ISS: India

Here's another piece from my International sketch series (ISS) This one is of a statue from India. I usually find a statue I like, draw it for a few minutes and move on to the next one. Enjoy:

International Sketch Series

I've decided to start a new series of drawings within my sketchbook. I spend so much time drawing the sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that i might as well post them up. My goal is to draw something from as many different countries as possible. Since I can't afford to travel around the world I can at least draw things from around the world. So here are the first 2 from my International Sketch Series (name subject to change)
Lets begin with a sketch of a Greek sculpture:

Now lets jump to Africa! Here is one from New Guinea:


More sketches to come. Please feel free to suggest any countries you would like to see!

"Welcome to Disney!"

Happy August bloggers!

So about 2 weeks ago I attended ICON 6 in Pasadena, California and it was amazing! While there I was lucky enough to meet Dawn Rivera-Ernster who happened to be the Talent Development Director at Disney Animation Studios! She was nice enough to invite me and my friend, Yuquan Tan on a tour of the Disney Studios! Here I am at the main entrance:
During the visit I was fortunate enough to be joined by a group of talented illustrators including Hanoch Piven, Edel Rodriquez, Yuquan Tan, and my former professors, Melanie Reim and John Jay Cabuay. Here is a picture of all of us:


Photographs weren't allowed inside so I could only take some outside the studio. But inside the studios were covered in murals, original sketches of Disney characters were taped to the walls, arcade machines were found randomly throughout the building, free coffee, water bottles and fruits were set on tables for the taking. I saw drawings for my favorite Disney movies (Lion King, & Aladdin) along with concept art for movies still in the works (which I don't know if I can mention) In the lower levels there were even painting studios where a live painting class was taking place. (Their saw horses were a lot better then the ones I used while at FIT) Even as we walked down the hallways, we would be greeted with friendly faces saying, "Hi, welcome to Disney!" It was an amazing experience. I would love to work in an environment like that and if character design, concept art, animation or character art is your thing than I highly recommend working for Disney (eventhough I'm sure you all already knew that.)

Till next time, bloggers!

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.