Semanario 3

It's already Wednesday!!!
Well, not here. PST says it's 19 hours (I'm still working/writing at home). But still - we'll see Django today, so gotta post it now.

It's noon in our apartment! This time it's Web Wednesday - a bit hard, since I didn't want to add all of the repetitive poses of characters checking their laptops. So I added tablets and smart phones - while at Paris I've grown 'fond' of people touristing and taking pictures with tablets... There's sarcasm in that sentence.

Anyway - I really loved this poster :D And my twitter fandom shows, doesn't it? Also pictured my fondness for old phones, my adoration for Google Doodles, Muse's 2nd Law, a Spiderman Comic; Dario Marianelli's "Love Letters" (that's gotta be one of my favorite soundtracks ever!) and a small Hedwig, since today's Harry Potter's birthday too...

Well, at the UK it is!

Semanario 2

We carry on! Here's Tuesday: Portfolio & Tutorial. It's easy to see where the Tutorials get into play in this image: only here is where I started thinking about a more concrete, clear sequential story to tell between headers. Also, I tried to make this lightning more morning like - kind of like 9:00 am sort of thing, where the other one is 6:00 am-ish. Had loads of fun learning how to draw paper cranes and how to draw paper cranes tutorials.

To note here: Jane Austen, Pacific Rim (HECK YEAH! - more on that later), coffee, Un Monstre à Paris and Paris Je t'aime.

I'm having a blast with these.

Semanario 1

A friend of mine from school proposed to me a rather interesting experiment. He asked me to do a series of headers for a local facebook group he administers: there's a different header every day, and they have different themes arranged for each of the days.

Since each artist invited to do the headers can do whatever on earth he wants with this, I've decided to do a series of illustrations with the same main characters, the same environment, and a different feeling each day. I'll get into details as I post them, but for today, we've got "Hate Mondays".

To note on this image: the tiny homage to Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep", the How I Met Your Mother english phone booth, and an even tinier Erasure's "Love to Hate You". And a clear allusion to my inability to cook.

Well, to be fair, I can cook. I just don't enjoy it. CEREAL FTW!

Summer movies

I had forgotten! I've been in the move and in the CRAZY WORKLOAD - so I had forgotten to share not only this piece, but several things I've been working on for these days. Expect some sketchbook scans, including a 'kitten' themed live drawing session, a couple of concerts and SEVERAL airport drawings. 16 hours between a flight and another, with jet-lag, is just not human.

For now, my Monster's University piece created for the Pixar Times Monster Mash-Up: had an AWFUL fun with this one. Clearly.

And I can't say enough how much I loved Pacific Rim. TO PIECES. Gosh, señor Del Toro, es usted un auténtico maestro. Señor Navarro: su iluminación me hace feliz.

Cuentos del Árbol - Giveaway Time! :D

Well well well, the french bureaucracy strikes again. I've just spent over seven hours in the office to finally get my carte de séjour (meaning that I'm able to stay in the country without worrying for a while); instead, I was sent back home to further worry about changing plane tickets, going to the embassy again, getting a different visa, probably changing status AND having a new appointment in OCTOBER. This whole thing will be over a year old by then.

Still. While I was sitting there, to be productive, I started storyboarding a project and I painted this. And I love it. And I want to share it to make someone else's life happier as it did for me and my day. SO.

During the next days, I shall tweet this constantly (if you don't follow me on twitter yet, come right this way). To those who Follow and ReTweet (RT in Twitter slang) those tweets, will earn a chance to win a print of this piece, in beautiful 5.5x8.5'' and maybe (maybe!, if I find the proper frame) framed, and have it delivered on their doorstep with pretty french postage before I go home for Comic-Con and stuff. We'll keep going tweeting and adding names to the list until June 12, when I shall post the video of a tiny kid getting the name randomly picked - probably in exchange of a lollipop. That kid does nothing for free, you know... :)

So! Are we game? You know how to play! Who wants this Tales by Tree Print?

Los zorrillos bebés son lindos

Light is a beautiful thing. I'm a sucker for lightning, I just love it! I think this is my favorite part of being able to illustrate stuff: being able to play with lightning and color in different images... and the worst is that right now, I'm working (on top of two commissioned projects from which I hope to report soon) on three personal ideas that have all to do with lightning. But particularly the newest. Which is my favorite. Obviously.

This one has got a much softer, dawnish feel to it in real life. I should scan it when I have the chance.

Now I'll get back to work on the second personal piece of the day. I've got a special surprise for you guys on that one... so I'd better finish it soon!

Morrison for Manzarek

This happens to me a lot. I create something with an objective in mind, and I work hard at it and I sketch A LOT and then life happens. And I move to the next project and I forget about the last. Just now, I realized that I'm working on two projects (officially) and got an unfinished children's horror story, two ideas for two BD's that I'm developing at the same time, a street art secret project and several pieces for my portfolio.

This one shouldn't stay forever in my hard drive. It was created last year, in hopes of creating a set of pieces for De Films en Aiguille, who in co-production with Chez Eddy are preparing my dream project of Les Fantomes de Pere Lachaise. And I wanted to show them that if anyone loves to draw in cemeteries - particularly THAT ONE (as you probably know if you follow my blog) - is me.

Since then, I started doing everything I described just now. I painted this, created a whole bunch of character designs for Edith Piaf, Georges Melies and Colette - and I didn't finish it. If they called me now and said "Hey Erika, we'd love it for you to get paid to paint in one of your favorite places on earth", I totally would.

However, with Ray Manzarek's death today, I got reminded (AGAIN) that we don't have time. We're moving. My dad is a huge The Doors fan, and this is why (again, as you know) I've been a flower child since birth. I've known this organ solo by heart since I was a baby. So it's time to share and let it out of the hard drive.

Maybe one day I can do a BD on Pere Lachaise.