HAIR // Show Up and Throw Up Art Show - Oleson Gallery (2014)

Final shot of "Hair" for Oleson Gallery's (now moved to Bloom Art Center!) Show Up and Throw Up Art Show from back in February 2014.

The show was a blast and had also had great concept, there were no restrictions and it was open to anyone that wanted to get involved. Basically you just "Show up and Throw up" you art on the walls.

The doors opened at 1 pm, hanging supplies were provided, and within a few hours the walls were full of great art from artists from all over! It was a great way to grow the art community and invite people who had never shown in galleries before.

Here's an article about the show from Examiner.com and also found a video walkthrough!

Anyways on to the process!

The idea was a concept I've wanted to play around with for a while, I even have some recent pieces that'll be working on the same theme. I wanted the figure to be nestled snugly within the frame of the piece, kinda just lounging and relaxed, and mostly just filling the space as much as possible. 

Also possibly life size, which is why the board is 4 x 4 feet. Also I was having a lot of fun rendering hair back then, and since I was only sticking to black and white it was the best spot to really play around with the design and just go at it.

But, I also wanted to play it safe so during one of the St Pete Art Meetups, which back then used to take place in side the Oleson Gallery, I started a practice piece on a 1 x 2 feet board.

Just to play with a few ideas without worrying about ruining the whole piece.

I don't remember if I actually learned anything specific from the practice piece, but it was a really good warm up to help finish the final. There's a lot less pressure on how to finish a painting when you've already done it once before.

And finally here's a shot of the lady hanging at the Oleson Gallery during the show!  

 I'll be updating the site little by little with in depth process write ups of all the gallery pieces I've done so far, until I catch up with all the recent work.

Until then if you want to keep up with the work real time the best bet is my Facebook page and Instagram!

Samus Aran

A quick sketch portrait of Samus Aran for #Sketch_Dailies posted originally on my twitter for their daily sketch challenges.

Here's the black and white version wanted to keep it simple and strong and decided to try out a bit of a textured crosshatched background.

For the color version to keep with the background style I tried to keep the same crosshatch style to give it a comic book, pop art feel.

It was a good way to to save on time with out getting into heavy rendering. I'll probably still going in to it at a later time to give some more detail, rendering and attention to her mechanical parts.

I usually post my #sketch_dailies on my twitter when I get around to them, or even on my fb page.

Batman Beyond

This was an ink warm-up to loosen up for some other projects in the works. Plus I just started playing around in Manga Studio, so this was done mostly in there to give it a test run. Plus I love Batman Beyond and just finished reading through the whole comic run, which was very true to the show and expanded it's world, but still managed to be great in it's own right. 

Anyways, there are definitely a lot of benefits in Manga Studio. Mainly the ink brushes are so smooth and precise compared to Photoshop. They're really fast and responsive, I was able to go from sketch to final in no time. I'm sure there's tweaking and brush downloads available to get a similar effect in PS, but I'm really digging Manga Studio for now.

Not saying I completely switched over either. MS is really fast for drawing, laying down lines and get it sharp and crisp. But I still finished up the fine details and shading in PS, plus the color and the background.

Here's a close up detail shot.

PS and MS both have their own strengths, the trick is gonna be figuring a good work flow to take advantage of all of them.

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Hellboy

I started doing a series of my own personal comic icons, mostly characters or creators who I really admire for their style and vision. I couldn't pass up Mike Mignola's Hellboy, they both ooze style.

I started with a quick sketch. I wanted to keep the lines clean and fresh, with big shapes. I didn't want to completely ape Mignola's style, just use it as inspiration.

I knew from the start it was going to be a digital piece and sometimes starting a sketch digitally gets too messy for me. I've also been trying to streamline my process. So I just sketched it out, took a quick picture, and redrew the whole thing digitally. 

Since sometimes scanning forces me to try to save the original line work, I wanted a photo so it pushes me to recreate crisp lines.

Here's the finished linework. Mostly cleanup and blocking in the empty shapes. Plus he needed his iconic BPRD patch. 

I tried no to get to crazy with the detail, here's a bit of a close up shot.

And onto the color! The color was a bit of a head scratcher for me, I wanted to find a nice balance between flat colors like the comic, but just enough detail to set off the linework.

And that's about it. Trying to keep the linework and detail minimal was crucial for the color not to become overpowering in the end.

Prints Available as well!

RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (INK) / RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (COLOR)

Skunk Ape - Dark Arts St Pete

This was an older gallery piece for DARK ARTS, a Halloween art show and entertainment event on October 26, 2013 at stationnumber3 in St. Pete. 

The theme was basically anything dark and Halloween themed. I decided I wanted my piece to be local to St. Pete and Florida as well. So I chose to go with the legend of the Myakka Skunk Ape.

Think of a swamp version of Bigfoot, That's our Skunk Ape.

The original sketch was just a bunch of scribbles in Photoshop to get a basic composition and shape down. I wanted to make this piece as organic and fresh as I could, so I went with minimal planning.

The one thing I did plan out is the overall style and look I wanted. So I zoomed in on a small part of the digital sketch and pushed as far towards finished as I could.

From there it was just a matter of transferring the sketch onto a 2 x 4 foot whiteboard by grid and then lots and lots of time detailing.

More detailing. The whole piece was done in sharpies of all sizes, and even red sharpie for the trees. I wanted to see if I could stick to one material for the whole piece.

And finally all done!

And here's some close ups.

 In the end it was a really fun piece and a great show with over 60 other local artists, plus food vendors and live music.

The main pupose was the challenge of sticking to one material the whole way through, I might have to do a digital updated version as a print eventually and clean up the lines and color.

Abstract Expressions - Artspace Anna Maria

Recently, I had my show at Artspace Anna Maria, which is an amazing space right on the beach on Anna Maria Island, run by the amazing artist Deborah Webster. I'd say it's pretty much like a fusion between an art gallery and beach paradise.

The show was a lot of fun and a real challenge. I had a lot of ideas and concepts of things I wanted to try out, but these things never go as expected, so you have to go with the flow and see what comes out.

 

 

 I wanted the abstract pieces to be a bit of an appetizer to help get people into the mind frame and feeling of what I wanted the show to be. It's more about playing with colors and forms and shapes and having fun. 

I wanted to show a little behind the scenes into the creative process before they got to the main show.

And the ladies, well they're the ladies, the main attraction. I played with different techniques on each of them, trying to capture different feelings with each one. 

Each one was a bit of a different journey, never really coming out how I expected. But since one of my main focuses was trying something new, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

 I did have a blast with the technique, it does get a little stressful because there isn't much control. But that might be one of my favorite things about it.

So, it's definitely a style I'm going to stick with and keep developing and pushing. The only trick will be finding space to fit all of them down the line, at 2x4 feet each these ladies are not small...

Process, Ideas and Experimentation

I'm working on a new series for the Gallery Artspace Anna Maria here on the beautiful Anna Maria Island. They have and amazing location right by the water and I'm just really excited for it! It's gonna be on August 11 - 24 and the title will be Abstract Expressions and I'll be posting process and all that through my Facebook.

For these pieces I really wanted to fuse my drawing style with some of the abstract style I use for my experimental paintings. The experimental abstract paintings are great creative release for me, because I just play around with colors, splatters and just try and stretch my wings a little.

But they're missing a big part that would really elevate them into being a final piece. For this series I decided to tackle that.

 This was my first attempt. I started with some strong reference and a very clear idea and I set forth to paint it. This was my first mistake because I am more of a draftsman than a painter, and especially for an experimental process like this, it was a bit of a risk having so much of the piece riding on those skills.

I don't dislike the piece, I learned a lot from it, and there is a process and a technique that can be developed there later on. But it wasn't what I was looking for for this series.

So I started over with my same idea and my same reference. Then it hit me "Why am I not drawing?". I've been seeing a lot of street art lately and I'd always been interested in wheat-pasting but I never had an oppurtunity to really use it. 

Except for now.

And just like that I found a fun way to fuse my ink work with my abstract work. There's still a lot more experimentation and fine tuning that will go into it. What you see will probably be the half way point before the final.

The main thing is I have a lot more room to play around and experiment, because the underlying artwork is already there. As long as I let that shine through and just focus on blending the styles, I'll be able to have as much fun as I want with it.

Remember, this is just a teaser. Feature presentation won't be out till August 11!

ROSE THORN

So, a lot of stuff has been going on. Thanks to Art in the Park I met a business partner that runs a clothing factory and wants to work together with SuarezArt to bring some new life, fresh blood, and sick art to his business.

We've been building some brands and clothing lines, I think I've drawn more these last 3 weeks than I have my whole life. I don't know if that says something about how much work I've done now, or how lazy I was then...

Anyways most of the stuff is hush hush but I will post the things that are Suarezart related.

 

This girl was drawn on my first day in. I just went at it like no tomorrow.

We wanted a design to be unique, so he showed me this screen printing process that actually prints around the neck hole, and that set off my creative juices. 

From there I started thinking what would look best draped around your neck. What would look cool? I started thinking Mucha, and hair. I love drawing hair, but I needed something cool so I wanted some barbed wire/thorns because I also wanted a flower as a design element.

This is the final shirt design, the thorn and rose are gold foil. There might be a few changes during production, but I think this is strong.

And here's she is all nice and fixed up ready for a poster. This process is much more difficult to explain because it's mostly trial and error, throwing layers and all kinds of stuff on top of each other until something pops out to me.

It's actually usually the funnest part!

Print is available here, and follow me on facebook to receive updates on when the shirt is available!

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New Print Released! - Time -

Time

In the blink of an eye,

 time stands still.

Beauty frozen, 

suspended in the arms of destiny…

...

HA! Yeah right. 

Could you imagine if I was that corny for real? I did write that little sample though, so maybe there's some poetry writing in my future, not so heavy handed next time though.

I'm going to be releasing a few older pieces as prints finally, so stay tuned!

Also! use this link to get FREE SHIPPING on all prints worldwide until March 17!

/ PRINT / STORE / PROGRESS POSTS: 1 - 2 - 3 - FINAL

Free Shipping on all Prints until Sept 16!

Use this link if you want to use this deal.

So if you've been waiting to buy an adventure time or brawler sailor moon print, now is the time! Act fast!

- Store - 

Brawler Sailor Moon

I'm starting a series of hardcore, fight club style Sailor Scouts.

Sailor Moon is up first, she's the leader, so she's the muscle. Nothing fancy, just straight up beating the shit out of the bad guys.

So this was the first version, Just getting the pose and everything down. It actually went by really quick, I had the whole image in my head from the start.

The next step was just going in real tight and just adding in more details and shine and just polishing it up overall. I actually tried adding more shading, but I ended up erasing most of because it was just unnecessary and didn't really add much to the piece.

The next part of the series is gonna be trying a color version of her, and an action scene. Then, after those the next Sailor up is Sailor Mars, her fire power is gonna be a lot of fun to play with.

Also both of them are available as prints all the way up to 28x38 inches!

Brawler Sailor Moon - Final / Brawler Sailor Moon - Sketch

Now on Society6!

Finally, got a print store up, and I decided on Society6 because I really like their style and quality. Plus, they're real easy to use and I saw a bunch of artists I like are part of their community.

http://society6.com/SuarezArt

So, check it out and I'm uploading new prints everyday, just in case you don't see the piece you're looking for up yet.

 

HULK!

I loved The Avengers movie, it was a great summer blockbuster popcorn flick. Marvel has been killing it with their movies lately. I would've draw some Iron Man and Thor fan-art if I wasn't so scared of all the freaking details in their costumes. I'll get to them eventually, probably Loki too...

Anyways Hulk has always been one of my favorite characters, what's not to love about a super angry, giant green monster that is technically infinitely powerful? Plus, he's a blast to draw, there's so many different way to interpret him. You can really tell a lot from an artist depending how they draw the Hulk.

Personally, I think the movie got a great balance between comic booky and real life. I think the little gut he had in some scenes was a great touch, haha.

So, I wanted to start with a face study before i move on to tackling a full body or even a group piece. The red is because my eyes are started to get bored of just black and white. Plus, Hulk is ANGRY!

These 2 are me finally venturing out into adding full color into my inks. I feel the bold, bright colors are the only way to contrast with the heavy black in the inks. 

Plus, I'm learning that I can't simply wait until I finish the inks before throwing the colors on. The best way would probably be wait until I'm half way through the inks, throw in some rough colors, and then finish both at around the same time. I think I started thinking about these colors in a bit too late. It's hard to switch mindsets when you feel a piece is almost finished.

All in all, learned a few new tricks for the next round. Expect more color pieces to pop up. Plus, I have some spare finished pieces sitting around I haven't posted yet.

Prints: Hulk-Red / Hulk-Neon / Hulk-Green