Not Happy with...

...a lot of crap lately in the past few days, weeks, months. I could list them. Then why list them? There's some stuff that needs fixing. But why fix them? I'm just fucking moody now...it should past. The strange thing is my work has been flowing during this time which is cool. Also being contacted by different persons and companies in wanting to do work with me is a wonderful thing. But I have that unpleasant feeling that something is missing...that very thing is making me unhappy.
...time to go to the gym now.




J.C. Leyendecker is an inspiration for me. I have pretty much all books on him. You folks should do a search on him and read up on him. This man influenced American illustration in the first half of the 20's century. Norman Rockwell being one of the artist that he inspired. Catch you all later.

-Axel

The Art of Sketch Theatre

Hey all just to let you know that I five pieces of mine that are in the show. So if anyone of you happen to be in Hollywood in the evening...stop by and check out some great sketches and drawings! I should be there to hang for a bit and do some doodles. There's going to be a live model for anyone to draw from and open bar! Can't beat that! Hope to see you there.

-Axel

Sol

Here's a drawing of a character of mine, Sol. Inked him up using my tech pens and the colors were done using Painter and Photoshop. Let me know what you all think?

-Axel

11x14 Sketches

Here's some warm up sketches that I have done on 11x14 bristol board. Let me know what you all think?

-Axel

Sketches from my Nueva York Sketchbook

Here's some pages from Nueva York Sketchbook. It's been pretty busy for me these past few weeks. Working on a few fun games that will be used for the iPhone and G1 phones. I'm pretty happy with the way those projects are turning out. I had my friend Mark Rattaport owner of Creature Effects, give me a call and ask me to help him out with a few doodles for a commercial. I really want to make time on doing my own stuff.

I had someone asked me where I get me inspiration, when it comes to drawing and design characters for myself and for my clients. Well, for my work I draw from a lot of sources from other graphic artists past and present to music to movies to books. Heck there's quite a bit of stuff that really get my creative juices flowing. I get inspired from events and things that I experience (hopefully that makes some sort of sense). I take a sketchbook with me pretty much everyday, when I go to a job or when I am out with my family and friends. I just never know when something will strike in my head and I will need to draw that idea down. Even when I an randomly out on my own like getting the truck wash at the carwash, I'll have that sketchbook in my hand and I'll be doodling away because someone dude or women will be there that looks very interesting to draw. I also like to take my camera along and take pictures of buildings, places, people, animals....things. I even get inspired by my students, they help me to push myself to be a better teacher and artist. My friends and business partners in Lightbox, Geoff, Eric, Jojo, Jonard and Jon all have me think about my work and how I can push it to be better so I can be happy with it and in turn they will be happy with it and of course all you folks out there be cool with what I produce.
There are times that I do get a bit dry but I just work through it kick myself to pick up the pencil/pen and make them marks. I'll watch a movie or read a book to ignite an idea. Sorry for rambling on for a bit. Well you all take care and I'll see you guys later.

-Axel

Sketches from my Sketchbook

Hey all! Here's a page from one of my tone sketchbooks. Lately, it's been pretty busy in my end. Trying to check off stuff from my To-Do-List. But it seems that everytime I check one thing off, I need to add two more things on that list...oh boy. I'll catch you all later.

-Axel

Background Design

Hey All, it's been awhile since I last posted. Been working quite a bit for the past few weeks. My work is still not done.
I wanted to at least post some background design that I have done for a animated pilot for the Booty Gravey guys. It should be coming out soon. Let me know what you think? I'll try to post soon....hopefully.

Also I want to thank the folks who have stop by this blog and left some comments. I need to take the time to answer some of your questions. which would be a good thing for me to do.

Catch you all later,
Axel

Van Helsing Project

Here are roughs sketches I did as demos for my Character Design Class....wish I had more time to do more but my time has been very limited lately.
I am having my students redesign/design characters for Van Helsing. The students are coming up with some really nice drawings so far. Looking forward in seeing these designs through to the end! Let me know what you think of the sketches? See you all later.

-Axel

Pages from Nueva York Sketchbook

Here's two pages from my Nueva York sketchbook. Their pretty much are random designs of characters that I just put on paper. Maybe I'll develop some of the these doodles further in the future.
To work on these sketches I used straight blue pencils to lay in the shapes then went onto with inks and gray markers. Let me know what you think of these pieces. I'm working bit at a time on finishing up my other sketchbook, Merida. I'll check you guys out later!

BG Design for Animax

Here's a couple of Background designs to be used for a couple of flash based games that I did for Animax Entertainment back in August. They're where used as design guides for the Flash artist to use. I still haven't seen the games, but they should be online now.
The line work was done in pencils then I scanned them in and colored them in Photoshop, nothing fancy just nice and loose with both pieces.

Late,
axel

Two pages from my Japon Sketchbook

Here's another two pages from my Japon Sketchbook. I really did have fun filling this book out with all sorts of doodles and ideas. I still need to work in the Nueva York and Merida sketchbooks. Hell, I have other books that need their pages filled....need to get to those as soon as I have sometime. Dang, I have so much to do so little time.
I have project with BooBooKitty that I'm working on. Still doing character development for that. There's a comic book project with my buddy Tony that I want to get off the ground as well. Then there's the latest Backspace project...boy I'm looking forward in putting that together with my long time bud, Geoff. Man, thinking about it and looking at my To Do List, I have quite a bit of stuff lined up. But some may happen while others not so much.
I will be teaching this coming term over at Gnomon. I still haven't figured out what will be the project theme that I'll be throwing at the kids. I do want to make it fun but they do have to work, though.
Hopefully, everyone is having fun so far in the 3rd day of the new year. Catch you all later.
Late,
axel

Sketches from Japon

Here's a couple of pages that I uploaded from my Japon Sketchbook. I used a mech pencil and Micron pens for these round of sketches. Got some exciting news this morning on a project that I'll be working on this new year...deals on that will be coming soon. Well...thinking I really can't give that much details for the fact that I signed a NDA...but I can give you an idea later on what I'll be producing.

Catch you all later,
axel

First Sketch of 2009

Hey all, hope the first day of the year has inspired you to kick ass for the next 364 days of the year!
The image that I post above is from the first page of my Merida sketchbook. It's done all in ink using Sakura's Pigma Micron Pens, sizes 005 and 02. Then I used my grey (cool) Tria markers, to add some texture and tone to the center drawing. Also can't forget the use of my white colored pencil for some high lights. If anyone have any questions about certain drawing process please feel free to ask.

Cheers,
Axel

Let's Rock for 09

Happy New Year!!!

Want to wish everyone a Happy and Productive New Year in 2009! The couple of pages that I uploaded are from my Nueva York Sketch, that I am still working on. I have so much ideas in my head that I want to get apply to paper! I still need to finish up on a couple of freelance projects before I jump onto my own stuff! Catch you all later!

Take it easy,
Axel

Scary Teddy Bag

Here's a custom bag I made for BooBooKitty as a Christmas gift. The bag itself is made out of extra canvas which I haven't used for awhile. I had the sides of the bag ran through my mother's sowing machine. Then I cut out the hole for the handles on top of the bag. I then I ran washes of Brown Umber, browns, black and bits of yellow. Lastly I painted the Scary Teddy from the Nightmare Before Christmas. I placed in the bag a Scary Teddy plush doll sold only in the Disneyland park, which I wrapped in a black cloth. Just to let you know that you can Disney no longer sell the Scary Teddy plush in their parks. You can pick one up from places like ebay. Well, catch you all later!
Merry Christmas everyone.

Sketch Theatre

Hey all just wanted to let you all know that the videos of me doing sketches for the good folks over at Sketch Theatre are now up in their site. http://www.sketchtheatre.com/
Let me know what you all think? Also I wanna wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a great New Year!

Here's the link to my profile at Sketch Theatre, http://www.sketchtheatre.com/?page_id=224

-axel

Roaming around

Running around Los Angeles doing some work and then going shopping for Christmas presents...well, stinks. I pretty relieved that I have knocked down one project, but I do have two more to go for the end of the year (well, I would like to get them done before the end of the year). Getting my shopping done has made me feel relieved. Not too long ago, I was running in circles trying to get this one gift, took waaaaaay too long. I even got lost in the process. I know my way around L.A., but I was having trouble. I'm looking forward till this holiday season to be over and moving on to the new year.
The image of this cute furry bear that I attached to this blog is a quick sketch for a buddy of mine. The line art was done using Sketchbook Pro and colored in Painter. Well, I would like to wish everyone a cool Christmas day and hopefully you have all your shopping done.

I'm out.

-axel#13

Santa?

A quick Christmas piece I just did today. The line art was done using Sketchbook Pro and the coloring was done in Painter and Photoshop. Lately, I pretty much feel the way this character looks...shitty. Catch you all later.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone that stops by this Blog a great Thanksgiving! I only hope that everyone gets to spend time with the friends and family. I do have to say that besides being in a not so great mood for the past few weeks, that I'm thankful for all the great stuff that had come my way this past year! At the moment I have a few projects hanging over my head that need to get done in the following days after Thanksgiving...it's a bit tough, but I really can't complain. What are you thankful for?

The image above is a sample from my digital sketchbook...the sketches were done using done Sketchbook Pro 2, Painter 9.5 and Photoshop CS2.

Take care,
axel#13

Bots

Here's some Robot designs that I did from my sketchbook for a personal project I'm working on. Dang, I have so much going on at the moment with freelance projects, I'm trying to get it all straight. I don't want to seem that I am complaining, I'm not. It's good to be busy, I just need to manage my time a bit better. I feel tired and sad, just need to clear my my head. I know I'll pull through.
For this pieces I laid the roughs in with blue pencils then inked them with a brush pen that I bought from Japan (such nice pens). I added tones to the sketches by using my warm gray TRIA markers. I even used a white Primacolor pencil for the highlights.
I'll catch you all later.

Paid Internship at a Gaming Studio in Los Angeles

Hey everyone!

My producer asked me to spread this around.

I'm working at a game studio called DeepBlue Worlds as the Head BG designer which is working on an exciting MMO (massively multiplayer online) videogame for kids, and we're looking for a few committed artists and/or animators who would be interested in interning for us. We're located in Sherman Oaks. The project is a really awesome one, and the work environment is fun and the employees all get along fantastically.

Basically what we need are people to:
- assist animators and artists to prepare artwork/assets for the game
- production assistance would also be asked for

Core abilities needed:
- need to know/use photoshop
- be articulate
- take direction well
- be very organized/disciplined
- be either familiar with Flash or willing to learn (bonus points for already knowing / working in Flash!)

Responsibilities
- Integrate art and animation into the game
- Work closely with the team, and supervisors as needed.

In terms of hours, you can work around your school schedule. Minimum no of hours per week: 5-10

The pay will be somewhere from $8 to $12 an hour.

Requirements:
A portfolio of work -- What is really helpful is any samples of DIGITAL artwork of any kind (we had a guy come in with nothing but paintings and paper drawings... we just need samples of art that has utilized a computer at some point, whether it was to draw, ink lines, to shade, clean-up images, or what-have-you) . If you have a deviantart or equivalent site that has art samples, please send us your link!

You must be attending college and live in the Los Angeles area.

When internship begins:
The internships will begin around the beginning of December 2008 onwards, so apply now! :D

It's a great opportunity for anyone who likes videogames and wants to get some inside experience! If you're interested, please contact out producer Reza.
You can call him at:
818.788.1005 ext.155

or email him at:
RSadafi@deepblueworlds.com

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask Reza or me. :)

Thanks guys!
-axel#13

aortiz@deepblueworlds.com