CTNX 2013!

Hey everyone, it's CTNX time again! time does fly... I'll be speaking and sharing a panel with two great friends of mine, Marcelo Vignali and Armand Serrano on November 16, Saturday, at 2 pm. The session is titled, "The 3 Amigos: A Collaborative Approach From The Artists Point Of View." We will be talking about collaboration, friendship, respect, teamwork, Surf's Up and of course, "El Pacifico", the online graphic novel we developed for a while in a blog of its own. If you'll be there just don't think twice about stopping by and say hello! Last but not least, here comes a sketch design I did for "Puss in Boots" back in 2008.

TURBO 3

And some more. A view of Turbo and Guy Gagne in the bad guy's garage. A racing shot. An interior downshot of the garage in the Valley and finally a meditative Turbo on top of a telephone pole. In all of them I was looking for a graphic, fast reading approach, to then eventually add up complexity within it. Again, all of them done with this beautiful tool called Cintiq.

TURBO 2

And a few more. The color version of a shot I uploaded last time, a Turbo moment in the house garage (in good old San Fernando Valley), sipping away in front of the TV in the same garage at night, and finally some dramatic angles of a lawn mower at work at the same house.

TURBO 1

TURBO opens today! I'll be posting some of the artwork I did for the movie, mostly inspirational compositions and lighting. The ones that will be buying the art of book will see I have about 30 pieces there. I hope you love the show!

Heads up

A few Monday faces for today. As 'Turbo' release is approaching I hope I'll be soon available to post some of the work I did for it. Good week everyone.

Puss In Boots

Long time no see gang! Anyhow, here I found these old (2008) and very early sketches I did for 'Puss In Boots'. Some character movement studies (Ah! good ol' flamenco...) and some spanish city/architectural environments.

Email With A Question

Hi everyone, I recently got an email with an interesting question that's been asked to me several times. I actually had a (rare) moment to answer... so I did, and here are both mails in case you find the subject interesting (I won't print his name in case he wouldn't like to see it published). To go with the post, two old drawings (too bad I don't have the time to come up with new stuff lately!) ------------------------ "Hey Marcos, Hope all is well. Just finished reading your book and thought it was great. I was hoping you could answer a question for me regarding chapter 3. I understand that we first must compose the light and darks, then the lines, and then finally fill in the details. My question is, do you fill in the "details" using reference material or from memory? In other words how do you go about filling in the abstract? Thanks!" ------------------------ "Hi, and thanks for reading Framed Ink and your positive feedback on it. Here is my rather lengthy answer... Mostly I go by memory. Normally I imagine the finished work and pull from there to then put it on 'paper'. Now, this takes a long time of practicing passionately, drawing and drawing and then some, walk down the street and observe everything as it could be a nice frame or image, go home and then draw it. Run into happy artistic 'accidents' while practicing... making sure you can then train yourself to reproduce these at will. Get inspiration from masters, lots of life drawing at studios and on the street, watch good movies and appreciate the visuals... and on and on and on. One interesting exercise you can do to achieve this is, use an image (a photograph) observe it for a few minutes trying to memorize the bulk of it as well as some important details, hide the picture away and then try to draw it. After you are done compare both and see where you failed, repeat with the same or other images until you learn how to observe properly by starting with the essential and most important details. This will help you create a good memory archive as you then keep observing and observing from life. Do I use reference? sometimes, but I have to tell you for the feedback I get from people, a lot less than they imagine. Nevertheless, even when using reference you have to make sure you have the bulk of shapes resolved beforehand, and then use the reference that fits into your plan. (obviously references will also be needed in case we need to be accurate in terms of ...specific military uniforms, car models etc, you name it) There is not one only way to work, some people will feel comfortable using a bigger percentage of reference in their work, as long as they take the adequate inspiration from it instead of just copying, and they manage to make it work for the job, it's all good. I hope this answers your question. 'Best. Marcos."

Cowboy

Ready for the gun fight.

Book Signing At USC!

Hi everyone, I will have a book signing session on Sunday April 21st at the USC Campus, from 2:30pm to 4pm, Kinokuniya booth #84, signing copies of both 'Framed Ink' and 'Trail Of Steel: 1441 A.D.'I hope to see you there soon!

WWII Sketches

Hi everyone, here are some sketches on the Pacific War. Not much time to update this blog lately as you can see...

Mug Shot?

Well, at least is a front and profile...

Battle Ready

One of many design ideas I did for Condottiero Martin before I got where I wanted with him. It was a fun process of which you can see some more of the tests I did at the end of the book.

222

Inked heads for this Tuesday. Hope everyone is ok.