print screen at noon_04

 I love this job!! :.D 

a) I'm @ Feira do Livro de Lisboa (Princess Pea stand)  illustrating live and giving autographs (drawings) on my books. Show up!! :)
b) If you've just there and followed the yellow QR CODE road WELCOME! you can find out more about me and my works here: anafonso.com

Print screen at noon_03

To much work! some "noons" just pass me by :)
I'm still loving this mix of sports and beautiful photos.
This is D. Quixote http://davidcachon.com/

my cmyk personality has an exclusive blog

From today on "my cmyk personality" has a exclusive blog. If you're not a facebook user to follow CMYK adventures trough FB now you can keep track of my weekly Visual Chronicle trough Blogger. Same drawing but easier to find you favourite ones.





Take a peek:
(new blog)
http://mycmykpersonality.blogspot.pt/
(facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/myCMYKpersonality

"A Raposa Azul" on second edition. This is when you get happy to be treated like an author and not just a freelance

Work pays off.  No matter what, if you endure some obstacles and pursue your passions feedback will come along. works is a seed we must be patient to see it's flowers.
Of course if you're not alone chances of success increase - specially if you're working with well knowned writers. This is when you get happy to be treated like an author and not just a freelance do preform a task. I have a divided authorship with the 2 authors of the text. Good publishers work this way. It's not luck, it's not a favour that is done to you -  it's the way it is supposed to be. FAIR. :)

The authors Ana Maria Magalhães e Isabel Alçada made a small video to promote the book. here:
http://www.planonacionaldeleitura.gov.pt/novasleituras/index.php?id=8

Art imitates life _ new CMYK is out

Art imitates life :)

01_Real life: You can see a teaser in Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rafABX2Fkpo&list=UU-qaJlMbvwaDDPQgLaqJNrA

02_Art: You can see my CMYK personality with mixed feelings here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=658469067574603&set=a.587545721333605.1073741827.153175824770599&type=1&theater

Print screen at noon_02

Cover magazine done!! My illustrated dices are right on front. It's a poster kids can cut and build.
I also enjoyed doing those small "medals" to better organize different materials that compose the hand-made toys.

Print screen at noon_01

my drawings, in a poster, on a magazine to build some dices :)
stay tunned: http://instagram.com/anafonso_com

New book coming out

New book coming out! Deadline stress update :)
working awake until 3.00 am
You can find the late instagram here: http://instagram.com/p/ob7KHavKRt/
And the inspiration gallery here: http://www.pinterest.com/xxxanafonsoxxx/alexandre-herculano-contos/

The best method to work as an illustrator or designer?

The best method to work as an illustrator or designer?  (link)

CMYK personality » celebrating week n.20 on my Visual Chronicle

https://www.facebook.com/myCMYKpersonality

CMYK » week n.20 - Work odyssey chapter 01- The Hydra inbox.

What is «my CMYK personality»?
_It's my alter-ego. A women with 3 different personalities inside (sports, love, spiritual) each drawing has a "normal" black and painted girl -  which represents what you see, but there's more 3 of me: each one is a very different thought in front of the same situation.

Why am I doing this if nobody is buying?
1_It's fun.
2_I'm doing this because I wanted to find out if I have what it takes to keep up the compromise of doing a weekly drawing. I am!! (20 weeks on a row at this point)
3_keep in touch with friends.

Do I get uncomfortable on all the personal data I'm sharing?
No. Actually, friends encouraged this. They respond to it very cheerfully and (they say) allows them to know  my whereabouts. 
Besides I believe we have to be personal. Life is personal, my drawings are personal... there's no way to escape from it. I'm the "open book" you can read and decide if you identify or want to come along and share part of the journey with me or just pass me by.
I read the "The Celestine Prophecy" as a teenager, and I still believe in parts of it. Show yourself, let people know what drives you, only then you can find fellow travellers.

"Me, myself and I"... sound a bit egocentric?
Well, it turns out the subject I know the most about is... me! no politics, no football, no economics, just me. And I always have lots of stories to tell... I'm a storyteller, too shy to speak or write.
Chances are girls and women around will identify with many of this mine/universal female situations.
We live is separate countries, have different jobs (or no jobs), do sports or work our brains out in front of the PC... inner conflicts, parody, drama, self pity, endurance... every mixt feelings I get, every problem I'm dealing with... CMYK has become my alter-ego, and also free shrink session.
... A Visual chronicle of someone (between a girl and a grownup woman)

Wasting time?
Investing. I'm a freelance artist, I know I have to do NOW what I want to be hired for in the FUTURE.
Practical example? - I did this video on running (-link-) and latter I was hired because they needed someone that, besides layout and illustration, could make this kind of photo galleries (- link-)
So, CMYK was an old idea I'm developing for multiple purposes.
I believe at some point, the universe will feedback me on this. I can do it. I like it. I'm ready.

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