Florida Keys Or Bust!

Mind traveling... it's something already :)

Portraits

...Of some imaginary people. Happy Season everyone.

Ghost in the Cellar

A quick sketch before Christmas.

Color Sketch

A quick color sketch for tonight. Crazy looking guy...

'Lines and Colors' Review

Charley Parker just posted a review on "Trail Of Steel" in his fantastic 'Lines and Colors' blog, of which I have been a follower for many years now. To go with my new post today, here is a number of options I sketched when researching for the graphic novel's cover.

Thanks!

Thanks for a great CTN experience. It was a really great evening meeting and talking with all of you guys. It was lots of fun and I honestly couldn't believe how fast the two hours went by. I have to say this time I do not have any photos of the event unfortunately, otherwise I would have posted them here and now! ...Instead here are these images I created for 'Puss In Boots' during the time I was working for the show: one location / composition shot and its close up detail, plus three of the quick cinematic solution pages I design for the occasion.

See You At CTNX Burbank Soon!

I'll be signing books, chatting, having a Q&A... at the CTN Expo in Burbank this coming Saturday November 17th between 3 and 5 pm in one of the booths set up for the occasion in the perimeter hall (see map), around the area where the stands are. So I hope to see you there soon!

Drawings And More Hometown

Two more sketches for today. They date from last year and I believe I originally did them both for this blog. The other two images are photographs taken in one of my favorite coffee shops in Palma called Cappuccino (this particular one in Carrer Sant Miquel, really fantastic place).

Halloween Costumes?

...Maybe not, these guys seem to take themselves very seriously. Happy Halloween everyone!

More Architecture From The Graphic Novel

One more double page layout colored for this occasion. I love working these big establishing shots to set the mood for whatever scene is coming next, specially if these are about traditional architecture from the south of Spain, with this always interesting mix of mediterranean european and arabic style.

'Trail Of Steel' - Panel

Here is a double page spread panel from my graphic novel 'Trail Of Steel', colored for this post (as you know the book is in black and white).

Warm Colors

More Puss In Boots artwork. The "Fallas-like one" pictures the street celebration you see the 'distant lights of' in the second painting of my previous post (in yellowish).

Night Time

Three spanish architecture and location studies i did for Puss In Boots long time ago. All night shots. I just felt like going for a quiet night walk somewhere there and wonder about little 'centuries old' streets. Great feeling!

X-Treme Ping Pong

A couple of sketches for this week. Happy Friday everyone.

Sketch

Two brushed fellows for Thursday

A Couple of News

I recently created a new blog that will have a steady representation of my work in animation in the last years. Obviously it will all be works I've done for movies already out there, so the most recent works will remain 'a secret' until such films are released. I named the blog 3M for my initials. Also, I just got news from my incredibly talented friend (and owner of his own Studio in London) Uli Meyer, that he is working on a new fantastic project. You can go to his blog to check it out! There you can see regular updates on his work's progress.

The Illustration Days

These are two images from a portfolio update in the early 2000's. Fun stuff to do and total freedom when it came to concept and execution. These two were pencil on paper drawings, scanned, and then colored with photoshop. Some of these pieces are also in my website.

Works From Another Time

I recently reopened an old hard drive containing files and scans from a long time ago, all while looking for some pieces I will be posting here some time soon. These three ladies date from back in (in the order posted here):1995, 1987 and 2003 (this last one, "The Venetian Lady", is only a fine tuned guess since it is not dated, but I'm pretty sure it has to be from that time). The black and white piece (pencil on paper)was a character study for a graphic novel project that never became a reality, the "Lady in the Forest" was a one Saturday job (ink, watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper), I put around 13 hours in it I remember, the size of the original is quite big (100X70 cms). The last one (photoshop) is a portfolio piece.

Medieval Mallorca

It was time for a visit back home already, way due. Anyhow, in the next posts I'll be showing some of the shots I recently took while there with a few notes. I'll say I was very impressed by the city of Palma after so many years. I am not biassed when I say it looked so beautiful (am I? :)), with an old town which contains architecture spanning from medieval to the baroque period, courtyards that remind you of the italian influence in so many of them, and the Mediterranean sea right there with its bright, blue, clear light. I had a great time. Everything in the place includes lots and lots of walking, which means you actually get to see, hear and feel the City and its people all around you, with buildings going back to the 13th, 14th centuries and so on, a great visualization of how the city and its people have evolved through the times, almost like seeing the rings of a tree which trunk has just been cut off. Well, here are some pictures I took of the Cathedral, a catalan gothic style building which I deeply love, svelte and elegant with a spectacular proportion between the width and the hight of its pillars given its narrowness. I still remember when, the fact that it was originally built on a spot that would allow it to be reflected on the Mediterranean, was recuperated in the seventies with the creation of the 'Parc de la Mar' bringing back the ocean right at the foot of Palma's old defensive wall. A fantastic cathedral that plays with the light of the Island in a unique way twice a year as this interesting video shows. Finally, the first shot I posted today is a skyline of the old city with a reference to the monuments and churches I could identify (hopefully they are all accurate!), but then again I'm missing a few ones, anyone can help me with the remaining names...?

The Old Days Of 'El Pacifico' (and 3)

The Old Days Of 'El Pacifico' (2)