Lion King

Ok, I worked on this in parts. I had the idea for the lion and expanded on it. I would love to illustrate a children's book one day. That little guy reading the scroll is suppose to be a gazelle.

Black Lines or No Black Lines

"Baseball Kid" artbyangel.com

"Running Elephant" cartoon from 2009

Ok, lately I've been experimenting with different painting techniques in photoshop. I've been separating my ink and color layer to get a cleaner look. My old drawings like the running elephant above had all these horrible black lines around them. This "Baseball Kid" Cartoon I painted recently has a more appealing look without those black lines. I feel like I'm improving with every drawing. Children's book illustrator here I come.

Great Digital Painting Website Ctrl + Paint

I found this fantastic digital painting website that goes over some wonderful tutorials for beginners. They have a store of videos that are incredibly priced. If you have ever been interested in illustration and digital painting in photoshop, you have to check this out.

Importance of Figure Drawing for the Artist

This semester I have been taking a figure drawing class with a wonderful professor at Miami Dade College; Jennifer Basile, MFA. I've really gained an appreciation for the importance of first mastering human anatomy before being able to draw from imagination. I'm trying to expand my "visual vocabulary" Any great cartoonist, illustrator or animator first starts with mastering the human figure. You can't break the rules in art until you know them. The quick gesture drawings I've been doing have really helped me to quickly capture the figures pose and action in under a minute. We've been mostly drawing in charcoal, but I've also experimented with Conte Crayon, which I really liked. I've posted a 40 minute drawing I did here in early March. This is a good example of caputring the figure, the lighting and background. I have more examples on my website. I've also worked on my figure drawing a lot in my sketch book and I think it shows in my model drawings. I'm going to continue attending open figure drawing sessions after the class is over. One that looks pretty affordable is below on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at Romero Hidalgo Artists' Studios.

Romero Hidalgo Artists' Studios
http://www.romerohidalgostudios.com/

4241 SW 75 Ave.
Miami FL 33155
305-262-9966

Uninstructed Open Model Sessions 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Tuesday and Thursday; 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Saturday. $7 per 2 hour session. $10 per 3 hour session.