El patio de mi casa

I was visiting my parents in Cuba on last December. For the first time in a while I finally could sit down there on the backdoor entrance of their house and draw the backyard in front of me, everybody else taking a nap in the warm afternoon.
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En diciembre de 2009 estuve en Cuba visitando a mis padres. Por primera vez en mucho tiempo pude sentarme en la puerta de atrás y dibujar el patio mientras todos los demás en la casa tomaban una siesta en la cálida tarde.

The Dreams Machine - Spectrum 16

Spectrum 16 is out now and I'm more than happy to have my image The Dreams Machine selected to be part on this magnificent book featuring the best of contemporary Fantasy Art. It is my first time in the book and  I'll try to have something good to submit for next year edition, I'll definitively have to rise the bar, so many inspiring good art in this book is pure fuel for the imagination.

Imagine FX Steampunk Workshop

I recently did a workshop for Imagine FX, a fantastic magazine on digital art. I frequently read their tutorials which has been extremely helpful to develop my works so I'm happy to contribute with my own creation this time. The topic was Steampunk so once again I was doing research and boiling with ideas about turn of the century devices and characters. The resulting image is The Shifter here. Check out IFX website for more information and cool images.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

It's been a while since I updated the blog for the last time. I promise it will be more often from now on. This here is the jacket art I did for The Young Reader's Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream published this month by Sterling Publishing. It was a huge project with more than 30 interior illustrations depicting the hallucinating characters and environments from this magical night. It was very demanding but I'm more than happy with the result.

Desert Watch

I recently went to Montreal, Quebec and I didn't miss the opportunity to search for some comic stores there. I love European comics and artists but they are very difficult to find at home in Toronto where North American publications are the standard. I didn't have too much expectations so I was surprised to find 40 days dans le Desert B from Moebius, one of my favorite artists and influences of all. The book is awesome, his clean drawings are more profound and deeply serene than ever and what I though was just a collection of individual drawings is really a story told in the visual pace of The Eyes of the Cat. Makes you want to return to the simple beginnings with just a pen, a white piece of paper and all the time in the world.

Oracles of Delphi Keep

Hi there! It's been awhile since my last post. Busy, busy, busy on some new projects. But I realize I haven't post this cover I made some time ago for Victoria Laurie novel Oracles of Delphi Keep for Random House. It was a great book to illustrate. I loved the mood, the settings and characters. Very inspiring. The team work with the art director Vikki Sheatsley was great. I really enjoy every time I'm in a project where I have to develop type and graphic elements for the design, not just the illustration, in this case the creation of the title banner and the ancient coin with the two main characters embossed on it that became an icon of the series.

Sleeping Beauty on EXPOSE 7

I finally received my copy of EXPOSE 7! Awhile ago I participated in one of the traditional CGNetwork digital art challenges. That time the topic was Steampunk, Myths and Legends so I have to be there. The contest was great, the bar rises for every new challenge and the result is always a lot of talented people gathering together, collaborating and giving feedback in an effort to create new amazing images and video. I wanted to create a story more than just an image so I tried to add depth and background to the characters and elements on the scene. Once the contest ended I submitted my Sleeping Beauty for consideration on EXPOSE 7, an annual collection of the finest digital art in the world. I was accepted in the category of Storytelling and now it is published next to some other images that immerse the viewer in an unfolding story. If you would like to see and read a work in progress for the image please follow the link of the contest page.

The Magic Thief 2

The Magic Thief, Lost is finally here! This is the sequel to The Magic Thief and it's been great to keep working on this series for Harper Collins making a new challenging jacket and designing new charming characters created by the author Sarah Prineas for the book. I also made a new map that added new lights to the Magic Thief cosmogony. Enjoy!

The Twilight Prisoner

The Twilight Prisoner is the sequel to the award winning book The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh published by Hyperion Books for Children. I had the pleasure to illustrate the cover for the paperback edition of The Night Tourist and the hardcover edition of The Twilight Prisoner. Both books are fantastic travel adventures through both the real cityscape of New York and it's ghosts world. I haven't been there so far but I had a great time learning about this iconic city to made this covers. I'd like to go there and see those places I already know... except for the underworld, of course.

Tide Watch

This is the third on my recent series of pencil drawings. I think this is going to be a big series: they are small, simple drawings and work as a good sedative to calm down the senses after moments of stress, like water oscillating between high and low tides.