The Art of Samax Amen: 2011

New sketch: "Meet Dave"

Meet Dave by Samax Amen

John Henry: God of Thunder by Samax Amen

I did some artwork for indie director Danny Hidalgo of the mighty Spirit Juice Studios crew. I drew all the figures separately on paper, then composited and colored it in Photoshop. Peep the process and final results below...

What a weekend! I did some drawing and selling at H4's annual Toys for Tots Benefit show 'longside a select batch of artists from the mighty ArtLoveMagic collective... In addition to being surrounded by fresh art and hip hop, and selling some prints, magazines and postcards, I drew this drawing and the Daredevil/Elektra piece below...

Wed, White and WU (Love is Love) by Samax Amen

The Brother Returns... by Samax Amen

original sketch, ball point pen

One of my favorite rappers- Playdough of Deepspace 5, Phonetic Composition, and Ill Harmonics- approached me to do cover art for his mixtape collabo with worship crooner Heath McNease (don't sleep, dude can rap his tail off as well)... "We were talking about album artwork," he said in the email, "and all I could think of was you. I know you're a long time head and have Wu history without even asking. You'd smash the kung-fu, hiphop, comic book rawness we need. You would be perfect for this and I'd love to have you do the artwork." He laid out how much they were looking to pay, and it was music to my ears... So it wasn't long before I started sketching...

Peep a "work in progress" view of The Brother below...

If you're one of the people who got all excited about the commissioned piece I did of Jay Kelley's creation The Brother, you'll be glad to see these sketches. Jay was impressed by all the folks asking for a comic book featuring the dapper time traveler, and he started working on some scripts, and asked me to work with him on it... Meanwhile, he commissioned me to do a hero shot type pinup of the character in action, so I started sketching...

Real Spit #1 (sketch) by Samax Amen. ballpoint pen.

I feel like I have the talent to be a decent tee shirt artist... I wouldn't say that I'm there yet, but I try. Over the last three months, I haven't had time to submit any new designs to my Cafe Press shop, but some of my old designs are performing well for me...

This was a week full of ups and downs that started on an up note:

While you were watching the Lakers take it from the Mavericks on Friday night, I was one of the featured artists at ArtLoveMagic's monthly coffee shop event Art & Coffee, where I did this digital piece live. I drew it on my laptop in photoshop, while it was being simulcast on the bigscreen teevee.

For those who don't know, my dude Michael Lagocki is one of the founders of local art collective ArtLoveMagic, and has recently started doing a radio show designed to shed light on the local art and music scene in Dallas. Because we're friends and stuff, Mike has been trying to get me on the show for some time, and eventually he got me into the studio...

Taskmaster #3 by Samax Amen

Here's the black and white version...

did this for one of my Twitter followers (whaddup, MutantStar!)

This is a commission from a client on Elance who is creating superhero/portrait mashups of a bunch of his employees. It might lead to more work, so don't be too surprised to see more of these...

As you may know, I was commissioned to do a tee-shirt design for one of my favorite emcees, Playdough of the mighty Deepspace 5 crew, to coincide with the release of his new album Hotdoggin'...

I had a blast at STAPLE indie media expo in Austin, TX. Here's photo of me drawing Taskmaster for a commission (I make a lotta my con money from commissions). I didn't bring a camera, so this

Daily Sketch for Monday was Cyborg, the brains/muscle of the Teen Titans...

Crossbones by Samax Amen

This piece was my first job on Elance, a freelance bidding site. I was actually surprised to be selected by the client, but my style was exactly what he was looking for. Yay, me!

I did this Iron Man piece for a commission for DwainIBe of my Twitter familia. I started to cop out and do the 80's Iron Man, but I thought I would try and do a version of the one from the movie.

Last year, I offered a free drawing with any paid subscription to my magazine GhettoManga Quarterly. I got a lotta strange requests, but this one was easily the weirdest...

Would you pay to read a comic about an African time-traveler who meets Harriet Tubman on her deathbed? Yeah me too... If Jay Kelley gets his way, we may all get the chance...

When I was 17 by Samax Amen

We got together on Saturday to prepare for Underground

*photo by Kelsey Paine* Yeah, Comicpalooza's Hero Initiative Benefit show/auction in Dallas was freaking bonkers!

yeah, I drew some Phoenix Jones fan art...

I did a lot of drawing last year. I earned my living doing freelance, and lots of commissions. Then I spent my free time on self-publishing, participating in sketch groups, and doing shows. The speed and quality of my work has improved a lot. I'm more confident than ever. I'd say these are the five best pieces I did in 2010. but if I made the list again tomorrow, it would probably be different!

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