Is altruism overrated? Is it actually a disguised form of egoism? Should we reconsider the importance of placing ourselves first in life? That’s what the Culturico article I was tasked to illustrate is about.
Such an abstract idea seemed difficult to depict in images at first, but the mention of Don Quixote gave me the idea of him shedding his armor (the symbol of his altruism) to reflect on his behavior. The pose is a nod to Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker.
I was inspired by the angels Baruch and Balthamos, two characters that first appear at the end of The Subtle Knife, the second book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Their book description is tricky to imagine: they seem to be made of light but appear amost invisible to the eye during the day.
I admire that their relationship is not hidden from the reader. They are explicitly in love and are quite affectionate towards each other, without it being treated like an oddity or pandering. Good LGBT+ representation in children’s/YA fantasy is always welcomed.
Happy Valentine’s Day! 🏳️🌈❤️
A friend of mine gifted me a set of Zebra Mildliner markers with brush tip and they’re pretty cool for sketching. These are a pair of random sketches I did. (The black strokes were done with a black brush pen.)
This an editorial illustration I did a while ago for a Culturico article that deals with honor killings and gender-based violence. It is a hard and sensitive topic to discuss, so I wanted to reflect that without being too gratuitous.
A short time ago I received a request for an illustration to be printed on a black hoodie and now that I have pictures of the final product I would like to share them as my last project of the year.
Originally I was given a very rough notebook sketch of a boy drinking over a tram, from which I drafted my own version. The main limitation was to use only two colors besides black and white.
Happy New Year!
An illustration for an upcoming Culturico article about self-sacrifice and being your true self.
I’m going to paraphrase the main idea: human beings are a not static, but a myriad of ideas and concepts, sometimes contradictory or random. We perform to adjust to other people’s expectations, but if we were true to ourselves, we might become unrecognizable to others.
And we’ve reached the end of Inktober. Overall, it has been a really fun and useful activity for me. Thinking of an image for each word prompt was a nice creative challenge in itself, and I got to practice my hand-drawn drawing skills, which were a bit rusty. I’m quite fond of how some of them turned out.
I recently did an illustration for an article exploring the possible outcome of the climate change movement lead by young activist Greta Thunberg.
Here are the next ten Inktober drawings, only eleven more to go. I’ll continue posting them daily on my Instagram.
In case anyone’s wondering, I’ve been inking with a Zebra V-301 Fountain Pen, a Zebra Zensations Double-Sided Brush Pen, and a regular Sharpie marker. They might not be the most professional tools available but they’ve been working well enough for me.
