Saturday, May 28, 2011

Mila Kunis Portrait

Snapple Fact # 231" Mila Kunis has 2 different colored eyes.

Snapple Fact # 347: Christian Castro paints fast and meets deadlines.

OK so these aren't actual Snapple facts but they are indeed true. Mila Kunis is one of my favorite actresses and has what is called "heterochromia iridis" which is a fancy way of saying that her eyes are different colors. Pretty cool, right? Here's a pic in case you think I'm a dirty liar: CLICK HERE!! (Actress, Kate Bosworth also has this! Who knew?) Anyway, I've been busy these past few weeks with "art stuff" and have managed to whip out a lot of portfolio pieces lately including this portrait of Mila Kunis. I chose to make most of it black & white so more focus could be put on her colorful eyes.


I love combining vector shapes with photoshop textures. It's a great fusion. I'm also experimenting more with patterns for backgrounds. I see it used a lot in Fashion / Lifestyle illustrations and love how it looks. Here are some details of the illustration:







Even more art on the way! Make sure to follow the blog if you haven't yet! Till next time!

http://christiancastroart.com/

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Twitter Illustration

Hello Blog. How's life?
I recently finished an illustration about an article discussing how the 1st ever tweet was sent from the top of Mount Everest! Yes, the tallest mountain in the world officially has cell-phone service as of October of last year. Of course most mountain climbers don't bother whipping out their cell phones after making one of the deadliest hikes in the world... until now! Here is the process and final illustration.

These are the sketches I drew out to illustrate the idea of Twitter Scales Mount Everest.

The 2nd sketch was the one chosen. I went on to do a refined drawing of that sketch. Here is the final drawing:


I quickly did some color sketches on Photoshop to see which color palette would go best with the image. I am always very picky when it comes to colors. I think correct color choices are the most effective way to create emotion in an illustration. Here are the color sketches:

Of the above color sketches, the first one was too monochromatic. The 2nd was too dull. The 3rd was too warm for Mount Everest (but still fun to draw!). 4th was not Mount Everest-ish enough (yes I made up a word) but the last one was just right.

Here's the final painted Twitter-stration (Yes, another made up word)

Twitter Scales Mount Everest
Pencil drawing, Photoshop coloring

Speaking of Twitter, why not follow me on Twitter? You can see my profile by clicking HERE

Special thanks to YuQuan Tan for help on this project. The whole assignment was completed in a matter of days. I enjoy quick deadlines. It prevents me from over thinking things.