Interview with Nuestro Diario

Hey everyone,

This is an image of the interview I did for a local newspaper called Nuestro Diario.  I am very grateful for the opportunity that Nuestro Diario gave me.  The interview is in spanish only.

2013 UEFA Champions League Semifinal

Hey everyone,

Here are some caricatures I created to commemorate the Champions League Semifinals game.  Three of these were done in pencil, then scanned and colored digitally.  Mario Gotze was done digitally from scratch.  I'm creating this post after Barça had their butts handed to them by Bayern.  Hopefully they can create some sort of miracle next week.  I like how Borussia Dortmund plays.  I will probably work on a couple of sketches of other players of the team.  I hope you like them.

 

IRON KOCK 3

Hey everyone,

This is another parody piece inspired by the upcoming movie Iron Man 3.  I finished the sketch on tuesday at 1am.  I scanned the sketch and colored it in Photoshop.  I was going to go for a black background but then decided to go for the scene from the poster.  I used a stock image I had for the shore and a clouds from cgtextures.com for the sky.  I like how the character looks integrated into the image while still retaining some of the pencil work in the piece.  I have included the sketch.  I hope you like it.

 

NIKOCK AND THE SWORD OF LIGHT

Hey everyone,

This is a parody piece I created inspired by the upcoming animated comic by Imaginism Studios and Studio NX called Niko and the Sword of Light.  Go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1105575464/niko-and-the-sword-of-light  Check it out and contribute.  Only a few days to go.

KOCK OF STEEL

Hey everyone,

This is a parody piece I created inspired by the upcoming movie Man of Steel.
This was done in Photoshop from scratch.  I am also including some of the process I followed to create this piece.  I hope you like it.

FIGHT DOGS - Boris

This is Boris Sobaka. Long time member of a ruthless criminal organization in Siberia. A controlled psychopath that is let off the chain to do his dirty work. 

I hadn't done one of these in a while.  It is a good creative exercise for me since it takes me a while to get in the grove of creating one of these characters.  I wanted to do a Siberian Husky for a while.  Apparently they are very aggressive dogs but for the life of me I couldn't find one image of an angry Husky.  I am including some of my preliminary sketches to show how hard it is to get a pose I am happy with.  I am also including some of my process of creation.  It is very straightforward.  I first work on a base sketch, then I add more details with that same brush in greyscale.  Once I get to a defined point, I add a curves adjustment layer to work on the different channels and get different values for the lights and darks.  I then added a new layer set to Color and started adding preliminary color.  The rest is detailing and integrating.  Hope you like it.  

Archangel Prints

Hey everyone,

Just writing to let you know that my archangel series is now available as prints through deviantart.
Go to sketcheronline.deviantart.com  You will find them in that gallery.  Hope you like them.

Messi 4th Ballon D'Or

Hey everyone,

This is a piece I worked on as I watched the ceremony for the Ballon D'Or this morning.  I wanted Messi to win but it was a bit of a risk since I thought that Iniesta had a strong chance to win.  I took the sketch I did of him a few days ago and drew in the whole body and painted out some of the pencil texture.  I hope he wins next year as well.

KOCK FIGHTER CLUB - STREET

Hey everyone,

This is LaQueefa, the badass beautician from Detroit. And Kokkstein, the industrial rocker from Berlin. Hope you like them.

BALAM - design process

Hey everyone,

This is a character design I had been wanting to do for a while.  I know I have done the jaguar warrior concept before, but this was a more stylized take on it.  Also I wanted to explore more alternatives to a design.  I usually stick to my first few drawings.  I find one that I like and I take it to finish.  I took my time with this one.  I have attached some of my sketchbook pages and photoshop sketches to show the amount of exploration I did.  It is hard to follow since I do many sketches in one single page and at different angles.  It's a mess, I know, but I can make sense of it which is the important thing.  I hope you like what you see and you get something from it.

Messi Record

Hey everyone,

This is a quick lunch time sketch I did of my favorite football player.  I did it to commemorate his goal scoring record setting feat.  86 goals in a calendar year and counting.  Hope you like it.

Kock of War Ascension

Hey everyone,

This is a piece I created inspired by the upcoming game in the God of War series.  I love those games.  I've been a fan ever since the first one came out.  The gameplay and the violence are right up my alley and I'm glad they didn't want to leave the series at 3.  I created this in Photoshop from scratch.  Normally I would have done the sketch in pencil, scanned it and color it digitally.  It all came out of a sketch I did, I attached a sample.  It is a mess, I know, but this is how I think and figure out what I want the piece to be.  I hope you like it.

A Kock's Creed

Hey everyone,

This is another parody piece that I created based on the most recent installment of Assassin's Creed by Ubisoft.  This game looks amazing.  I have never played any of the AC games but I have followed their development with interest.  I am a big fan of the studio ever since they came out with Prince of Persia Sands of Time.  I wish I had more time to play video games, but I use the time that I would spend playing games to work on pieces like these.  I hope you like it.

MORE FIGHT DOGS!

Hey everyone,


Here are two more characters for Fight Dogs.  This is Cassius, the middleweight champ that floats like a butterfly and stings like a  pissed off hornet.  And Tank, who is never shy to go all out gruesome in a fight.  With the strongest chompers in the competition, he uses them to finish a fight quickly.  These were both created in Photoshop from scratch.  I will post some of the process I have been using to create these characters.

FIGHT DOGS

Hey everyone,

Here is another personal project I am working on.  It is a brutal fighting game galled FIGHT DOGS.  It was inspired by a few photos I saw on google when I wrote "dog fighting".  You can find some shocking images of the injuries these dogs endure.  This would be a more graphic and violent game compared to Kock Fighter Club.  The Pitbull is Dyson, the three time heavy weight champion.  Nobody can take or inflict as much damage as this fighter.  The German Shepherd is The Kaiser, a newcomer to the competition who uses the fights to vent out his rage on his opponents.
I created these characters in Photoshop from scratch.  I try to save many files to help give an idea of the process but sometimes it is easy to get carried away.  I have a few more characters in mind so stay tuned for more.  Hope you like them.

The Amazing Spider-Kock

Hey everyone, 

Here is another parody piece inspired by this summer's reboot of the Spider-Man series.  I made the sketch on Bristol paper with a 3B pencil.  I scanned the image and started working on the shading.  I wanted to match the lighting used in the posters for the movie.  I was also inspired by that very last moment before the credits start to roll where you see Spider-Man coming right at you shooting his web.  I added color with a layer set to overlay but it was looking very dark overall.  So I decided to play with the levels and flatten the image and paint opaquely.  I used layers set to overlay later on to bring out certain features that were too dark.  I also used them to add color variation and make certain parts more saturated.  I used a photo of a city for the background and gave it a similar color to the ones used in the posters.  I also added some layers with dust and scratches to give the background more personality.  I then added a shattered glass texture to match the posters.  I set those to lighten to make the cracks and glass pieces pop.  I then added another layer set to noise to bring the elements together.  I hope you like it.  

The Dark Kock Rises

Hey everyone,

This is a piece I've wanted to do for a few days.  I had the idea whilst I was working on the KOCKS ASSEMBLE piece.  I thought it was a funny idea.  I am attaching a set of images of the work in progress to give you an idea of how I figured the piece out.  I started with a line art sketch I did on Bristol paper with a 3B pencil.  I scanned it in and colored it in Photoshop.  This one came out much faster than ASSEMBLE because it was just one character in a monochromatic outfit.  I had included some red and blue highlights on either side of the character to separate him from the background and give interest but I opted for the white lights on the side.  The final was created with grunge textures, cloud brush, flattened chalky brush set at an angle to make the rain.  I also added NOISE to the final image to give it more grit.  Hope you like it.

Kocks Assemble!

Hey everyone,

I haven’t posted much recently because I’ve been busy with work and painting these images while keeping things under wraps.  I created these two parody images inspired by Marvel’s The Avengers.  I loved that movie so I wanted to create something using the characters from Kock Fighter Club.  The first image is a compilation of the team: The Kock of Thunder, Iron Kock, Kockeye, Kock Fury, Captain Kock and The Incredible Kock.  The second image was inspired by the funniest scene in the movie where Hulk smashes the crap out of Loki.  I chose to have him looking down on Massive Black, the biggest and meanest Kock in the KFC.  He is nothing next to the Incredible Kock.  I am very happy with how these came out.  I am posting some images depicting the process of creation for both images.  Stay tuned for more pieces similar to these.  Make sure to go and get your copy of this awesome movie.  Later.  

OMG Machines

Hey everyone,

These are some illustrations I created for my clients, Mike Long and Greg Morrison, for their website.  I had a great time working on these pieces.  It all started with the creation of the logo, which is the piece with the blue background.  Mike was very happy with the result and decided to create illustration pieces to describe or communicate more about what the site is about.  I would send him a sketch of how I visualized the scene.  Changes would be made and the sketch would get approved.  After that I would create a new layer a work on the final line art.  I used paths to create the clean line art.  I prefer paths now because the lines are sharper an no time is wasted erasing mistakes.  Once the final line art was approved, I would send a base color sample.  Then I would move to final shading using overlay layers with dark and light grays.  I would then color the line work to make the piece look more finished.  It looks ok with dark lines but it looks way better with colored line art.  I hope you like the pieces.  Make sure to check out their site and Make Money Online.  Later.

How to color a Kock Fighter Club character

Hey everyone,

Here is a video tutorial I made recording the process of coloring of one of the characters of the Kock Fighter Club.  I added subtitles indicating what is going on in the painting. Hope you like it.

How to color a Kock Fighter Club character from Arturo Aguirre on Vimeo.

Massive Black SF Workshop 2012

Hey everyone,

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this year's Massive Black workshop which was held in San Francisco.  It was my first time in that city and I was surprised at how cold it got, in freaking August.  Anyways, it was an awesome experience.  I got to meet some of my favorite artists.  I also took the opportunity to talk to the other attendees and get to know them, which was something I failed to do in the last workshop I attended in Seattle in 2008.  The venue was the only thing that I could complain about.  The classrooms were a bit small and there weren't enough chairs for everyone so you had to stand there for about 2 hours as you watched the artists teach.  The last day was portfolio review day and I got my stuff critiqued by Coro, Marko Djurdjevic, Ville, Matjosh, Chris Hatala, Joel Dos Reis Viegas and Manny Carrasco.  They gave me some great advice and told me stuff that really resonated in me and helped me focus my interests and determine my goals.  I recommend these workshops to anyone who is interested in learning loads from talented artists and spending time with people you have a lot in common with.  These are a few more stylized portraits I did of the instructors.  I printed postcards and gave them to the instructors.  Hope you like them.  Later.

Kock Fighter Club Poster 02

Hey everyone,

This is a compilation piece I created for KFC.  I wanted to work on more dynamic poses for the characters and show a bit more attitude and personality.  I was inspired by the work of Alvin Lee.  He is an expert at creating collage pieces of characters in cool poses.  I hope you like it and stay tuned for more updates on the Kock Fighter Club.
Later.

The Black Frog

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since I did one of these.  This is The Black Frog (or Igor-Alban Chevalier to his mother).  He is a director, writer, production designer, VFX art director, sculptor, game designer, toy designer, storyboard and comic book artist.  You can find samples of his work at dynamografika.com
You can also find tutorial dvd's he has created at tokkunacademy.com.  Check them out.

Kock Fighter Club - Diego

Hey everyone,

This is another character for KFC.  This is Diego, the hardcore football(soccer) fan from Argentina.
This is the first piece I have done completely digitally.  I explored the character in thumbnails, I chose the one I liked, I added lighting, added color, textures, and final details all in Photoshop.  I hope you like it.

Kock Fighter Club - KOCKBLOCK!!!

Hey everyone, 

Here is an action piece for the Kock Fighter Club. Hope you like it. 
We see Xtra Spice performing a kockblock on Kung Pao.  If you perform a Kockblock, you lose one level on your super move gauge but it dizzies up your opponent long enough to perform your finishing move.