Imagination of Francis Vallejo

2009-12-15T08:26:00.000-08:00

Something must be in the air, because I've been discovering some world class artists lately. I'll let these pictures speak for themselves. If you're not familiar, meet Gonzalo Carcamo.

take care,
-fv

ps. Special props to Mr. Carcamo for the tribute to this Repin painting!

*EDIT* Big news. The very considerate Ricardo Antunes informed me that Gonzalo has a step-by-step feature in the terrific online illustration magazine: Revista Ilustrar. Gonzalo is in issue #5, and another artist I recently posted, Sergio Martinez has a great feature in issue #10.

2009-12-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

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Crazy project. I was given a week to do these three pages, and some branding work, for an Australian financial newspaper. The AD provided the titles and the script. The stories consist of epic tales of 2 financial advisers who are turned into superheroes, and one story of a helplessly addicted gambler. .. I tried to have as much fun with it as possible.

I enjoyed the challenge of having the whole story take place on one page. I found using all the comic elements - narration, speech bubbles, sound effects, etc - were all needed to condense the action to fit. And since it is for a newspaper, I colored it as such.

I also posted the super rough layout sketches I did at the onset. I stayed pretty loyal to them, with some minor changes. All in all, I had a blast! Expect to see much more comic work.

happy holidays once again!
-fv

**ps...I noticed Blogger is compressing these images funny, leaving some artifacts in them. Sorry guys! Can't seem to fix it. They look a little better here.

Oh Snap!

2009-12-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

Sergio Martinez ^^^

Paul Gillon ^^^

Jose Luis Salinas ^^^

Pablo Auladell ^^^

(thanks Kyle)

Hey ladies and gents. Lately, I've really been cranking long hours on a project, so to keep the mojo fresh I look to inspiration periodically. Here's four incredibly masterful artists I've been scoping. If my research is correct they are all still alive, and most still working.

It's interesting to consider their influences. Of course this is all speculative, but it seems Sergio is very influenced by Mark English, and Pablo with Brad Holland. I'm not sure how their careers overlap, but I see a lot of Fawcett in Jose's work.

Hope these provide some inspiration with the end of the year deadlines. Happy Holidays!

cheers

-fv

2009-11-26T08:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their time with family and loved ones. The piece above was a small thank you piece I did for a cousin I grew up with. Real good guy, happy to have my work in his place!

Now I have to go put on some turkey weight!

-fv

Pitches

2009-11-22T10:23:00.001-08:00

The above imagery was created for a graphic novel pitch I was asked to put together. The writer asked me to recreate a panel in a few styles. Unfortunately I wasn't selected as the artist, but it was nice to play with a few different inking styles. Good Experience.

This image was part of a pitch I put together for a large mural project. I worked on a few other pictures. I did in fact land the gig.... it didn't take long to realize that the project was a huge scam. Like the kind you see in the movies. Bad experience.

But all in all, I enjoyed working on these pictures!

best,

-francis

Save the Elephants charity auction!!!

2009-11-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

Super stoked for this project! I was cruising through my blog lists and noticed a post by the very talented Andrew Shek. It seems the "Elephants Managers Association" is having an auction of artwork to help raise funds for their cause.

I'm an animal fan, I worked at the Detroit Zoo for 2 summers, so I found some time to do a piece. Another experiment, but this time I'm pretty cool with how it turned out. I've been searching for that loose-but-polished aesthetic in my work for a while.

So my piece, along with other great works, will be available for purchase at the auction date, which I will announce! I'm sure you've seen the videos of the elephants painting. Yeah, that's right, the elephant's work will be up for auction too. My most diverse show yet..haha. I hope other artists in blog-land have time to donate a piece!

Mr. Shek summarized the cause nicely:

"The Elephant Managers Association is made up of professional elephant handlers, veterinarians and researchers. They exist to improve the care and management of captive elephants as well as support conservation projects in Africa and Asia.

The association is asking any interested artist to donate pieceswhich feature elephants in an effort to raise funds. Money generated will be used to support the organization as well as conservation projects for wild elephants. Several zoos have already donated pieces of art made by their elephants.

Dead line: November 28th 2009.
Paintings, sculptures, carvings....anything you would like to donate is fine."

Sergio "Are You Serious" Toppi

2009-11-20T14:21:00.001-08:00

I did the above drawing over a couple days warming up in the morning. They are all copies from the grandmaster 2000XL of ink: Sergio Toppi. He is a modern master, and is still with us, although he is getting up there in age. He's one of my favorite artists, in any medium, and I think I'm gaining a lot studying his work. His use of negative space is just as impressive as his use of "positive."

Not familiar? Here are three incredible links with a lot of great pages of his work:

LINK1 LINK2 LINK3

Up next: Alberto Breccia.

take care,

-francis

2009-11-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

This is a new painting for Erik Jones' Tata Gala show opening this Saturday the 14th at 7pm. It's in Sarasota, FL and this is it's 3rd incarnation. A sizable amount of the show's proceeds are donated to Breast Cancer research, so it's a great cause.

My piece is 18x18 oil and wax on board. It went through various incarnations as illustrated in the progression shots. In the end, a Francis Bacon influence (among others) brought me to the final. An experiment for sure. Loads of fun was had. I do think I like the version of the painting before the final a little better, tho.

Funny story: I finished a phase of painting and needed it to dry, so I thought it would be a fantastic idea to use a heat gun to encourage the process a little. I had forgotten that much of the painting was over a layer of wax. So I proceeded to heat the piece up, and watch the wax start liquifying and bubbling..hahaha! I repainted some areas, but the drips on the right side, that resulted from this goof, are my favorite parts..haha. As Barron Storey would say, "give yourself something to react to!"

best!

-francis

Soviet War Paintings

2009-11-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

I found the link to these collections of painting from James Gurney's blog. I'm a huge 19th and 20th century Russian art fan, so these just blew me away!!! I've posted a few of my favorites.

LINK1 LINK2

best,

-fv

2009-11-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Heres a few doodles I did while waiting for some paintings to dry. A bonus of being home is I get to chill with one of my best buds, my German Shepherd Wile. E. I grew up with this dude. He's getting older, so I'm trying to take advantage of this time. I wanted to try something I read about: spraying milk onto your charcoal for an interesting effect. Edel Rodgriguez talks about it here. Not sure if I'm doing it right, but it was a good time. Definitely had the great drawings of my buddy Trey Bryan in the back of my head while doing these.

Here he is kickin it in my painting space:

take care,

-fv

2009-10-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

So here's a detail from a painting I did for the "Quinquennium Exhibitum" 5 year anniversary show at Gallery Nucleus in LA. It opens next Saturday the 7th. The lineup is bonkers!! If you're in the area, make sure to stop by, especially to scope the Bob Peak's they'll have up!

The reason I'm just posting a detail is, like a dummy, I didn't take a good shot of the whole painting before I shipped it off in a hurry. So hopefully my homies in Cali can take a solid shot and send it over.

take care,

-fv

Remixed

2009-10-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

So like Bad Boy did back in the 90's, my plans got remixed. I should be in Russia right now, but I'm in Detroit crashing at my folks place until February. Despite serious effort, I wasn't able to make my Russian studies happen (a sincere thank you to all those that contributed to the cause). Soooo, the school is allowing me to jump into the program for the onset of the second semester, February 1st. Until then, I'm going to grind away and do all I can to get over there. Paying my dues.

...cars? I've been given a great opportunity to work on a project where cars are the focus, so I did these doodles to warm up. Freehand, marker and pencil. I'm trying to avoid the ruler, but if the client wants them tighter I may have to dust it off.

take care!

-francis

2009-10-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is a poster from my past Open House. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and made a purchase. Your support means a ton!!!

*I deleted a lot of the open house posting, since it isn't too exciting- especially to folks outside of Sarasota - and was taking up a lot of space. Time permitting I will put items up for sale online also.**

cheers!

-fv

2009-09-18T13:14:00.001-07:00

Heres a photo of some work in progress portraits I've been working on. The plan is to now rework them as a whole image now that they are connected. These will probably be almost unrecognizable in the final piece.

In other news I will be drawing portraits and giving a demo tomorrow night (Saturday) at Ringling College at the Hammond Commons to benefit this year's Illest of Ill show. The portraits begin at 11pm and I'll begin the demo at midnight (that's early in college time to those wondering why so late).

Bernie Fuchs

1932-2009.

I recently was informed that Bernie Fuchs passed away. By far and away one of the most influential illustrators to have held a brush. Artists made careers with styles he discarded. I am constantly looking at his work and in awe of his accomplishments. We lost a legend.

David Apatoff wrote a very sincere tribute to Bernie on his blog. Drawing 'till the last.

-fv

2009-09-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

This post has been a long time coming. I began this project in November of last year in George Pratt's senior illustration class. It is my adaptation of Roald Dahl's great short story "In the Ruins." Yes the same fellow that brought us the giant peach wrote adult stories too..haha. I then was given the opportunity to include it in Image Comic's Popgun anthology.

Obviously that didn't happen. This is the "kinda-not-really" finished inks for some of the first pages (out of a proposed 12). Unfortunately I'm calling the project quits since I'm leaving the States so soon, and have too many commitments. Bummer!!!! I really enjoyed this process, but I'll get another shot. I love comics and hope to work on more projects in the future!

The blank boxes were supposed to have drawings in them, but I never got around to working them out. The pages still need a lot of work, but I thought I'd give them a post anyways.

take care!

-fv

**I'm going to put these pages up in my Store soon, but if anyone is interested in the purchase of a page(s) please feel free to email me and we can work something out. Thanks!**

2009-09-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

Many people have probably heard me raving one way or another about the Illustration Academy. I've attended it twice, and I'm fortunate to have stayed in contact with many of the instructors and students year round. It's a big family. A family that has helped make me the artist I am today. So when John English told me about the online Visual Literacy Program I was pretty stoked. He described it as the Academy year round. And for the most part it is! I mean nothing can replace the face to face time of the summer workshops, but this gets darn near close!

I've been a member of the VLP (what the cool kids call it), since it began a month and a half or so ago. In that time it has really exploded. The members range from artists very early in their studies looking for guidance... to Sterling Hundley. It's a wild range. Most of the Academy instructors are active on the forums giving upper level crits and advice. It's so cool to put up a piece and have Doug Chayka, Brent Watkinson, Sterling, George Pratt, and John English give you spot on advice later that night.

But the most valuable thing it offers is the simple inspiration. Like many other artists, sometimes I have a real hard time grinding through long nights and maintaining the motivation to keep pushing through a project. Sometimes I'm in my studio/apartment for days at a time, and can feel my mojo really falling off. I can sincerely say that the forums keep me going, especially lately with my crazy schedule preparing to move. I can check out a post by one of my buddies or teachers and see what they are working on at that moment. That kick in the pants is invaluable. Not to mention hours long instructional videos by all the world class instructors!

I'll admit that I receive a number of emails from folks asking about the Academy. Now I can forward them to the VLP. The cost is very do-able; especially the one month option. I know times are tough (believe me I really know), but the investment is worth it's weight in gold. If you are serious about illustration, really think about it. You will grow so much!

take care,

-francis

**Here is a video they put together taking you through the site/forums and giving you the visuals to what I am speaking about!**

2009-09-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

A few sketchbook pages. Getting a little silly with the ink. Sorry about the warping. Water and moleskines don't mix.

By the way, days are good when Jay-Z and Raekwon got new albums out. Especially when one of them is "Only Built for Cuban Linx 2."

cheers!

-fv

2009-09-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

This is gouache on paper finished in the good ol' Photoshop. I want to do a few more things to it so I'll update the image with the final very soon.

**EDIT: updated with the final image, cropped and full size.**

================

I'll also be attending my teacher and friend Sterling Hundley's opening this Friday in Richmond, Virgina. If you see a dazed looking dude gawking at the amazing artwork...that'll be me after driving up. But if you're attending, make sure to say what up! I've seen a number of the paintings and they are amazing. The man's concepts are on another level.

take care,

-francis

2009-09-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

Here are photos of some things that have went through the studio lately... The paintings are all works in progress.

Also, I received an email compromising the Step by Step Mondays, so I unfortunately have to suspend future installments for the time being. I also took down the old links. I am trying to resolve the issue and continue the posts, so keep an eye out. I'll make an announcement.

take care!

-fv

Repin Institute

2009-09-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. I've mentioned it a few times, but I never made a formal post concerning my future studies. I will be attending the Repin Institute for painting, a department of the Imperial Academy of Arts, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Classes begin this coming October 15th, so I'm hustling like crazy to get a few projects wrapped up. I'm real stoked! I've never been out of the United States before, so it should be a wild experience. English is not spoken over there, so I'm trying to learn Russian. Luckily I have language classes every night. But I'm sure the language barrier is going to make things interesting.

The program is for 6-7 years. The ultimate goal is a master's although the U.S. does not recognize it..haha. That's ok, I'm not going for the paper. But for me, I will be attending the prepatory program. It is for one year and is not technically a "real" year. It is designed to prepare you for admittance into the school. In July of next year, I will be given an intense 36 hours to complete a figure painting, drawing, and composition. That will then be judged by the school's faculty and I will find out if I am accepted into the real school. I have 6 hours in front of the model 6 days a week, with lecture classes (given in Russian...o boy) strewn through out the week. At night I have language classes. It's year round, so in the summer time we travel around the Russian country side landscape painting! I have no idea if I will decide to go through the whole program. If I do I'll be over 30 when I get out...that's kinda scary.

I'll admit I was really looking into various ateliers. Although the work I seen coming out of those programs was technically cool, it lacks life much of the time. The Repin school is so great because it is based around the concept of bringing life and intensity into all of your work. The teachers enforce the responsibility you have as as artist. They teach that if you are painting a cube, make it "your" cube and let the audience know what you were feeling when you painted that cube. That and Whistler, Zorn, Repin (of course), and Fechin went there!!

So it's going to be a wild experience. I'll do my best to document it on the blog.

take care,

-francis

SBSM: Austin Briggs!

2009-08-17T10:55:00.001-07:00

Hey folks! Another week, another dose of inspiration. This time from illustration super hero: Austin Briggs!

**link taken down for time being**

take care,
-francis

2009-08-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Some more exploration. The only pastel work I have ever really done has been the Illustration Academy figure drawings. I loved doing them, but for some reason I never explored pastels again. So I did these to see what the medium could do. I usually default to figure work when I am experimenting since I am very comfortable with that subject, and know that I am going to struggle with whatever style/medium I am exploring. Each image is a little different, and has its strengths, weaknesses. Again I'm running across the concept of "quickly done but fresh work" vs. "overworked but polished imagery." I spent days on the top 2 images and knocked out the bottom pic in 20 minutes. I kinda like the bottom one more....? The best guys find a balance between the two, and that's something I strive for.

take care,
-francis

***edit: added a new image up top***

SBSM: John Gannam!

2009-08-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

For this week, we have a nice feature on the painter John Gannam. His work has always reminded me of Zorn and seems to straddle the line between illustration and gallery work (not that there has to be a line in the first place).

**link taken down for time being**

Enjoy!
-francis

Art purchasing SCAM!

2009-08-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

These posts are always a bummer to write but hopefully this can inform folks. But recently I received an email from a woman asking to purchase a painting or "creative work." I responded and was stoked. I received a prompt response but began to notice interesting wording in the email. Seemed fishy. Then I talked to my buddy who received...... the exact same email. He actually went through the process the woman asked. But right before he let the piece go, he figured out the scam and had the woman's check bounce.

I did a little research and found this post discussing the exact scam that I had pulled on me.

The idiot takes these names.:

Betty Moore-
Bikram Shrestha - sbikram81@yahoo.com
Claire - clairepinkii@jojomail.com
Claire Pink - clairepink@fastmail.co.uk
Crewford - shiper@myway.com
Crystal Moll - crys.moll01@gmail.com
Dave Frank - free4allwe@yahoo.com
Garritt Miller - m_garritt01@yahoo.com
George Craige - gcraige108@yahoo.com
Henry Matt - henrymatt27@googlemail.com
James Carter
Jane Francis - jan.fran01@yahoo.com
Janet Brand -
Janet Gillian-
Janet Francis - jan.fran001@yahoo.com
Janet Rumsey - janet_rumsey75@yahoo.com
Janet Vida - jan.vida01@yahoo.com
Jessica - kelvinjessica777@yahoo.com
Johnson Mark - johnson_mark_arts01@yahoo.com
Kim Bauer -
Lisa Benson - lisaben100@googlemail.com, lisa_benson10@yahoo.com and lisaben100@yahoo.com
Nicole Danes - nicodanes@live.com
Nicole Roane - nic_ane01@yahoo.com
Precious - precious_llyod@jojomail.com
Raymond Hyslop - anitagatlin1010@Yahoo.com and remystore333@yahoo.com
Robert Cole - robert.cole81@yahoo.com
Sandra Haddock -
Sandra Williams - sandrawills_sandrawills@yahoo.com
Steven Pallin -
Susan Cutter -
Swane Mackerel - swanemackerel@gmail.com
Tina Brown - tina_brown100@yahoo.co.uk

It's really unfortunate that these things exist, and I really hope no one has had their work stolen from them.

all the best,
-francis

2009-08-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been exploring different ways of drawing. These are few of the more successful ones. I have a hefty stack of failures, but I'm excited about some of the things I learned. The top image was an experiment with scanning in a drawing, destroying it, printing it out again, and then adding pastel and colored pencil on top. The other images were drawn very quickly with black colored pencil, normal pencil, and a little charcoal. I made an effort to draw them without any construction underneath. Just started with a line and tried to make it work. The mistakes were just as fun to work with as the more "correct" marks. Been looking at a lot of Schiele, Kent Williams, and Klimt.

take care!
-francis