Gus Brock

Another sketch

2012-02-02T22:28:00.002-03:00

Nothing much to say... just doodling...

Sketch

2012-02-02T22:04:00.000-03:00

A sketch inspired by Charles Dana Gibson

Word of the day: JUPITER

2012-01-12T15:07:00.000-03:00

Mr. Holst has been neglected for too long. So here it is, the fourth movement, along with some pretty astronomical pictures of Jupiter.

Gustav Holst - "Jupiter: the bringer of jollity"

Images of the planet Jupiter:

"Jupiter and Thetis" by Jean-Auguste Ingres

Astronomically delicious!!

2012-01-09T11:57:00.001-03:00

What could be better - and tastier - for an Astronomy lover like me to have the planets in our Solar System turned into chocolate balls? This is the kind of thing that makes you think: "Why didn't anyone think of this before?"

More information about the chocolate can be found here and here. Thanks to Bem Legaus for the heads up.

PS: I miss Pluto! :-(

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18- No. 1, Moderato

2012-01-09T11:50:00.004-03:00

My favorite piano concerto! I love the expression on the pianist's face: Hélène Grimaud. Pure concentration! If you don't know Hélène Grimaud, check out her official website clicking here.

Amazingly, Rachmaninov had a very hard life. Not financially, but emotionally: his closest friends died and no one could understand his music. Not even Tolstoi himself (which shows that no matter how smart you are, you can still make terrible judgements).

Nothing more to say. Just listen and enjoy!

Depression

2012-01-06T12:06:00.000-03:00

"There’s a tendency for many people who have experienced depression to feel that they have increased sensitivity and compassion as result of that. And therefore some increased awareness of the human condition. And a tendency for anyone who’s been depressed to have less denial. There’s a classic study that shows that people who are depressed actually have a much more accurate view of a depressing world than people who are not depressed. Which is depressing in its own right."

- Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison

Ximena Sariñana - Different

2012-01-05T11:56:00.000-03:00

Different? Her name certainly is different and not that easy to pronounce. But the video is hilarious! Love the song and what I like the most is that Ximena is cute and girlie, not another femme fatale singer who's sexy all the time (dear music exectuvies, this template is old, please PLEASE stop using it). So enjoy!

Go practice!

2012-01-04T08:32:00.000-03:00

Got this from a friend who's a musician. This is so good that also applies perfectly to painting, drawing or any other form of artist impression. Excellence comes through practice.

Cameron

2012-01-03T11:04:00.000-03:00

Drawing this piece has a few challenges: I had a very low resolution picture to go by. Also, the model was smiling and the worst mistake you can make while drawing a smile is to be descriptive when it comes to the teeth. I find it that drawing one mass, one unified group is an elegant solution. Another challenge are the facial lines. When someone smiles, muscles are pulled and stretch the skin, thus creating natural lines that everyone of every age has at this moment. But if you are not careful, you might go overboard with those lines and make the model seem old. I think this is the time when you have to let go of reality and go for abstraction: suggest the idea of the facial features of the smile rather than capture them in detail. And this is the end result: the portrait of a friend, Cameron Mitchell – a very decent and cool guy who’s always had time to answer my questions about training. And if you’re in Chicago and looking for a trainer, check out his website and give him a ring!

Silvia

2012-01-02T22:11:00.002-03:00

My talented musician friend, Silvia! :-D

Barbie Art

2012-01-02T17:53:00.000-03:00

Boys don't play with dolls... but they can admire them when the works two of my favorite artist, Gustav Klimt and Da Vinci, are turned into dolls. Right? First, Barbie wearing "Adele Bloch-Bauer", by Gustav Klimt and, second, "Mona Lisa", by Da Vinci.

Trois Gymnopédies

2012-01-02T09:11:00.000-03:00

Erik Satie has many quirks, and one of them was giving his musical pieces curious names (such as “Three Pieces Shaped Like Pears”). But he is most famous for his “Trois Gymnopédies”, a title inspired in an ancient Spartan festival in which young men danced around naked. To be perfectly honest, I don’t see the connection between the name of song and song itself. To me, the Gymnopédies are a set of three melancholic musical pieces. Loneliness, big empty rooms, a quiet night… these are the things that come to my mind.

And below, I was faced with the same white hair challenge I mentioned before. At least in this case I had a lot of light and shadow contrast that helped me through the transition of masses.

Erik Satie - "Troi Gymnopédies"

Challenge

2012-01-01T20:40:00.001-03:00

I am fortunate to have such a talented artist, Mauricio Takiguthi, as my master. And one thing he always stresses is to forget about the result and be taken by the process. But drawing hair can be a big problem in pictoric portraits: how can you do it without being descriptive? This is easier if you doing black hair. You can work with dark masses with soft edges, but in this case I was faced with white hair. I couldn’t make a mass saturated by gray, that would go against the effect I was trying to achieve. And if I saturated the skin with gray, to make the hair look white, I’d give the model a different skin value. A challenge, indeed, and something to study. So here’s what I could do so far: a picture of Tchaikovsky.

And below, a not so known excerpt from his “Swan Lake”. The “Neapolitan Dance”.

One year ago...

2012-01-01T11:33:00.004-03:00

One year ago, I wrote my first post. And I’m surprised to know I still wake up in the middle of the night to pee. Happy New Year!

Picture by Mary Altaffer, from AP, which captured the wishes New Yorkers wrote on pieces of paper that were thrown on Times Square.

And here's a very happy song to begin 2012 with a fully charged battery! "Burning Love" by Wynonna Judd!

Happy New Year!!!

2011-12-31T11:28:00.002-03:00

In 1749, the King of England, George II, asked Georg Friedrich Haendel, the German composer who was then living in London, for music to be played during fireworks His Majesty was going to display. He came up with grand music and, while the fireworks lighted the sky, thousands of people marveled at Haendel's music. Their verdict: "Music for the Royal Fireworks" were better than the fireworks themselves. Since this night is going to be crowned with beautiful fireworks all around the globe, nothing more fitting than Mr. Haendel's music to this occasion. Happy New Year!

My portrait of Haendel - 1st attempt

My portrait of Haendel - 2nd attempt

Georg Friedrich Haendel - "La Réjouissance, Music for the Royal Fireworks"

The Peter Tchaikovsky Story

2011-12-30T11:29:00.001-03:00

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. One of my favorites – if not my favorite – composer. Of all the periods in classical music, the Baroque and the Romantic period (to which Tchaikovsky belongs) are the ones who touch me deeply. Maybe it is because, as good friend once told me, I have a “tempestuous soul”, which responds to dramatic elements in any way the present themselves in art.

But Tchaikovsky doesn’t grasp my attention just because of that. What I find interesting about him is that his musical talent stayed dormant for many years, covered by childhood traumas and a civil service career that had no connection to his inclinations whatsoever. It took him a great deal of courage to give it all up to pursue his musical path and, dare I say, even more courage to let that musical genius find his voice.

I do not intend here to write Tchaikovsky biography. I am certainly not qualified to the task and a blog is certainly not the medium. But I am posting some still pictures (with brief comments) of a Disney movie: “The Peter Tchaikovsky story”, aired in January 30, 1959.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a small town in present-day Udmurtia, formerly province of Vyatka in the Russian Empire, to a family with a long line of military service.

In 1843, Tchaikovsky's parents hired a French governess, Fanny Dürbach, to look after their children. The governess, albeit strict, was an emotional counterpart to Tchaikovsky mother, which he described as cold and distant. It was Fanny who read Tchaikovsky the tale of "Sleeping Beauty", which many years later would become the inspiration for his ballet.

Tchaikovsky started taking piano lessons at the age of five and was a precocious student. Although his parents were enthusiastic about his musical inclinations at the bedinning, their support cooled and decided Pyotr would be better off in a different career path.

Tchaikovsky graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with the rank of titular counselor, but he eventually gave up the career and put himself in the hands of Anton Rubinstein...

...who decided to give him a challenge one day. Tchaikovsky was to compose variations of a simple theme Rubinstein had given him. And, he stressed, for variations not only quality, but also quantity counted.

And when Rubinstein was expection about a dozen, Tchaikovsky presented him with "only" 215 variations. His talent was then evident!

Already a composer, Tchaikovsky meet the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt, whom he fell in love with and wrote many musical pieces for.

Artôt and Tchaikovsky were engaged, even though his biographers spectulate that Tchaikovsky was actually a closet homossexual. Through his letters they were able to gather that he knew he was different, never acted on it, but that didn't cause him any psychological dilemma. Here's an excerpt of one of his letters: "I am so set in my habits and tastes that it is not possible to cast them aside all at once like an old glove. And besides, I am far from possessing a will of iron, and since my last letters to you I have already surrendered some three times to the force of my natural tendencies. Would you imagine ! One of these days I even went to Bulatov’s country estate, and his house is nothing but a pederastic bordello. As if it were not enough that I had been there, I fell in love as a cat with his coachman !!! So you are perfectly right when you say in your letter that it is not possible to restrain oneself, despites all vows, from one’s weaknesses." I don't know how much of that is relevant to his artistic work. Would his ballets and concertos be any different had he embraced his sexuality? (If he were in fact homossexual, that is). I'm not fit to say. I don't think anyone is. And we can't forget his life span (1840-1893): that's a different time, with different needs, views and concepts.

Regardless of how Tchaikovsky really felt, Artôt eventually left him, marrying another singer from her company. This devastated him. But with time, he married another woman, Antonina Miliukova. But their marriage was brief. He had an emotional breakdown which caused his separation. They remained legally married, but never lived together nor had any children.

He reached his musical maturity, decided not to marry again as a "camouflage or escape". All these experiences instilled in him his creative genius...

Which led to one of his most famous Ballets, "The Swan Lake".

Ironically, the ballet didn't appeal to the public. In fact, it the audiences vehemently rejected it.

Distraught, Tchaikovsky took a trip around the capitals of Europe. He wanted to get away from critics and all the ones who didn't understand his music. And in one stormy night in particular, he couldn't sleep. His mind was filled with notes, bits and pieces that wouldn't let him rest. Getting up, he saw that he had packed, without knowing why, the manuscript for a new ballet: "Sleeping Beauty".

His childhood memories of his French governess ecloded and he composed the entire score during his trip home.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Musical genius!!

And below, listen to one of his musical scores. It's worth it!

Tchaikovsky - "Piano Converto 1, B Flat Minor, Op. 23"

Cour D’Amours

2011-12-27T18:33:00.002-03:00

“Carmina Burana” (meaning "Songs from Beuern") is manuscript of 254 poems written in Medieval Latin, Middle High German and Provençal, from the 11th to the 13th century. The poems can be divided in to 4 groups: 2 spiritual theater pieces, 55 songs of mockery, 131 loves songs and 40 drinking and game songs. Carl Orff, a German composer from Bavaria, transported these poems to the realm of music in 1936. If you’ve heard Orff before, it is likely that you were able to hear the musical influence of Igor Stravinski had in his work.

I believe “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi” is Orff’s most famous piece. Who hasn’t been exposed to it’s dramatic notes at least once in his life?

Carl Orff - "Carmina Burana: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi"

But while the overture may be recognizable anywhere, my favorite piece is still this one: “Cour D’Amours, in Trutina”. I post below two different versions of the same song. Truly beautiful.

Carl Orff - "Carmina Burana: Cour D’Amours, in Trutina”

Word of the day: MERCURY

2011-12-27T10:17:00.001-03:00

Keeping on with tradition, the 3rd movement of Gustav Holst's "The Planets".

Gustav Holst - "Mercury: the winged messenger"

Images of the planet Mercury and its surface:

And Mercury portrayed by the great Masters of the past:

"Mercury and Argus" by Rubens

"Allegory of Spring" by Botticelli

"Jupiter and Mercury" byJohann Carl Loth

"Mercury piping to Argus" byJohann Carl Loth

"Mercury and Argus" by Velazquez

The English Concert

2011-12-27T09:53:00.002-03:00

My favorite Baroque orchestra in a presentation at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, on October 14^th, 2010. Heavenly!

Growth

2011-12-26T20:28:00.000-03:00

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

- Helen Keller

Books you should read

2011-12-25T17:19:00.000-03:00

My dear friend Flavio presented me with this book a while ago, but it was only now that I had time to post about it. This book is part of the Star Wars expanded universe and functions as a field guide of the fauna of various planets. The artist is very skilled at drawing animals, and was able to transport it to the realm of the imaginary, creating beings that don’t exist and yet maintaining realism in movement and anatomy while doing so. And while you reading this post, make sure to stop by Flavio’s blog: Aquarium Nerd, and check out his art!

Museum Bar HR Giger

2011-12-25T15:52:00.000-03:00

HR Giger. Even if you don’t know him by name, you have been exposed to his work sometime in your life, unless you’ve been living in a bubble somewhere in the Himalayas. His gothic, dark, organic and alien aesthetic have influenced many and defined a style worth studying. And now you can admire his work upclose if you go to in Château St. Germain, Gruyères, Switzerland, and visit the HR Giger Museum Bar. Thanks for Super Punch for sharing this with us and for Alejandro Perez and Howzey for the amazing pictures I’m posting here.

A video of the place:

Pictures:

Clash of Titans

2011-12-24T15:32:00.001-03:00

Zaha Hadid, the Pritzker Prize winning architecture, designed a car park in Miami Beach. I am a fan of her work, the way she manipulates the architectural form into a fluid composition. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw her project was “Guggenheim Museum”. Couldn’t help but notice the similarity. Couldn’t find anything about her finding inspiration in F. L. Wright’s legacy work, though.

Zaha Hadid, car park for Miami Beach

Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum, NY.

Speaking of anatomy...

2011-12-24T13:26:00.000-03:00

Since I just did a big post about the importance of studying anatomy, here's a cute image I got from a friend, from Aaron Kuehn.

Wall tattoo

2011-12-24T12:29:00.000-03:00

Zezão is a Brazilian graffiti artist Who only does graffiti in an unusual place: sewers. I like his work because of the way he manipulates color and form in one of the most – if not the most – despised place in our urban environment. Sometimes his works seem (to me) as Arabic ornaments or an alien alphabet (which could be the same thing, provided how little we understand Arabic culture, projecting our limited bigot view upon this ancient fascinating people). You can check out Zezão’s work on his official website by clicking here. And these are two pictures of my lucky find on a rainy Thursday afternoon: walking home, I stumbled upon Zezão’s unmistakable signature work. And this is the best part about graffiti art: it’s not hung on a museum wall, but it’s something you discover as you explore your city.

Books you should read

2011-12-24T12:16:00.000-03:00

Copying an artist’s work is natural to a beginner. We all, as artists, aspire to be as good as our role models and study them, copy them, try to incorporate their skills and technique. This happens to painters, sculptors, singers, actors… But there comes as time when you have to let go of that comfort zone and swim to unknown shores. This is difficult, gives you a sense of insecurity, of lack of progress, but nevertheless, paramount to one’s development if the goal to achieve excellence is sincere.

Careful observation and reproduction of the work of our masters is a good way to understand how they were able to achieve what they were aiming for. However, this can become a severe problem if, as mentioned above, it becomes all the reference you have. Then all that you studied becomes a crutch, your work becomes deformed and limited. Remember always that those who came before you and whose work you admire have studied the essence of the artistic object that they are impersonating, performing or putting on a canvas. A painter has carefully studied anatomy through books and observation to make the work he is known for. A singer has studied music, rhythm, compass to give his own flair to the musical suite he performs. When you study what another artist did, in this case, a painter or an illustrator, you learn how they simplified form to find a gracious solution to a problem. But if you don’t go to the sort and stick to the solution he developed, you: a) won’t clearly understand why he did that in the first place (even though this might be very appealing to you), b) this solution won’t be a natural thing to you. It won’t be a concept that you master and can change and bend to your own will. It becomes a vice, something that you robotically reproduce because someone else did it well but you don’t know how to shape it to your own needs. So the way to represent hair, nose, eye or any other form becomes a formula. It becomes limited. A crutch. For someone with a trained eye the difference between the work of an artist who deforms anatomy because he wanted to, and the work of an artist who deforms anatomy because he doesn’t know better is blatant. Don’t be one of the latter.

That is why I always post about books you should read and courses you should take. No matter how good are the references you have (and please, keep gathering references), don’t forget to let go of them for a while and try something of your own. It’s an enriching experience. And once you’ve mastered it, you never lose it.

So here I post a book about anatomy, one of the many you will find out there: “Anatomy for the artist” by Eliot Goldfinger. This is, in my opinion, one of the most complete and technical anatomy books for the artist. You can’t just flip through and look at the pictures, you can’t just read it. You have to study it, thoroughly. The book offers a detailed view of the muscle: its location, its position in relation to other muscles and bones, its cross section and pictures of it relaxed and tensed.

And here are some of the notes I took during the Anatomy Class I took on Med School this year!

♥ Ren Harvieu ♥

2011-12-20T21:12:00.001-03:00

Gotta love this voice!

Ren Harvieu - "Through the night"

Ren Harvieu - "Through the night: acoustic"

Ren Harvieu - "Something"

Ren Harvieu - "A dream is a wish your heart makes"

Ren Harvieu - "Forever in blue: acoustic"

Fairy tale

2011-12-20T08:19:00.000-03:00

"I think we have made the fairy tale fashionable again. That is, our own blend of theatrical mythology. The fairy tale film - created with the magic of animation - is the modern equivalent of the great parables of the Middle Ages. Creation is the word. Not adaptation. Not version. We can translate the ancient fairy tale into its modern equivalent without losing the lovely patina and the savor of its once-upon-a-time quality. I think our films have brought new adult respect for the fairy tale. We have proved that the age-old kind of entertainment based on the classic fairy tale recognizes no young, no old."

- Walt Disney

Word of the day: VENUS

2011-12-19T19:29:00.004-03:00

After posting about Gustav Holst's "The Planets", specifically about the movement "Mars", I thought it'd be interesting to keep post something similar with the other movements of his suite. So here's the second movement: Venus!

Gustav Holst - "Venus: the bringer of peace"

Images of the planet Venus and its surface:

And Venus portrayed by the great Masters of the past:

"The Sleeping Venus" by Giorgione

"The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli

"The Toilet of Venus" by Velazquez

"The Venus of Urbino" by Titian

"Venus and Adonis" by Titian

"Venus and Adonis" by Rubens

Gesture drawing

2011-12-18T22:18:00.002-03:00

Gesture drawings done in two minutes and in one minute. Here, the goal is to capture the essential, avoid detail and description of the form, emphasizing on the movement.

David

2011-12-18T22:13:00.000-03:00

Drawing my friend David was no easy task. He has facial features with very subtle, yet strong, expression. Capturing that was difficult and I must confess I’m still not happy with the end result, even after several attempts. Some people are easy to get, some are more elusive. But that’s the fun part of the process: the challenge!

David - sketch

David - final version

Wall tattoo

2011-12-18T13:47:00.000-03:00

Interesting graffiti I saw this Friday. The word play can’t be translated into English, but here’s a shot: “ver a cidade” (“see the city”) and “veracidade” (“veracity”).

Quotations

2011-12-18T13:45:00.000-03:00

“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”

- Oscar Wilde

Word of the day: MARS

2011-12-18T13:41:00.005-03:00

My friends and family know that I love music, all sorts of it, especially classical. So today I was listening to Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and “Mars” is one of my favorite movements of this orchestral suite. I started wondering how Mars has been a part of our lives: in science, music, arts and mythology.

Gustav Holst - "Mars: the bringer of war"

Some beautiful pictures of the red planet

And now Mars, seen by the eyes of the Masters:

"Mars" by Botticelli

"Mars" by Velazquez

"Mars" by Gerard de Lairesse

"Mars" by Rubens

And some videos from NASA: "The challenges of getting to Mars".

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Rover's Eye View of Three-Year Trek on Mars

Laugh

2011-12-14T21:40:00.000-03:00

“If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.”

- Groucho Marx

Songs you'll listen to in 2012

2011-12-14T20:42:00.001-03:00

My good friend and ultra talented artist André Simas, sent me an email with some songs he predicts will be hits in 2012. Some are really good! I'm going to post them below. And don't forget to stop by his blog and see some of his amazing work!

Landa Del Rey - Video Games

Foster The People - Don't Stop

Nikki & The Dove - The Drummer

Ren Harvieu - Through The Night

Karmin - Crash Your Party

Michael Kiwanuka - Tell Me A Tale

Stooshe - Betty Woz Gone

Touching!

2011-12-13T08:17:00.002-03:00

This video is long but it is worth watching. Really moving!!!

Wall tattoo

2011-12-12T20:52:00.000-03:00

Some more interesting graffiti I found aruond the city. :-)

Religion

2011-12-12T20:48:00.001-03:00

"There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too."

- Karen Armstrong

Moon

2011-12-12T20:43:00.000-03:00

You know you are a nerd when the NASA website is the homepage of your browser. I highly recommend visiting NASA's website. Today's two featured videos are about the moon. One explains how the LRO measures the changes in temperature in the moon surface.

And this one explains that very interesting phenomenon: why the moon turns red!

Here, Kitty, Kitty...

2011-12-10T19:45:00.001-03:00

Selina Kyle: is there anyone who doesn't like her?

Arkham City - Catwoman preview

And the song from the preview: Lykke Li - Get some

Friend

2011-12-10T14:22:00.001-03:00

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jason

2011-12-10T14:14:00.003-03:00

A J. Bone sketch and their colored versions. :-D

Chill out

2011-12-09T20:57:00.003-03:00

Chill out music for a rainy Friday...

Ivy - Undertown

The Weepies - Orbiting

Samantha James - Satellites

Kate Havnevik - So:lo

Trespassers William - Vapour Trail

Evolution

2011-12-08T19:31:00.002-03:00

"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone."
- Coco Chanel

Tardiness

2011-12-08T19:25:00.001-03:00

Why I am late for work!

Prejudice

2011-12-07T20:43:00.002-03:00

"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."
- Charlotte Brontë, "Jane Eyre", p. 337

Men

2011-12-07T19:37:00.000-03:00

"I only like two kinds of men: domestic and imported."
- Mae West

Chill out

2011-12-07T19:28:00.001-03:00

Some other calm songs to chill out while you work, read, ponder...

Frou Frou - Hear me out

The XX - Shelter

Sneaker Pimps Kelli Ali - Sunlight in the Rain

Sketch

2011-12-06T21:51:00.002-03:00

A sketch before going to bed.

Success

2011-12-06T20:08:00.000-03:00

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."
- Woody Allen

Diversity

2011-12-05T22:55:00.005-03:00

“Koran says we bestow dignity on the progeny of Adam. This cuts through race, color and the creed. Diversity is the will of God. The more we respect God, the more we should respect the diversity. Are we doing that? Probably not. Probably not to the level and the caliber that is expected from us who believe in God”.
- Dr. Maher Hathout, chief of South California's Islamic Center.

Chill out

2011-12-05T21:29:00.004-03:00

What's on "repeat for ever" on my iPhone.

Elsiane - Morphing

Samantha James - Come Through

Samantha James - Rise

Samantha James - Rise (Eric Kupper Mix)

Elsiane - Vaporous

Elsiane - Across The Stream

Elsiane - Mend (To Fix, To Repair)

Books you should read

2011-12-05T21:23:00.003-03:00

Months ago my sister came to me with this book in her hands urging me to read it. “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave. Being the bookworm that I am, and trusting my sister’s good taste in literature, I took the book and read it surprisingly fast. What really caught my interest it was not the story itself (which is good), but the way Chris writes. He does something that I think is very, very difficult: he writes dialogues in a colloquial way, identical to how we talk. And he transports this fluidity in the first person narrative. Why is this difficult? Because this demands a lot of sense and sensibility (pun intended) from the author, who, if makes a wrong dosage of the literary elements, can easily come to blunt fake dialogues. I didn’t like the end of the story, tough. But that is also his success: I personally believe that if an author was able to grasp your attention and make you accept his universe as your own, to the point that your connection to the characters and the plot makes you feel entitled to demand a new ending or a sudden change of facts… well, then he certainly is a good author.

NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

2011-12-05T20:20:00.002-03:00

This discovery has profound implications, whether we are searching for intelligent life in space or for an alternative Earth 2 (in case we ever need to leave our little blue planet). Even though we found a planet on a habitable zone, that doesn’t necessarily mean that life, intelligent or not, will exist there. Extra-terrestrial life might be radically different from anything we can ever imagine. We may never even be able to communicate with a new species. That is one aspect of Stanislaw Lem’s work that really appeals to me: “Solaris” and “The Master’s Voice” speak of our inability to understand new life due to the limitations of our own psyche. And we also can’t forget the notorious Carl Sagan, when he said that before we started to look for life in other planets, we should try to communicate with life in our planet (whales and other animals).

And these two videos show how NASA technology exists in our daily life. “There’s more space in your life than you know!” Norah Jones and 'Arthur Christmas' Promote NASA Spinoff Technology

Via NASA

Waiting...

2011-12-05T20:14:00.003-03:00

...for a friend. And this is what came out of my pencil/pen while I was sitting at the cafe.

This smells good...

2011-12-04T09:53:00.003-03:00

I really like the smell of pencils: regular pencils, #2 pencils, watercolor pencils, colored pencils... And now VIARCO, a Portuguese pencil factory, sells aromatized ones. They smell like lilies, peonies, jasmine, orange… Way cool!

Sketchbook

2011-12-01T19:02:00.004-03:00

Sometimes at work I have some idle time, and I like to draw something of my own when that happens. These are some sketches I did yesterday. The first ones are studies of paintings by John Singer Sargent. (If you don’t know who Sargent is, google him right now or I am never talking to you again! And try not to be TOO happy with that. Hehehe)

And these are some of my friends… If they remain friends with me after they see this, well, then our friendship is indeed rock solid! :-D

Gesture drawing

2011-11-29T21:50:00.005-03:00

The purpose of gesture drawing is to capture the movement of an image or model, without unnecessary details. Gesture drawing is particularly difficult for me and I am always challenged by this exercise when it comes up on my art class. It means letting go, following one’s intuition to keep the flow of the image, making decisions as you draw. These drawings were done without taking the tip of my pencil away from the paper. That’s a technique that my teacher taught me. It helps you to focus on the movement and on what’s essential. All drawings were done in 2 minutes.

Dinos!

2011-11-27T18:10:00.000-03:00

Learning from our mistakes

2011-11-27T15:16:00.006-03:00

The Jett Vector poster I painted doesn’t work. At least, that was my first reaction looking at it 5 minutes after it was done. Okay, 3 minutes after. But I thought: “Hey, Gus, you’re being a perfectionist. It’s fine, let it go”. So I published the poster, but I still felt something was wrong with it. If there’s something I learned in my career is that when you feel there’s something wrong with a graphic work, it’s because there is. Even if you can’t put your finger on it.

So in this post I’m analyzing what I did wrong. I never had a problem with people criticizing my work. I’ve always been very open to it. Actually, I’ve always welcomed it. Getting a feedback – be it constructive or not – is the best opportunity to understand what you’re doing wrong, how you can get better at your craft. (That and a LOT of study and practice!)

1. The inks: lines are a powerful medium of expression. They guide your eyes when you see a painting, give the idea of movement, stillness… and in this case, they’re just dull. Check out these examples from Japanese art.

The lines are full of motion. There’s a variation of thick and thin. And in my poster there’s none of that. How much more elegant and alive would it be if I used that principle, as you see below! It's very subtle, but it does make a difference.

2. The color scheme: Too many different colors and no harmony. There is no communication between colors, no search for balance, no fluidity that connects objects, that make them contrast. If the color palette was reduced to just three or four colors, varying the value and temperature, the painting would be much much better. Below left, you see the flat colors of the finishhed piece. Below left, we can see that a reduced palette with colors that transit from one form to another works better.

3. Painting style: While painting, I took a wrong turn that reflected in this entire work. I could have gone either with a realistic painting style, or with a comic book style. Painting in a more realistic way (like the example on the left) means letting go of the line and thinking of masses of color in two dimensions. Painting in a comic book style (like the example on the right) would allow me to keep the lines, but requires a very simples way of making shadows, very little color variation. The colors are masses with well defined edges and almost pure. I kept the lines and tried to paint realistically. Bad decision.

4. The composition: Even thought Drew Struzan’s work was the inspiration for this piece, I had to alter some elements so that the poster would fit into Jett Vector’s work. And that’s when things fell apart: the alien in the background, just floating there… that resource would have work had the alien been 4 or 5 times bigger and very translucent. Colby is just there. Not interacting, not part of the group. It’s like he was photoshoped. And the background is just simple, not in the good way: not really thought of or taken care of.

To sum up, I can tell that: little attention was given to the composition, placement of elements and background, the color palette had no harmony, and there was no clear concept behind this piece.

After this analysis I don’t think of this painting as failure anymore. Making mistakes is part of the learning process. We are all going to make them. The big question is: are we going to ignore them and don’t accept feedback or are we going to face them, as unpleasant as it is, and learn from them? I believe that choosing the latter is the only way to get out of our comfort zone and achieve excellence.

Vertical gardens

2011-11-26T13:27:00.005-03:00

When I worked as an architect, I was frequently asked to build vertical gardens or "green walls", and I must say it was one of my favorite tasks. I always liked to bring rough materials such as raw concrete, wood and plants to a project. And Patrick Blanc does it beautifully! Take a look!

My friend asked me...

2011-11-25T20:26:00.002-03:00

...why I haven't been drawing as much as I used to.
Well, this is the answer.

Rest in pieces

2011-11-25T20:11:00.000-03:00

If this is what is going to happen to me when I die, well... I just hope I get popcorn!

Please, take a seat

2011-11-25T19:54:00.001-03:00

The "Chair fix" chair, by Ben Wilson. How cool is that???

Tree House

2011-11-25T19:39:00.006-03:00

This tree house is just amazing! But it's actually not a tree house, it's a hotel in Sweden. The Treehotel group. Who wouldn't want to spend a night in a UFO shaped room?

This is one of the 24 rooms that they are yet to build. Not all of them follow the UFO theme: you can also sleep in a birdnest if that pleases you, or in a mirrored environment.

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I know where I'm staying when I visit this country!

via Bem Legaus

Books you should read

2011-11-15T19:41:00.007-03:00

Well... not exactly read, unless you speak Japanese (which is not my case...)

This book - can't even begin to pronounce its name - is all about fabric. How fabric is shaped, how it wrinkles, how it falls over a body, a surface, how it moves and behaves on a person. Even though the book is entirely in a language I don't understand, it is easy to follow. The images are self-explanatory: once you get the simple logic of the arrows, you're gold!

Wall tattoo

2011-11-15T19:34:00.003-03:00

Hey all!

Here are a few more pictures of cool graffiti I see around the city!

Lord of the rings

2011-11-15T09:09:00.004-03:00

Jewelry and all sorts of body adornment have been used by us since the dawn of time. Designing jewels is not as easy is it may seem - if it ever seemed easy at any time. People can think that the only professionals who will engage in jewelry design are the ones working for big companies such as H. Stern or Tiffany's, which is a big mistake. Artists working in comics or movies will often be faced with the challenge of creating entire cities, wardrobes, architecture, design and... yes, jewelry!

This kind of concept art is one of my favorite (and also responsible for making the local book store owner a very rich man for selling books on the subject). It's a never ending well of creativity.

Below, I post some pictures of actual ring designs. Not art concepts for movies or comics, but marketable items. Unfortunatelly, I've collected these images over a period of time so I don't remember who the authors are. If you do know, please tell me. :-)

Jett Vector is back!

2011-11-14T19:21:00.009-03:00

My pal Jason Bone created a very cool character some time ago: Jett Vector. I've posted about him before, so it is possible that you might know who Jett is through my blog. Below, there's a self-protrait of J. Bone and Jett. (Yep, the guy's got talent!!)

Anyway, I've been sketching Jett on and off for some time now, and I felt I owed Jason a colored drawing. He's a terrific guy, very approachable and his style was a big influence! But I was never pleased with anything I did with Jett Vector, specially the compositions. He would always be standing alone, looking at nothing. Then again, those were just sketches, done in a fast pace and without any other objective other than gesture drawing.

So, I figure: next time don't draw Jett alone, but draw him like a movie poster. You know, one of those vintage ones... I started flipping some art books and, while I had a Drew Struzan book in hands, I saw the movie poster for "Big Trouble in Little China". That was it! That composition worked perfectly. And the movie was very fun (specially because you get to see "Samantha Jones" in one her earlier flics). So I'd pay homage to two artists, Drew and Jason, in one single piece.

But who would Jett save? Who would he fight against? Jason never told me who Jett's nemesis was, so I browsed through his blog looking for any enemy... and I found these scary looking aliens. Ha! Problem one solved.

Still, a treasure needed to be found, an evil force fought or... still thinking about Drew Struzan's composition, I decided to keep the girl in the piece. So now Jett's rescuing a princess, Dejah Toris style. We all know all good stories need a little bit of romance, so I added a romantic interest for Jett below. Colby, Jason's friend, was the inspiration for the nameless character. Below, some pics of the work in progress...

And here is the finished piece! Hope you all enjoy!! Because I didn't... Hehe... I think that the only thing I like is the girl and the blurred alien. I think Jett's face could have been more expressive and Colby's position... it was only after I inked and painted him that I realised he seems a little off. As if he were looking to the viewer, wondering what he's doing there. Hehe... Promise to deliver a better artwork next time! ;-)

Creative chaos

2011-11-13T11:00:00.000-03:00

Tadao Ando. Wish I could match him in talent. But at least when it comes to a cluttered working space, we're equals!

Tree House

2011-11-13T10:53:00.003-03:00

I know I'm a grown-up but I want to play in this tree house!!!

11.11.11

2011-11-13T10:24:00.005-03:00

So everyone has been going on and on about 11.11.11 at 11:11 am (or pm). I don't get how that can be so cool. I mean, I like palindromes, be they mathematical or words or phrases... but people went crazy about something that IMHO should only get 30 seconds of our attention. But Renee Palmer-Jones took advantage of this palindrom and created the Anthem Veterans Memorial.

On every veteran's day, 11.11, at precisely 11:11 am...

"...the sun will align through the elliptical holes in each of the five marble pillars (each representing a branch of the the U.S. military) in order to perfectly illuminate a round mosaic inlaid into the bricks, that of the Great Seal of the United States. The symbolism of the five pillars standing in formation in order to protect the United States and to complete the solar illumination is representative of our military personnel working together, in all regards, in the security and defense of all American citizens."

This is certainly a cool fact about 11.11! ;-)

Sewers

2011-11-13T10:11:00.007-03:00

The photographer Martine Cotton registered how the Japanese gave a pleasant solution to sewer covers. This shows that every urban detail can be constructed to be aesthetically pleasing. :-)

Wall tattoo

2011-11-12T15:05:00.004-03:00

Yes yes yes YES!! Found the picture!! Wait, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Here's the background story:

On my way back from work there's a mattress store with a sexy Spiderman graffiti. Well, it was so funny I took a picture of it to post it here but I don't know how, I lost it. When I got back there to take another picture, something terrible happened: they had painted the wall, which now is just entirely black! I was dismayed: this work of art couldn't be lost!! But there was no sign of that picture on my hard drive. Anywhere. Until today, many months later, when I found it quite by accident. I must have dragged it to a random folder by accident.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you... SEXY SPIDERMAN!!

Jingle All The Way!

2011-11-12T14:16:00.005-03:00

I am very pleased to have Allan Neuwirth as a close friend. It's not everyday that you can get to pick the brain of a great artist, scriptwriter and fantastic human being. But hey, I won't go on about his talents: I'll let you guys check that out for yourselves. And a great opportunity to do that is on November 25th, whe his movie "Jingle All The Way" premiers on the Hallmark Channel, worldwide. :-)

P.S.: Is it Christmas already?? Wow!!

It is hard to concentrate...

2011-11-09T17:43:00.003-03:00

I have a hard time concentrating and getting things done. I procrastinate and I best most of you do too! I found this really cool image from Learning Fundamentals that helps as a guide for all of you who - like me - keep putting things off.

And before we get started on what we really have to do (lol), let's watch this informative video about procrastination. It is worth it!

Vintage? Girlie? Colorful? Genius!

2011-11-09T07:09:00.009-03:00

How would you call this style? Well, dudes, I call it AWESOME.
I've always admired the work of Canadian illustrator Luc Latulippe. It is refreshing, perky, colorful and extremely well-done and composed.

Luc's style also reminds of me illustrations I'd find in women's magazines such as Vogue or Cosmo.

But I believe - and correct me if I'm wrong - that source of this style originated in Mary Blair's work. Unfortunatelly, Mary Blair is not well-known outside the world of animation. I remember I found out about her when I seriously started studying the Disney style and history.

Mary Blair was was recognized with posthumous awards, such as the "Disney Legend Award" and the "Winsor McCay Award". She was a main designer for the Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney himself said he was never able to use her ground-breaking design based on color until he developed "Sleeping Beauty".

When Disney started the production of "Sleeping Beauty", he intended to use Ms. Blair's concept art, something he had never done since her style conflicted with the rather round and cute Disney design. But "Sleeping Beauty" had a different approach. Disney's concept was that the animation should be a "moving illustration". So, the head designer and genius Eyvind Earle took the challenge and, influenced by Mary Blair's design, brought his own style into the game and brought a whole new level of quality to the work.

So the "moving illustrations" concept made Eyvind turn to medieval and oriental miniatures (illuminated manuscripts) for the movie. Even the character's design changed drastically: they are tall, slender, pointy... Although "Sleeping Beauty" was a financial failure, it was a landmark, artistically speaking. A true work of art, matching impecable design, script and, of course, Tchaikovsky.

So the 50's style of animation had prepared the ground, Mary Blair sowed the seeds, Eyvind grew them and sowed his own... and now their legacy is to be found in modern Disney design, such as "Tangled" (below).

But the real surprise came when I saw Disney's "The Princess and The Frog". This scene when Tiana retrieves to a world of imagiation and start singing about her restaurant was done in this style. This was one of Disney's great creative responses to an aesthetic challenge. Enjoy!

So we can say that our talented friend Luc Latulippe is walking on the footsteps of geniuses! And if you visit his blog (link on the sidebar) you'll see him come up with something great of his own. :-)

Justice League

2011-11-08T21:24:00.002-03:00

And here's a quick Justice League sketch. Promise to post something in color sometime soon!

Wall tattoo

2011-11-08T21:21:00.003-03:00

As you all know, I love taking pictures of interesting graffiti I see around the city and post it here. These pictures below, however, were not taken by me. I found them on the internet and do not know who the authors are. If any of you do, please share. It's always nice to give due credit to other people's art!

Best,

Gus

Colby

2011-11-02T10:29:00.001-03:00

This is an OLD sketch! Colby is a very smart dude and I always have fun reading his posts about art and daily events. Try to do something better next time. :-D

♫ Who'll whip the giant attacking America? ♫

2011-10-15T12:40:00.002-03:00

♫ We know it's no one but Captain America! ♫

Just sing!

2011-10-14T20:16:00.003-03:00

Strong Girls

2011-10-14T20:15:00.000-03:00

Aeon Flux

Quorra

Brush 1 X Gus 0

2011-10-14T20:14:00.002-03:00

Using traditional brushes can be tricky...

Fair View Sue

2011-10-14T20:13:00.001-03:00

Wall tattoo

2011-10-06T10:23:00.002-03:00

Amazing art on a wall near home!

After a long hiatus...

2011-10-06T08:58:00.004-03:00

... here I am again. Some recent sketches.

Star Saphire

Aquaman

Green Lantern

Green Lantern
Cyborg

Green Lantern

Quorra

Hawkman

Thor

X-Men

2011-04-23T14:26:00.001-03:00

Some Easter sketches of Jean Grey and Bobby Drake. Because the X-Men also celebrate this season (er... I think).

More Jett??

2011-04-22T12:36:00.002-03:00

I think it's time to create a label just for Jett...

Rogue

2011-04-22T11:26:00.003-03:00

Rogue: my favorite X-men!

Jett

2011-04-22T11:22:00.003-03:00

Some sketches of J. Bone’s character Jett Vector, hoping anxiously it will someday become a comic series!

Jett doesn't hold back his punches...

Jett, you're being hunted...

Wall tattoo

2011-04-21T14:44:00.002-03:00

And the hunt for graffiti never ends!

Work in progress…

2011-04-21T14:37:00.003-03:00

I decided to go at it with Patrick Fillion’s character, Naked Justice, once more. But this time, to let go of lines and paint something more realistic. You can see three stages of the process: the lines, the basic colors applied on the lines and then the painting (all done in one layer).

This piece is still unfinished, as you can see, but I’ll be sure to post the final version when I’m done!

Wall tattoo

2011-04-21T14:19:00.004-03:00

More interesting graffits I saw around the city.

Renato Ratier...

2011-04-17T20:58:00.003-03:00

...is a world renowned DJ and owner of Dedge, one of the best nightclubs I’ve been to. If you don’t know what’s like, here are a couple of videos with an inside view of the club. It feels like you are transported into a club in Tron: Legacy.

Video #1

Video #2

I am not satisfied at how this piece turned out. I still get lots in the color phase. Well, something to keep in mind when coloring the next piece.

Deus é MAS!!!

2011-04-14T22:13:00.003-03:00

And that is the Portuguese words Cleycianne, a popular fake-religious zealot uses to celebrate her faith in God, mocking all the prejudices religious people have. Very funny!

Since Cleycianne is not a very bright person (that's how I read the character), I decided to go with a very bad background with all those brush-stars people who don’t know how to use Photoshop go for. My goal was: make it pink, make it kitsch.

Wall tattoo

2011-04-14T07:58:00.004-03:00

"The Saci (pronounced [saˈsi]) is arguably the most popular character in Brazilian folklore. He is a one-legged black or mulatto youngster with holes in the palms of his hands, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap that enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes (usually in the middle of a dust devil). Considered an annoying prankster in most parts of Brazil, and a potentially dangerous and malicious creature in others, he will nevertheless grant wishes to anyone who manages to trap him or steal his magic cap. However his cap is often depicted as having a bad smell, most people who claimed to have stolen this cap often say they can never wash the smell away."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wall tattoo

2011-04-10T10:30:00.003-03:00

Remember this, kids: Dr. Freud is the key to solve all your problems. :-D

Specially if your problems are kind of... fallic!

Goldfrapp!

2011-04-03T22:19:00.003-03:00

I love Goldfrapp! Their music, their videos… they are great! Fell in love with their music ever since I heard “Number one” and have been following their work ever since. Alison is just beautiful. She reminds me of Twiggy (maybe because both of them have big expressive eyes). So while I was watching their video “Alive” I drew this sketch. Took me about 60 seconds to get it done, so it is pretty loose, but I kind of liked it.