Dolor #3!!

Happy Halloween! I remember when I was younger I dressed up as Gambit from the X-Men, Donatello, a bloody skull thing, and even one time I had basketball practice before I went out trick-o-treating and went to practice my jump shots in full monster make-up...haha. Good times!!

But I wrapped up my Dolor story. The guidelines were for it to be straight black and white and a dot-texture for your grey tone. What I learned: comics are touuugh!!!! But fun! My teacher George Pratt was a great help. Make sure to scope out his comic work, it'll blow your mind!! So I put up page 3 and page 5 of a six page story. I'll let you know when the book is available to purchase through Rotopol Press. I was originally invited to take part in this adventure by Nic Klein and Michael Meier, both great dudes with killer work! Make sure to check out the preview my good buddy Dustin d'Arnault put up on his blog. After seeing his story I knew I had to step mine up!

have a safe night,
-francis

Anything is possible if you want it enough

Theodore in Dolor!

"......Camels and pyramids, sandals and sphinxes
my gosh this is Egypt!! but how did I reach it............?"

-fv

***Be on the lookout for "The Adventures of Theodore Peeps: An adult nursery rhyme by Francis Vallejo" in issue 3 of Dolor published by Rotopol Press!!!

Coming soon****

Tata Gala!!

Finally! a new post. Sorry. Posts should be coming with a higher frequency from now on.

But these drawings are for the 2nd annual Tata Gala held at Digital 3 Gallery this Friday. The event is literally about breasts with much of the proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Cancer foundation. It is mainly helmed by my buddy Erik Jones so you know its going to be a top notch event! I mainly used the show as an excuse to give my new Kolinksy brushes a test drive. My teacher George Pratt really recommended them.....and whoah!!! they are amazing to work with. I can definitely feel and see a difference in my line work. Luckily I got them in time and will be using them on my comic (more on that real soon).

all the best!

-francis

Le Dans Macabre group exhibition!

So I forgot to mention that I have 2 paintings in a show at the Spurious Fugitive Gallery that opened this past Friday in South Bend, Indiana. Fortunately the show is up until the 26th of October. If you're in the area and check it out, let me know. I couldn't make it to the gallery and am curious with how the set up looks.

edit *** I just received news that I got the Best of Show! Thanks Heath!***

best,

-francis

New pieces!

Hey internet! I'll start of with the obligatory things have been really busy quote, but they really have. Between taking classes, helping organize the Illest of Ill show, and taking on new projects it's been a wild ride. But I'll elaborate a little on the post I made a few days ago. In a real random/lucky sequence of events I was put into contact with the manager of Tony Williams (check out his music, it's really great, his new album is going to be flames) who is a member of G.O.O.D. Music (one of my favorite music labels). Tony is the voice behind some of Kanye's biggest hits, and is actually his cousin. So I did some introductory work, such as the image I have here, and a longer term relationship is being negotiated specifically with Tony's project, with a lot of exciting projects in the future. To step away from professionalism for the moment, I'm a giant fan of Kanye, Common, John Legend, Consequence, GLC, now Tony Williams, and really recently Kid Cudi. So to be able to directly or indirectly work with this label is a giant rush for me. I'm having a great time!!!! I've done a few more pictures in this series, but I'm tweaking them now, so I'll be sure to post them as they are wrapped up.

On the other end of the spectrum, class with George Pratt has been great! He drops illustration science on us every class and I'm filling up my sketchbook with quotables every time we meet. We recently were given an assignment to do a bunch of head studies. Unfortunately I had to do them the night before class and these are a few of the interesting ones. I accidentally discovered that coating your drawing with a layer of wood stain is probably one of the coolest things I've done! My buddy pointed out that if you put the female figure piece in the light, a skull in the ink blot shows up.......creepy stuff... The Fechin studies are from another class. I highly recommend doing a few Fechin copies!

And this image is from a poster I made for this year's Illest of Ill. The show is this Friday the 10th, and I can guarantee it is going to blow everyone away. We've been working on organizing it since early summer and we have some exciting things planned. If you're in the Sarasota/Tampa Bay Florida area, be sure to stop by! It will feature the best illustrations Ringling has to offer.

take care,

-francis