My themes for this year are really simple: “Pin-up” and “Urban Subcultures”.

I have an ever growing list of subcultures I find visually interesting, I’ll take one entry from this list every day of November and turn them into something appealing, sexy and visually pleasing.

Once the challenge is finished (and, hopefully, I have 30 new designs) the ones I like the most I’ll turn into fully rendered illustrations, free to download wallpaper and prints that will be available in my Society6 Shop.

This is what you’ll see from me (hopefully) every day of November:

A little note
The image above in something for another project I’ll be working on (probably near the holidays). A re-imagining of the cast of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as humans (Yes, I am a Brony) Starting with my very favourite Rarity. More on that later.

Ya no se que más decirte, se que es difícil terminar después de tantos años de estar juntos, pero debes entender que yo ya he seguido adelante.

Sí, nuestra relación fue bonita al principio, crecimos juntos y llegué a conocer facetas tuyas que me fascinaron. Estuvimos juntos en la salud y en la enfermedad y no puedes jamás negar que estuve ahí para ayudarte cuando todo se venía abajo. Sabes que siempre hice mi mejor esfuerzo por mantener sana nuestra relación.

Es justo que lo sepas, todo esto se vino abajo porque hace unos años, de la nada, cambiaste, ya no confiabas en mi, cuestionabas todas mis decisiones y te cerrabas a mi. Me dejaste fuera de todo, ya no teníamos la misma relación. Eso fue lo que me alejó de ti. Intenté soportar la frialdad, incluso, debo admitir mi frivolidad, verte embellecer en esas épocas me ayudó a mantener la cordura ante tu cambio. Pero fue en vano.

Se que puede ser injusto, y sé que ahora estas intentando cambiar y que haz comenzado a abrirte de nuevo a mi. Verte tan bella ahora me hace querer dudar, quiero recordar los viejos tiempos y sentir lo mismo que en antes. Pero no puedo, he encontrado a alguien más.

Ella se entregó completamente a mi desde que nos conocimos. Formamos una conexión instantáneamente, toda nuestra relación basada en la confianza y en la apertura del uno al otro. Con ella he conocido, y sigo conociendo, cosas que jamás creí posibles, La verdad es que este amor me hace sentir libre.

Te escribo esto porque quiero que dejes de buscarme, tus juegos ya no funcionan conmigo, tus promesas son fútiles pues se que son solo mentiras, que eres igual a todas las demás.

Lo siento, Windows, Linux y yo Somos felices ahora. Espero que encuentres tu camino sin mi.

Si gana ghana, no gana alemania. Y si Ghana – Alemania empatan, entonces ni gana Ghana ni gana Alemania…

Y, asi les gusta el futbol?

Hace algunos días, paseando por el centro de la ciudad, paré frente al aparador de una librería para ver el listado de los libros más vendidos de estos meses. Al fondo de la lista, en el decimo lugar, me encontré con una portada bastante interesante:

Hice una pequeña nota en mi pocketmod y seguí mi día. Una vez en casa me decidí a investigar sobre esta novela; lo que encontré en su pagina web me hizo interesarme bastante; despues de escuchar uno de los capitulos del audio libro y ver algunas de las imagenes me enamoré de la idea de comprarlo.

Y finalmente el día de hoy adquirí mi copia. Estoy ansioso por comenzar a leerlo y comprobar si el libro lleva al nivel de su primera impresión.

La pregunta que muchos se deben de estar haciendo es, “Omar, que no, esta, es una novela para niñas?” y la respuesta es sencilla: No estoy seguro; definitivamente la portada lo sugiere, y en algunas paginas web de literatura para adolescentes aparece como recomendado.

Pero, vamos, es un bestseller, tiene arte interesante, el curriculum de la autora es bastante impresionante y, inclusi si es “para niñas”, estoy seguro de que será una lectura interesante.

Dicen que no se debe juzgar un libro por su portada, pero, la verdad, algunos deberían aprender que de la vista nace el amor.

Todos los posts anteriores a este (y en ingles) han sido importados de mi viejo blog y están aquí para mantenerlos online después de la inevitable muerte de mi anterior blog en uno o dos meses.

Es bueno estar en casa… una nueva casa.

Since the animation scene is relatively new in Mexico and my city Guadalajara (GDL), I set to the task of getting as many animators and animation enthusiasts in one place at one time.

There was a far better response than I initially expected, In the end 30+ people attended and almost filled the 1rst floor of the Starbucks we used for the meeting.

There were lots of topics of discussion, Lots of people showing their work and projects and a lot more, enthusiastically, gathered around those who had something interesting to show to the crowd.

We had the presence of such studios and projects as:

• Eunoia School GDL
• Poligono Estudio
• Castillo Interior
• La Casa del Mostro
• El Bigote de Chaplin
• Los Piojos de Einstein

In the end, the meeting was a complete success. We attracted the attention of some people on the industry and got to make the animation community a little more close.

There’s, thanks to Es-Hospedaje, a web page for the project now. If you can understand Spanish, I’d really recommend checking it out!

http://AnimadoresGDL.com

The rest of the photos can be found here.

Now, I’ve always been a “notebook person” myself. I had a passion for carrying a notebook with me and make sketches and notes of any idea I had, it is that way some of my most loved character designs came to be.

But I always had a problem that eventually drove me away from notebooks a few years ago, and that problem was that They Always tore apart. This problem always kept me from completely filling my notebooks and I had to eventually let go of the habit of having one.

But when I found out about Moleskine I had to give them a try and, I gotta say, I really am happy. And it isn’t only because of the high quality of the manufacture but, also, the big artistic movement around the whole thing really makes me inspired when sketching in my new Moleskine.

(the good part starts at 1:28)

Finally I leave you with a little character design I’m working on in my Moleskine:

And a really interesting gallery of creative Moleskine Covers.

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The lecture was imparted by people from Immersion Games, A Colombian / Mexican company with a little history of productions.

The video above is the teaser for one of their most important game proyects to date, one that is jet to be released to the publc. But it isn’t the only game they’ve made, there is a little list of things they’ve done from which the most worth mentioning are Monster Madness, The Video Game footage in Mental s1 ep4 and CellFactor. The last one being published by no other than the powerful and renown Ubisoft.

The lecture went smoothly, they talked about programming, concept art, animation, 3D modeling and texturing. They also showed some of their workflow with the Unreal Engine. And even some undisclosed footage of both their work in “AAA the Video Game” (above video) and a new project called “Kung Fu Academy”.

I personally am quite exited about all this, You know… being that I’m in Mexico and an animator and all.

What about you, ever seen / played anything by Immersion Games? Did you even suspect it was made in Latinamerica?

It deffinitelly was one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” moments when I first saw this video earlier today.

This is not the first instance of a game being made using YouTube’s annotations system. But it, most certainly, is one of the most interesting ones.

Even if the game is not technically impressive, it is, in my opinion, a testimony of the ingenuity of humanity. And that, I think, is worth making a blog post about.

On a more personal note

My life has been going through big changes these past few weeks. This changes both make me sad and excited. The most important and sad note, though, is that I am no longer a part of FABLE Story Studios. I will still help them around with web-mastering, but I will no longer be part of the creative team. This has nothing to do with any sort of problem, but with some decissions I had to make.

You people don’t get to miss me, though, for I shall not loose presence on the web. I will be changing servers soon, and will most probably buy a domain for this blog. but this wouldn’t have to affect you in any way.

So yeah, see you arround!

child prostitute by *cellar-fcp on deviantART

This magnificent, awareness rising, piece of art was published in Deviant Art (an enormous and really useful art social network) just a few hours ago and, unfortunately, it’ll most likely be taken down in no more than a few hours due to violation of the terms of service.

This illustration is the work of cellar-fcp in his “Prostitute Series” to be part of a book called 鶯~EROTICA.

This piece is recieving the community’s support, but some people among us don’t see this picture the way we do. Some people seem to think this is a tasteless piece of art, a waste of the artists’ talent and, more importantly, a subject to be repoted and taken down from the site.

It is a disgrace to see people not being able to overlook their prejudice of underage nudity when it is appropriate. Yes, the reality behind it is a disgusting one; it is a sad picture and it has a dark beauty, You can see in those girls’ eyes, way beyond their nude or semi nude bodies, the sadness and despair of their situation. You can also, if open enough, see the human behind the prostitute that is portrayed.

It is an important message, but there’s people who would rather blind themselves to this reality and shield themselves claiming the picture is “tasteless” and “pornographic”.

If you can take it, I invite you to watch more of the work of this incredible artist at his gallery, and some little information on the book.

Important edit: Be it clear that I do not blame Deviant Art for taking down the picture, They have to do it because of the lawsbinding them.  I am disgusted at the people who see the piece as pornographic.

What about you? can you see the message? or is reality too much for you to bear?