Depressed? Anxious? No Attention Span? You Might Be a Dopamine Addict. Here's how you fix it.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released in the brain as a reward for achieving a goal.  Very effective when used properly, but really bad when used wrong. 

Many addictive drugs increase dopamine activity, but lots of seemingly harmless things (sugar, social media, video games, etc) effect our dopamine levels in similar ways, and can be linked to anxiety and depression. 

I want to make 2017 a BREAKTHROUGH year!

I was born on March 22nd, 1973 which means this year I turned 44 years old.  This past year was filled with plenty of ups and downs, and I want to thank God, as well as my friends, fans, and family who helped me get through all of it.  So far in 2017, I have been living strictly from money made from art.  It has been VERY rough, but this year with your help, I want to use my birthday week to launch into the most successful year I've ever had as an artist!

Happy Father's Day

A few sketches. Nothing special. . .

I do a lot of stuff digitally, so people assume that I don't like to draw on paper. Nothing could be further from the truth...

YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE

Sometimes I write something that makes me look wise or whatever. When I wrote this as a Facebook post this past summer, I was largely encouraging and correcting myself.

Raise your Kid (and yourself) to be a BOSS!

I'm Not Bossy! Tee Shirt design by samax

From the Archives: "Are You Done Yet?" by @SamaxAmen

Are You Done Yet? by Samax Amen

"Everyone says they couldn't handle it if they lost a parent. The reality is we all get our turn." -Samax Amen

I was looking through an old e-mail conversation with a young artist and found these comments I made about death and dating. At the time, my wife's grandfather was in ICU and we were all "hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst" so I guess I was just feeling deep or something.  Even though these were my comments, I was encouraged a lot as I reread them...

Valentine Sketch for my honey...

So Far, So Good by Samax Amen

I drew my girls...

I drew these drawings of my wife and daughter a couple weeks ago. Thought y'all might like to see 'em...

What a week...

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

Two BEE Continued...

Time flies when you're having fun! 09.09.10 is my daughter Marley's 2nd Borneversary, so we're scrambling to put together a birthday party for her (if you think you should be invited, you pro'lly are... get at me). I'm going to design the invitations and assorted printed crap for that, so keep your eyes peeled for some of the stuff, which I'll post for you. This sketch is a first shot fired, so to speak... hope you like it!

holla!

-samax

Ziontific.com

Father's Day Weekend photos

I hope everyone had a good Father's Day. We had a great weekend for this, my second Father's Day. On Friday, Charlene took Marley to a birthday party and where she got to wear her new yellow swimsuit and play in the kiddie pool with the other kids, who taught her how to scoop up water and pour it out on herself and others! Then we all went to the pizza place on Sunday. It was a simple, fun outing with the family... that's how I like it!

A great Weekend...

I can't remember the last time I spent two days in a row away from my drawing board and laptop, but I haven't done any drawing in over 48 hours! I had a great weekend, so it's okay...

the SHOCKING TRUE STORY of easter bats...

Please buy YOURSELF something for my Birthday

Hey there! Today I turned 37 years old. I won't be partying hard though. I'll be working hard drawing comics for my client, blogging, doing Daddy Day Care with my daughter and generally making the ends get acquainted. All I really want for my Birthday (or any other day) is to be productive and successful. The best present YOU can give me today is to buy one or more of the products I have available.

I Make it DO what it DO

I've been up all night laying out comics for my favorite client while you were drooling on your pillow. No hate, I will smash my pillow something awful soon enough (even though I won't get to sleep long). This comic, about a 7 year old (above) who can find whatever is missing, no matter what, is gonna be good... If you happen to know Brandon May or Abram Valdez, tell them I said EVERY TIME I read through their script, I smile at how dope it is! now i gotta do MY justice to it!

in other news, finances at the house are looking pretty ugly right now, but I'm determined to make it blend... if you've been waiting for JUSSST the right time to buy something, NOW is looking pretty good, fam! If you are a fan of my art and want to see me continue to put out more, you can show your support by copping some of my existing stuff. my book Spontaneous is on IndyPlanet for just 16 bucks (click here to cop it) and both issues of my magazine GhettoManga Quarterly are there also (click here to peep those).  I have my old comics i did with my crew in stock here, for those who are interested. slide by the Ziontific store if you need cards, tees, hoodies or other assorted t'ing... i'll be blogging more specific items as much as I can, so I won't need to hold a telethon or something. Get at me if there's something specific you're looking for.

 well, that's it for now... back to the drawing board!

peace, love, etc

-samax

Ziontific.com

more Sketches

I've been very busy lately! Charlene started back to grad school, so I'm back on Daddy Day Care with our 17 month-old daughter Marley. I was already way behind on commissions, and Marley's in that mode where she wants to try to eat everything, so keeping her alive is a full-time job... anyways, not really sure what all that has to do with this picture of Static I drew the other day... but this is my blog, so i'll ramble a little! I drew this with a watercolor brush pen for the Daily Sketch Challenge I joined, but rarely draw for... even though I'm busy, I want to ramp up that kind of stuff. 

One of the many clients who are patiently waiting on me is my friend Allana. when I started sketching this drawing, I was thinking primarily about the big bird-shaped medallion that's covering her chest. Anyways, this isn't a drawing of any of the specific characters Allana tapped me to draw, but I was feeling inspired, so I went with it. I still haven't seen Avatar (I saw like 20-35 minutes of it at the sneakeasy while I was waiting to see The Book of Eli), but when I talked to Allana last, the aliens from that movie did come up... I'm hoping something I work out in this piece will help me in my designs for Allana (fingers crossed!)

you may have already seen this sketch on the summary of the Underground show I wrote over on GhettoManga (read the full report here), but i guess now is a good time to post it here anyway. I drew it with a ballpoint pen and a couple watercolor markers at the show. I also added zip-a-tone in photshop afterwards, 'cause that's how i roll... Dallas Comicon and Underground fell on the same weekend this year, and even though it was fun and profitable, I got the fan-flu or something, and was sick as a dog the week after. well, it's late, so i better head to sleep! i have more drawings that I'll post later, so stay tuned!

love, peace, etc.

-samax

My Dog Ate It

Millie by Samax Amen   

my wife is always giving me a hard time because I don't slobber all over our cockerspaniel Millie the way she does. I'm not much of a pet person. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like dogs and cats, but I had a dog when I was a kid who was super-smart like Lassie (RIP, Penny... sigh), but every dog I've ever had since has been trouble...

anyways Millie likes to grab things (cell phones, my daughter's toys, finger nail clippers) and sneak into the back yard and chew on them. As a result, I periodically look in the yard to retrieve the broken, wet remains of whatever Millie has recently destroyed. Today, I found the mangled remnants of my USB Flash drive, which no doubt would have contained plenty of irreplaceable data and artwork, had previous mishaps not made me totally paranoid, resulting in the keeping of multiple backup files. To my credit, I didn't even get mad. Now it's off to town to buy a new one... lots more stuff to print for my art show on the 30th.
peace,
-samax

Thankful for my Family

hope everyone's having a good time with their family (whatever form that takes), and enjoying the holla day weekend. I took my wife and daughter to visit my extended family at my Grandma's house in Waco.
for many of the relatives, it was their first chance to see my daughter Marley, who turned 1 year old in September. it was a fun trip because I got to visit with some relatives I had not seen for 15 years. It really underscored how little my family gets together, since so many people found it hard to believe that I was married and had a child . I'm still the 'baby' in a lot of people's eyes, even though i'm in my thirties... but i think they're getting used to the idea.
I was glad to introduce more of my family members to my wife Charlene. I'm really proud of Charlene and thankful to have her in my life. She is so helpful and encouraging (which really helps an artist on the brink like me), plus everyone was knocked out by her banana pudding!
hopefully, we will have more opportunities to visit with the rest of the family, so we can all get more familiar with each other.
anyways, i know you REALLY just want to see more pictures of Marley, so i appreciate anybody who bothered to read my comments too!! thanks to my sister Jeannie for the pics!
peace, love, etc.
-samax