Comic Con memoirs 2 (Geek Invasion)

Just a couple of pics from the convention center and its surroundings. Hundreds...thousands  of happy geeks taking over San Diego (including me of course; this is geeks' paradise!)

Comic Con memoirs! (But first...)

Finally back from Comic Con! And now it’s time for some pics and words about my San Diego experience but first, MEXICO!!!!!  Being so close to the border and not going to Mexico would have been a crime. In some way I wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite bands and so I did.  So WELCOME TO TIJUANA!!!!!!

Speech Sounds

Babel, Digital, 15 x 20"

Untitled, Digital, 11 x 17"

 

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On the other side, This series of illustrations is based on Speech Sounds, a short story by Octavia Butler. They were supposed to be kind of narrative illustrations but in the end I was able to work on a more conceptual design.

Wizards and Lizards!

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This collaborative project was really fun to work on. We decided to do an activity book named Wizards and Lizards…. and I don’t need to go into any further details. Here, a couple of my pieces on the book. And also a picture of the final book, You can go into the Scad Atlanta Illustration blog and check everything related to this amazing project! Thanks to everyone who helped making this possible!

Cupcake Ninja!!!

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As always, it’s been a while since the last time I uploaded stuff but finally I’m free and ready to update this blog. I’ve realized that I tend to work in two different directions, one is more lighthearted, colorful and playful than the other one, but I love both sides of my work and I guess, if I don’t get to mix them together, I’ll have to build two different portfolios. I’m really not sure of what to do yet but for now let’s begin with the lighthearted part. This is concept design project I did for a fictional iPhone game called Cupcake Ninja.  If you’ve seen a lot of iphone games and applications you’d realize that there is a lot of nonsense and crazy stuff around and I wanted to follow that direction. The purpose of the game, to serve cupcakes ninja style!.

SCADDY and ADDY® WINNER!!!!

At some point during spring break I received a mail with a gold award that I won at the SCADDY awards show, back in January. I was totally surprised ‘cause, though I knew I got into the show with my Frank Zappa piece, no one ever told me I had actually won an award! I was also happy ‘cause the winning pieces from that show would go straight into the ADDY® awards which is a national advertising competition here in the US. Today I’m uploading a pic of the award and I am also taking the chance to celebrate that today I got an email saying that I won a National student ADDY - award, which is GREAT!!!! Now I’m gonna have to go to Texas to pick up my prize!!!  (if I get the money for the plane tickets or something…Hahahaha)  Cheers!

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Hace más de un mes recibí un correo con un premio que gané en los SCADDY awards, en Enero de este año. Fue sorpendente porque aunque sabia que había entrado en la exposición con mi ilustración de Frank Zappa,  no sabia que había ganado premio! Lo bueno es que las piezas ganadoras de ese show tenían entrada directa a los ADDY® awards que son una competencia nacional de publicidad aquí en US. Hoy subo una foto del premio y aprovecho para contarles que también hoy recibí un email, diciendo que gané un National Stundet Addy Award!!!! Lo cual me hace muy feliz!! Ahora me toca ir a Texas a recoger mi premio si es que consigo dinero para el viaje jejejeje!

Out to Launch!

As usual, lots of things happening these days, which is fun but at the same time it can be overwhelming. One of them was Out to Launch, the signature career event of SCAD Atlanta where really talented senior and grad students exhibit their work to clients from the art industry. I was invited to participate, which was a real honor and surprise but at the same time I wasn’t sure of what to expect since I’m just starting to develop my portfolio and some of the participants have been at SCAD for more than one year. At some point I was scared but in the end, I humbly tried to do my best and I guess it worked out well.  It definitely was an eye-opening experience because it can actually give you and idea of what it means to go pro with your stuff.  Sometimes you wish you could stay in the studio working on your pieces and forget about the rest but is not that simple. However, it is fun (needless to say it is extremely important) to start thinking about promotion, clients, employers and all those things happening out there in the professional world while you figure out how are you gonna get there.  Here some pics of my booth with some new pieces that I’ll upload soon!

Morning light study

I was checking out Dice Tsutsumi’s site and I saw some really beautiful studies that inspired me to start doing some studies myself. Sometimes I feel like time goes by so quick and I just can’t seem to do everything I want to. For that reason I’ve been trying to push myself to take some time and do stuff beside school. I guess these studies could be a great chance to do that and to improve some coloring skills.  I’m pretty sure I’ll get stressed out and frustrated but eventually I’ll learn to work fast.  It’s always fun to do this type of things, though.

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And these are part of a larger series of images that I don’t think I can share just yet since they’re all part of a bigger project that`s gonna take a while to be finished. The only reason why I’m showing this is because I actually feel happy with what I did and I finally can say that I’ve found something interesting about my own work that I want to pursue. Now I don’t wanna sound pretentious at all but you know what? these things rarely happen; in fact, most of the time you’ll be like “oh a hate my work…” or, “oh, I’m not sure yet” and in the best case “yeah, whatever, could have been better” so, to hell with that this time. This time I’ll say, yes I’m happy with what I did. Is far from being the greatest shit on earth, but I’m still glad I did it. 

Digital, 8” x 11.7” - 10.6” x 7.7”

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Y estas son dos de una serie más larga de imágenes que aún no puedo mostrar porque hacen parte de un proyecto que tomará más tiempo en ver la luz. No obstante, debo admitirlo, me siento feliz de haber llegado a estas piezas. Por fin veo algo que realmente me interesa de mi trabajo y que definitivamente voy a seguir explorando. Será un camino largo, pero es un comienzo. 

Digital, 21 x 30 cm, 27 x 19.5 cm

Alice

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#2

Ok, these are some of the pieces I did in the last weeks. First: Alice in Wonderland. Uhm. BIG challenge, and actually this is a very personal approach so don’t expect anything related to Disney’s Alice, nor to Tenniel’s Alice. It`s really awesome to have some time to explore your own interests, but it can also be very demanding and difficult. Anyway, I’m glad I did this ‘cause for some reason I’m starting to feel like there’s something hidden, something that needs to be discovered and that If I keep pushing a little (maybe a lot) more, I’ll get it out.

Two out of 4 pieces.

Digital, 11 “ x 15.7” (#1), 8" x 11.8" (#2)

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Aquí algunas de las imagines que hice durante las últimas semanas. Primero: Alicia en el país de las maravillas. Tremendo reto y la verdad esta es una visión bastante personal, no esperen nada relacionado con la Alicia de Disney o la de Tenniel.  No obstante es muy, muy bueno tener tiempo para explorar algunos intereses personales. Creo que empiezas a ver cosas y tener ciertas intuiciones sobre tu propio trabajo que con algo más de esfuerzo, tarde o temprano terminarán cuajando. 2 de 4 imágenes con las que me siento felíz.

Digital, 28 x 40 cm(#1), 20x30cm (#2)

   

Baba Yaga

Stuff I've been working on lately. This is a series inspired by the russian tale Baba Yaga.  It was a really interesting and challenging project. And though I'm not crazy about the result, it wasn`t that bad either.

Graphite and digital.   

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Serie inspirada en el cuento ruso Baba Yaga.  Un proyecto difícil pero divertido y aunque no quedé totalmente satisfecho con el final, tampoco me pareció tan mal. 

Grafito y digital

Ghost I

Lately I'm leaning towards traditional media and I wanna experiment a little bit more with both digital and traditional stuff. This is a quick test. 

Pencil, watercolor and digital.

13" x 8"

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Un rápido experimento entre técnica tradicional y Digital.

Lápiz, Acuarela y Digital

34 X 22 cm

Ode to a Nightingale

Inspired by John Keats' poem

Digital,  8" X 11"

Zappa!

Another really fun technique, The theme: rock goddess. And I chose Mr Zappa.

Watercolors over Acrylic monoprint  11" x 14"

Burrowing Owl Wine Label

Exploring techniques

The main purpose of this exercise was to create a wine label (In this case Burrowing Owl Winery).  The technique was rather difficult but really interesting.

Pastels over watercolors 16"x16"

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Explorando técnicas. El objetivo del ejercicio fue crear un sello para un vino (En este caso Burrowing Owl Winery).  Técnica totalmente nueva para mi, difícil pero divertido.

Pasteles sobre Acuarelas 40 X 40 cm

If you wanna see more sketches just visit my tumblr and check 'em out!

Sketches!

Finally I get some time to upload stuff.  I've bee working on several things lately but let's start with the basics....sketching..... After dozens of doodles and scribbles (yeah sure....maybe less) I can say that I am starting to gain a little small tiny bit of confidence again, still it's a long way to go but what the heck, I'm giving it a try and that's something.  I wish I could find more time to draw more, or better say, I wish i knew how to optimize my time to be able to draw more.  Anyway, hope I`m getting somewhere.  I realized that I don't take good care of page composition so I have to cut drawings from here and there and then put them all together in Photoshop , I'll try to work on that but hey! it's a sketchbook, is not meant to be pretty.....(until you see James Jean's sketchbooks, right?).

These are mostly 2-3 minutes drawings and it's killing me.......'cause it makes me fell like I really suck on this, but then sometimes I get more time and I do worst so.... nevermind 

pen and/or ball point pen on paper

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Por fin algo de tiempo para subir cosas, Aquí algunos bocetos, de los varios que he hecho ultimamente.  Aún falta mucho mucho para realmente hacer algo decente pero algo es algo.  Al menos es un comienzo.  En fin, ojala algún día suba cosas más decentes, pero por ahora, seguiré tratando de encontrar todo el tiempo posible para trabajar más.

esfero y/o micropunta sobre papel

Lemon Bars!

Lemon Bars!  This was a fun class assignment.  Although i don't feel confident with traditional media (It's been a looong time since I did something "traditional"), this came along decent.  It was created for "They Draw and Cook", a very fun website for illustrated recipes,  You can take a look here!

Watercolors on illustration board