Tiny sketch

So I usually draw in my 9x12 inch sketchbook but lately i've been experimenting with a smaller more "travel sized" book. It's only 4 x 6 inches. It felt awkward at first but I'm getting the hang of it. I visited the Society of Illustrators sketch night a little while ago and tried some figure drawing. Here are a few. The poses range from 1 minute to 15 minutes. More posts coming soon, including one about my trip to the Disney Animation studios and my trip to the Bronx zoo.

ICON 6

Hey bloggers,

In case you're wondering what I've been up to, I just spent the week in the Los Angeles / Orange County area visiting, exploring, learning and most importantly, attending the 6th Illustration Conference (ICON 6). It was an AMAZING experience and I highly recommend it to anyone serious about illustration.

While there I met tons of great people all part of the illustration community including some of my favorite illustrators such as Istvan Banyai, and Hanoch Piven (Here's a picture of Piven and Myself) Plus I met some great new professional artists such as, Angela Dominguez and Sam Werczler. Along with some great up and coming illustrators such as Alisa Yang and Michael Olivo. Check their work out. It's awesome! There are so many others too. I wish I had the time to mention them all!

I even played some soccer with Hanoch Piven, Kyle T. Webster and Edel Rodriquez. ( I managed to score a goal)
There were great lectures that discussed self-promotion, building portfolios, dealing with art directors, and the future of publishing. As a recent graduate It was a great educational experience. I also was lucky enough to receive a free tour of the Disney Animation Studios! Its a long story but a great one. It's worthy of its own blog post so I'll post up pictures next week. It's gonna be a busy week for me now that I'm back so check back often for new updates.

Day and Night

Hi Bloggers! Like most artists, I get inspiration from the sights, sounds, and people around me. Also like most artists, I notice I never really mention my inspiration when displaying my artwork. So that's what I'm doing right now! I'm sure you've all heard the song, "Day and Night" by Kid Kudi a thousand times. It's pretty catchy and has a lot of imagery within the lyrics. I decided to illustrate the song and let everyone see what I see when I hear this song.
In terms of inspiration, I love that video D.A.N.C.E. by Justice. See it HERE in case you don't know what I'm talking about. I love how they use T-shirts to animate the lyrics of the song. Why not use that element in an illustration?

Its still a work in progress (as most of my pieces seem to be nowadays) As always, feedback is appreciated. Should I make the arms more realistic or keep it stylized? Is the Day/night theme clear enough? Let me know what you guys think. Enjoy : )

"Day and Night" Photoshop

The Process

So I realized I should start posting more than just finished pieces on here. A little while ago I did an illustration assigned to me by illustrator / art director Nate Williams a.k.a. Alexander Blue a.k.a. creator of Illustration Mundo. My mission was to illustrate an article describing the Texas Board of Education enforcing religion into their curriculum. Here are the sketches I showed him:


The 3rd sketch ended up being chosen. The only changes requested was that the priest not be a Catholic one since Catholicism isn't the predominant religion in Texas. Its Protestantism. I made the necessary changes and finished the final illustration shown here:


State of Religion
Photoshop / Illustrator

The entire project was executed within 7 days. I love working under pressure in tight deadlines. It prevents me from over-thinking things or getting bored. Special thanks to Nate Williams for all his helpful advice throughout the process.

ILLUSTRATION FUTURO

After several months of planning, last Thursday was the opening reception for Illustration Futuro at the Illustration House. The purpose of the gallery was to promote the future of illustration in a venue famous for showcasing the history of it. I was fortunate enough to have TWO of my illustrations accepted into the show. The opening was a major success and the place was jam-packed! Special shout out to Yuquan Tan and Charles George for helping me in planning the whole event and a thanks to the judges of the show: Melanie Reim, Vincent Difate
and Eric Fowler. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the night:

The gallery filled up fast with eager supporters.



I was also fortunate enough to have the first ever digital illustration to hang on the walls of Illustration House! Here is a pic of me standing next to it.


Special thanks to my friends Kate Feirtag and Tom Stavrinos from the Society of Illustrators as well as Society President, Dennis Dittrich who came to show their support.



Even illustrator, Rich Tu (in red) stopped by at the end of the night to check out the art. It was great talking to him. His advice to Charles and myself was helpful as well as motivational.



I can't say thank you enough to the friendly and generous staff of Illustration House for all their help in setting up this show. While we were hanging the show we had the honor of taking a picture with Illustration House founder, Walt Reed.



For everyone who couldn't make it to the opening, the show is up until April 30th. The Illustration House is open Tuesday- Saturdays. Check website for more info. This was one of the bext experiences in my young career thus far and I know more great things are yet to come. SO STAY TUNED!

MUSICA!

Hi bloggers,
My digital painting entitled, "Painting on Silence" will be exhibited TONIGHT at the PICK music and art festival at Pace University. If you're in the neighborhood make sure to stop by.

ALSO- My piece entitled "Pinata = Happiness" (as seen in previous blog post) was selected to be exhibited in the Illustration Futuro exhibition at the famous Illustration House along with my ferris wheel digital painting (still untitled). Which goes to show you- never underestimate the power of a single image! The opening is this Thursday at Illustration House from 6-9pm. Heres the blog for more info:

http://illustrationfuturo.blogspot.com/

Wall Harmony

Hey blog! So last year I donated an image to be hung in the patients' waiting rooms of the SUNY Optometry Center along with a few other illustrators. After many months of waiting the pieces were finally framed and hung. I visited the location a little while ago with Melanie Reim and Caitlyn Dailey (shown here).

The pieces were printed on 18 " x 24 " paper and hung around 2 floors of the Optometry Center. Many people were already admiring the wide range of art when I arrived there to photograph the pieces. One of them being a little girl who was there with her grandmother. She took quite a liking to Caitlyn : )

Here's a shot of some of the pieces on the wall.

After searching for a few minutes I found my piece! Here's a picture:


Special thanks to Melanie Reim for telling me about this opportunity and for the photographs. I'll never say no to doing art for a good cause. Before we left that day we took a group photo with Caityln, Melanie, the little girl and one of the Directors of the SUNY Optometry Center.