Chicago's 29th Annual Latino Film Festival

I always find it important to look at animation from other countries, not just to see the contrasting styles and themes, but to also support animation as a universal art.  This year, I got to go to the Chicago Latino Film Festival near the end of its run, seeing an animated film from Argentina!  The Director, Maria Ramirez, was there in the theater, and I loved how she spoke in her native Spanish saying that she was very honored to show the political and social aspects of Buenos Aires in various stories depicted through animation.  One of them, dealing with a little boy and his artistic imagination chasing a pretty graffiti artist, became my favorite.  It's that simple story about chasing love... and then it becomes this inspirational piece of work about inspiring artistic freedom in a city that's claustrophobic and somewhat tight from conformity.

It's moments like these that inspire me to keep doing art. 

Which... by the way, is going very well!  I've sold a couple illustration pieces from my online store, and I'm glad that people have commented on my work and are supporting me.  I'm not about to drop everything and do this full-time (though that would be amazing!), but it's one of the things that's pushing me to get up every morning.

Back to Open Studio.

I'm extremely proud of this piece, particularly because I went with a friend of mine to do some drawing at the art studio I always went to last year, and decided to draw in loose India ink.  I sometimes have trouble telling myself that I have the ability to illustrate anything in front of me, and that my style isn't up to par with professionalism... but then I whip something up like this in an hour, and all my worries fade.

I've wondered what exactly I can do with a talent like this.  I played around with the idea of freelancing as a special events illustrator - someone who does illustrations for weddings/birthdays that look more heartfelt than the average photograph.  I don't know... it seems like photographers are dime-a-dozen now with the smartphones, but traditional artists are rare... especially the ones who draw things in an instant.

I think this could go somewhere.  =)

In other news, I submitted work for Autoptic Comic Expo in Minneapolis and the Nick Artist Program for the first time, and I have some artwork on display in Evanston!  I should be jumping for joy, but I guess it's always the worry that I won't make any profit that bugs me.  You know what?  Screw it.  I gotta stay positive because people admire my artwork so much as it is.

Also, my birthday happened! 

I'm officially at the final year of my 20s, which means I'm ready to tackle all the things in my bucket list... run another marathon, learn how to properly swim, have an illustration site, find a full-time job, publish a graphic novel, travel internationally... yikes!  So much to do!

But I'm in a very good place.  =)

Nickelodeon Animated Shorts submission!

Not in a million years did I think I would have the guts to pitch an idea, but with the help of a fellow animation buddy... we made it possible!  It'll be about 2 months before we actually hear anything, but yay for creative endeavors finally coming to fruition! 

Mermaids and PIXAR

I drew this image with a photo reference of a girl doing aerial arts, and decided to make her a mermaid.

Sometimes I feel like I try too hard to draw something picture-perfect from its reference, that the imagination doesn't get its fair time to shine.  I think that with any kind of drawing - if you do want to become an artist - you always need to step back from perfection a little bit and just play around with the pen on paper.  I'm getting a lot of cool images that way, so it's really exciting.

Tonight, I was lucky enough to meet Aarom Hartline, one of the animators at PIXAR, as he was doing a talk at Columbia College.  He had the most impressive example to what it was like to grow up without that privileged background or support in art, just wanting to do it because he knew it was what he loved to do.  He started working at small game design companies as a character designer, while raising a daughter and going to night school for computer animation to get a grip on that booming business.  It was his own perseverance and help from his fellow classmates that kept him in the job market, and it took him thirteen years of rejection before he'd get to set foot inside the Pixar studios.

It's made me nostalgic about the ideas I had about becoming an animator, way back in late 2008.  Wow, has it really been 4 years!?  Did I give up too easily, or did I just not want it enough?  I don't know... I find myself going through class schedules for animation and drawing courses at local colleges, wondering what it'd be like to actually say I have a demo reel with work.  I feel like I'm limiting myself for no reason.

It would be nice to put myself out there, again.

Trust the Marker

Sometimes inspiration just comes the moment the marker touches paper.