Last of the Year?

Maybe.
We just went sketchclubbing again today after (for me) a very long long time: Marcelo Vignali and his two daughters Grace and Gloria, Craig Harris and Sean Galloway (Cheeks), whom I had the pleasure of finally meeting today!
We set camp in the food court of the Westside Pavillion, pulled out our pencils and markers, and went for it!
Here are some interesting characters I saw around.
It was great fun and I realized how much I missed it. Let's definitely do it again.

More Asterix (© M6 & A-Film) ...and "The Prince of Egypt" 10th Anniversary.

It is going back down memory lane with yet another 'Asterix' post.
And talking memories, yesterday it was the 10th anniversary of the release of 'Prince of Egypt'.
So many things coincided in time for me back then, just arrived in the U.S., getting started with a big, big, brand new Company, an amazing, larger than life, project... it was an epic movie created by an epic collaborative effort. An opportunity to learn from so many passionate and talented people.

Anyway, these two designs today correspond to the end of a 'chase on ice', and a shot from the very beginning of the movie, with vikings attacking a fishing village that has just been abandoned by its terrified inhabitants.

It's the Gauls turn (© M6 & A-Film) + Tagging update

Like I mentioned, 85% of the work I did for this Film was design around the Vikings and their locations, although I also got to do a lot of key layout for the whole movie, that included both viking -and- gaul locations.
So her are two "village" shots and a "surrounding forest" one.

-BTW,
I was tagged by 'Shuku' (http://shukuen.blogspot.com/) recently.
I'm supposed to list 7 random facts about me and tag another 7 people along (I'll only comply to the first part, I'm way too shy for the second!)
-Born in an Island.
-gimme summer time, any time.
-First life action movie I ever saw; "20.000 leagues under the sea"
-Love snorkeling
-'Paris, Texas', what a movie (and let's not forget about 'Stranger than Paradise"!).
-Blessed by being passionate at the healthy activity of drawing and telling stories.
....and
-It was good to be raised bilingual, makes you see there is always more than one view on the same issue.

(thanks Shuku)

Asterix and the Vikings (© M6 & A-Film)

Exceptionally, and since I don't have much time to produce 'blog-sketches' these days (busy at the studio and busy at home with my own project), here is some artwork that I have done in the past for movies.
In this case it's "Asterix and the Vikings", a film for which I designed all about the "Viking world".
It was produced by M6 in France and A-Film in Copenhagen (just in case it wasn't clear enough). A year and a half of fun and one of the major projects I worked for in my studio in Spain.

So rough it's not even funny (updated)

This is a real sketchy one (plural, after update) , one can tell I didn't spent more than two weeks on it.
Anyways, I hope all is well with everyone at the 'blog world'. Things here seem to be good and I'm enjoying posting something up after that long, even if it's this simple.

Ps. Since I hadn't posted a thing for the last 3 years and 7 days, I thought I would at least add another one to the post. So, for the same price, here goes the lady in red, plus 'swordman guy'.

Hello!

Well, it certainly has been a while, so I won't say much and will go straight to the thing!
I hope all is well with everyone.

Thoughts and sketches.

And to add up a little more light to this last 'drawing-less' posts, a couple of life drawing sketches.

Not too long ago, before the 'Orphan' news broke, I was talking to someone comparing the times in which I grew up (60's 70's), when one only had access to artwork produced by the 'official big guys' (from which sure enough we learnt so much), to these times we are living now in which with full access to internet and therefore pretty much any creative blog on earth, the scope of art, artists, talent, styles, points of view, options, opinions and ideas we could learn from and be inspired by, just enhanced everything we ever experienced at this level to a point never imagined before.
The speed at which things happened, the interchange of sources of inspiration -and- ideas, the creation of a global community of artists that were -constantly and in real time- sharing the best they had to offer in terms of art and opinion, seems it might as well be in the way out. If things go in a certain way, no 'real time' art, no fresh and spontaneous feedback there. This window to the world which I particularly appreciate very much seems to be going through very difficult times right now.
Anyhow a friend was telling me recently that the more obstacles we find in our way the more we, as the creative people we are, are going to find ways to even improve what we had before. I'm with him.



For updates from the Illustrators Partnership.
http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/

I just got this one today.

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Call to Action
Last Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed their Orphan Works Act.
It is now headed for the full Senate.

If you’ve written before, now’s the time to write again.
Urge your senator to oppose this bill.

Because it has been negotiated behind closed doors, introduced on short notice and fast-tracked for imminent passage without open hearings, ask that this bill not be passed until it can be exposed to an open, informed and transparent public debate.

We’ve drafted a special letter for this purpose.
You can deep link to it here:
Contact your Senator in opposition to S.2913 NOW

The House Judiciary Committee is considering H.R. 5889, the companion bill now. Please write them again:
Contact your Congressman in opposition to H.R. 5889 NOW

2 minutes is all it takes to write your senator and representatives and fight for your copyrights. Over 68,000 e-mail messages have been sent so far.

Don't Let Congress Orphan Your Work

Please forward this message to every artist you know.

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: ipa@twcny.rr.com
Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

Interview

You can listen to the Brad
Holland interview about this act here.
It's a few months old, so right now letters can be sent if anyone so decides.

More options

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Since yesterday, over 31, 000 letters have gone out from our Orphan Works advocacy site.

Q: What can we do next?

1. Write the House Judiciary Committee. We’ve set up a special alert to contact members of this important committee.


Go to our Take Action/Alert site: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/
Look for the sample letter labeled "Contact House Judiciary Committee NOW" and send it.


If your Representative is not a member of the House Judiciary Committee, this will send him a message asking him to contact his colleagues on that Committee on your behalf, urging them to oppose the bill.


2. Ask for support from family and friends:

Please ask your friends and family (5 to 10 others) who support your creative work to also go to the site.
They can follow the instructions to easily send a message of opposition to this reckless bill.
Look for the sample letter labeled "For Supporters of Visual Artists - Wrong to Weaken
Copyright Law" and send it.


3. Spread the word to the public: Photosharing on Web will now be at risk:

Please alert your friends who post photos to the web their personal property will be at risk.
Look for the sample letter labeled “For the Image-Making Public - Protect Personal
Property”and send it.


For more information about the Orphan Works Act of 2008:

IPA Statement to House Subcommittee March 20, 2008:
http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00261
IPA Senate Mark-up Comments April 30, 2008: http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/ow_docs
Geneva/ May 7, 2008 Orphan Works Bill Catches Global Attention/ Intellectual Property Watch/
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1028
MP3 Interview: http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html
YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CqBZd0cP5Yc


Please post this message or forward it to any interested party.


If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

Orphan Works Act.

Guys,

today I'll just recommend to please read the last posts by Marcelo Vignali in his blog.
http://vignalistudio.blogspot.com/
I would write something about the issue here, but I just don't think I could do such a great job at it as he has.
It sure is a matter to be taken extremely seriously.

Thank you.


.

Renaissance faire, one more year!

So time for the Renaissance Faire it was again. Sketchpads ready and there we went. Nice weather (not too hot not too cold) drawable stuff in almost every corner... we couldn't ask for a lot more!

Sketchclub times

This is an old sketch from the days I was regularly out there with the 'Sketchclub guys'.
This young lady was holding a menu in her hand while looking at the specials for the day.
It's great to know that we still get together from time to time to put marker on paper again.

1- For some reason...

... my laptop from hell is not allowing me to upload more than one image at a time right now so... here they come in chapters.
These are from a recent visit to the L.A. zoo, really cool place to go sketch some interesting characters indeed.

2

Just lookin' cool and hairy

3

One mean looking fella.

& 4

I guess I'll just never know.

And... posting with a bit more time.

Image from 2003. "Bad guy - worse guy" situation. Now I need to figure out which one is which!

Posting quick...

... because it's nearly 9:00 p.m. and I gotta get out.
So, guys in armour, horse taking a break, and two people not knowing what to do with a gun (thank God)

Sweet Nostalgia (Updated!)

-Scouting around in the 'drawers' of my computer I run into these three.
I thought it would be cool to compose them together as they are the three stages (not stooges) of page 19 of old Mrs youknowwhat's adventures.

-By the way, around the time I was publishing my graphic novel in this blog we went one day on a sketchclub session, and guess who was there eating at the restaurant. That young lady looked so much like the character in the comic I couldn't believe it.

-YES. Even nostalgia can be updated.
As Shuku was mentioning in her comment about 'El Diablo's" italian shoes, here is another key moment in what happened 'that night in and around Hollywood' (©) to our young and daring friend... entering the "Palm Reading" shop.

Trains, trains and automobiles

Automotive sketchclub we had yesterday with Marcelo, Noelle and Craig (Grace and Gloria too as guest stars!!).
It was a beautiful day outside so we headed for 'Travel Town' at Griffith's Park and I have to say it's been one of my most exciting sketchlubs to date!

Time for a 'new' one

I was particularly interested in achieving a mysterious atmosphere on this one.
I quite liked the two characters since the beginning and had fun with the study of their hands.
Once the illustration was 'finished' I played a bit with the color saturation and contrast (wonders of the digital age!) until I got the desired effect.

Dos dibuixos mes (or 'two more drawings'!)

Two more pieces from 2003/4.
The Sci-Fi one was just a personal one, I hadn't been using 'painter' long by then and that was part of my 'gotta get to know this tool' period.
The other is a character design I did for an animation series idea of my own. I'll just say it's been in a drawer ever since!