| Thursday, July 09, 2009 |
| thoughts? |
Hey folks. I've been making my images too unnecessarily complicated lately, so for one of the last assignments at the academy I'm doing a simple-ish image of two rams butting heads. The point of it is to illustrate the sound that is made by the action. So when you look at the final piece you should be able to hear the crunch of the two animals hitting each other. I did a few thumbnails, so I thought I would ask the blogger-verse what ones they feel are the most successful? I'll be doing a monotype for the final, and hopefully a large oil when I have a little time after the academy ends.
But I look forward to your thoughts! Their is a tiny green number above each thumb. Sorry it's a little hard to read.
take care, -francis |
posted by Francis Vallejo @ 10:01 AM  |
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| Saturday, July 04, 2009 |
| sketches! |
 Quick post! But these are sketches for two paintings I got going. They both are providing different problems that I've enjoyed solving (or am trying to). The bottom sketch is actual size. I'm thinking of making a post on thumbnailing and idea creation. Probably after the academy ends..haha.
happy 4th! -francis |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 8:23 PM |
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| Friday, June 26, 2009 |
| Originals for sale on Ebay! |
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So I just listed the artwork above on Ebay with no reserve. The auctions all will be ending in 5 days. So technically you could own these originals for 99 cents, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe they go for a little more.. :). The funds garnered from sales will be used to fund my last days in the states and the final weeks of the Illustration Academy.
ALSO, all the figure pastels below are for sale. Shoot me an email (fvallejo.illustration@gmail.com) and we can work out a very reasonable deal.
I also overhauled my STORE, with new work and prints for sale. All of the originals are being handled by galleries or outside dealers, that's why they aren't on Ebay right now..haha.
I imagine good deals are sure to happen with many of the pieces, so if you are interested, make sure to click the "Bid" links for more information on the work.
**EDIT: Thanks to those that bid on the work!!**
Thanks and take care! -francis |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 8:29 PM |
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| Thursday, June 25, 2009 |
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Doodlin away at the Ill Acad! I feel this is as close to the modern day Brandywine as you can get. Right now Mark English, John English, Sam Weber, Jillian Tamaki, David Apatoff, Doug Chayka, George Pratt, Jon Foster, Anita Kunz, CF Payne, Sterling Hundley, Brent Watkinson, and Robert Meganck are walking around Sarasota waiting to change our lives again tomorrow morning. The other day Gary Kelley, Francis Livingston, Terry Brown, and Barron Storey just left. I really am constantly overwhelmed. Each and every artist has their own philosophies and they usually are completely contradictory to each other, and I love it! It's up to us, the students, to pick what we agree with and mold our own philosophies. But man, I've never seen so much unbridled passion for picture making. I feel like I'm part of something historic.
On another note, my sketches have been changing. Since January I've switched from pen to pencil and feel like I'm slowly moving away from line. Slowly. Honestly I'm trying to draw like George Pratt. He taught me to not think, just react and make honest marks. I'll be moving to Russia soon, so I'll have plenty of time to make tight drawings.
best, -francis
**ps: RIP MJ, your music continues to fuel my art.** |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 7:18 PM |
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| Tuesday, June 16, 2009 |
| pastel figures and photos! |
The 2009 Illustration Academy is in full swing and as expected it is crazy bananas. It is my 2nd year attending and I am honored to be around such accomplished teachers and students!
This means nu-pastel figure drawing. These figure sessions truly contain me at my most happy. Something about the technique they push is so money. It makes it much easier to get those strokes you see in your head, but can never seem to get. I did notice a trend of having a rendered torso with simple (or lack of) hands with no feet. I need to fix that. And yes the model that posed for the last one is ripped, she's great!! O yeah, these are 10-20 minute poses.
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Also the opening for my show in San Diego went terrific! Thanks to all those that stopped by and said hi! A few pics are above.
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And lastly, here's a WIP photo. Maybe 50% done. It's of a 30x40 oil portrait of badass guitarist Johnny Winter. I'm determined to finished it up next week. I'm jazzed.
take care!! -francis v |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 9:56 PM |
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| Monday, June 01, 2009 |
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ORIGINS | new works by:
Kyung Soon Park Francis Vallejo + Austin McCormick June 5th - July 19thSubtext Gallery, San Diego CAOpening Reception: this Friday June 5th 6-10pm____________    I'm pleased to announce my first major exhibition opening this Friday at Subtext Gallery in San Diego, CA. I'll be sharing wall space with two very talented artists: Kyung Soon Park and Austin McCormick. All the original work falls under our interpretation of the word "Origins." I'll admit it's been great fun to watch how each artist has interpreted the theme so differently! I'm flying out Wednesday to hang the show, and really look forward to hopefully put some faces to names at the opening this Friday. Make sure to say hello! The top image is one of my paintings to be exhibited. It's an oil of Michigan Central Station in Detroit, Michigan. I spent many afternoons and nights exploring that amazing building. The next two images are details of my main canvas, a 40x60 oil on linen. I'll have 2-3 more pieces exhibited, that I will post after the show has been up for a little while. hope to see folks there!! -francis **if interested in previewing the show and pricing please email Dylan at dylan@subtextstore.com **
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| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 7:59 PM |
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| Wednesday, May 27, 2009 |
| covered in paint |
Detail of painting in progress for my 3 person show (opens next week, post on that soon!). Painting with giant brush-fulls of paint while jamming to the new Eminem and K-OS has been keeping the mojo very positive lately!
take care, -francis |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 1:17 PM |
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| Friday, May 15, 2009 |
| the studio |
 Recently took a shot of my studio aka the lab aka the dungeon aka the imagination station (ok that last one was bad). A bunch of things being painted in various states of finish. I spend a lot of time here so I actually made an effort to make it a place I'd enjoy in comparison to the tiny grey box I lived in at Ringling's dorms. I don't know how I worked in those things for 5 years..haha?
But in the future I think I need a space like Mr. Sargent's:
Hope to have some finals up soon.
take care,
-francis |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 7:14 AM |
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| Monday, May 04, 2009 |
| News update!!! |
 My painting (and the other terrific paintings) for the Microvisions show is up on Ebay and available for purchase. It is a perfect opportunity to own a piece from a variety of comic and illustration greats. We worked small, 5x7 inches, in order to keep the prices affordable! All the proceeds benefit the Society of Illustrators student scholarship fund, a very cool cause.
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I also recently did a podcast interview with Dwight and Swain over at Sidebar. Terrific guys to talk to. We covered a lot of topics, specifically art (of course) and music. Take a listen if you get a chance. My voice didn't crack once...a small miracle!?!
===============  And lastly the magazine that my friends ( Dustin, Oliver, Orlando [killer Roots illo], Tyler, Eric, and myself) designed and illustrated just went live. It was a fun project, and great to work with those dudes again. It's called "The Find" and has a ton of great articles on REAL hip hop. Ton of top notch artwork from everyone inside. It's a free download so you can't go wrong.
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| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 11:25 AM |
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| Thursday, April 23, 2009 |
| reference/research |
 It's funny. I remember when I first began going to art school I was real frustrated with my drawings because they were dead, stiff, and lifeless. Then I started noticing that the upper-classmen were taking reference pictures of each other, which they then based their drawings on. This caused a huge lightbulb to go off. Since then, and after reading everything I can get ahold of concerning Rockwell, I spend a considerable amount of time in the early stages of my work taking a ton of ref pictures and to doing as much research as time permits. The more time I spend getting the pose just right, and referencing the environment, the story-telling, lighting, composition, color, etc....the better the piece always turns out. It's just become part of the process now, one in which I enjoy, because it is at this stage the piece begins to come alive.
I took a few screen caps of some of my reference folders. The top one contains the three main photos I based my Street Fighter piece on. I was in a crunch for time, so I went online and found some great martial arts reference. As you can see, I deviated quite a bit from these photos, but they informed many of my marks. The 2nd image is my reference folder for the "kitchen" painting that I am working on. That's probably the most researched piece I've ever did. And the last image is what's on my computer now. I'm working on a new painting, and am trying to figure out one of the primary figure's pose. Most of the time, I can never get the pose just right in one shot, so I shoot details of the face, feet, hands, etc.. These are helpful because they give me a ton of options to add to the "base" pose. Usually the reference that I print out and work from, is a chopped up from many different photos, and is optimized for my purposes. And like Rockwell said, the photos should just inform your work. I really try not to merely copy the reference, but use it to enhance the world that I am creating in my illustration.
Hope this is interesting to some!?
best, -francis |
| posted by Francis Vallejo @ 8:09 PM |
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