De vuelta con paraguas en mano

"In the end, all that matters is how fully you lived, how fully you loved and how fully you learned to let go"

"Al final, lo que realmente importa es qué tanto viviste, qué tanto amaste y qué tanto aprendiste a dejar ir"


Acrylic on wood, 15x15'' - Illustration created at Mr. Glaubitz's illustration workshop at the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) in December, 2009.

I'm currently catching up with my blogging ability, since the animated shortcut (NOW FINISHED :D) literally took away a year of my life. Thankfully, it's done and I have a BA now :)

So now life took me to an unexpected place. I'm now the one doing the teaching, working at the local University of Baja California, teaching illustration. So now I HAVE to keep up. Funny, how school's always one of my main reasons to work and be pressured to create stuff. Not that I'm complaining, though. :3 My friend 1102 (it's hilarious to refer to him like that!) and I always complained of the teachers that taught and didn't do a thing about the subject themselves: so, as Mr. Glaubitz told me when I told him I'd teach, "Destiny is wise. He's given you the chance to prove you can do otherwise. Or not."

Many things to post ahead: sketches, particularly those of the Sketchbook project (that I haven't finished for obvious reasons, but I'm currently working on), illustrations and of course, LOADS of conceptual art, backgrounds and a very short shortcut. Keep tuned. :)

Esta ilustración es el producto del taller impartido por Mr. Glaubitz en el CECUT en diciembre 2009, donde se nos pidió que ilustraramos el mantra budista de arriba.

Apenas estoy poniéndome al día con mis prácticas del blog, ya que como muchos saben, el corto animado que constituía mi tesis me robó (literalmente) un año de mi vida. Afortunadamente YA ESTÁ, y yo ya estoy titulada, así que no me estoy quejando n.n Mi amigo 1102 (XD XD Es graciosísimo hablar de él de ese modo) y yo siempre nos quejábamos de cómo los maestros que enseñaban tal o cual materia no la ejercían, y sin embargo sermoneaban sobre ella: pues bien, Mr. Glaubitz lo dijo el día en que le conté que iba a dar clases: "El destino es sabio, y te está dando la oportunidad de demostrar que tú puedes hacer lo contrario. O no."

Y para no variar, la rueda de la fortuna giró y ahora yo soy la que está enseñando: So now life took me to an unexpected place. Me tocó lanzarme de apagaincendios a la UABC, a enseñar Ilustración - así que ahora TENGO que ponerme al día con la ilustración y ante todo, mantenerme activa. Es bastante gracioso cómo es que la escuela normalmente es una de las razones principales para presionarme y crear cosas.

Añitos :)

I collaborated during the last month with a mural painting that was going on at my old school. One of the concepts I proposed was accepted, which meant I got to paint anthropomorphic flowers on it :)

This is the sketch I created when I proposed the concept:

Bond, 8.5x5.5'', Graphite

Durante el último mes colaboré con la creación de un mural en la que solía ser mi escuela. Uno de los conceptos que propuse fue aceptado en el boceto final, lo que significó que pinté flores antropomórficas en él durante un bueeen tiempo :)

And here's a Baby Faun :D

At Sketchoholic last july we were assigned to create a 'baby version of a movie character' and I automatically thought of Guillermo del Toro's Faun. I intend to color it, but for now it'll have to wait as a quick sketch: I was actually late for this session and created this in 20 minutes XD
Linen, 5.5x8.5'', Graphite

¡Un fauno bebé!!
Antes del Comic-Con, en Sketchoholic el tema fue 'una versión de un personaje cinematográfico en bebé'. Llegué tarde a esa sesión y tan sólo me quedaban veinte minutos, por lo que actué rápido y me fuí por el Fauno de Guillermo del Toro. Realmente quiero pintar esta pieza, pero ahorita tengo un buen de cosas que hacer.

And finally, my boyfriend and I had our two-year anniversary last sunday. While he took me to the San Diego zoo, I gave him a watch and hung this at his school yesterday. He was quite embarrassed when he picked it up in front of everyone, but he really liked it :)

Digital, Photoshop - 1x1 mts

Y ya para terminar, mi novio y yo cumplimos dos años juntos el domingo. Él me llevó al Zoológico a ver gorilas, y yo le regalé un reloj y colgué esto en una lona en su escuela. Le dió muchísima pena quitarlo enfrente de todos, pero le gustó bastante :D

Procrastinando

This whole animation for my thesis business is creating me some sort of double personality: whenever I'm animating I can think of about 78 different ideas for illustrations, and whenever I'm painting I can't stop thinking of how much I still have to animate. And what is worse, my time is running out - even though it was supposed to be less.

Luckily, the moment I'm done I HAVE to illustrate my arse off: not only do I have to manage to sell my illustration works; I also joined the Arthouse's Sketchbook Project, so I have to send my finished sketchbook filled with Nighttime Stories by Halloween.

Este asunto de la tesis me está generando doble personalidad, o algo así: cuando estoy animando se me ocurren 87 (cambié el número por variedad XD) ideas para ilustrar, y cuando ilustro no puedo dejar de pensar en lo que tengo todavía que animar. Para acabarla, mi tiempo se acaba.

Por suerte en cuanto se termine, tengo (TENGO) que ilustrar intensamente: no solamente ocupo comenzar a posicionar ilustraciones en algún lado; también me uní al Sketchbook Project, y tengo que llenar mi sketchbook con Nighttime Stories (el tema que me tocó).

(And Perry, 'cause he's awesome :D)

In the meantime, here's a comission that took me just three days to paint (four, if you count sketching time) and a year and a half to actually do. I know, I know. Talk about procrastination. (And animation!! It's absorbing me!! D:)

To make up for this, I'm also sending her an extra sketch to thank her patience. At least I rather like the final result n_n

Por lo pronto, una comisión que me tomó tres días hacer y un año y medio decidirme a hacerla XD. Soy una verguenza, pero por lo menos voy a compensar el tiempo perdido enviando un sketch extra :D

Regresando

Long time no see n.n

The animation isn't done yet - I've got thirty more seconds to go, and my final deadline is June 25th. So I should go upstairs, turn my lightbox on and keep doing that.
But I've neglected my blog for quite a while, so I guess it's about time I post something - and since I was rather pleased with yesterday's exercise for Shut Up And Draw! at Sketchoholics.com, I'm showing it.


The goal was to illustrate Eosop's fable of The Fox and The Stork - you know, that fable where the fox invited the stork to have soup on flat bowls, and then the stork payed it back by asking the fox to dinner and serving the soup on long-necked vases. It was done in one hour, so there's still some work to do with it - and since I liked it, I should finish it.

But after I'm done with the shortcut. n.n One thing at a time.

Adios decadita

Xmas birdie - and the inks of that. I actually like the inked version better.

Last post of the decade!!! My God, you never realize really how old you are until you start talking in those terms. XD

This has been a good year - and the next one promises to beat him badly :). I should start working on the animation for my thesis project, of which I've already worked out most of the pre-production - I actually intend to blog about the process so I don't forget anything whenever I write it down (in spanish though - I need to think in those terms since I'd be describing the process as it will be on the thesis). Once I'm done with that, I might actually go to Ireland - since my parents mean to pay it for me as a graduation gift. :D

My best wishes: Hope you all have a GREAT DECADE. :3

Love, Erika*

Psyque en líneas

So, back on working on my thesis. For those of you who don't know, I'm working on a project trying to link Design with Animation - the connection is there, I know. I'm just pointing it out - and the project's culmination is producing a nano-budget, hand-drawn animated shortcut. I'm almost through with the theory, which means I must start now with the shortcut so I can finish it (hopefully) at around December.

For this piece? Ink and markers. I work really fast with this medium - so I may post everything with this for the next few months, if I even manage to do some personal work. I should.

Hiroshima

This is oddly fitting, since for many reasons I had been delaying posting this piece since I made it on April - and remembering today is the anniversary of the bombing in Hiroshima, I decided to stop doing so.

This is my portfolio's "main piece", for lack of a better term. It is my interpretation of Miyoko Matsubara's testimony of what happened that morning. I came across it while doing a research on the bombing, and shocked me so I decided to try and illustrate it.










I used two medium to try and capture the feeling of what happened, and create a more intense 'before' and 'after' with the color palette. They're meant to be viewed in sequence, so perhaps we could try and define them as a Colored Storyboard.

A video of Miyoko Mitsubara's testimony can be found here.