Bad Good Not Bad

At the beginning of the year frequent collaborator and friend Lee Lawson asked me to illustrate and art-direct his latest album release cover art. He filled me in on this project that has been in the works since 2012, a video-game-music-sampled beat album, and he wanted me to create something that spoofs the  iconic as the cover art for the US version of the NES classic Mega Man. Like, the first Mega Man, Mega Man 1. I looked at him and asked, Are you sure? Have you seen the original art to the first Mega Man? 

 

That's the one. I actually had a copy of this as a kid.

 He proceeded to egg me on to just do it and see what I came up with. Well, after some sketching and then the adding of color to paper I have to say it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Take a look:

This is gonna go right in the center of the spoofed cover, just the like in the art above. I  intend to match colors and a similar design to hopefully capture the feel of that old box art, one that raises the question Just what in the hell is going on?

Lawson tells me he's in the post-production stages of this project, mixing and mastering, and he said he's gunning for a an Autumn release. You heard it here first! I don't think he's even leaked this to his followers yet. He said he's gunning not only for a digital release, but one on vinyl as well. Imagine a design like this on a 12" sleeve. I'd love to see that! Stay tooned.

Couch Lock

 

Here's a piece I did that debuted earlier this month. There's an account on Insta and FB called Photos y Recuerdos and it's a special profile project that showcases the stories of Texas Latinas and Latina-identifying people. Started over lock-down last year it is headed up by my wife and her colleague as a way to publicize the stories and triumphs of Latinas with ties to Texas. 

So far the reception has been warm and positive with the readership steady growing and more and more submissions coming in. My wife commissioned me to create a piece that encompasses a wide spectrum of the representation they cover. For this she gave me a prompt; all the characters on a couch going through a photo album. I had free reign on the characters I could include, and since Latinas come in every shade, shape and fashion that left it wide open. 

Although my wife had to keep me on task to finish this piece, the project commissioners found the end result to be more than satisfactory. In other words, they love it. As do I. I tend to get a bit self-conscious when I do work for family but after I started the coloring process I really started to feel it.

Next up we have to choose a font and prepare the image for merch. Follow the profile on FB and INSTAGRAM, submit if you have a story about the Tejana in your life, share, and when the merch goes up please support!

Snowman Holla

 It's Christmas time and that means listening to Christmas music. Whenever Winter Wonderland comes on the part about the snowman plays I like to do a creepy drunk-uncle type voice "Are you married?" to my wife.

Happy Christmas in Quarantine.

Ink Slingin' 2020

 

Another year, another Inktober. I got into my little rhythm and knocked out every single day just like last year. But unlike last year I switched up the mediums a bit, mainly with an iPad Pro and the Procreate app. 

So, while some pieces are ink brush and pen to paper, a lot of the following pieces were made digitally. Many of the digital pieces, you will see, feature color. Although I never set out to make fully rendered colored illustrations I found the color just takes certain pieces to a whole new level. Indeed I've always hated digital coloring, I found it tedious and time-consuming. But with the Apple pen and the 12 inch iPad I found it stimulating and colored many pieces in no time at all. So keep scrolling and take a look below at my Inktober 2020 rundown. Unlike my Instagram where I first posted these, I have since scanned and formatted the pieces so they look sharp in their presentation.

In order of how the prompts are listed above.

Blade and Rodent in one, posted one half at a time.

And there you have it, all 31 prompts. 

Look out for my digital based illustration. I'm not switching my whole outfit to digital btw, just adding it to my arsenal as I learn more to make the most of it, like any tool. I hope ya'll are enjoying the holidays and staying away from each other. Stay safe!

Coming soon, Project Mega Desk!

 

Because Nothing Does

Recently my little sister and her friend have started their own podcast entitled Nothing Matters, and they enlisted me to come up with a logo design for the show. Essentially the show will be two women talking about anything and everything under the sun, possible with wine. My lil' sis is also very fond of the Halloween season, so images of skulls or anything else dark or macabre is acceptable. I came up with a few sketches off the top and finished this slick little number:

This was just off the top. After i showed her they filled me in on some more ideas, themes and routes they were thinking and other images they're inspired by. A few more sketches and I completed this little ditty:

While this one is getting a lot warmer it still wasn't quite it. After more details, ideas and pointers and I buckled down to my drafting table and put pencil to paper. The trick is to not overthink it (let alone overdo it), but it's tricky because that first design was definitely coming from not overthinking. But I stuck to the notes and we all struck gold with this one:

And BAM! We hit the nail on the head. The art is also vector art, so it can be blown up and stretched without any loss of quality or pixelation.
The podcast is just getting started, and you can follow along on the Insta: @nothingmatters_apodcast
And I'm sure it'll soon be searchable however you listen to podcasts. I use Pocket Casts.

Just a Little

 Wrapped up a commission piece for long-time friend Dirk Strangely. He's dropping a new music project soon and as such he's gathered some artist friends to whip up different pieces of art for different songs.
I got assigned the song "I'm a Little Kinky," with the general direction of 'surround the artist with at least 5 different scantly clad women.'

In black and white

and in Color

Dirk is quite the virtuoso with the guitar and comes from a country & rockabilly background in terms of band-leading & performing. Lately he's been venturing into hip-hop territory, inspired by the likes of Kool Keith, Cypress Hill, and Devin the Dude (which i got him into all those 😉) as well more contemporary artists like Lil' Dickie.

His new project is dropping very soon. Hit him up and follow for the latest details and to see all the other stuff he does! https://www.strangelystudios.com/

Insta: @dirk_strangely

Ink Slinging 2019

Killed it in 2019, all 31 days, plus 2 bonus pieces. See if you can follow along!

As always, the pieces which haven't been claimed get bagged up and thrown into my Art Bin, the one I bring when i table at shows. If ya see something ya like, holla!