Holding Sad Balloons

Artistically Anonymous

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog of mine, I've been busy kind of doing a bit of spring cleaning with past my artwork from Facebook. I kind of came upon a realization of even though I love painting and drawing I don't want to be known just for that, because I can do much more and a lot more. Basically I don't like being socially type cast as "an art dude" like some cheesy actor. So I've decided to separate my face from my art and make my internet persona Grey Valentine more of a "who" then "me" Soon even on my blog I'll update my image with a cartoon avatar.

Also, I've been writing and illustrating my own childrens book! I've also been meeting up with a writers guild made up of some personal friends of mine once a week or so. It's nice and it helps keep me in line to try to write something at less once a week; we critique and give input to our stories and ideas. 

I'm not really going to talk about my book online for now until I get legal copyright stuff cleared up. So far I think it's cute story with a macabre style, just the way I like it :)  

Holding Sad Balloons

Backstory 1: Well this is kind of a two piece kind of deal; the first one I created when I was in a bad situation in my life and felt pretty lonely and sad. The second one on the bottom a year later I was feeling a bit down and I kind of want it on a T-shirt so I put a boarder around it and also made the boarder it self part of the image and not just a black outline.

I started out drawing it with pencil and ink it with a ink pen and sharpie marker then I scanned it to color in Photoshop. When I colored it I toying around with the watercolor brush tool to give it a storybook like look to it. I work with several layers with intend watercolor sploshes in most of the balloons. 

The rain effect was made pretty simply; I made a simple gray layer the I applied and noise filter on it with a monochromatic setting click on to make sure the noise was close to same color if gray. I added an Gaussian blur filter right on the noise layer and increased the radius the give it speed lines. On the same layer I adjust the opacity down a bit then with a water color brush applied to the eraser tool and the flow adjust I erase parts that I didn't need. The end result a pretty cool rain effect ;) 

Backstory 2:The bottom piece I designed a boarder around it as an attended T-shirt design, because I though it would be lame to just have a rectangle image on a shirt. So I made gooey ink plots with some really cool smile faces along the edges to give the image more character if I decide to put it on a shirt. I added a white background and a black board only for the purpose of showing it online, but if it was going to be printed on a shirt it would just have the ink blot boarder.

The method I use to create the ink blot effect was all done in Photoshop. There's no real tricks involve with this but the standard brush, eraser tool, a lot of patience and imagination. The smears on the white background was done use a custom brush set and just toying around with it to give it a dirty dry ink smear look to it.

All and all the this piece was done in a very depressing time in my life; the character in the picture holding the balloons of course is suppose to be me. I guess I felt like at the time I made this all I was caring around was just sad balloons; also in the picture you'll notice the character is wearing a smiling button. It was my way of saying I'm only a little bit happy in comparison of caring so many sad things over my head. 

Weird Stuff

 

Dr. Cervantes, please report to the operation room! 

It's a pretty nice day out today, yet I'm bummed out..why? I screwed up on one of my character drawings last night (D'oh!) Granted I was going to redesign the character, it's still is a cool pic none the less. It's not a biggy, but all it means is that Dr.Romero Cervantes is going to have perform a miracle on Photoshop. I mean this mistake was bad I don't know what I was thinking (>.<)# I'm not going upload the image of the linework intil I fix the problem in PS, so if the pressurizer is a success I'll upload both at the same time so you can see the frickin' magic miracle I had to work. I mean, I feel like I'm operating on one of my friends or something after a car wreck into a truck full of broken glass and rusty razor blades.

Weird Stuff

Well it almost seems kind lame to call this picture "Weird Stuff" considering most the stuff I draw is considered weird by most people. I feel it's like calling McDonalds, "Cheeseburgers"

Backstory: Well it's nothing much to this pic story other then the fact I was really board and didn't really know what to draw. This is one those occasions I just let my imagination run wild, with the first things that pop into my head. I guess if you're going to play psycho analyzer this would be a good picture to start with; the only thing I did know was I really wanted a skull in there somewhere...

Ok folks if you've been reading my blogs (and thank you for doing so) you know I started out with pencil and ink pen traditional, scanned and colored in PS (Photoshop not Playstaion)   First one of the things I have to mention is when I was inking this I totally screwed up on the candy canes. It wasn't anything to major like the picture I'm currently inking at the moment and screwed up on; but it too was a mistake with inking.

On the pic I posted I screwed up on the thick black parts and added black lines inside the candy canes where there shouldn't have been, like I said nothing major. I was losing my mind though, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to mistakes in art, I just want to crumble the whole thing up and start over. Much like the current picture I'm working I felt it was cool and worth saving, so I work a little magic in Photoshop and POOF! It looked cool...

So I decided to talk about this pic today; I guess to remind myself that I can fix problems in my art to the point there looks like there were none at all is what also makes me an artist. Art I feel is about creating things you feel with emotions and also making use of the things you have to produce creative solutions. I guess this could be applied to life in general...So I think today I should take my own philosophy and run with it.

On a side note..My favorite thing in this pic is that green squid haha, look at those ink bubbles and that band-aid on the head. haha he's so cute!  (^_^)'

Squid in a Blender

 

ZOMBIES!!!

Well the Zombie Walk turned out in my opinion...ok, although there were some pretty cool well thought out costumes; I feel you didn't miss much, if for some reason you couldn't make it. The bands were ok, I saw some familiar faces and even score a hug from a random cute girl (then later realized why a cute girl would want to hug me for and that I should have really checked my pockets...nothing was taken BTW) 

The day before the Zombie Walk on Saturday I visited a friend of mine and went over some watches and trinkets I got real cheap from a flea market. There was some pretty cool stuff in that pile of watches and trinkets; I found some awesome things I could use for props in my steampunk costume.

Sorry I didn't post on Monday, my mind was a bit in "meh" mode with internal personal issues.

Today I'm doing a little better, been depress a little and I'm trying to find a healthy creative outlet. This week and weekend I may try to oil paint once again!

Squid in a Blender

Now this was the first tattoo design I've ever made and it wasn't really for anyone, just a tattoo flash portfolio piece. Years ago I use to hang out and draw with my friends at this tattoo parlor called Kingpin Tattoo out in Bellevue; who knew 3 years later I'd be living in that same area lol.

Although it never has been tattooed on anyone, It has been request several times from random people on the internet as a requested tattoo so I assume they're some people running around with it on there skin since the imagine outline is available on my Deviantart website

As usually same drill of drawing and inking traditional was applied then colored in Photoshop. The coloring in the pic was the first times I was really using Photoshop outside an assignment in art school and discovered my unique coloring style you see today. For me this is like looking at a home movie of me learning to ride a bike without training wheels. If you really look at it  you can see a lot of amateur hour rookie no-noes; now will I point them out? haha no, where's the fun in that; plus all that matters is if I like it and to this day I still do.

I may go back in and fix some things and even add on it; I think I can take it up a skill level and make it more creeper. I was thinking adding in some harsher shadows, some more mid-tones and cleaning up some of those highlights.

The linework to me still is very strong and is almost the same kind of art workmen ship I still have today. When I look at it though, I do feel that I evolved; you can tell I drew it but you can also tell it's dated compared to what I can do now in linework and color.

For some reason it plucks a sentimental cord with me, now that I think about it I may actually get this tattooed on myself. I guess it would go well on a leg, thigh or a really big bicep; what do you think?

Robert Morris University Magazine Spring 2009 cover

TGIFF

Thank Goodness It's Frickin' Friday! So today starts out pretty nice actually; nice day out, it's jeans day at my job and the moment I walk into work my coworker hands me a BIG bag of over 30 fresh apples right off the tree! What am I going to do with 30 fresh apples?! I still don't know, but one of things on the list is make a homemade apple pie. 

Yesterday I whined up canceling my Hot Yoga class, I was at a coffeeshop drawing and I was inspired to stay and work on a drawing. All and all it was pretty worth it; all i need to do now is ink it then color. On today's agenda for fun; one of my close friends is having some kind celebration and wants to have a drink. So this particular Friday considering the weather is suppose to be absolutely amazing from morning to evening seems like a good idea to go out and cut loose a little.

Robert Morris University Magazine Cover

Backstory: Well a year ago my oil painting instructor from Matthews Art Studio in Bellevue, PA informs me of an art commission that needed to be done for RMU magazine. So she hands me contact info and I have a chat with the art director for the magazine. A very nice person I might add, one of the best commissions I had the pleasure of doing. The details of the assignment was they wanted it to look like that old classic "Uncle Sam wants you!" watercolor painting, but with Robert Morris. It was in honor the GI Bill, because RMU was one of the first private universities in the country to support the bill. (it's pretty frickin' big deal, incase you're thinking, "yeah so, and?")

I felt I did a good job with the watercolor, don't you?...haha believe or not, it's actually digital. Don't get me wrong I actually know how to use watercolor quite well and better outside Photoshop; But working with very sharp deadlines this is one of those examples of where knowing a thing or two about 21st century technology comes in handing folks.

I was able to make changes in the matter of minutes and send a email versus setting up a meeting to discussion a doodle on a tight schedule. To get "yay or nay" with-in moments and not wait long is pretty efficient I think. I think there might have been one time I actually was emailing changes as they where having a meeting about it.

So to all you hardcore traditionalist out there be a little more forgiving on technology, it may just save you time and materials you don't have at moment. (BTW, I'm a traditionalist as well don't think I'm being bias)

For this particular piece I drew it in regular graphite pencil and used a watercolor tool brush in Photoshop to color it. My first attempts of drawing it looked more like Benjamin Franklin, it took a lot of fine tuning and thumbnails.

I tried to match the style of the original painting as much as I could, and I intentionally place "mistakes" like bleeding and even a couple of "misplace drip mistakes" through out the picture. One of the ironic things with recreating a style on a computer is you want to kill perfection out of it.

The thing people imagine with computers is perfection, so naturally someone's reaction would be is, "well he must of use watercolors, because why would there be bleeding outside the line in a computer program?" and this is 100% true!
Why would there be bleeding outside a line or drip marks on the canvas or coloring mixing mistakes or all the things that can go wrong with watercolor in a image on a computer program? You can easily fix them with just a click of the eraser tool; and that is the reason why people will believe you didn't do it on a computer.

The term, "we're only human means/implies: we're not prefect. In my opinion is what makes us human; we make mistakes it's how we learn. On the flip side of the philosophy we're also taught that machines don't make mistakes.

So the illusion created in my piece is only a psychological one not so much visual.

That's why this picture is one of my favorite ones; not so much on matching the style of the original artist. But creating an illusion without using costly materials I would've use doing it the exact way traditionally. Plus the money I got is all profit that cost me no additional purchase of supplies needed. ;)

Dracula Fail-Whale

 

"Whale" we made it through "hump" day

"Whale" we finally made it through "hump" day and it's Thursday, and from what I can tell we're suppose to have a great weekend weather wise. Which is great because this Sunday (10-10-10) is Pittsburgh's Zombie Walk at Station Square Downtown, PA!! Now is that frickin' awesome or what?! I'll be taking some pics and talking about the things that went on in case you miss it; but really you should be there if you like zombies, it promises to be a kick-a$$ event.

Supposedly there's going to be 3000-4000 people attending this thing, so I'm thinking Sheeits gunna get mad real. There's going to be some really cool bands like the Motorpsychos (my person local fav), contest, celebrity guest and all kinds of  krazy

Dracula Fail-Whale

Backstory: This was actually a custom T-shirt design I was making for one of my dearest friends; that entered my T-shirt contest back when I decided it was a hot idea to make a T-shirt web store without having a crap load of designs ready first...."a set back fail"

So as a disparate attempt to come up with fresh ideas, I decided to have a little contest. The rules were simple, send me a basic random concept you'd like to seen drawn on a shirt like, "cupcake ninjas" ( hey, that's actually not a bad idea) and I'll draw my interpretation of if it. The winner gets the design I pick, sent to them for free! sounds cool huh?! The contest was going to be every month, but I got wrap up in other important things like...like Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: the Game.

My old roomie and close friend came up with the original thumbnail design and I put a spin of my style on it. I drew it with pencil and inked it with black pens and markers then colored it in Photoshop. 

I decided to go with lots of sharp black shadows for this, to add a real horror movie kind of feel to it. I'm a big fan of the guy that does Hellboy and Screw on Head, his art style with the way he uses shadows influences a great deal of my work. Now that I said that, I'm sure you'll pick up on it with a big, "ooooohhh yeah I see it now!" 

The thick shadows I feel lets the viewer use more of their imagination to carry the image a little further in their own mind Vs. me flat out showing and spoon feeding everything to the viewer. It's kind of like when you're sleeping at night and that pile of dirty laundry on the chair looks like me holding a knife waiting for you to go to sleep. 

Coloring the wings was a bit of a pain, I really didn't know a good way to go about doing it without making it look too cartoony. I used a watercolor tool brush and a layer mask then just did long brush strokes of how I wanted the wings inside to be shaped, shaded and textured; I'm very happy it worked out in the look I wanted. I also used the same technique in the sky background, but I also used a smudge and blur tool on a different layer of brighter colors the give the sky a little personality not just depth.

Everyone's favorite part is the blood squirting blowhole, it wasn't in the original thumbnail it's just something I added in last sec in the sketch because I'm cheesy like that. 

One of the many things about my art is you'll notice even though the concept idea is a bit wacky. I like to add in one more cheesy elements to it, just to throw it over the top of sarcasm and maybe a little irony...it's kind of like my calling card. 

 

Tree Frog Samurai

Ello, ello

Well it sure is crappy outside here in Pittsburgh, reminds me Gotham City from Batman. Today I'm inspired to do a bit of brainstorming and thumb-nailing to get things rolling for my self promotion. So today I'm going to be writing out more of my *storybook *(The title is called: In a town a few hours away) also communicating with other art colleagues of mine on art related ventures and ideas.

Tree Frog Samurai

Backstory: This was a concept idea I had a few years back but never gotten to finish. It was about a Treefrog...that was of course a samurai, walking in a forest with no real destination. It had no UBER story plot (much like those really cool Aeon Flux cartoons...before they ruined it by giving her a voice), he just gets in fights here and there with typical things in a forest trying to eat or harm him, things like spiders, birds, rodents, ninja mice, other frog swordsmen even *giants *(aka: humans). The comic series was going to be call Gunpowder Green named after my favorite tea and it was going to have no dialogue and narrated using haikus....Someday I'll continue this idea but for now it's on the back burner.

I started out like usually do with a simple drawing and then inked in black. I was trying some different coloring techniques in Photoshop, because I wanted to give it a watercolor or painted feel to it. You may notice in the image I intentionally left some fake bleed areas like in the mushroom. I used a watercolor brush setting and created the trees in background using those brushes as well.

The sunbeams was done using a cloud render layer and then a noise filter for the dust particles. Then after that I just fiddled around with the opacity and eraser tool.

I think the hardest part was the whole over all choosing a color design and making the right "mistakes" in all the right places. The trees in the background was a lot of fun to paint. (^_^)

Well that's all I got for today, as usually ask questions or leave comments...

--Cheerio

Wasp on a Flower

"So I'm taking my blogging as of today a little more serious"

Well today actually I was suppose to go to work, but whine up not having a ride in due to a bit of miss communication; so I decided to call off work and venture to my friendly neighborhood coffeeshop and work on some art. I figure today would be a good time to catch up on my internet social networking to try and promote myself. So I'm taking my blogging as of today a little more serious than just posting a short paragraph and/or just an image.

The Wasp on a Flower

Backstory: Its originally from a photo reference; I totally forgot where I got it from, I think it was a sample pic in my Blackberry Storm I dunno (O_o)?

Like most my pics I drew it using a blue pencil and inked it using Copics and a *GraphGear 1000 ballpoint I got from Jetpen.com.
*(on a side note I recently found out that the GraphGear series from Pentel will be discontinue...this sucks because I think it's a good pen to help fine tune some lines with Copics)

Now after all the traditional prep work is done its Photoshop time! Some people look at it and think the wings might have been the hardest part, but believe it or not the highlights on the main body was the worst thing ever! Getting the white highlight shapes just right trying to make it all shiny and reflective...grrrr.

Well I added in a rainbow gradiant into the wasp body and wings because I wanted that shiny look soap bubbles and some marbles have. For the white highlights I put in some organic shapes and used the smudge tool to create a more 3D feel vs. the cartoony highlights in most my works.
Also, the give the drawing more personality I adjust the black lines I originally inked in blues in some spots. It was colored using the basic PS tools and default brushes nothing real fancy.

If you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to leave a comment (^_^)