NBA Friday: Guess who?

This week's NBA Friday is still in its preliminary sketching and idea phases, so please come back next Friday when I will hopefully have the finished piece!

I'm really excited to paint this next one. I won't say who it is, but if you follow the NBA this may be a hint. He looks a bit like the guy pictured below (Panthro from Thundercats). But just a bit.

Send me an email if you think you know who it is!

A Bad Host

I'm currently in the midst of switching website hosts so there are some kinks that still need to be worked out with my blog and a couple of other issues.

Sorry for the ugliness and all the little boxes with red x's in them. As soon as I figure out how to turn those into pictures, everything will be just fine.

Thanks for your patience!

NBA Monday: Amare Stoudemire

On Friday I posted the progress of my newest NBA Friday painting - Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns.

I am a big fan of the Phoenix Suns and their uptempo, run and gun style. Their style changed a bit halfway through this season when they traded for Shaquille O'Neal and I suddenly found myself cheering for someone I promised I would never cheer for.

Their head coach, who was the mind behind their offense has left to coach the Knicks and Steve Nash, their tricky and sharp shooting point guard isn't getting any younger (he's 34 years old).

Amare Stoudemire on the other hand is just getting started towards being one of the top players in the league. He is a great young player, and that's why I chose to paint him over any of the other Suns players.

I painted this piece following the shape and design of a basketball key where Amare's portrait is in the circle at the top of the key. The two large cacti make up the sides of the key, the two birds are the hash marks below the free throw line and the sun is the half circle marking the restricted area for drawing charges. I thought it would all work nicely with an Arizona landscape.

NBA Friday: In Progress

Here is a photo of this week's NBA Friday in progress. The team of the week is the Phoenix Suns and I chose to illustrate Amare Stoudemire, their 6'10" power forward.


I didn't get a chance to finish it in time for today, but I will get in done this weekend and post the completed version on Monday.
For this painting I am working on 90 lb cold press Arches watercolor paper. I like the 90 lb stuff as opposed to the 140 lb because it has a bit of a smoother texture. If I'm doing an illustration with a lot more ink work I will usually work on 90 or 140 lb hot press paper.
I cut a full sheet in half and soak it in the bathtub for 25 minutes, then place it on my gator board and staple it down like crazy to prevent buckling. It works great!

Come back on Monday for the finished illustration of Amare, some cacti and a coyote.

NBA Friday: Dwight Howard

Back in February Dwight Howard won the NBA's Slam Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend. One of his dunks included him revealing a Superman shirt beneath his jersey and donning a cape (which I wrote about after that weekend).

Since that weekend he has taken over one of Shaquille O'Neal's nicknames (one of many), Superman. He's got the biggest shoulders in the NBA and led the NBA in rebounds this season at the age of 22.

I've always been a fan of the Superman comics. When Clark Kent proposed to Lois Lane in Superman #50 my parents scoured the city for the issue the day it hit the shelves. We figured it would be worth a lot of money someday and we ended up with 4 copies.

For this piece I wanted to paint Dwight Howard in a classic Superman pose, with Dwight tearing off his suit, hat and glasses and revealing his Orlando Magic uniform. The top of the Daily Planet is in the background, modified to include Dwight’s name and the grooves of a basketball.

You can see this piece on SLAMonline in the Links by Lang Whitaker.