Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Wolf Cub (no cats today)


My Wolf Cub for a t-shirt - Can you hear him crying out for "share"? 

Concept: This is a social project, so I went for a social animal...(which is also one of my favorite wild things) and it's for childrens...cubs right? also ams for the younger generation. The logo is so round it could be the moon... so everything just fit together. I hope I can show some HQ jpeg soon enough with the link for the instituition :)

About wolfs, here's 2 of my life changing books:
Women Who Run with the Wolves  by Clarissa Pinkola Estés 

the philosopher and the wolf  by Mark Rowlands

Monday, February 24, 2014

new CMYK is out

My new CMYK (here)

In order to get the best drawing I had to loose some information on the Yellow CMYK, but I guess it woks. I promise a happier CMYK next week :) I've been kind of overwhelmed by rain and distance and to much work. Cyan will have to leave the "pause" mode and save me!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

From 2 Cats to Big Cats

I found my future dream job :) you get a pay check every month to draw animals and you can investigate your subject for... 4 months! 4 (four) entire months... 
[can you spot the differences?] :D



 
Fernando Baptista works for National Geographic (video link) 


This video shows two issues about illustration:
1_how important it is to spend time researching and sketching your subject and:
2_minute detail drawing is a luxury that expresses the ability to work with love and without rush on this tick-tacking world. 
And the older I get the more I realize TIME is our most valued possession. 

P.S.If you like this drawing you'll probably would like to see some works from my two favorite artist on this Nature illustration subject: Dugal Stermer and Carl Brenders.Also, I have to point out that minute detail was around circa 645 BCE...on this  precious "Dying Lioness"


 
(click on image for details)


... m
y teacher (Mª João Lello) gave us such a lecturer on this image that I still remember the passion she put on to mimetize and describe this noble lioness pain, muscles and strength
By the way... men drawing lionesses and girls drawing lions... curious.
(Note to self: Search for women illustrators in this Nature/illustration genre... could all artists have been discarded to "picture book cooking"?)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

2 black cats named John... smells fishy or insightful?

_Yvan Pommaux (link)

A curiosity: at the 2013 CONFIA conference I learned [on Sandra Beckett's paper = "Yvan Pommaux's Fairy-Tale whodunnits *"] that my dear John Blacksad must have had inspiration in an earlier character John Chatterton by Yvan Pommaux [published long before the publication of the 1st Blacksad in 2000) 
Pommaux, Y. John Chatterton détective. L'Ecole des Loisirs, Paris (1993); 
Pommaux, Y. : Lilas. L'Ecole des Loisirs, Paris (1995); 
Pommaux, Y. Le grand sommeil. L'École des Loisirs (1998) 
Coincidence? French editor tips to Spanish designer?  ... Whodunnits*! Time will tell.

One thing is sure: Blacksad is a sucess, I have the books, the making of, the videos... a
nd I'm on my way to buy the last one :) "Amarillo" (video link) 
It's curious how there's so many people working on this subject. I made an exhibition in 2007 and I had no references to other illustrators working on this zoomorphic theme. In a split second internet is overflowing with this imagery... National Geographic Generation? Jung synchronicity? ...don't know, but I'm loving it (:

_Juanjo Guarnido (link)


*Whodunnits - a story or play about a murder in which the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the end.



Wednesday, February 5, 2014

new cmyk _ "back home"




Appreciate big-little things like being back home again.

Final CMYK here

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My Cmyk personality

        

I'll just let the picture speak for itself. 
Living doing what you love is not always peaceful and dreamlike...
More CMYKs here:

http://mycmykpersonality.blogspot.pt/
 My Cmyk personality  https://www.facebook.com/myCMYKpersonality?ref=hl

Thursday, January 9, 2014

What Art can do.... lecture by Alain de Botton

"Sentimentality is an attachment to the good that refuses to countenance the bad. But an adult engagement with prettiness of course recognizes that it is an exception and an island in an otherwise dark world, and that 's why it gains value. So don't be embarrassed of pretty flowers and water lilies. That's what art can do. Art restores hope, and prettiness is an essential part of its mission."

(Alain de Botton) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFnNgTSkHPM 

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

"The Best" Children's Books of 2013

"The Best" of 2013... without references on WHY, was it based on a prize? Design? Illustration? sales? content? seem to be just the BEST [...way to give us profit].
Besides: 2013. Is it over? I wonder if they're just looking for some Christmas consumers. 

Barnes and Noble_ The Best New Books of 2013 for Kids ///http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/best-books-of-the-year/379003303/
Amazon_ The Top 20 Children's Books of 2013 ///http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_al_bw_brwse?_encoding=UTF8&node=7756011011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=0J76FM1VC2KZX6XA1A9V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1649105202&pf_rd_i=7783650011
Brain Pickings_ The 13 Best Children’s, Illustrated, and Picture Books of 2013 /// http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/09/best-childrens-books-2013/

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Bliss = creative people + a female internet

The Internet is Female !! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1e27wOIXqY


I'm feeling hope! Things like Mesoamerica poster make me believe we’re heading the right direction. I sometimes fear we’re running towards an Aldous Huxley world with big social discrepancies or to a hubermom and huberman demand for future generations…http://ed.ted.com/lessons/social-animal-david-brooks


But with these creative people around like beehive and with visual communication playing such a huge role in our lifes... there's hope. Looking around to my friends, colleagues and students I KNOW we won’t let this happen. Hope, justice and peace with our creative solitude will overcome the past fear of alienation as the "outsider" the big corporations have planted into us.
We shall BE and not BUY.

Mesoamerica resiste!

 mesoamerica resiste

:) These things make me happy. 


About the project_
9 years of production, 13 golden rules, 3 years brainstorming.
It looks like a mega- "eye candy" poster but in fact it’s a complex mind concept with visual metaphors... and sales go for a ecological and social cause.

About the art_ 
( and what a nice video for a didactic class on illustration!!)
draftsmanship is not showoff, it has a porpoise : Those very thin ink pens allow to draw in pointillism, which is a usual technique for scientific illustration – it’s done this way so that the drawing won’t lose information and quality when it goes to print.

4:38_ the visual metaphor with bees is stunning!! It’s related with the name of the collective (beehive), with the final goal of all the project, and also reminds us of:
«if all insects on Earth disappeared, 
within 50 years all life on Earth would end. 
If all human beings disappeared from the Earth,
within 50 years all forms of life would flourish.»
― Biologist Jonas Salk

5:34_MIND MAPS - brainstorming = like I always say: one A4 sheet of paper for verbal concepts + another A4 with sketches (including clichés just to get them out of the way) at the end, images will show you the way.
More info here:
http://beehivecollective.org/beehive_poster/mesoamerica-resiste/
http://www.upworthy.com/the-poster-is-mesmerizing-the-story-it-tells-is-electrifying-have-you-seen?c=ufb1

from here to Pintrest, since Facebook doesn't allow to Pin


Thursday, November 21, 2013

How To Price Illustration for Children's Books, Editorial, etc.


Print screen on the left: Prices in dollars converted to euros // Print screen on the right: The "sweet spot" you should be considering to price your art work

 This is a Will Terry video resume, original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6xrt5ko1uw#t=18
1_Estimate the time you'll spend on it.
2_Try know the budget directly from client or art direction.
3_Find your bottom line payment
3,5 _ Is it fun? Do you want to do it? Rethink your bottom line (up or down)
4_When you have the limit amount phone, email and negotiate.

Note to self: [after video and 10 years illustrating]
If you don't win that assignment it's ok - it's better to have that TIME to work on something you  like.
Don’t take a job just because you feel you should be working on something, if you’re a freelance it means sometimes you’ll have a free agenda.
Your time is worth money – If you’re in the market “on sales” that’s the only type of client you’ll attract: big fish looking for bargains or poor clients with no money (usually, neither of them has a real concern for commissioning good art). Then again, a poor client, good project… maybe a YES just because you want.
Go pro bono if it makes you happy but don't "sale" your soul.

Feeling you're working for nothing or even doing a bad job: ruins your spirit and portfolio, oh, and dropping some tears as you draw blurs away your vision and ruins the paper -  (or perhaps not, if you’re up to watercolors)
We never loose a job, we  win time to do other stuff that are really interesting and meaningful to build a good portfolio …while you’re saying goodbye to a poor client.
Sometimes “NO” is just freedom for all the “YES” you’re looking for.

(…and that’s a huge “note to self”… well, reassessing values is also a good practice against insomnia)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Best online free website builder? (edited)



As an illustrator I've seen a lot of FREE PORTFOLIO HOSTING WEBSITES before I could afford my own website. I posted my illustrations in Behance, Carbonmade, Webnode, not to mention some albums in Facebook and Blogger. 


I found the one down below in the image recently (artisrun) but it turn out to be a free trial, as I was editing this post and links I found another one (in the image up above) that seems really nice and free: http://imcreator.com/
I've started uploading photos just to experiment and see how templates and image gallery would behave and I was really amazed by the upload speed and easiness to arrange back and forth the thumbnails - So if you're a young artist, designer, illustrator or photographer looking for a place were to show your portfolio you may want to visit this one.Or find some comparison here: http://designinstruct.com/roundups/free-online-portfolio/

FREE:
http://my.carbonmade.com/
http://www.behance.net/
http://www.webnode.pt/
http://pt.wix.com/
http://www.ucoz.com/
https://www.yola.com/
http://imcreator.com/

NOT FREEhttp://artistrunwebsite.com/
http://www.photoshelter.com/
http://www.viewbook.com/
http://www.dripbook.com/
http://4ormat.com/l/your_portfolio
Reviews: http://www.top10bestwebsitebuilders.com/

Of course, the best one is for you to evaluate - you should make a list of what you need and find out where those features are part of the package. Research from link to link, you can start here:

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

my love affair with running and illustration



This video is my homage to RUNNING, LISBON and to Tagus river.

The story starts 3 years ago: I RUN, I LOVE it and I try to SHARE it by posting a picture of the sunrise on Facebook everytime I go running. This is my "Good morinig" to friends and the "likes" let me know they appreciate this good mood and my "visual weather cast" as a public service :)

I wish everyone could start the day with this LIGHT and powerful ENERGY.
And the download is FREE - you just have to plug-in with Nature.
So, basically, I hope you get inspired and if you can run... GO for it!
No pink ideals here, we're all just ordinary people - when I wake up my body hurts [as h***!!] but if I miss my run my soul will ache much more.
Do I sometimes wish to stay in bed? - yessss! 
Do I feel like flying next to sealguls? - Sure do.
Do I feel like Superwoman comming back home? - read my smile!!
I believe this is the next Viral thing - a Runner's smile is contagious.
:)
_______
As I was trying to make everyone see how amazing the river can be I started to realize this had become a ritual for me - for Body and Mind. 
Even more than that, the river become part of my identity as person and illustrator, I hope you can identify it in the drawings. 
I also did this video because I believe running is a powerful self-designing tool. "we are what we repeatedly do"and we wake up with the power to change and shape the world - starting with us. 

If you want to know some more about this story you may visit the links here:
2 public albums with this photos in FB:
1st album:___ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
2nd album:___ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...

Lívio's music:
https://soundcloud.com/liviotti/rushi...
http://liviomorais.bandcamp.com/track...
[original, full version of the music on this video] 

Last but not least... my illustrations:
http://www.anafonso.com

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Speed drawing and painting for a picture book (illustration process)

 YOUTUBE VIDEO
Speed drawing experience _ N.º 02

These are illustrations for a book I made a week ago. I have chosen Andersen's Princess Pea image to show you the work flow:
01_Drawing (speed motion)
02_Painting by hand with acrylics in my atelier windows [:P kind of a messy experience but they dry up really fast - it works!! ]
03_Photoshop to improve colors and detail (in details)
04_Indesign to finish composition in the page

I'll be showing more about the digital part = 04 and 05 ASAP with a book trailler.
Still searching for a good program to capture my sreen as I work [ maybe fraps?] - if you have recommendatioons please leave them as comments.
Hope you enjoy.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Visual metaphor recipe

More examples of visual metaphors here @ Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/xxxanafonsoxxx/visual-metaphors/



[
ARISMAN, Marshall -Teaching illustration. New York: Allworth Press, 2006]
________________________________________________

.... Wich brings to mind this old 2007 post about the importance of brainstorming your concepts before making that illustration and how it's perfect when you manage to grasp the idea and have the draftsmanship to nail it down.

[my drawing according to an article on: HELLER, Steven; ARISMAN, Marshall -The Education of an Illustrator. New York: Ed. Allworth Press, 2000.]




Monday, October 21, 2013

Academic research in picturebooks


https://www.facebook.com/authorstrators
Feel free to visit the Facebook page for my research in picturebooks and share knowlegde and links.

[This is a place to share knowledge about picturebooks made by ‘authorstrators’. 'Author+strator' = the author/illustrator of a picturebook.]

Wednesday, October 16, 2013


Trabalho =  Espelho + Auto-construção em simultâneo 

Work is kind of a mirror ans self-constructing tool.
(iphone cover here)

Monday, October 14, 2013

Também podem encontrar-me por aqui // You can find me here too