Norm Grock | Visual Adveturer

New Character Design for my comic

Written by admin on December 12, 2011 – 7:35 am -

Drawing a Cartoon Head

Written by admin on August 14, 2011 – 3:10 pm -

You may follow these steps. If you are already comfortable enough with drawing you can move on, but it is always a good idea to review the basics. Once you know the basics, you’ll be able to start making your own changes and tweaks, which start to shape your style as an artist.

Posted in Inspirational, Process, Uncategorized | No Comments »

My Top 10 of 2010 – Entertainment

Written by admin on February 2, 2011 – 12:48 am -

Honorable Mention
Video Game – MegaMan 10 (PS3)
Books – The Art of Avatar the Last Airbender (Dark House)
Movie – Inception

10. Video Game – Cut the rope (iPhone)

9. Comics – Amulet: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic)

8. Video Game – Super Mario Galaxy 2 (WII)

7. Cartoons – Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon Network)

6. Video Game – Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (PS3)

5. Movie – How to train your Dragon (Dreamworks)

4. Cartoons- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (FUNimation)

3. Books – Megaman the complete works (Udon)

2. Comics – Ultimate Spiderman by Brian Michael Bendis & David Lafuente (Marvel Comics)

1. Video Game – Mass Effect 2 (XB360)

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Influences through the years

Written by admin on November 21, 2010 – 11:49 am -

Early Saturday morning, I got up and was doing my normal social network surfing and saw something on Deviant Art that got me thinking, “Who are the artists that made me who I am today?” Wow, that’s a pretty deep question for 6:30 in the morning. What could get me thinking about something like that so early? What I saw was something called an “Influence Map”. The “Influence Map” instructions wanted me to fill a template with things that have inspired me. I really liked that idea but wanted to do something a little different so I decided to go year by year throughout my life as an artist and pick people that influenced me over the last 25 years. I can’t think of what influenced me from ages one to four, so I started at age five. I had no idea who most of the people on my list were until I went back and did some research. These are the things I can remember as a kid always going back to, trying to draw over and over. Here is my list of artists that have inspired me over my first 30 years.

1985 – Maurice Sendak (writer and artist of Where the wild things are)

1986 – John Byrne (Artist on The Man of Steel)

1987 – Keiji Inafune (Creator of MegaMan)

1988 – Tad Stones – (Creator of Darkwing Duck and Chip’n Dale Rescue Rangers)

1989 – Erik Larsen (Artist on Spider-man Revenge of The Sinister Six)

1990 – Arthur Adams (Artist on Uncanny X-Men Annual 14)

1991 – Ken Mitchroney (Artist on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures)

1992 – Shotaro Ishinomori (Artist on Legend of Zelda-A Link to the Past Comic)

1993 – Jim Lee (Artist on X-Men #1)

1994 – Bruce Timm (Batman The Animated Series)

1995 – J Scott Campbell (Artist on Gen 13)

1996 – Akira Toriyama (Character designer Chrono Trigger)

1997 – Akihiko Yoshida (Character designer Final Fantasy Tactics & Vagrant Story)

1998 – Long Vo (My first online art site I would frequent)

1999 – Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Character designer Neon Genesis Evangelion)

2000 – Shukou Murase (Character designer Final Fantasy IX)

2001 – Ryuji Higurashi (Character designer MegaMan PS)

2002 – Mike Wieringo (Artist on Fantastic four)

2003 – Sam “Samwise” Didier (WOW Concept art)

2004 – Haruki Suetsugu (Artist on The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap)

2005 – Shinsuke Komaki (Character designer MegaMan Battle Network)

2006 – Bryan Konietzko (Character designer Avatar: The Last Airbender)

2007 – Sean “Cheeks” Galloway (Concept art)

2008 – Dani Jones (Amazing artist and great tutorial for artist)

2009 – Gurihiru (Artist on PowerPack)

2010 – David Lafuente (Artist on Ultimate Spider-Man)

I never thought doing an exercise like this could bring such emotion. Now just looking back at this completed peace of 25 years of inspiration I can’t help but smile every time I see it.

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The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #2 – Your business plan

Written by admin on April 18, 2010 – 11:54 am -

If a week ago someone would have said “Norm, this week you’re going to write your business goals and come up with a plan of how you are going to obtain them.” I would have laughed in there face. Well that’s what the Week 2 Challenge was for the zero2illo 12 Week Challenge. I’m Glad Jonathan Woodward was not here (he’s the creator of this challenge). After freaking out for the first few days I sat down reading everyones comments on the zero2illo week 2 post. I finally started to get an idea of what I wanted to do. I got a lot of ideas from the comments so I figured I need to share my ideas as well. I know thats what everyone does in this crazy online world, but I’m still getting used to the social networking side of illustration. Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas it really helped get me through my thoughts.

Here’s another crazy layout from my InDesign doc.