I went to bed pretty late last night, I worked on this new illo for the Ten Paces & Draw blog. The theme this week was Teen Movies, the sketch I based my illustration on was done by awesome illustrator Abigail Shaw. As soon as I saw the sketch I was pretty excited, one, because I love Beetlejuice, and two, because I love drawing weird stuff.
Here are the Maitlands.
Sketch by Abigail Shaw
My Maitlands portraits.
I was invited to participate in the Ten Paces and Draw blog. It’s a super cool idea, you give a bunch of illustrators a theme and then they sketch out their ideas, then the sketches are swapped and whatever sketch they get, they have to illustrate.
This week’s theme was Fan Art. This is my illustration based on a sketch by the talented Andrew Lyons. The concept is Jazz Manouche or Gipsy Jazz. I didn’t know these two guys were supposed to be Django Reinhart and Stéphane Grappelli wen I got the sketch, I thought they were just random dudes, that’s why they don’t look quite like the actual guys. Well, that and the fact that I can’t really draw portraits. And they are skulls.
Sketch by Andrew Lyons
Jazz Manouche!
Finally had a chance to catch up with work after getting back from Mexico. It was a short but nice visit. I had a chance to see lots of family and friends. One of the highlights of the trip was without a doubt the Taller en Vida.
We got together on a Saturday and did small live printing poster event at 75º. We sold some prints, had some beers and had lots of fun. Here are some pictures from the printing event and the final posters, which by the way, came out great.
The posters are 4 colors and printed in heavy-stock French paper. Very good quality printing and paper. If you are interested in one, let me know.
Cheers.
I’m going to Mexico to see my family for a few days. While I’m there, I’m gonna have the chance to print some posters with Print Master Arturo Negrete of 75º.
I’m super excited since this is my first time producing something in my Mexico City since I left. I will be producing (hopefully) two prints and I will be printing live along with Artutro at his shop on Saturday June 4th. It should be fun.
I will be posting some pictures of the event as well as the posters. In the meantime, here is the flyer I made.
Taller en Vida - Victor Melendez
I was invited to Artsprojekt a while back but I didn’t have time to do anything with it. Finally after a few months I created some iPhone cases, just in time for the holidays!
Here is the link, make sure you get yours!
I love making posters. And when I got the opportunity to design a GIANT poster I couldn’t let it pass. Every year the SVC here in Seattle has its Wayzgoose letter press and Steamroller Smackdown, where a bunch of agencies and design studios around town participate.
This year the Design Studio decided to go with my idea, so in collaboration with my buddy Jeff Wilkson, I designed this year’s poster. A lot of friends from the studio came to help us carve the huge piece of linoleum and we got it done in just a few hours.
It was very fun to carve, but the printing was definitely the highlight, not just for us but for the audience. We decided to go full-on with the Japanese theme and the whole team got headbands a-la Daniel San.
I believe we impressed the judges as well, because our poster WON the Smackdown! Here are some pics of the process, carving, printing, playing, etc.
The new set of tumblers is out. I did these last year, it was a long process, there were some issues with the printing; registration, overprints, knockouts, trappings and what not. The cool thing about these tumblers is that they are recyclable, so the design is all about being green. The copy is great, it has some cool stories and clever messaging. My buddy, the talented Jessica Hagy wrote the whole damn thing. So here is the whole set, 8oz, 12oz, 16oz and 20oz.
Recycled tumblers!
Here’s a stamp I created for the new seasonal coffee being sold in Starbucks right now. This one went pretty smooth, the client was really happy with the result. When they mentioned the coffee was going to be from Chiapas I immediately thought of doing a jaguar. Jaguars are native to Chiapas. When I first started sketching, I went to a more realistic style, but after looking at some wood masks and fabrics, I decided to go for a more handcrafted look. I like the way the illustration turned out.
Back in October the Mexican Museum of Design (MUMEDI) put out a call to artists. The name of the project was “To Death with a smile” and it was sponsored by Adobe. I made 3 posters, but none were selected to be finalists. I went to the exhibit this past December and saw some good posters, but I also saw (like my friend Toki says) a gaggle of stinkers. Anyways, here are mine, the first two are just ok, I like the last one myself. I’m also showing you some of the initial sketches. The last one says “Guendaguti” which is Zapoteco(my grandparents’ native dialect from Oaxaca) for “death”.
I painted a few pieces for this year’s Día de Muertos exhibit at Tether. I am not that good with the painting, but I have fun. I think I’m getting better though. Here are a couple:
calacamor
Here’s one I did last year but I never posted. I think it turned out ok. A good friend bought it by the way.
Santísima
