Oh, well

Hi, I just stumbled across your blog and am blown away! Two quick questions; on your piece Blossom, when cutting the film away, how did you ensure you didn't damage the board? And second, Have you ever considered drawing for comics? Your art reminds me of Francesco Francavilla (check their work out!). Cheers.

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:09:02 +0200

The secret to avoid cutting the board is, well, applying just the right pressure with your x-acto knife. You should only use brand new blades; if the blade is worn out (even slightly worn out), you’ll need to press harder and, though you won’t actually cut the paper, you’ll leave some awkward grooves on it. Also, of course, I recommend using paper with a decent thickness.

Regarding the comics question: I love comics and I take them very seriously as a medium. I have done some sequential attempts in the past, but I seem to be too slow and too lazy for it. That’s why I developed my one-panel-minicomic idea. Which of course isn’t exactly mine and shouldn’t be taken too seriously anyway.

Yes I know Francesco Francavilla’s work and I absolutely love it. I never thought of our styles being too similar but you may be right at some level.

I’ve done this sequence as a companion image for a project...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:21:11 +0200

I’ve done this sequence as a companion image for a project I’m working in. I’ll show you the main illustration soon, but I’m posting this one in advance because I particularly like the simplicity of it. It is supposed to represent different views or phases of the same planet. Initially I tried to use the brush for drawing those “geographic artifacts” in the planet’s surface, but it looked too wonky and plain wrong. Then I tried something different, and I had fun enough to make a small video out of it:

Planet from Señor Salme on Vimeo.

Looks like a first grade activity, right? Well it’s that fun.

Last, not least: I really thank you for all your kind replies to my former post. You can bet I really appreciate them. You rock.

Just for once, allow me a text-only post. My son Julio was born exactly a month ago today. He’s...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:53:40 +0200

Just for once, allow me a text-only post.

My son Julio was born exactly a month ago today. He’s healthy and much more handsome than his father is, which is honestly all we could ask for. I don’t have to tell you that I’ve had little time to spend in tumblr lately, let alone to sleep a straight night. You are warned that updates of this blog may become more sparse than before, at least until things settle down a bit, but I’ll do my best to keep posting new work. Anyway, I am most happy that, even with the lack of updates, and much to my surprise, this blog has kept gaining new followers. So thank you all for that.

Appart from becoming a father, I recently signed up with Synergy Art, an illustrators’ agency based in London. I feel honored to be among such a nice bunch of talented artists, and I think this is going to be a great opportunity to get more client work and also to get more quality projects. I know there’s a lot of discussion about whether illustrators actually need a rep or not, and many people see it ultimately as a waste of money. Well, I’m not good at marketing my own work, nor at searching for new clients or negotiating budgets, so I think I may be the kind of artist who really take some benefit from this sort of deal. I have meditated quite seriously this decision and I still have a good feeling about it.

So many exciting changes; it feels a bit like a turning point for me. Will you wish me luck, my dear worthy reader?

En 1900, la reina Victoria y Jules Verne estaban vivos, y el...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:32:25 +0200

En 1900, la reina Victoria y Jules Verne estaban vivos, y el siglo XX, que ya corría en los calendarios, no había empezado aún. El siglo XX, ya se sabe, empezó en 1914, con las matanzas industriales de hombres en los barrizales sangrientos de la Primera Guerra Mundial y con la introducción de los cascos de acero y del color caqui en los uniformes militares, que hasta entonces tendían a los rojos y azules de los casacones de opereta. El siglo XX empezó con la aplicación de los principios de la cadena de montaje a la fabricación de coches, de películas y de cadáveres humanos. Hasta entonces, las películas eran distracciones rudas de barraca de feria, los automóviles seguían pareciendo catafalcos o coches de caballos y los muertos, incluso los muertos de la guerra, eran muertos artesanales, de uno en uno, con nombres y apellidos, casi parroquianos de la muerte, como los parroquianos de las tiendas de ultramarinos.

Antonio Muñoz Molina, Ardor Guerrero; p.226. Ed. Alfaguara, 1996.

This is quite an old drawing that I have redone from start to finish, just because. I’m in the process of updating my portfolio and, while browsing my files, I found the old version of the drawing. Now, every now and then I would stumble upon an old drawing and think “Oh, this was a good idea, I only wish I would had drawn it better”. Usually it takes just a couple of seconds to avoid the temptation, but this time I thought it was worth the effort. Whatever.

Curiously enough, the drawing comes again from something I read in a book (if you remember, my loyal worthy reader, the same happened with a couple of recent drawings). You can see the quote above; I wouldn’t dare trying to provide a full translation, but basically it says that 1914 was the year the 20th century actually started, “with the application of the assembly line principles for the production of cars, films and human corpses”. I was somewhat moved by that notion and this drawing was my take on it.

By the way… I guess that back when I did the original drawing I didn’t know how to draw something in isometric perspective. The angle between every pair of axis should be 120º, right? That’s obviously not the case in this drawing. I’ve learned that the kind of proyection used here is called trimetric (a sort of axonometric perspective), which may sound like a cumbersome term. But back then I just did what I felt was right for the drawing without thinking too much. And I still think that this technical, unnatural perspective fits perfectly the subject of the drawing; so I let it stay the same.

Also, this was the perfect chance to test my new roller ruler, which no doubt is the most awesome thing on my desk right now.

Print available here.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:34:17 +0200

Print available here.

I was thinking about adding some halftones but I think I like it...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:48:23 +0200

I was thinking about adding some halftones but I think I like it better this way.

Ink on paper.

how much reference do you use when doing your illustrations?

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:36:46 +0200

I use reference in most of my drawings, but never in the sketching stage, where the only important thing should be composition. After that, I may take some pictures of myself trying to get the right pose, or I’ll ask my beloved A. “can you hold your hands just like this?”. Most often she’ll answer “but that’s physically impossible, you know”. I swear my Stream Photos is full with this sort of embarrasing, funny pictures. Also, stock photo sites such like Corbis can prove useful when you’re looking for something that you can’t mimic by yourself.

Anyway, the great John Lee recently wrote a post (this one) with a much better answer to your question. You should totally check it out.

I made this illustration for the latest issue of Popshot...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:59:07 +0200

I made this illustration for the latest issue of Popshot Magazine - The Imagination Issue. It accompanies a delightful short story by Krishan Coupland entitled Gravity.

You can see an 8-page sampler and order the magazine here.

I’ll be posting some new work soon, but in the meantime I...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 21:26:40 +0200

I’ll be posting some new work soon, but in the meantime I remind you that you can follow my awkward process by checking out my Instagram.

I hardly take photos of food or cute cats, and, while I try to keep those Instagram cool filter effects to a minimum, sometimes I am just not strong enough.

A one panel mini-comic is so worth a name! I'm inspired :)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:59:14 +0100

Great! The one panel mini-comic will be my main contribution to Western Civilization. Or to Civilization as a whole.

Soon: the two panel mini-comic. And I’ll follow a steady progression until producing a two hundred pages graphic novel.

(Anyway, I am very happy to hear you find it inspiring! Thanks!)

You know what's strange and kind of disheartening about B. Fuller's designs - the geodesic dome of course was a big hit, but his car designs were not. Geodesic dome houses were briefly popular and then declined for numerous problems. His plastic houses were a disaster. Geodesic domes are a good idea for very large structures but that is really his only enduring design.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:18:09 +0100

I know what you mean. Obviously most of my interest in B. Fuller’s stuff comes from a aesthetic standpoint; I am afraid that, having read little else about Fuller’s designs apart of what’s available in Wikipedia and in a couple of websites, it would be very daring from me to go further than things like “hey, I like it because it looks like all those Modern Mechanix stuff”.

Sure, I also was dissapointed when I first read about Fuller’s car being a failure, but I still like to think of all these inventions as a glorious (though mostly futile) effort.

your most recent work is stunning. being able to see your process via instagram makes the whole thing even more rewarding to see as a finished product

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:44:46 +0100

Thank you Jacob, those are encouraging words, particularly because they come from someone whose own work I admire and respect.

And yes, after setting an Instagram account a few months ago without a clear purpose in mind, I’m finding it useful to use it for showing my process on the go, while I turn to tumblr when it comes to post finished pieces.

This has been on my drawing table (or somewhere near it) for at...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:44:23 +0100

This has been on my drawing table (or somewhere near it) for at least one month, but once and again I’ve been forced to leave it aside because of deadlines and… well, life. Now it’s finished.

I would like you to look at it as a sort of minicomic. A one-panel minicomic, if that’s something worth a name.

The text is (allegedly) a Phoenician prayer quoted by Jorge Luis Borges in his book Seven Nights (this is when I start to look pedantic), which holds a collection of seven lectures from 1977. The prayer was spoken by sailors “when the ship was in the verge of being lost”, and it translates as follows:

Gods, judge me not as a God

but as a man

whom the Ocean has broken.

I have been careful enough to write “allegedly” before because Borges didn’t add any particular reference as the source of this text, and he had a well-known habit to make up apocryphal stories. You have been warned, my dear worthy reader.

This is sumi ink and airbrush on A2 board, by the way. As usual, you may find some progress pictures in my Instagram stream.

PS: I just noticed: two literary references in two posts. What’s happening here? As if I still had time enough to actually read or something.

“Soon he couldn’t hear a sound—not the fans, not even his...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:30:45 +0100

“Soon he couldn’t hear a sound—not the fans, not even his own heartbeat. The nocturnal silence aboard ship was unlike any he had ever experienced. Earthly silence has limits; one senses its finite, transitory quality. Even when you’re out among the lunar dunes, you’re always accompanied by your own private little silence; trapped by your space suit, it magnifies every squeak of your shoulder straps, every crack of your bone joints, every beat of your pulse—even the act of breathing itself. Only on a ship at night can you be truly immersed in a black and glacial silence.”

Stanislaw Lem, Tales of Pirx the Pilot, 1966

I drew this typewriter in ruthless isometric perspective for a...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:12:50 +0100

I drew this typewriter in ruthless isometric perspective for a client which is also a good friend. From time to time, I also do logo designs which always end up looking kind of minimalistic, as you can see in the second image.

I finally did a partial revamp of my site. Basically I’ve...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:19:23 +0100

I finally did a partial revamp of my site. Basically I’ve got rid of all the superfluous stuff and made the social links more visible. It now has (I hope) a more clean look. I’ve kept the big thumbnails though, which I kind of like. Oh, and I also wrote a private php routine to help me easily upload new images to the site without the need to manually update the database. I don’t have the slightest idea about how everyone else does this, so most probably I’ve been reinventing the wheel. Anyway, I hope that will make updates of the site more fluent.

I also draw this sort of self-portrait for the about section. Yes, deep inside I am a curious, shy little creature.

Hopper ink study. Indian ink and white acrylic on Muji craft...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:54:33 +0100

Hopper ink study.

Indian ink and white acrylic on Muji craft notebook

Rooster girl. I posted a couple of process shots in my...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:38:14 +0100

Rooster girl.

I posted a couple of process shots in my instagram stream, also.

I have a couple of unfinished pieces on the desk, but whenever I...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:07:35 +0100

I have a couple of unfinished pieces on the desk, but whenever I am short of time for more elaborate things, I turn back to these sort of ink studies. It feels good being able to complete something in a single drawing session, for a change.

In case you didn’t notice, this is from “Sacred Love and Profane Love” by Titian. She is the profane one, of course.

Today I was again in the mood for some copy-the-masters time....

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:52:17 +0100

Today I was again in the mood for some copy-the-masters time. Just ink on paper, plus some silly screentone added later in photoshop.

My sincere apologies to all Jacques-Louis David fans out there.