Happy 2012!

I'm back in Florida from Puerto Rico, hope everyone had a great holiday and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! My dog Prissy was celebrating also...

Holiday Card!

Here is my Holiday card for 2011! You can check out the initial sketches at the Dos Illustros blog by clicking on the blog name. It was inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, Jim Flora, and finished digitally in Adobe Illustrator (Fonts are Kon Tiki Aloha and Aloha Ligatures). My brother and I will be heading out to Puerto Rico to see our parents and grandparents during Christmas. Internet access will be limited but I hope to post again by the time I'm back before the new year comes.

I've still yet to see the new Muppets movie, of which I've heard nothing but good things. Maybe just before the trip?

I hope you guys have a great holiday season and enjoy the break! See you in the new year!

The movies

So in an ironic turn, I went to see Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" this past Saturday on my birthday and loved it. I love cinema and hadn't been at the theater in a while (saw my last movie before the summer). I like Scorsese a lot and this was a great venture for him to do a family movie (based on the Brian Selznick book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret") since that's not really his genre. The movie looked beautiful as a period piece, had a few great themes woven into it, and felt like Martin's "love letter" to silent film. I don't like the 3D gimmick much but since this was Scorsese's 1st, I wanted to see what he did with it and it didn't really fell gimmicky. I won't divulge much about the plot since I don't like spoiling it for other people but I felt like the movie should get nominated for an Academy Award or a Golden Globe this year. Highly recommended: If you like film, you'll love "Hugo".

Playing in the previews was a new trailer for Spielberg & Peter Jackson's "The Adventures of Tintin" (check it out by clicking on the movie's name) that totally renewed my faith in Steven after the disappointment of "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls". Maybe it's because that latter one was tied in at the hip with Lucas but I really hope the animated movie lives up to that new trailer. I was a bit turned off by the motion-captured models since the comics have such a simple line drawing style but they didn't feel as bad as I thought when they moved. Tintin also looks a bit like a younger Neal Patrick Harris.

Aardman Animation's "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" trailer (watch it by clicking on the name) was also playing and looks like another fun one from the makers of "Chicken Run" and "Wallace & Gromit".

BTW, "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword" is a pretty awesome game so far!

Alice for Redlight

Hey guys, I'll be selling a colored print of my "Alice" drawing at the Anti-mall Art Show at Redlight Redlight this Saturday Nov. 26 (my birthday!). The original drawing was done from life at a figure drawing session in Crealdé where the model wore costumes and had an Alice one. Done with Copic markers (N2, N5, brush pen) on Aquabee 808 Super Deluxe 9"x 12" paper. Here's the original drawing, the print at Redlight is tinted with watercolor:

"Alice", print at Redlight will be colored.

Please say hi if you come by the show!

Figure Drawing (nude) 11/6/11

Drawings posted after the break, these are the most recent figure drawings from the Sunday morning class at Créalde School of Art in Winter Park, FL. Done with Copic Sketch markers (N2, 5, & 8) and brush pen on Bienfang Graphics No. 360 marker paper.

Warning: if you're offended by artistic nudity, I'd  suggest you not go further and please check out my other work here in the non-figure drawing posts (or clothed ones) and at the Dos Illustros sketchblog instead. If you're not offended then please read on...

Nephew birthday card

So I posted the sketch and final illustration of my 1st nephew Levi's home-made 3rd birthday card at the Dos Illustros sketchblog earlier this week and wanted to post the card here with final text. This is all digitally made: sketch and final illustration was all done in Adobe Photoshop with an older Wacom Cintiq 21UX and the text/layout was made in Adobe Illustrator.

The Delayed Green

1st time playing with The Delayed Green
Bikkuri Sushi lounge, Orlando, FL
Late November 2009

In late November 2009, my boss Jae gave me the chance to accompany him by playing latin percussion to his acoustic guitar rock. It was during a joint birthday party for my ex co-worker Ernie Turner and I since our birthdays landed around the same date. I really hadn't played drums or percussion in front of an audience since 1992 but did keep playing at home for fun between all those years. He liked how we sounded together that night so we started playing local gigs together as The Delayed Green, the name of his previous band. He was also finishing an EP last year under the same name as a full rock band and asked me to lay down some side percussion tracks for it. I obliged and had a lot of fun doing it since I liked the music already.

The EP is now SoundCloud for listening and downloading, check it out here if you like alternative rock:  http://soundcloud.com/jaeralph