Blummertime.

I'm going to try to be scarce around here for the next couple of months, but it's really difficult, because I like sharing what I'm up to with you folks.

If I'm ever going to leave school, however, I have to leave you in the dry. There's a lot of other great artists there who update regularly, though. Paolo Rivera, Sean Phillips, Shigeko Okada, James Gurney, Joe Quinones---just to mention a few. There's a bunch of art blogs, too, like Today's Inspiration, The Pixar Blog, Color Informal and Art with a Bark (if you like animal art).

Then again, if you LOVE sandwiches, like I do, then you'll like breadxbread, an interesting sandwich blog based in California. Too bad for us non-Californians.

Do it.

I'll probably be back soon. Ha.

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Paolo Rivera - paolorivera.blogspot.com

Sean Phillips - surebeatsworking.blogspot.com

Shigeko Okada - shigekookada.blogspot.com

James Gurney - gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

Joe Quinones - joequinones.blogspot.com

Today's Inspiration -todaysinspiration.blogspot.com

The Pixar Blog - pixarblog.blogspot.com

Color Informal - colorinformal.blogspot.com

Art with a Bark - canine-art.blogspot.com

breadxbread - breadxbread.blogspot.com

Illustration Friday - Layer

I think I might make this my new banner. Just a little more work.

Google Art Project

Ever want to visit the Tate in Great Britain? Or the Van Gogh Museum? Google brings you there.

Check out this Degas piece at Museo Thyssen - Bornemisza in Madrid! Google really lets you get up close to these masterpieces. Talk about bringing art to the people, huh?

Go.

Didn't realize I didn't upload this here.

Splashed some colors on digitally.

Illustration Friday - Sweater

This is the first time I'm participating in Illustration Friday. I've been a long time lurker.

Or a creep.

This week's theme is "Sweater"! Quick and fun. Give it a try!

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Illustration Friday - http://illustrationfriday.com/

Something I never finished.

Circa 2006.

I really liked drawing those X's.

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Stephanie Herrera - http://sherrera-art.blogspot.com/

William Low and the Ellis Island Challenges

I'm taking a class with William Low, an Illustrator from B-B-Bronx, NY. He illustrates a lot of children books, but he also does other paintings. Most of them revolve around New York City. I wouldn't blame him. NYC is pretty happening. Sometimes.

This past Tuesday, my class, painstakingly called, "Special Projects in Art: Ellis Island," was to boat over to the historic isle and research anything about the island for the second assignment for the course. The second assignment being in traditional media (oil: classic or watermix).

By the way, this is my first assignment for the class, which was to be completed through a Photoshop painting method. While, I'm not necessarily a stranger to the Adobe program, I definitely learned more than I expected when it comes to painting digitally.

Side by side, we were to select one of the references Low recorded himself (I think) and use a part or the whole reference to develop a painting. It's not bad, I think. Some parts could be improved. Just the water, ambiguous objects in the background, desaturating the greens, shadows---things like that.

Or everything.

Back to the story!

On Tuesday, we were to go to Ellis Island. We got there, on time for the last ferry to the island, but for some reason, almost everyone brought their X-acto knives. And for some reason, Ellis Island/Liberty Island security is tougher than most airports'. So everyone in the group missed the last boat that day.

(I think I would go into more detail, it was really funny and exciting, but it's nearly 5am, and I'm trying my best to avoid typos.)

I was able to go yesterday (Saturday), and before the museum closed, I managed to sketch out something in the inside cover of my Ellis Island Sketchbook:

It's a neat opener to the book, I think. I hope to finish the drawing of the luggage sometime soon.

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William Low - http://www.williamlow.com/index.html

Ellis Island - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island

X-ACTO - http://www.xacto.com/Catalog/Knives/Knives

Desktops

I like taking pictures of my desktop when I work on something.

Does that say anything about me? I don't know many others who do the same.

Back in Your Head

Here's who is probably my best friend for millenia to come, Stephanie Herrera, who, by the way, just started a blog! Hooray for Steph!

You can't lie and say you don't have trouble drawing women. Pretty ones, at that. I was considering using her as a model for one of the characters who gets intimate with Caution, but then I thought it was really, really weird, considering Caution is based from my younger brother, Manuel Espiritu. The hunt continues for that character opposite Caution.

Anyway, this image is a breakdown of how I continue to struggle with Stephanie's drawn version. At least, MY drawn version. I'm not necessarily asking for help, but it is welcome.

I just wanted to post this because, I think Steph's a great artist.

And I like Stephanie Herrera.

A lot.

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Stephanie Herrera - http://sherrera-art.blogspot.com/

Is it me, or do I like a lot of comic artists from Brazil?

I was flipping through the newest issue of Wired I got in the mail a couple of days ago. (Yeah, I still subscribe to magazines. You should, too!) February's Wired is dedicated to the underworld. Essentially, all things secret, illegal, unknown or infamous--all things associated with what most people would call the "Dark Side".

One article that caught my attention was titled, "Criminal Code." It was about cyber criminal tools (keyloggers, phishing, denial-of-service, etc.) and how they're now all available for purchase. Interesting enough, right?

What really arrested me was the spot for this article by Rafael Grampa.

I looked him up, and I think I became a fan within minutes of scrolling through his Google-translated blog.

It's not just the work.

Ok, it is the work.

It's energetic. The same reason I like Paul Pope, Nathan Fox, Becky Cloonan, Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba--there's electricity in their ink.

(Ironic, since lightning is bright and ink is dark.)

I think I wanna do this with a group of friends one day. And everyone should be restricted to ink!

Alright! Back to the gig.

All images (c) Rafael Grampa - http://furrywater.wordpress.com/