Relaunched!

Now that DC and other comic companies are reinventing many of their properties, Jon Morris came up with the idea to ask artists to come up with their own type of reboot by coming up with their own covers for popular or obscure characters. Most likely these will prove to be better than what the real companies can come up with. Here are my pieces that appear on the Relaunched blog.

Back when Relaunched was called "DC Fifty Too", I submitted my version of CLAW the Unconquered. Here's the post with all the information.

Then the relaunching idea spread to the Marvel Universe with "WHAT IF..." and so I did my take on Spider-man. 

Like Like and Lovesick art shows

artwork Nikki Burch

WOW!! This year is starting off quite well! The cartooning and drawing group that I'm apart of here in Seattle, the Bureau of Drawers is having 2 group art shows surrounding that Lovely day, Valentines day.

First, on Thursday, Feb 10th at 6:00 pm, we open "Like Like".
Here, a large portion of the group will be showing pieces representing the things they "Love" at the Cafe Racer in the University District.

Second, and this is big one to come in Second place... "Lovesick", a finely curated show at the Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, Feb 12th starting at 7:00 pm.

Annual Friends of the Nib Halloween Show

This year is a Freak Show themed show. This is going to be SO good. Banner art above by Mary Woodring.

I'm going to be having a diorama of a sideshow mermaid. Here's just the banner part of it.

Drift Art Show

Drift - an art show at the Cafe Racer. Opening Thursday May 14th 2009.
Read more about it on the Stranger's Slog!

This show is going to be cool. The Friends of the Nib got together and put in a bunch of really great drawings and some paintings. These are going to be put up all over the front area of the Cafe Racer as if it was our studio. Ideas abound! Good or bad, thrown all over the place so that one's eyes can pinball around the room and be totally over stimulated. Most everything will be up for sale with prices ranging from $5 to $50. So please stop by and get eye full.
So this will make the 3rd art show I have work in this month! I'm all over the place. I tell ya' though, it's like feast or famin. First it was APW's On the Record, then Muppet Rawk and now Drift. Each one will be displayed till the end of the month.
Below are a few pieces that I came up with today for the show. I referenced some photos that happened to be taken by Coop. I was just searching for "girls holding things" on Flickr. and found some hot women holding vinyl toys. Who'd have guessed it was Coop who took the pictures?

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VHS cover redesign 02 - Wild Party (1929)

For my second cover redesign for Scarecrow Video, I went with Dorothy Arzner's 1929 The Wild Party. I had watched this film early last year and when I concidered doing this cover project, I knew I wanted to do one for this film. The VHS copy we have isn't that great of a copy. I'd love to see a quality transfer of it on DVD, but until then...

This is what I came up with after testing a few different inking styles (below). I really wanted to show off the awesome showgirl like costume that ends up getting Clara Bow into trouble in the movie. Instead of rendering it exactly like it was in the movie I used the lightning bolts to heighten the design and work well with the simple drawing.

I really had no idea what I was going to do at first, so when I got the right style of drawing the rest was easy.

This is the original sketch that I did based off of a found photo.

My first ink was super tight and detailed. I don't mind this one but I was really unconfident about whether or not it resembled Clara Bow. She's beautiful and people would be able to recognize her if it was done well. If not done well, then it's just a drawing of some girl.

So with my second inking, I tried to loosen things up. A bit too much I think.

This third and final ink was WAY looser and more fun. I liked the minimal lines and I was able to get the curves that I wanted. For the final design I took out all the crappy lightning bolts and digitally colored it in Photoshop. I just went with my gut on the colors for the cover. It's a black and white film, but I wanted the cover to be nice and appealing. Blue is calm and helps keep the design looking clean and fresh. From what I've seen in posters, Clara Bow had shocking red hair. So this was a nice becon of contrast for the center of the design. The likeness isn't what I'd like it to be, but I think the drawing gives the impression that she's cute and the "Wild Party" isn't a sleazy deal. Here's the original art on day glow pink paper. It's not horrible, but I liked this movie so I was happy to make up something new for this film.

30 in Thirty Full Color Book Available!!

NOW FOR SALE!!!

Marc Palm's 30 in Thirty!!

My latest full color art book. This one is a collection of 30 paintings that I did in 30 days as a challenge for the Blank Space Gallery here in Seattle. The 30+ paintings and illustrations of monsters and other creatures here in this book are full sized reproductions of the original paintings. The book itself is full color, 70 pages perfect bound, and measures 8.5" x 11".

Ever since the completion of the paintings I wanted to make a catalogue of the whole set of paintings. All based of off creatures that I created originally for my daily comic (Lair of the Psychic Creature) I planned all thirty paintings to be seen together. And... since half of the original paintings have been sold, they'll NEVER be seen together EVER AGAIN! So catch them while you can here in this paperback collection.

I would like to think these colorful acrylic paintings should entertain anyone with a childlike appreciation of creatures and monsters as well as children.

Let Me Draw My Stuff For You!!

Alien Portrait 01 - pencil on brown paper 2009

So to kick off the new direction of my Blog I'm posting this drawing. Which will be the first of many original drawings that I'm going to offer for sale. Mainly these will be for sale via Etsy.com but feel free to contact me directly. Some direct contact might lead to a better deal for you. Also if you're interested in some previously posted work ask as specificly about it as you can.

I'm open for commissions as well. So feel free to throw an idea and an offer my way. I'll get back to you with my decision and questions about the specifics. You can get an idea of what I'm able to do by looking through this site or my flickr.com sets.

Thanks

Marc "Swellzombie" Palm

Valentine's Day Art Show 2009

Hearts, Candy, Love, Blech...

Super nice poster designed by Dalton Webb.

Art Show at the Cafe Racer with your ever adorable Friends of the Nib!!!

That's more like it!

"The Ladies Who Play with Hearts" thirteen 3" x 4" paper cards ink and watercolor. Frame not included $50.00.

Here's a facsimile of what I entered into the show. I added the text to this image, but left it off of the original piece.

Painting For Sale on Etsy!

I just got myself an Etsy account and right now I'm selling the remaining creature paintings I did a year ago for the Thirty paintings in Thirty days Challenge.
So check it out and buy as many as you can.

http://swellzombie.etsy.com/

A New Blog for Artists I Like

It's called Masters In My Mind

http://mastersinmymind.blogspot.com/

I've decided to start a list of artist that I've been inspired by in one way or another. This will be on going, due to the fact that I'm never at a loss for inspiration. This internet thing brings me great pleasure.

Halloween and Where I'll Be That Night

Here's the invite that I designed for my friends Maegan and Alissa for their Halloween Bash. It's a big mash up of design, a distressed book texture, and the drawings are traced from photos using a Wacom tablet.

Cafe Racer Halloween Show

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Originally uploaded by themightyadam

This is a photo of me and my brother Cedric. (I only take him out for special occasions).

This comes from The Mighty Adam's flickr.com set from the Cafe Racer Halloween Show. Give a peek. He got some good stuff that you should have seen for yourself. Thanks Adam.

Halloween Show 2008

So once again Seattle's Cafe Racer is going to host the Friend's of the Nib Halloween Art Show. Opening Night is October 24th from 6pm to till 10pm. Find more information in The Monocle a Halloween themed paper that highlights the illustrations of the Friends of the Nib.

This year for the show, I've taken to sculpting and assembling some creepy pieces. I'm posting some photos that I took with my phone. Once the better versions show up I'll post those too.

"It Watches" mixed media 2008

"The Red Eye" mixed media in a coffee can 2008

steel-of-fire-warriors-2010 poster

Here's a digital painting based on the short film serial by Kevin Clarke and Travis Vogt titled Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 A.D.

Major inspiration was the legendary poster artist Drew Struzan who has recently retired from making movie posters full time. Read his own comment here and weep hard. The worst part of this is that Struzan was one of the last to actually hand craft a poster for mainstream films and their franchies instead of just mashing together some photo-manipulated crap together. So long, you will always inspire me.

Also check out this great review of Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 A.D. on io9.com

Art Prints for Sale

I've started an ImageKind account in order to have prints of my art available to you and myself. They're pretty affordable, but can also be really expensive. So if you got the dough to throw, enjoy a few pieces of my art. I'm going to keep adding stuff periodicly so keep an eye open for new stuff. If you have some pieces that you'd like to see available for print let me know and I add it to the gallery.
Check out http://swellzombie.imagekind.com/

Thanks for your time.

Art Show at Bus Stop Espresso

Here's some shot of the art that I had displayed at the Bus Stop espresso and coffee shop in Seattle. It's month long (June to July) showing is coming to an end now and I want to thank everyone who bought pieces.

I specificly want to thank my young fans. One of them was so inspired that he created his own monster and it was hung up next to my pieces. It fits perfectly. Thanks Samuel.

Fetal Fun

SOLD!

These 4"x 6" color pencil drawing with watercolor were created on pink paper for the Mild Kingdom show at the Cafe Racer which I mentioned in the previous post.

The showed was theme was animals and I knew that there was just going to be a whole bunch of cuteness abound. So I didn't want to do more monster or insects. One morning I was struck with the idea to do cartoony fetal pieces. Mostly inspired by the NG In the Womb: Animals show that I had seen before. The best part is just how adorable a fetal elephant is. I really wish I could have a fetal elephant specimen in a jar. I'd name it "Johnny".

As far as I know only one of them sold the night of the opening. Thanks Patti. The show was a huge success. Lots of art sold and this should help the kitties and puppies that made it safe out of the womb.

ANIMAL ART SHOW!!

Hey yeah!!! An art show opening up at the Cafe Racer tonight is a benefit show for Animal Talk a no-kill and non-profit shelter in the University District of Seattle. Check it out, everything is priced to sell and make money for the shelter. Also 10% of the Cafe Racer's drawer during the opening will be donated as well. So come out and drink and buy art and hang with people who are more interesting than the people you know. There's also a cool band!!

Collaboration with Jason #2

So Jason Dodson and I went to Hattie's Hat again, got some beer, some garden burgers with bacon and cheddar, and drew another master piece. Enjoy!!!

Two New Paintings!!

So I came up with a couple of new paintings over the last few months for some friends of mine. The first one was requested by Elizabeth. She was a huge supporter and fan of the 30/30 paintings I did for the December show. So having owned one of those she wanted another based off of the comic with the Tickle Squid.

"Tickle Squid" acrylic and enamel on illustration board 2008

This other one was requested by a very enthusiastic fan of mine Amanda. She was moving into a new place and wanted some of my art for her walls. She's a very intense girl and I couldn't refuse. So I came up with this piece. The board that it was painted on had the background pattern already painted on it by my good friend Jilf. He donated a lot of supplies and extra materials when he left Seattle for Minnesota. So I told him I put all of it to good use.

"Curious Larva" acrylic on board 2008