Juan Estrada

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Take it to the streets!!

The background surprisingly turned out to be the most challenging project to do. I wanted to give it a dull and monotonous tone in comparison to the character. I also wanted to do something dynamic without the character being lost in the design, so with knowledge of implied line and color theory, I sketched out a way to create a focal point.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Butterface is Born

After deciding on the color scheme for my character, I finally chose an image to use as my template. I first started by creating basic shapes to outline the character and merging the shapes using the pathfinder tool. I then created the bag on a different layer as well as the clothing and stuffed bear.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Character Project: Putting it Onto Paper

As I began to jot down ideas, I began by drawing in the form of shapes, knowing it would be the easiest way to translate my sketches into a vector drawing. Still, these sketches conflicted with my main goal for the project-- to make it look as natural and organic as possible avoiding simple shapes as much as i could.

I continued by doing hand studies and played around with the shape of the bag to make it more dynamic.

I added some facial features to the character. I then realized that the eyes were very important in the overall personality. Again, I wanted to make him seem likable, cute and accessible but odd at the same time.

Character Project: The Inspiration

The original idea behind this character came from a square headed vinyl doll I designed for a friend similar to this one.

I designed the the square head to look like a crate had fallen on the creature and then just ran with the idea of creating a two dimensional version, except, this time i wanted to give it more personality. The main goal for the character was to create something that seemed similar to rag doll but in a darker sense.

as far as appearance goes, i also used Sackboy from little big planet as inspiration for the overall feel of the character.

I browsed around some more characters for some inspiration and found some like the one below that are a great example of using shape and color, instead of gradiance to shade and add depth to the character. The search also helped me with some ideas on how to keep the character cute yet edgy at the same time, using exaggerated shapes and expressive, bold lines.

Artist Worth Mentioning: "El Mac"

Mac, born Miles MacGregor, is a graffiti artist that produces work focusing on photo realistic figures and also replicating old master paintings from artists Caravaggio and Vermeer. He is an exceptional artist that blurs the boundaries between fine art and graffiti art, merging the two seamlessly. He was born here in Los Angeles in 1980 to an engineer and an artist. His work can be seen primarily throughout Los Angeles and Phoenix. Mac has worked with the likes of artists Retna and Saber from the Seventh Letter Crew and has his work published in Juxtapose magazine.

Check him out at his artist a day website!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Breaking the Ice

So my name is Juan Estrada... pleased to meet you! =) . I was born in Inglewood, Ca. to two wonderful, hardworking parents always striving for a better future for their family. Growing up in Inglewood, a predominantly black and Latino neighborhood and not looking black (nor Latino came with its share of challenges. At a young age i was conflicted with self doubt and constantly questioned my identity. As I grew older, these insecurities fueled my passion in art, making it one of the few things I felt I could use as a way to express myself. Graffiti on the walls around town peaked my interest in street art. I always admired how these names were written, not necessarily as an aesthetically pleasing form of art but more as a performance piece. Being young and rebellious, I was also fascinated at the whole "illegal" aspect of it as well and how much det

ermination and skill it took to write in the most unrea

chable spots. As I went on to high school, I also found it important to be familiar with the princi

pals of art as well. I expanded my horizons and be

gan to experiment with other media and techniques.

My main goal for this class is to become much more familiar with technology and how I am able to incorporate it in my artwork. I have always h

ad this very negative biased opinion about digital art and never cared much for it. I hope that taking this class will get me to appreciate it a lot more.

These are a couple of my most recent projects.

Sketches