Cara Mia - An Addams Family Tribute

Growing up I loved watching the old Addams Family tv show and especially those moments when Gomez would get all passionate with Morticia's arm. So cute and funny!

The Shooter

"The Shooter" is a 3 page comic I created based on an idea I got two years ago. I finally had some time to devote to it. Hope you like it!

10 Years Ago This Month

10 years ago this month I painted one of my first ever 'concepts' (as well as one of my first paintings ever) for the main character of my "Small Dogs" children's book. I had barely taken my first drawing and painting classes thanks to a public night program, so I knew enough to get started but I had no awareness of character design let alone the principles of design in general. Thankfully that ignorance never discouraged me from working on my story even if my skills hadn't yet caught up to my vision. Now a decade later I'm honored and humbled that the book exists in physical form after so much work and with the help of all my Kickstarter backers. But if this old painting has taught me anything it's that your abilities don't have to be perfect to get started, they just have to get you started.

After shipping out the books and rewards to all my amazing Kickstarter backers, I'm happy to announce that my "SMALL DOGS" book is now available publicly on my Storenvy page. Simply click on the link below to check it out and for anyone who'd like their copy dedicated to someone in particular I'd be happy to oblige :) Happy Friday, everyone and remember to stay small!

http://mauricioabrilart.storenvy.com/

"Standby Me" Series 02

The lines just keep getting longer, don't they? Here's all the "Standby Me" Series 02 bad girls featuring the Disneybounding equivalents of The Evil Queen, Lady Tremaine aka the Wicked Stepmother, Maleficent, The Queen of Hearts, Ursula and Gaston.

Just Keep Drawing! Just Keep Drawing! Wonder Woman Edition

Trying to sketch more every day to get away from all of my digital “cheats.” It’s amazing how used to knowing how easy it is to fix things in Photoshop that I’ve gotten lazy when it comes to my drawings. Oh, the hands are a little small? Well, I’ll just lasso them and increase their size. Easy on the computer but in a real drawing you have to erase them and draw them completely over. Makes you more disciplined to get things right from the start.

Last Kickstarter Weekend!

Just three days left on my “Small Dogs” children’s book Kickstarter. It’s been fully funded already so if you’ve been thinking about jumping on board but were just waiting, now’s definitely the time to do so. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who’s helped put this book into production very soon. I can’t wait to share it with you all :)

http://kck.st/1R4DLTn

Kickstarter Mentorship Reward

From the random doodles in my lab journal as a science grad to art school to the present day, I've built up a lot of knowledge and experience that I've used to help other artists both as a teacher with CGMA and as a mentor with Motivarti.org. One of my Kickstarter Rewards tiers is a Mentorship Package where you can get one on one time with me to provide artistic feedback, portfolio guidance and answer any art/career related questions specific to you. Check out my link for more info if you're interested:

http://kck.st/1R4DLTn

WonderCon 2016 Coming Up!

I’ll be at WonderCon LA in a few weeks with new prints, originals, and FREE poster giveaways! Hope to see you there and feel free to say hi if you know me from Blogger.

New Batman Short Film Coming Soon!

My new film is my take on the Batman origin. It's a lot shorter than my previous films but I think you'll like it all the same :)

SMALL DOGS Custom Portrait & Giveaway

This is Jenny. She’s the owner of Seth in my kid’s book, and I drew her as an example of the Double Portrait reward for my Kickstarter. I’m also offering everyone who pledges this first week a chance at winning a FREE PORTRAIT commission. Thank you to everyone who’s already supported the campaign. As an independent artist/creator, it’s most appreciated :)

Want to See Your Pet as a Cartoon?

Ever wanted a custom portrait of your favorite four-legged friend? Rewards tiers for my upcoming Kickstarter campaign will include custom color illustrations of your pet (not limited to just dogs either). Can also be a unique GIFT for a friend or family member with a special pet. Launches next week! I'm really excited to share it with you, and I hope you'll consider supporting once you see all the cool stuff you can get.

Meet Seth

Meet Seth, a spirited little Chihuahua and the star of my children’s book “Small Dogs.” In one week I will launch my first Kickstarter to get the book printed for all to enjoy this story inspired by the idea that our differences are what make us who we are. Thank you to everyone for your support and I’m really excited to share this story with all of you!

Rey Doesn't Like Sand

Rey doesn't like sand either. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

There's a Starman Waiting in the Sky

The thing that still makes me sad about Bowie's death is that we can see his last album was a farewell, albeit cryptic in true Bowie fashion. But the small solace for me is in realizing he went out as he had lived - a performer whose creativity had still not found any limits. There's a starman waiting in the sky!

Deadpool Mom

Deadpool confusing innocent parents since '91. This was inspired by a recent lunch outing with my family. Love you, mom!

Fan Alley In-Store Appearance this Saturday

For those of you driving distance from good old Anaheim, CA there'll be some really cool things happening at the Fan Alley store from 1-5pm. I'll be signing and vending inside the store from 1-3. In addition their mini-Deadpool gallery opens that day and there will also be a cool CSUF show with other talented artists outside the shop. And waffles! Did I mention there'll be a waffle truck? Cause that's where I'll be :D

Teaching "Fundamentals of Design" for CGMA

I’ll be teaching “Fundamentals of Design” again this coming term with CGMA. Classes begin Feb 2 and run for 8 weeks. Enrollment now open. For those who aren’t familiar with CGMA, it’s a great online school where you watch lecture videos on your own time, upload your homework, download video-recorded feedback, and get a weekly live Q&A with the instructor.

"A Smallville Man" Deleted Scenes & Lessons Learned

To round off the revisit of my Superman short film, I thought it'd be interesting to share with you some of my "deleted scenes." Of course these are just illustrations ranging from rough sketches to fully rendered images, but they're still valuable in examining the creative process as well as just being a fun look into the different directions the story almost took. Hope you enjoy!

DAILY PLANET SEQUENCE

Our first introduction to Lois and Clark takes place within their office, so I thought a shot showing the interior of the Daily Planet office outside their door would be an appropriate transition. Due to time constraints I had to cut this scene out, but I also realized that in the end it wasn't as crucial as I had thought. The transition from the exterior of the building to the shot of Clark's hand pinning the paper was more than enough to link the characters with the setting.

TAKEAWAY #1: Keep only the parts that are absolutely necessary to the story.

This shot was an additional part of the Lois and Clark Daily Planet sequence and was ultimately scrapped due to time limits but rightly so. I can imagine if the song was longer I might have been able to include this shot, but it would've been completely repetitive. The shot overhead tells the same story and much more interestingly in my opinion. 

TAKEAWAY #2: Avoid telling the same story with different beats.

This shot was intended to go right before the scene where we first see Superman flying from the Daily Planet. I thought it would be an interesting way to depict the goodbye between him and Lois but again got scrapped due to time constraints.

TAKEAWAY #3: Sometimes you just gotta lose some stuff even if you think it's cool.

SOUTH AMERICA SEQUENCE

In my original story I had the South American farmer joined by a group of his fellow farmers as he stood up to the construction company attempting to kick them off their land. I even got so far as to fully illustrate a few of these scenes. I ended up abandoning this concept for story reasons.

TAKEAWAY #4: Don't be afraid to backtrack just because you've already done a lot of work.

Really early on I played around with the idea of having large mechs serve as the machines used by the oil company to clear the farmers' land. I wanted Superman to have something physical to fight, but I quickly realized that I wanted the story to feel more grounded in reality. Yes it includes a superhero from another planet but that is the accepted premise of my story and for some intuitive reason including technology like these mechs just didn't feel right. So I quickly scrapped it in favor of the more realistic military/guerrilla conflict.

TAKEAWAY #5: Quickly decide on the rules of your story's reality and commit to them.

This is probably my favorite shot from the entire project and it never made the final cut. Why? Because I couldn't quite fit it organically within the story I wanted to tell. Originally Superman was supposed to attack the military once they had attacked the farmers, but I realized that that would have betrayed the nature of his character. Only after trying to safely deescalate the situation would he have resorted to using his powers just as his father had taught him.

TAKEAWAY #6: Always think through your character's decision-making process.

I really liked this shot of Superman emerging from the helicopter crash so much so that I even got around to almost finishing the rendering. However when it came time for the final cut, I had to scrap it in favor of the shot pictured below that catered to the actual storytelling by also showing the jet flying above.

TAKEAWAY #7: Don't compromise your storytelling just for the sake of pretty visuals.

ADDITIONAL DELETED SCENES

Sometimes scenes were cut for highly important reasons (as shown above), but sometimes it was also from just having gone down the wrong creative rabbit hole. The following shots are a mix between the two that I just wanted to share.

Thanks for reading!

"Excuse me, coming through!"

Just messing around. Had no idea where this was going when I started it. First drew Michelangelo's head up on the page and then kinda let the drawing tell me where it wanted to go. Hope you like!