mark covell

2011-05-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is INCREDIBLY old news but here's a painting from the SUPER HEROES themed Family Guy Art Auction last July. All I can say is I poured a LOT of love into this one!

SAVE THE DATE!

2010-06-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

At long last I'm at work on new paintings for a show at COPRO NASON. I love the smell of oil paint in the morning. It smells like victory.

Lines and Colors

2009-03-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

I check this site every few days to see what new random artist I can learn about and was a bit giddy when I saw a new post about my work! This is a great site mainly because it never gets old and they provide great info about each random selection. Thanks Lines and Colors for choosing my work!

Society of Illustrators Los Angeles

2009-03-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Raising a kid is my only excuse for not posting in months! Not to worry. I'm now busy again working on a few commissions and new paintings for my one man show coming next March. YES the Copro Nason Gallery is booked that far in advance. No matter. I need the time to produce. In the mean time I'm happy to have a painting in the new Society of Illustrators West 47 at Gallery Nucleus. The opening is this Saturday night at 7:00 pm. Should be an awesome show! Here's a preview.

DEFCON STEWIE

2008-10-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest painting from last weeks Family Guy Crap opening. The show was a lot of fun and featured some of my personal fav's in the industry Joe Vaux and Joseph Lee to name a few. There will be prints of DEFCON STEWIE for sale through ACME ARCHIVES . Prints of STEWIE'S DREAM are still available as well.

FAMILY GUY ART EVENT

2008-10-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Yes the folks at FOX are putting on another Family Guy inspired art show! I and my FG comrades, along with many other artists, will have paintings for viewing and prints for sale. If you're in hollywood this Saturday stop in and check it out at the La Luz De Jesus Gallery.

IT"S A BOY!

2008-08-17T21:43:00.001-07:00

Weighing in at 6lbs 7oz, our son Aidric Max Covell was born
on August 14 in Glendale CA at 4:13 am! Needless to say I'm a proud and happy dad and I'm loving being home with my family for a few weeks.

FATHERHOOD, IRON MAIDEN, AND FAMILY GUY.

2008-08-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

What do these three things have in common you ask? It's only the biggest and most important moment in this artists life. Joy is now showing signs of the early stages of birthing our son! I was able to crank out two final paintings before he breathes his first breath of air. Unfortunately I can only reveal one. Another Family Guy art auction approaches and I had to partake. This time the theme is album covers. And of course everyone turned and said "We all know which band Mark is doing." So here it is!! Hope you dig it. I'll be taking another three week hiatus from work so I can get to know the new little man in my life.A HUGE thanks to everyone for all the love and support!! I'm going to be a dad......unbelievable!!

2008-07-03T17:57:00.001-07:00

NEW WORKS

2008-07-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned new work. Well it's done!! I'll have five new paintings at the Copro Nason Gallery for the High Fructose Magazine group show. This is another great event that I'm excited and humbled to be in! Here are a few drawing samples. I had a great time during my hiatus exploring and bringing my ideas to life. Every time I create new paintings I discover new ideas for the next series. If you're in the Santa Monica area on July 12th stop by and check out the show!

TIKI SHOW

2008-05-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

It's a bit late but here are some pics from last
weekends M MODERN Annual Tiki show. It was an impressive and crowded show. I'm still new to the L.A. gallery scene and I'm always amazed by the talent and variety of work that is out there. I'm humbled and excited to be part of it! Especially when I sell a painting. Many times I don't get to meet the buyer but this night I did. He was opening a TIKI bar in Las Vegas and he was collecting paintings for it. In the mean time I've been cranking out as many paintings as I can during my hiatus , Which unfortunately is at an end. I'll be Joining my cartoon comrades soon at Family Guy. My new works will be shown in July at the Copro Nason Gallery. I'll keep you posted.

BEWARE THE ORPHAN WORKS BILL !!

2008-04-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

YOUR ARTWORK IS IN DANGER!

This is a warning to all visual artists. A Bill is currently being written that could change your art career for the worst. It's called the Orphan Works. It would make it very easy for anyone to take photographs or works of art from artists and use it for monetary gain, and take away the rights or ability for the artists to do anything about it. So why would any advertiser, publisher, or licensing company ever buy art directly from an illustrator, photographer, or fine artist when they could just browse the web and take any image they came across. This Bill reads as if someone was specifically making a plan to bypass paying artists for any work they use, and make it nearly impossible for the artist to take legal action. Please listen to this podcast by Illustrator Brad Holland who is part of the Illustrators Partnership. It will explain this issue in better detail than I am.

Since the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention Implementation Act in 1988, intellectual property has been protected by the government. Artists, along with authors, musicians, or anyone who created a work, were protected. Nobody could use your work without your permission, and if you registered the work with the Copyright Department, you could get monetary damages for the violation. You simply showed them that you possessed this work.

If this Orphan Works Bill passes, artists, only visual artists and photographers, are NO LONGER PROTECTED, can NO LONGER GET THEIR WORK COPYRIGHTED, and have to prove HOW and WHEN someone stole their work, using their own lawyers. It would make artists and photographers the only artists who can't. Artists can register their works for a fee with private commercial agencies(which don't exist yet), but this gives no protection either. A company will just have to look at one or two of these agencies, and if they don't see the work, can legally use it, paying a whatever fee they choose. The artists has no say. The company can always say,"Oh, I just came across this image." And legally they are protected. Artists will have to register their images with every single company if they want full protection, and still get close to nothing if an image is used. A lot of time and money for nothing. My paintings and drawings will no longer belong to me.

The Bill is being written as THIS blog is being written and is scheduled to be put into motion THIS SUMMER! The podcast and website will let you know the steps you can take to help stop this.

If you care about your artwork and your rights as an artist GET OFF YOU ASS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

Serpent

2008-04-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a new creature sketch. I've been switching modes a lot during my hiatus. This past week I was immersed in painting for my upcoming gallery show. Now I'm back to concept mode. GOTTA PRODUCE before the baby arrives!!!

Jake Lee

2008-04-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered the work of the late Jake Lee in a Westway's magazine of all places. He Illustrated several covers for them back in the 60's and had a pretty lucrative painting career. The Chinese American Museum has a great retrospective of his watercolors and cover work. The museum store also has a catalog of the show for $12.00. Check it out if your in down town L.A. His work beautiful!

MORE TIKI??

2008-04-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yes more tiki! The trip to Maui was pretty sweet, naturally. A lot of snorkeling , jungle hiking , volcano exploring , and of course picture taking.

Right when we got back I got an invite to partake in the annual TIKI show at the M Modern gallery in Palm Springs. Perfect timing since I was already surrounded by Tiki sculptures and had endless reference. Here's the sketch.

OFF TO MAUI !!!

2008-03-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Joy and I never really took a honeymoon so we decided to spend some time in Maui before the bundle arrives. We're looking forward to a completely different environment than asphalt and concrete buildings! Here's a few TIKI sketches to tide you over until we get back.

We did do the nose. And the hat...BUT SHE IS A WITCH!!!

2008-03-06T00:09:00.001-08:00

You'd think that the first week of an artists two month hiatus would explode into a frenzy of painting and drawing.......but nooOOOoo. So far the first three days has been an annoying exercise in cleaning , reorganizing the studio, and throwing out crap loads of garbage I've been hanging on to for years! I really had a hard time beginning work surrounded by chaos. So in the meantime here's an old sketch that reappeared in the madness. It's a sketch for a painting I never started. In fact the halftone drawing is on my website http://www.markcovell.com/Concepts003.html but I always liked this sketch because it was drawn pretty fast and is full of movement and fluidity. Now I have to keep all the same movement in the final painting. Whenever I get to it that is.

NINJA

2008-02-25T02:28:00.001-08:00

Talk to anyone who knows me and they'll tell you "Mark Covell digs Ninjas!"
Not only am I a fan of the ridiculous 80's Ninja movies starring folks like Sho Kosugi, but I'm an even bigger fanatic of the true historical aspects regarding those reclusive warriors. Here are a few interpretations that I sketched. What the hell is the bottom Ninja pointing at you ask? I dunno. What do you want?....it's a quick sketch!

BUGS

2008-02-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Switched from Bots to Bugs!

New Bot

2008-02-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a quickie I managed to sneak in this weekend between painting, looking at condo's, and prepping for fatherhood. The madness never ends! I found some old halftone paper and remembered how much I like this method using marker, ink and white colored pencil.

WOAH....BABY!!!!

2008-02-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

Well I'm always talking about sketching interesting new characters and creature designs so here's my latest and best creation PERIOD!! Yep it's a baby if you haven't guessed already! Joy and myself will be new parents in early August. We'll know whether it's a boy or girl in another month but for now we're having fun looking at the baby name book and imagining what it will be like six months from now!

RECENT SKETCHES 08

2008-02-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

Some people have complained that I've had no posts for months. Folks I know it's annoying but you apparently have not figured out my blog pattern. Post something ...wait several months....post something else. I'll try to be more attentive. Here are some more Post-it sketches. When I have time for a break these robotic creations come naturally and are a nice change of pace from drawing cartoon characters!

DAMNED AT THE CLAM

2007-10-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

The latest Family Guy art auction strikes again! The theme this time... movie posters. I didn't have a lot of time to do a painting so I did the next best thing. India ink.

I AM LEGEND UPDATE

2007-10-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to see that they're using my cover to promote a cool anamatic version of "Sacrificing the few for the many." It's one of the better stories in book one of the IAL comic trilogy. Check it out here.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/

and here

http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com/comicBook/comicBook.html

I AM LEGEND

2007-07-27T08:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.joblo.com/con-i-am-legend
Here's a cover I recently finished for Vertigo comics. It's part of a trilogy based on I AM LEGEND. If your a Richard Matheson fan and are eagerly awaiting the movie coming in December, keep your eyes peeled for these free issues at Comicon this weekend! I felt honored to be part of this project which features art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Jason Chan, and David Levy to name a few.

A BOY AND HIS WHALE

2007-07-27T08:52:00.001-07:00

KUNOICHI

2007-05-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

More Oil Sketches

2007-03-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

I had a chance durring my hiatus to actualy go OUTSIDE and paint wih my wife and Frank Serrano.
Frank is a superb plien air painter and I always enjoy picking his brain on how to simplify when out in the field. Time is the enemy when you paint outdoors. The sun is always shifting so you have to learn to capture what you see FAST! I'm amazed at how fast Joy. works. A long time ago I knew that whoever I married would have to be an artist. Besides being a fantastic partner she is extremely helpful to have around when I'm in a jam while painting. She is my extra pair of eyes and can help me solve problems that might take me hours to figure out. Color, values, etc.

CORROSION OPENING

2007-03-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

As usual It's been months since my last post and as usual I have a good excuse! Back in August the world famous Joe Vaux.
invited me to be part of his next exhibit at the Copro Nason Gallery.
With much glee I cranked out four new paintings while working at Family Guy. Having a month hiatus was a big help as well! The opening was saturday March 3d and was a great success. I sold three out of five so I was in great spirits that night. I also met Dan Quintanna who was exhibiting his latest paintings. I've always liked his work and I believe we have similar inspirations. Joe's exhibit was a lot of fun to look at. You can stare at his work for hours and still catch things you didn't see before. Thanks so much everyone for being with us Saturday. I can't wait to get back to painting!

There are some great pics of the event on the JUXTAPOZ site!

SPECTRUM 13

2006-12-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

This piece called "incantation" is in the new issue of Spectrum The best Of Contemporary Fantastic Art. The book continues to grow in size every year and I'm always blown away with the incredible work featured!

www.spectrumfantasticart.com

He Rises

2006-12-12T23:53:00.000-08:00

I have to give Gary Pressman from the Copro Nason gallery a big thanks for adding this painting in thier first book. It's a fifteen year anniversary retrospective of all the artists they have represented. Some of my fav's including Joe Vaux, and Chet Zar are featured.

http://www.copronason.com/

AMBUSH

2006-11-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

A while back I bought a giant book of Eyvind Earle's paintings. I never get tired of looking at his work! I'm amazed at how beautiful his images are and how direct and minimal he executed his art. After I sketched this out I had a rough time trying to figure out how to handle the color scheme. After many tries I turned to Eyvind for inspiration . It was a fun experiment adding his style to one of my favorite subjects.....Ninja vs Samurai.

THE EVENT

2006-11-10T00:28:00.000-08:00

Last nights Family Guy art show and DVD release party was a pretty sweet event indeed!! Highlights include the Theme Park sized Brian and Stewie walking around. As the artists arrived we were greeted at the door with an orange " NOT RED" carpet and a ton of press folk interviewing and taking lots of pics! There's me acting like Mr Bigshot and trying to think of somthing humorous to say. I drank it up because I figure this will be the first and LAST time I'm walking a premier carpet! There's a great shot of Alex Borstien " the voice of Lois" in a sexy pose! Although I think she may of had a rock in her shoe. The artwork was amazing and it was great to meet the artists. I've shown my painting enough on this blog so I posted a few of my fav's in the show. The one with Brian holding the champagne is by Spencer Laudiero and the Stewie with the fez is by Kathy Olivas. That's my wife Joy with Stewie and also next to the mammoth martini glass. Spencer Laudiero and his Fiance Rachael MacFarlane stand proudly in front of his painting. The smiley trio are myself, Annie Mcmillan, and the world famous Joe Vaux.

FAMILY GUY ART EXHIBIT

2006-11-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

What the deuce are you staring at!?!

JUXTAPOZ

Again with the STEWIE KILLS LOIS painting! Yes once again the Family Guy group show will be featured at the Museum of Television & Radio. The openening is wednesday night and should be well covered since the head honcho and creator Seth MacFarlane will be there. I also was amazed to hear that this exhibit will be traveling world wide to different animation galleries. Click on the above links to read about it!

AGE 5?

2006-11-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

In my search for old highschool artwork my dad dug up a 3 ring binder full of drawings I created when I was a young lad. I really dig the scarry looking snow shovel that Conan is wielding. The spear-like shovel that Smokey the bear holds is quite a threat as well! But I think the crowning achievment is matching Spiderman against The Riddler!! Truley visionary. Thanks dad for saving these.

Highschool Drawings

2006-11-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

After the wedding Joy and I stayed on the east coast for two weeks visiting friends,family, and our favorite haunts. It also gave me some time to crawl into my dads attic and fish out some ancient drawings that i haven't seen in years! I know many artists don't like to view their highschool work, but for me it brings me back to my days of reading comics, watching thundercats, and desperately trying achieve the quality and feel of artists Like Frank Frazetta. Here are a few drawings from when I had nothing but TIME to render 100 ninja's battling one samurai. I miss those days!

THE WEDDING

2006-11-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Yep...I haven't posted anything for two months and now you know why!! I'm still basking in the glow of marital merriness!! Joy and I tied the knot"literally" september ninth on the tiny island of Monhegan off the coast of Maine. Here are some pics of the main event, the hotel, and some of the great old homes planted around the island. Joy looked amazingly beautiful and the weather was PERFECT! We were blessed with friends and family who journeyed far to be with us for a few days. Thanks everyone for making that weekend so special.

WHOVILLE GETS NUKED!

2006-09-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

I managed to squeeze in a new painting between storyboarding and planning the wedding! This was another painting for a show at the M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs. The theme of course was Dr Seuss. I honestly couldn't think of anything to do with that world so I just blew it up.I'm happy overall with this piece but it was a difficult task. I almost bit off more than I could chew!!

Stewie's Dream

2006-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Family Guy gallery show in NY is down now so I think it's safe to post this again. Before the paintings were shipped the Fox licensing dept. brought them over to the studio for a quick viewing and they all looked amazing!! I heard they might be doing the same show somewhere in LA in the future.

Rain

2006-07-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was a little frustrated durring the making of this sketch. I just remember needing a routine break and released some fury with the grey markers.

ADAM WEST EXHIBIT

2006-06-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

Although I have no photos of Adam West from the Gotham exhibit, I do have pics of my supportive friends!

FAMILY GUY / STAR WARS EXHIBIT

2006-06-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

Ok first off, I've worked at a lot of places in my career and have been at some cool work related events but this one was by far the most exciting. One of our Family Guy directors Zac Moncrief decided to put together an art exhibit with a
Star Wars theme. 26 of us picked a slip of paper out of a hat with a letter from the alphabet. We then created an image from Star Wars based on the letter. I.E. R is for RANCOR...which happened to be mine. The result was AMAZING!! Everybody created fantastic works of art. And to sweeten the deal we had a silent auction so everyone walked away with fatter wallets. Here are a few pics from last fridays event. You can see my goofy mug underneath my piece. The two smiling dudes are (left) Spencer Laudiero (right) Joe Vaux. I think they may have been drinking that night.

BATMAN finished

2006-06-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

I finally finished!! MAN it feels good to paint again. This came out less gloomy than I intended. ( see color sketch below ) But overall I'm happy with the results. I gave my friend Marc Heon a little plug for his Kung Fu school on the billboard.

Darth Maul

2006-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here's an old sketch from 1999. I seem to remember that Darth Maul was the only character I was inspired to draw from The Phantom Menace. Pretty sad!!

Stewie Dreams

2006-05-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

This image will return in a few months. I was informed that the painting could not be posted until after the show in New York was over. Okay okay FINE it's gone ...SEE??!!

Oil Studies

2006-05-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

BATMAN

2006-05-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is a color sketch that went a tad to far. When I work in photoshop I tend to get carried away to the point where the sketch becomes dangerously close to being the final. Nothing wrong with that except this is a sketch for an OIL PAINTING. Again working digitally can become a crutch!! No worries. The painting will happen. I have to thank Joe Vaux for the genesis of this piece. Joe's amazing work has been making it's way through LA galleries for the last decade and he got me into a group show coming soon at the M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs. As odd as it may seem, the paintings of Adam West will be the main attraction while a handful of artists will be displaying work with a Gotham/Batman theme.

Stewie Sketch

2006-05-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working at Family Guy as a storyboard artist. Recently the mothership ( FOX ) offered a few of us some extra buck's to do FG themed paintings for an exhibit coming soon in New York. I've been wanting to paint with actual PAINT for a while now so I jumped at it. Actually we can do the image in whatever medium we want but it's an excuse to PAINT again. I'm glad I began with these sketches first because frankly I'm out of practice with oil's. Working in photoshop becomes a real crutch, and if you haven't painted in a while it can be scary going back!! I'll post the finished piece when it's dry.

KRANG

2006-05-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

Someone at work was talking about the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show back in the eightie's. We all agreed that Krang was one of the best character's and I'm sure you do as well..... RIGHT??? Yeah that's what I thought. Anyway I tried to remember what he looked like and did this sketch.

Cato

2006-05-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

I think most artist's who own cat's feel the urge to draw them. They're amazing creatures and sometimes they'll sit still for you. This guy is named Cato.....No....not after Kato Calin. How incredibly lame would that be?? I named him after Cato from the Pink Panther movies. His claws are like sabers and his tail is a tad longer than most cat's but he's a damn cool feline!

Shavo

2006-05-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

Again with the post-it's!!! What can I say.They're handy, I go through about 200 a day while storyboarding, and they seem to be replacing my sketchbook. In fact lately I've been just pasting them IN my sketchbook. Whatever works right?! A while back I actually had NOTHING to do at work. So I took about an hour and a half and did this drawing of Shavo Odadjian. In case you're wondering "Who the hell is that?" He's the bass player for System of a Down. I had a photo of him from an old Revolver magazine. He has this great maniacal look to him that was begging to be drawn!

Oil Sketch

2006-04-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

I like to use a rub out technique where I brush on a dark color and then wipe out areas with a rag. It's a fun way to work because I usually have no particular idea what I'm going to create. I just start wiping off areas and see what happens. I might go back to this one digitally and add more color.

Witches

2006-04-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

A few witch designs.

Alien

2006-04-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

Giger's alien design is so damn fun to play with. I tried a fish-like design with this one. Ballpoint pen on paper and painted in photoshop.

Tiki

2006-04-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

what can I say....I dig Tiki heads!!

Study

2006-04-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

A life study from this past weekend. Charcoal on Canson paper.

Guy in line

2006-04-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this guy in line waiting to see Revenge of the Sith. Since I didn't have a camera handy I did the next best thing. It's slightly exaggerated, but overall it's pretty accurate!! Drawn on paper and painted in Photoshop.

Miller Style

2006-04-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading Sin City and felt inspired to draw something in Frank Miller's style of chiaroscuro.

Marker Comp

2006-04-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

I tend to do loose grey marker comps and then find some structure within the abstract shapes. Once I see something like a creature or robot I begin refining it.

Scribble Fish

2006-04-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

This one started as a meaningless scribble to test a pencil out. I noticed an eye in the middle of the page and it evolved from there.