Movies movies...

Three shots from The Prince of Egypt.
The first one I did back in 1995 shortly after we got started coming up with visual ideas for the movie. As we were getting ready to start layout at some point the studio needed to see on paper how the movie could look like and how the drama of the story could be reflected on panels. This was one of the compositions I came up with trying to visualize the claustrophobic life in the construction site.
The second shot is a design I did once in production, one of many for the cloud formations above the Red Sea right before Moses parts the waters.
Finally a dramatic scene by the shore as they are caught between the ocean and the troops chasing them, with an indicated camera move for what we used to call 'workbook', a part of the process between storyboard and actual layout in which we would refine the compositions, lighting and camera moves, both as individual shots as well as in continuity.

'Drawing with light' classes

Good morning everyone. From August 14th and for 5 Saturdays I will be teaching a class at the LAAFA (Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art) on drawing storyboard and graphic novel panels with light.
We will work from model and photographs, and we will also analyze actual pieces of artwork to decipher all technical and theoretical aspects of it.
The Academy is located at 16296 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys (818-708-9232) and, if you would like to know more details, please click on the link.

So, to the ones that want and can make it, I will see you there soon! :)

Some widescreen shots

I hope I didn't post these time ago. Anyway, here are some of the shots I was going through these last days. They were originally taken in the more traditional camera 'squareish' format although, as I usually do, cropped the living daylights out of them to take them where I thought they needed to be ('widescreen' is the word!). The yellow cab one is somewhere in San Francisco, three people in a hurry to get out of the beautiful Huntington Gardens (Pasadena), one of the film sets of 'Devil in a Blue Dress', and another Huntington gardens shot ... a la Maxfield Parrish.

Palm readers and mystery houses

Back now to where we left the graphic novel.
Our heroine finally got her wish come true and was definitely present the moment the undercover envoy got inside the palm reader's office to gather vital information in order for the operation to proceed... After that point, things were to get uglier. And uglier. (On a curious note, the first date of publication of page 22 was Halloween 2006, which I thought was an interesting coincidence given the visuals and story theme of it).
Also, one more view of the ghost house design I did for 'Ghost VFX'. This time it's the entrance hall.

More 'framed ink', ...and a ghost house!

So, three pieces before the weekend:
.The two in black and white are still from 'framed ink'.
.The color piece is an illustration I did years ago for a project my friend Aksel Studsgarth put together in his Copenhagen based company, Ghost VFX. The designs were about an abandoned house, exterior and interior. This one is from the kitchen, with all its 30's appliances and details. Fun film to work for!

FRAMED INK (book coming out, soon!)

'Design Studio Press' is going to present my book this coming San Diego ComiCon (end of July), and in bookstores and online at the beginning of September this year (available for pre-order in Amazon now). It's called "FRAMED INK, drawing and composition for visual storytellers", quite a self explanatory title :)

128 pages, 230 black and white illustrations (some posted here today and a few more to follow) as well as many diagrams, with text explaining all the thinking process behind the art, exploring the areas of visual storytelling for both film and graphic novel (with all its similarities -and- differences) using light and many other devices to deliver the effect a shot or sequence require, plus thumbnails on the lighting and dynamics used in each example.

Thanks again to everyone that has generously supported the making of this book, and I hope everyone that gets a copy will have as good a time going through its pages as I did working on it!

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Mi libro 'FRAMED INK, drawing and composition for visual storytellers' (titulo que define bien el contenido :) todo en ingles de momento) se va a presentar a finales de Julio en el ComiCon de San Diego (por 'Design Studio Press'), ha sido un año de mucho trabajo pero al final la criatura echara a andar dentro de poco en librerias, y online a traves de Amazon, en donde ya esta disponible para reservarlo.

128 paginas que contienen 230 ilustraciones en blanco y negro y 166 diagramas, con texto explicando en detalle el proceso de creacion de cada uno de estos ejemplos que analizan como componer imagenes con el proposito de narrar historias.
Se exploran los campos de la narrativa visual para cine y novela grafica (con todas sus similitudes -y- diferencias) usando iluminacion y muchas otras herramientas para transmitir los efectos tanto visuales como psicologicos que la escena o la secuencia requieren, asi como esquemas que sintetizan dicho uso de la iluminacion y lineas de dinamismo en cada uno de estos ejemplos.
El capitulo de novela grafica complementa todo ello hablando de las particularidades propias del campo.

Desde aqui gracias de nuevo a toda la gente que ha mostrado su interes y apoyo a este libro, y espero que los que lo lean se lo pasen tan bien como yo me lo he pasado trabajando en el!

Un saludo.

Now we are getting serious

Don't we all know how it feels when a secret agent sends us out on a dangerous, undercover, mission? Well, ...we are there with you one hundred percent young lady!! (Go get 'em tiger)

Renaissance 2010

That time of the year again!. Good old Irvine here we come.
The Renaissance Faire once more in all its cool craziness, heat, fun, noise and dust. As my fiancee Alfie was saying, by the time we were leaving we were 'one with the ground, the only difference was that we were not being stepped on'.
Couldn't be more right!

And the chat goes on... + Vikings in the storm

Somehow Miss Trouble got herself into an SUV with two secret service agents, and being demanded to do a lot of explaining.
The storyboard was an idea for the opening of 'Axterix and the Vikings'. The longship caught in the middle of a terrible storm, appearing and disappearing behind the huge waves, all of it spiced up with a lot of blinding lightning.

"...That's all you need to know"

"To live and chat in L.A."
The spanish lady is a drawing I did in Spain time ago, portfolio piece as they say...

New friends

Things are becoming more interesting than she wished for, but that's what you get when you chase weird people down funny alleys. Or isn't it.
The other two are character designs for a graphic novel, back in 2002.

Noticias 'C.H.T'

Acabo de recibir el # 1 de la revista CHT (Comic-Historietas-Tebeos).
Gracias amigos por esta revista de gran calidad tanto en su presentacion como contenidos, con una gran seleccion de los mejores trabajos y nombres como Alberto breccia, Jesus Blasco, Gianni de Luca etc.
Sencillamente extraordinario!!

Adventure lands & projects

Time for adventure, a number of characters I designed for a graphic novel long time ago. It included both european as well as exotic (from a european POV that is) lands! The other is a panel I did for the Pirate story called "El Pacifico' with my friends Marcelo Vignali and Armand Serrano.
On another note, these days I'm very busy putting together the final touches of a project of mine coming out soon. It's been an intense and exciting year I'll say!