this my first "real" post on my new blog, I would love to get feedback from anybody who took the time to get this far. Good or Bad. :)

WonderFest 09

2009-05-19T00:56:00.002-05:00

WonderFest 09 - ThinkBaker
Originally uploaded by ThinkBaker

The first batch of my recent trip to WonderFest are up in my flickr stream. I'm new to the Flickr thing as well and it only allows me to upload some obscure tiny amount of photos per month. I guess thats what I get for being a cheap-o and not paying to have the membership fee that would take the limit off.

I'll will continue to post them as much as they will allow. (I've got about 6gig's worth of photos to post. whoa!)

The models were absolutly mind-boggling, not to mention all of the amazing artist that I had the chance to chat/drink with! ;) Not many people at my young age have had the great opportunity to sit back and talk art techniques and J.C. Leyendecker with William Stout. Or "Hang with The Wang" in the Hotel bar until closing time. Steve Wang was a super down to Earth great guy to hang with and knock a few drinks back... matter of fact.. I think he might have bought me a round... (awesome... I owe Steve Wang a beer...)

I just wish that music in the bar, which was SUPPOSED to be a one man band, had not turn into a Karaoke contest for the worst country songs ever. Geez, and I thought Nashville was bad.. go to KY and listen to "Aspiring Vocalist" ...not so much.

Many other great artists were there as well Like Frank Deitz, Ken Kelly and David Fisher just to name a few. And Last but least i want to thank my former instructor / mentor Jeff Preston to whom none of this would have been possible. I had a blast guys! And I will for sure be back the many years to come!

Welcome!

2009-05-16T00:12:00.000-05:00

Hello all!

I have decided to try out this blogging thing.

My intention is to show the world what it is I actually "DO."

You can expect sketches, process shots, thumbnails, wacky reference, and finished illustrations. Also, every once in a bit I might post things or events the are taking place in my life.. who knows really, I am just going to wing it and see what can come of this bad boy.

So.. wish me luck!