what's the best way to illustrate an article for a magazine? _ emotional approach

As an illustrator sometimes we have to apply storytelling to articles (this one on sports).
As in a fairy tale, we have to empathize with the plot and beware of  all the ups and downs and shades of grey. what is most important to communicate? 

• The best option to tell a story is to read carefully and know where you're suspense and best moments will be. In an article those moments are dictated by content, but! everything lights up when you are able to
• Be passionate about your subject.
• Find your personal view and tell your story. Leave your fingerprint.

Here's a practical example: I recently draw and did the layout for this 2 spreads in memory of Joaquim Agostinho, who died 30 years ago, on 10th of May while competing in Portugal. 

It was wonderful to read about this legendary athlete through Fernando's words (I guess he is an admirer too) and to be able to negotiate some more space for the image. ;)
So I was passionate about what I've read so i carried out some more investigation just because I couldn't help it! I felt in love with his unbelievable determination:  Agostinho was the kind of man that would fall, crush his bike into pieces and finish the race carrying his bike to the finish line, the kind of warrior that is literally dying and gets back on his bike begging his colleagues to stay close and don't let him fall before the finish line.
An Aries like me!! (empathize? check!), a simple man with a passion for what he did (check again!!), besides all this he started out as a farmer, not a cyclist, but a man that would ride his bike to work on fields. Legend says he would pass the professional cyclist team with no effort, carrying a big pottery, no wait! carrying a pig!! :) and that's how he got noticed.
Now the fingerprint: this is my dad riding his bike, it soon becomes Agostinho going to work on my head, so this photo becomes a drawing and that drawing becomes a homage to both.



I took this photo on vacations in Trás-os-Montes  - my dad rides his bike to keep me company on my morning runs, as you see he wears boots to go into the fields and show me around: the land that on the family for centuries, the small portion he bought to make way for a tractor, how a new tree was hanging up after a graft, where we can pick some fruits and vegetables for a next meal... and how they are hiding from sight. running and hunting for greens!! :D
You can find this article in magazine "Ciclismo a fundo n.º 32"
And here some more about Agostinho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquim_Agostinho

After 40

It's Tuesday!! a New cmyk is out:
https://www.facebook.com/myCMYKpersonality

what's the best way to illustrate an article for a magazine? _ practical approach

Making of an illustration for an article:
1_ Start knowing a final outcome is the only a small selection (about 10%)of the work you've put into it
2_Get your hands dirty, forget A4 draw on A3, real expressive lines should arise after the first half hour.
3_ You need 1 drawing? Do 4 versions in order to make a selection. (Do you see the bikes in the files? I needed a small sketch for second spread I had to do the line, the ink, the inked line, because you never know what's going to work on Indesign - In this article I had to transform the black into orange in order to melt the drawing with all the article and don't stole the strengh to the portrait next to it.Put aside first sketches, don't settle for 'satisfying' or the first "wow, nice")
4_ Put some passion into it. enjoy what you're doing and fall in love with your task. Imagine your working to win the "Pulitzer for illustration"

sketches

layout options on print

 final work on magazine

unemployed? not a word for creative people

...they just happen to be sometimes"between project".

As Lawrence Zeegen says in the book "The fundamentals of illustration":
«Being freelance means that there are times when one is busy and other times when one is without work, or 'in between projects»
At those times, the hardest thing in the world is to get up from bed and reinvent yourself over and over again. It's hard to keep believing in yourself when you depend on someone else approval in order to make a living isn't it?
Brain keeps asking: « What am I doing wrong? Does my work speaks to people? My work is what I am, what I do... do I have worth? should I be doing something else?»

I've been there lots of times, what keeps me going is routine (running) and passion (working for illustration). So, I would just recommend you to work on your passion until it becomes what you are.
So when you wake up it's not a choice anymore. It's the only way to go.

new video on my youtube "enjoy the ride in HD"

An illustrator playing with video tools. Why not?
I'm working in layout and illustration for Bike Magazine. And that includes making some teasers for them. Usually, some eye-catching articles have a small animated photogallery to make the magazine more appealling. As an illustrator,my goal was to tell a story.

I've done some research you can see it on Pintrest (specially the "How to Make a Mountain Bike Film"): http://www.pinterest.com/xxxanafonsoxxx/bike-it/
And after Indesign I took it to Abobe Premiere and this was the outcome. Enjoy the ride :)

http://youtu.be/e1Mir1DsLDE

sneak peek to my CMYK (launching tomorrow)

www.facebook.com/myCMYKpersonality

New Cmyk on bikes

is it tuesdayalready? - new CMYK

Didn't have much time to finnish this one. the finger was supposed to be crushing each other nose but overlapping make it too confusing, so I had to separate the girls. I only had some hours to scan this, and I also forgot to draw the wallet!! Never finnish a drawing so close to deadline!! learned and carry on.

That's what we storytellers do

That's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.
A quote from Saving Mr. Banks

National Geographic Generation (:

Graphics, aesthetics... more than a music, a message.
I see signs announcing the "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GENERATION" I've been looking for. (: They are among us. Nature-loving, party-driven yet sober, low carbon riders, high energy people. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4Bd7Lktqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrbM1l_BoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLa_ryRjC7M&feature=share

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

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!

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

(my work / link)

 

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)

... my 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"?)

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... and 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.

new cmyk _ "back home"

Appreciate big-little things like being back home again.

Final CMYK here

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

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 

"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/

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!

:) 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

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