ABELOroz

Derelict

2012-02-04T17:32:00.003+01:00

After some time working on very small, sketchy pieces, I've managed to finish something more developed and detailed.

A bit dark, I guess, specially in some monitors, and damn the compression Blogger applies.

Sorollesque

2012-01-30T07:41:00.002+01:00

Sketch inspired by the mediterranean vibe of the light in Joaquín Sorolla's paintings.

Daemon

2012-01-22T22:45:00.001+01:00

Sunday practice in Zbrush

Greco-Roman bust

2012-01-21T23:20:00.002+01:00

Some bust practice in Zbrush

something

2011-10-20T19:07:00.005+02:00

Nah don't ask, why bother. Put my brain blank for some minutes at work.

Been a long time

2011-08-23T22:12:00.003+02:00

Hey!

It seems like I've disappeared, but I'm just ultra-busy with the new job (busy, but in a cool sense). That means I have little to show, but I can post this couple mood concepts of barren planets I did some time ago for an unannounced game that should eventually see the light of day. I didn't have much information about the game itself, so this is what eventually came out.

TequilaWorks

2011-05-31T19:50:00.009+02:00

Been really busy, so that's why I'm not updating this very often. But there are news now. Starting tomorrow as a concept artist, visual developer and multi-purpose production artist in TequilaWorks. New adventure, and a really exciting one!

Bang

2011-03-30T21:21:00.002+02:00

Some random painting practice and playing with textures.

Life Drawing

2011-03-23T20:33:00.006+01:00

Oldish life drawing from my time in Madrid.
3, 5 and 15 min poses mixed. Pencil on pretty generic paper.

Space Oddity

2011-03-15T13:18:00.002+01:00

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

www.abeloroz.com

2011-03-13T16:46:00.003+01:00

My official portfolio site is finally online. No new artwork yet though, but it's more comfortable to navigate than browsing a blog (for me at least) and I expect to add some new stuff in the next weeks. Feel free to comment any thoughts.

Have I said that it has my name followed by a .com? Awesome! I wouldn't have believed it 10 years ago. Anyway, this blog will continue as usual, being a dump for sketches, wips, news and stuff :)

why aren't you clicking here already?
http://www.abeloroz.com/

Gnoblin

2011-03-11T10:17:00.003+01:00

Your average Peruvian gnoblin witch.

Canopy alley

2011-03-07T21:55:00.007+01:00

Jackpot. I found this lighting study sketch in a pendrive the other day. I now see some stuff that's not working very well, but I prefer to leave it untouched, as a reminder.

Flamethrower variations

2011-02-22T13:16:00.007+01:00

Iteration sketches on a heavy flamethrower unit meant for a hypothetical fantasy RTS. I based on the assumption of it featuring a dynamic camera, so tried to find a fair balance between silhouette readability and close-range visual interest.

Haunted nook

2011-02-13T20:14:00.006+01:00

Weekend environment sketch.

Dwarven Relief

2011-02-11T09:30:00.005+01:00

Some personal practice in dealing with texture painting.

Next-gen handheld game model (wip)

2011-02-05T17:22:00.012+01:00

I've been doing some 3D lately, it's always good to learn and go through other people's chunk of the pipeline, both because it is fun to explore, and because it ends up making you better at your work. Can't have enough with learning stuff, everything adds up.

Anyway, the character was a discarded concept for a pitch project I was involved time ago, and I thought it would be fun to model it. I've decided to stay within the range it was initially meant for, close to modern handheld devices. Around the polycount for iPad/3DS/PSP2 (just guessing, anyway). It still has a lot of problems, but I've overcome a myriad of them already, so it's being an awesome challenge. I must really thank my pal Lasse for the invaluable help with the tools.

Might eventually reduce the maps to half the size, to make it more gentle for those platforms, but anyway... still have stuff to fix and a diffuse to paint. The occlusion map will help me with the blocking.

Used: Zbrush, 3DSMax, Photoshop and Toolbag.

Rhino guard

2011-01-18T19:43:00.012+01:00

Love staying at the studio to have a blast with that awesome Cintiq after work, since I'm finished with the whole freelancing thing. I have fixed the drawing on the fly while painting, since I wasn't too happy about some things.

Leukotomy

2011-01-12T19:22:00.003+01:00

Some sketching after work.
Couple hours of right-brained fun.

Her

2010-12-20T10:35:00.008+01:00

Pencil sketch turned to practice painting at work, and eventually finished. I was really hoping to update the blog, but I'm quite busy nowadays, and can't show most of the stuff. Going back to Spain for holidays tomorrow, have a nice time everyone!

Please forgive the corniness of the title. Photoshop CS5 in my gorgeous Cintiq (can't live without it anymore).

Influence map

2010-12-06T17:32:00.006+01:00

I've seen these "influence maps" becoming quite popular recently, and I also wanted to try mine; not only because it's a one-time answer to a quite usual question, but also because it forces me to a bit of introspection on what has influenced me over the years.

Of course, it's hard to fit everything into one page, and I've left hundreds behind, but there are these few that I think deserve special mention. Some might have pushed me to draw when I was a kid, others might be artists that I'm obsessed with just in the last few years... each one has its own reason to be there, but I can confidently thank (or blame) them all for my style/s.

And the list keeps growing!

The average Danish guy

2010-11-30T16:38:00.004+01:00

Blue eyes, blonde beard (made mostly of remoulade), a fish tail and a huge tankard of Tuborg; that's a pretty accurate representation of the standard Danish individual.

The guys from the studio were teasing me some time ago with the "typical Spanish guy" being this flamenco-dancing bullfighter, so I kinda felt I had to do my approach on the Danish cliché. Since there is not really a Danish stereotype per-se, I can just offer my vision.

Behind the Iron Curtain

2010-10-25T16:43:00.009+02:00

It's been a nice workshop weekend in Bucharest. Nice people around and enriching experience overall. I'm particularly glad of having had the chance of a bit of life drawing, which is something I miss since I lost the habit of doing it when I left Madrid.

It was just a single pose actually, but enough to lubrify the skills a bit.

Majordomo

2010-09-17T19:16:00.005+02:00

Somehow managed to squeeze this within my schedule. I really missed painting for myself! Not that I have started it from the beginning or anything; just rescued it from some sketchbook.

Since I miserably failed to get a decent light scheme working when I initially tried to painted it, I left this project behind until the right time. Eventually, it has been a good starting point to test Sam Nielson's approach to break the light into several layers. I'm definitely looking forward to attend his Schoolism course when I'm able to afford it.

Anyway, since I already know some people who are interested in the process, I'm writing my thoughts on it.

The main advantage of this approach is that information is taken into small, easier to digest pills, thus not having to solve occlusion, direct light and color all at the same time. That leaves the brain more relaxed, at list for people like me, unable to breath and blink at the same time, and everything is easier to manage layer-wise. Also, the outcome is reasonably unpredictable, which turns out to be an advantage when you are stuck like I was.

Its main drawback is that it becomes a less "intuitive" process, moving much of the work to the left brain at the expense of being slightly blind about the overall look. Of course, it can be tweaked afterwards, but painting the color layer feels quite unnatural, and it forces you to have a working, finished drawing from the get-go rather than being able to correct stuff "on the fly". It is also a bit more time-consuming.

Anyway, it's very a very worthy process to give a shot, and to meet face to face with lighting in its most raw state. Also, I must recommend never painting in a laptop; that nasty LCD screen has left me close to blind.

The CO2 Connection

2010-08-30T07:20:00.003+02:00

Yay, haven't updated this much lately because of the move to Denmark and several other factors, but I expect that to change soonish and get back to the regular posting.

Anyway, here's the character lineup for Incubator Games' next title for hire, The CO2 Connection, starring good ol' Kelvin and a couple new characters (his boss and an all-sniffing dog) that I've had the pleasure to design. There's a small change in style from the previous Kelvin game, specially in the way of rendering them, with flat shadow masses and square-ish patterns. You can check a few extra environmental prop designs and wip screenshots in their website.

Lani Pixels

2010-07-03T11:19:00.006+02:00

Comienzo en breve como concept artist interno para el primer largometraje 3D del estudio de animación Lani Pixels, en Dinamarca. Es un movimiento un tanto arriesgado para mí, pero también muy estimulante, así que es hora de preparar las maletas y comenzar a moverse. Si pensáis pasaros a ver Legoland algún día, no dudéis en pegarme un toque, estaré en Billund ;)

--

Beginning shortly as an in-house concept artist for Lani Pixels animation studio's first 3D feature film in Denmark. It is quite a risky movement for me, but also very exciting, so I guess it's now time to pack everything and start moving! If you're considering visiting Legoland any time soon, just make me know, I'll be in Billund!

New sketchbook!

2010-06-22T18:24:00.012+02:00

Bought a new sketchbook yesterday, and I love the earthly tone. I normally sketch over white paper, but I hate how scanning it washes all the subtle paper grain out to a flat white, losing a lot of its "charm". So, after having a look at someone else's awesome Daley Rowney "earthbound" sketchbook, I found something kinda similar (yet thinner and more expensive, though) right in Madrid.

Recycled paper with tons of texture and enough roughness to allow a comfortable sliding of white pencil (often slippery due to its waxiness). Plus the chance to do grisaille. The king of papers. This is today's train sketch.

Character faces

2010-06-18T22:32:00.011+02:00

If you ever go by train, know that probably someone is watching you even during that moment when you safely pick your nose. He's sketching and having a blast out of your vulnerability. From an artist's point of view, that is one of the moments of greatest joy and plain fun, at least when you are "safe" yourself, protected from peers over your shoulder. When you are the predator and you aren't stalked by a conscious victim just about to switch the roles and become the hunter (and punch you in the nose, or even worse, gently ask you to show him the sketch).

Anyway, sketching on the train is something I just love to do, and I've kinda developed a pretty stimulating exercise (probably stimulating due to being my comfort zone, anyway). Since I hate it when people notice they are being drawn, I just have a 5 seconds peek at any stranger who catches my attention, and never looking at him anymore I sketch a character based on a totally invented story about that guy. Needless to say they don't resemble at all the persons they are inspired by (not even remotely close) but it is a very nice way to come with fresh ideas and let the mind loose.

All of them are pencil on sketchbook. Any resemblance to actual persons or facts is mere coincidence.

openOutcast concepts

2010-06-15T13:10:00.012+02:00

A couple environment concepts for zones in openOutcast.

Fishing town of Cyana in Okasankaar (5 h) and Okriana in Talanzaar (8 h) respectively, in CS3. Not too happy with the outcome, specially the second one, but I can't invest more time in that project, so I have to paint them from scratch without previous sketches or structure framework, which eventually leads to "meh" results. I will soon have more time to invest. My head needs to rest a bit.

Color keys

2010-04-28T09:53:00.012+02:00

General layout concept and color key for a game pitch. Plus early Talanzaar color key draft for openOutcast

Busy days! Will show newer stuff. Someday.

Life drawing

2010-03-24T23:10:00.012+01:00

A bit of life drawing practice. I suck at scanning, can't avoid that paper whiteout effect and I'd swear they look much nicer on the paper, so I end up faking the grisaille effect. That's why I'm always so reluctant to uploading model sketching, but somehow having those tons of paper forgotten in a shelf also sucks.

Models from "Círculo de Bellas Artes" in Madrid, Pencil on A4 paper.

X-secutor version VII.0

2010-03-09T01:49:00.015+01:00

Everyone in the circus is excited about the Emperor's new toy. The improvements over previous version have made it all but a success. Perhaps too much, say some gladiator trainers who are already considering about taking their boys to the Egyptian Facesmashing Superleague.

Painter 11 (mostly). JPEG compression sucks balls.

3D stuff

2010-03-05T20:09:00.006+01:00

Been a while since I don't update. There's some recent 3D work.
3DSmax, Photoshop CS3, Zbrush 3.1

ScaleDude and the Opium Trip

2010-02-02T23:21:00.006+01:00

Well, real title is supposed to be "EoW#133 Ancient Palace Ruins", but that sounds way more boring. As the title hints, its destiny was conceptart.org's Environment of the Week challenge.

It is mainly about composition, which was my main focus at every moment during the process, and I have learned a lot about it. My initial aim was doing some concept in the likes of platforming games, with a slightly less cartoony mood than usual (still not realistic). Took somewhere around 10 hours, since there was some back and forth with guiding the eyesight smoothly to where I wanted. If you want to have a look to a work in progress sequence, you can check it here.

Kelvin's Space Ranch

2010-01-30T21:45:00.010+01:00

Here's some stuff I've been working in the last months for Canadian studio Incubator Games (nice people they are). A few artworks from the upcoming web-based game Kelvin's Space Ranch. I've done pretty much anything from concept art to production visual assets, and I must say I've had a blast with such a wacky project. Finally it's about to be released.

I based the visual style in a 'futu-rustic' mix of naif innocence, japanese home-oriented robotics and sci-fi B-movies with vivid secondary color palettes. This is just a small selection of the material. Can't wait to play!

Tarkon's Walk

2010-01-15T18:33:00.008+01:00

I did this creature doodle while sketching on Characters class, but liked it enough for a bit of speedpainting.

Tarkon is an overseer in the tar mines within the depths of Green Hell. Every now and then he stumbles upon an idle tar miner and mercilessly covers him in goose feathers. The job conditions are nefarious but no one told a tar demon's life was a bed or roses. 2-3 hours in CS3.

Dr. Krust

2010-01-13T22:17:00.013+01:00

Been a while since last post. Busy times, but somehow I managed to finish this work in corel Painter X... and by finish I mean I don't really feel like working on it any further.

The theme was 'crustacean who conquered the world'. Thought on some uber-giant robotic lobster or something, but hey, you'll agree evil doctors are way cooler (you should agree, anyway).

EoW125: Sailing to Harbor

2009-11-15T23:57:00.006+01:00

My first submission to the Environment of the Week challenge in conceptart.org. The quality level there is huge, but it's worth giving a shot. It was very fun and learned a lot since it's not the kind of thing I'm used to do (never painted a vista before, in fact), so I'm moderately happy. I might even participate weekly in the challenge (on in the creature challenges or so). Time will tell.

gouache sketch

2009-11-05T12:52:00.004+01:00

Enough digital stuff for a lapse. We're beginning with gouache technique in color class, that is something I haven't used since primary school (you can guess the quality of those) and I'm loving it, so here's one of my first gouache sketches, done in small size. One of the cartoony faces I enjoy so much doing. Over 2 hours though. I'll get the hang of it!

Magic Unleashed

2009-10-29T12:36:00.007+01:00

This old guy was initially meant for my characters class, requesting just a scatterbrain wizard of some sort. I spent quite some time developing the character until I got the final pose to present as the final requested linework. However, I liked it enough to paint it further as it was a real character layout I would do for an animated movie or something.

Must thank the critiques received prior to finishing. The painting itself took around 5 hours. Fullscreen recommended; the white window contours darken the image.

As I lay aWacom in this night...

2009-10-19T14:44:00.004+02:00

The abbot of Yestershire is beginning to use new technologies. The brothers became bored of copying pile after pile of tomes, and decided to switch to Ctrl+C. They've become very productive now, and can spend more time with the calligraphy and illustrations. They rock!

Slave of Aquanus

2009-10-09T11:56:00.003+02:00

A minion slave from the undersea realm of Aquanus. They are planning some kind of revolution against the evil Baron Neptum, anytime soon. Good luck guys!

2h, no previous idea, just built from volume masses. CS3

Gratuitous display of violence

2009-10-05T13:02:00.003+02:00

This guy is one of those brainless alpha males always looking for an excuse to solve things using brute force. I've crossed some of these in my life, and since I'm not the kind of guy who'd fight them back, this is my chance for a vulgar display of power back on them.

Ha, last laugh is on me.

Village

2009-10-05T12:44:00.004+02:00

Here's a sketch of a misty European village of around the 17th century. Tried something less saturated than usual. Around 90 minutes.

The compression looks awful in the reduced image, so please click on it for a larger, uncompressed view.

Lair, sweet lair

2009-09-14T18:25:00.011+02:00

Yay! Finally got some time to paint. Vacations can be really stressful, you know?

Anyway, about the subject, after some time really intrigued about why I didn't like my artworks; always tied to that awful habit of focusing on detail before actually having a clear idea of the global result, I finally became conscious about what the hell did they mean by "color scheme"! A few days ago, just after going to bed, It came to my brain like a divine revelation and I just... understood it. Clear as water. It was there, and it was so obvious! I had been listening about it so many times without actually being aware of what it meant.

That night I couldn't sleep for hours, and now there's that amazing feeling that *I* have the control during the process rather than my pictures dictating me what I must paint. Perhaps it sounds kinda dumb if you're not into painting, but if you've been like me struggling day by day, clueless about why other people get those atmospheric environments in their works while yours just don't feel harmonic, and get frustrated trying to achieve something via detail, just know: It's not about the color tones you choose at all, but the contrasts you make between each mass and what it haves behind, using VALUE! Color tone itself is the least in importance, with a simple monochromatic palette you can do awesome stuff! Light is your tool, and you are not its slave, but its master.

Damn, I suddenly feel the need to redo all my previous work. But I better hold myself. Anyway, don't want to bore you with my lesser troubles. The work just began as a very loose sketch on paper of a spidery-tree lair or something, and didn't even scan it, just played with the color and developed it around 4 -5 hours.

Stereoscopic Goofzilla

2009-07-24T11:17:00.006+02:00

This is a small test in stereoscopy. Basic anachromic stuff. Used an old work with quite some depth in it. I just played a bit with layers to fit the retinal disparity. Stereoscopy is the future (but this time for real), so we better be up to date!

You'll need some basic blue/red goggles, but hey, I've saved you most of the work! Just go to the papershop at the end of your street, get some cellophane, find some scissors and there you go. I can't upload that part of the job for you so don't be lazy!

Better viewed fullscreen.

Old 3D stuff

2009-07-18T11:20:00.011+02:00

There is some unfinished stuff from my dear old frozen short film, Ex Vitro. Not too happy with it, really tight production schedule, buy anyway, at least it'll see the light of day in some form. Everything was done in 3DsMax.

First Vladislav Von Vlack, just finished (stiff arms yet, should have modeled him more relaxed) in an occlusion pass in Mental Ray prior to texturing.

An occlusion pass of the whole stage. Everything is finished except a bit of work in the wall at the back.

Finally a nearly finished closeup preview of a computer. The text is in an unexisting eastern-European-ish language, in case you wondered.

Czolo in 3D

2009-07-07T03:52:00.008+02:00

I recently realized that my blog banner up there says "3D modeling" while... well... there was no 3D stuff at all. So I'm preparing some material.

The first one is this guy, a reanimated body with a mind of his own called Czolo (meaning "frontal" in Czech or something, alluding to the frontal lobe). With Vladislav Von Vlack, he was one of the couple of characters for my now cancelled 3D short film, "Ex Vitro". This is an evolution from the original model in Max, that was 'dead' simple since the production times were really tight and it was a process of constantly sacrificing stuff. But now with more time for my own, and knowing there's no obnoxious rigging awaiting after the absurd polycount, I managed to get the character quite closer to what I would have wanted him to be (still very improvable though, specially the posing).

The original low-res mesh with the basic topology for edgeflow was done in Max, and from then pretty much everything is Zbrush. I became pretty fond on this guy when concepting, so it's been a pleasure to work with him again.

Concept: Belonio

2009-06-20T17:56:00.000+02:00

Along with Perceval, this concept is a game character requested as final project for the Characters class (1st course). Found this one slightly less stimulating than the first one, since the briefing was less "lyrical", if that makes any sense. It was pretty much a physical description while Perceval's had lots of character background to conceptualize.

Apart from being tall, thin, creepy androginous demons, all we know about their lives is that they were former angels turned to human executioners. So I pretty much used that couple of details to make them less generic, by using inspiration from some religious icons and medieval torture devices, as if they tormented themselves for mere pleasure. I also made their body sort of an empty casing spilling black smoke to reflect what they have inside (nothing good).

Avatar

2009-06-18T19:47:00.000+02:00

I made this self-portrait as an avatar for forums and other sites, obviously based on the toons from the "Goofzilla" piece. In fact, I shamelessly took the woman and repainted most of it, so I spared myself from solving the lighting and face volume again (don't tell anyone!). I find it quite small for using it anywhere else, I'm regretting not having done it somewhat bigger. But meh.

Concept: Perceval

2009-06-11T00:43:00.001+02:00

Here's some more class work, this time a concept for a fictional videogame character. Again, I had megatons of fun doing this, the process of concepting is just so infinitely awesome! But a concept ain't nothing without the given briefing, so here it goes:

Perceval was once a proud member of the round table, but he's not Arthur's young sidekick anymore. Since the King's death, he inherited the legendary Excalibur and has been around the world for the last ten years, battling demons and dragons, fighting in the crusades and dozens of wars from Europe to the far east. Now, aged and tired, he's ready for his very last battle at the feet of Ben Nevis, a very cold and inhospitable mountain swarming with demons.

That was the core idea, as well as a bit of physical description. Really enjoyed working on something darker and more desaturated than usual. Hope it works.

Concept: Okto-8

2009-06-04T03:18:00.000+02:00

The Okto-8 is an interwar submarine pod to deactivate underwater mines. Made of riveted steel to resist heavy pressures, the Okto can be piloted by a single, well prepared man. The arms are controlled by the cockpit panels, and has a set of mechanical legs to alight over the seabed, helped by a light jet propulsion system for movility.

Had a lot of fun with this one. It was initially classwork requesting a vehicle. Any kind. Since I love all the old industrial design, made purely functional with zero aesthetic interest, I began some research in old diving stuff. Used 1900s scuba helmets, old bathyscaphes, octopods and mosquitoes for reference; as well as other minor stuff. I pushed everything in the cocktail shaker, shook a bit and voilá, it emerged from the depths.

Concept: Sandstorm Windmills

2009-06-03T22:29:00.000+02:00

Enough cartoon for a while, and time to focus on some kinda serious concept art.

The Sandstorm Windmills are a kilometric wall of huge fans built to keep at bay the constant sandstorms that lash the desert megalopolis of Kandur for the last 70 years.

The concept is mostly a color key to get the mood and visual feel for the videogame prototype I'm working in with a buddy. So, expect more concepts on this subject in a future, although the environment design is very primitive right now and subject to change.

Any comment, specially on the palette and overall feel would be very helpful.

Unkind intentions

2009-05-15T15:15:00.001+02:00

First of all, I must say I have no idea about why are his intentions so mean. It's just an old pencil sketch I had in my hard drive waiting for some day of inspiration / boredom. I began painting it months ago, but since I never had a clear idea about where did I want to get, I just left it unfinished.

So I finally faced it and decided to finish it at all costs. I could say it's been a pretty useful tool for learning a bit about broad daylight conditions, eye rendering, and specially subsurface scattering. The beak effect seemed intimidating at first, but once you get how the light scatter works, its not so tricky after all :)

Maple fairy

2009-05-04T00:21:00.001+02:00

Aaaaw cute!

This character is just one of the many fairy sketches I made to illustrate a children book page. The character was discarded but I personally liked it better than the 'chosen one', which was a pretty generic, cliched fairy, so I developed this one a bit further by myself, making her a 'tomboy' aviator maple fairy!

This is sort of a character layout with its suitable environment. I was willing to test myself in some detailed background, and it came along reasonably well for the first time. Still much work to do though. Photoshop as usual, in case you wondered.

Vladislav Von Vlack

2009-04-23T00:37:00.000+02:00

A noble and brilliant scientist since he was young, so many decades deeply involved in his studies on neuro-biology kinda blurred his vision of the ethical limits and what is right or wrong. But he's not mean, neither one of those lesser evilish doctors; he's as well-meant as it gets, just kinda lost a bit of his touch with reality. Perhaps the scientific community wouldn't approve some of his investigations, but they are just boring nerds. As he said in his latest letter to Dorsomedial Hypothalamic Nucleus Monthly, "Hippocrates or Leonardo couldn't get the world out of its ignorance without opening a couple of corpses".

Vladislav was one of a couple of characters for "Ex Vitro", the 3D short film I was developing, and I sadly had to freeze to focus in my illustration studies. Will I finish it some day? Only The Dude knows!

The original character layout was just a pencil sketch with some Photoshop brush strokes to get the feel of color (advantages of being both the concept artist and modeler), but I was quite fond on him so I tweaked it a bit and developed it further, to give him a glimpse of the glory he never finally tasted... (sob).

The Boxer

2009-04-04T20:30:00.000+02:00

A boxing boxer. Well, the briefing was not much deeper, so I guess it fits the request. It was done for my characters class. The character design itself was a blast, but I didn't spend too long with the sketches, perhaps a couple of hours from sketching to traced drawing.

With the color I went a bit further. Wanted to leave the contour line, which is something I don't usually do, and I also took the opportunity to play slightly with the color, trying to get it a bit closer to the "artificial" feel of comic coloring. Well, I didn't go too far from my usual style anyway.

I'm developing the bad habit of underworking the background, so the figures end up isolated in a void of brush strokes. I can figure out why the dog seems angry with me. I'll work on that, mongrel, don't worry.

Too Serious

2009-04-02T19:56:00.000+02:00

I painted this guy on a day I felt quite subdued for no particular reason. I just began sketching / playing with a blueish, dull palette and finally came with this bodyguard. Kinda serious mood, so I cheered it up :) It was terapeuthical in some way.

If it happens to raise a smile on anyone else, then it's worth posting it. Took slightly over 3 hours in Photoshop; I spent longer than expected trying no to make the wig feel flat or "pasted" over the rest.

The Unexpectedly Hectic Stroll through Sunset Avenue (aka Goofzilla)

2009-04-02T19:43:00.000+02:00

Time ago I drew in my sketchbook some goofy characters in sort of a "naïf" world, which I liked, but didn't exactly know what to do with them, so they were eventually forgotten.

Months later, I found a good use for them while studying light and color, since that childish look was very appropriate for the kind of self-educative illustration I was heading for.

I was messing with this piece for quite a long time, perhaps over 40 hours, since I really wanted it to be useful for my art education, and it has been indeed an invaluable learning tool.

It's all Photoshop. I have the feeling that I went too far with the resolution and some details that are lost in the resized image (the original is near double of this one), but anyway, we learn from mistakes. Finally it was printed jumbo-size for my nephews' room :)

Exhumed necromancer

2009-04-02T19:36:00.000+02:00

This handsome necromancer is one of my first finished artworks. It was done for my digital illustration class in Arteneo, in around 12 hours. The finished work has a ton of errors, especially the flat appearance of the shoulder mantle and the right temple.

The style is pretty cartoony; near the style I feel most comfortable in. Gossip says that 4 years of playing Warcraft left a footprint in my style. You filthy liars! :P

Anyway, it was good enough for the requested work, and I've become quite fond on him being my first digital achievement.

Hello, world!

2009-04-02T14:45:00.000+02:00

Welcome to Abelo's Portfolio, wandering visitor! Take a sit and feel at home.

Finally I had the time and mood to invest in my own blog. I can't say I'm a big blogger myself, shame on me, but here it is for anyone willing to waste his precious time in watching the ramblings that leave my mind.

This blog will serve as my portfolio, specially until I finish the "official" one, although I may actually use it for some news, should I find them interesting enough. But wait... who the hell am I? Why should you be watching my damned blog?

Well, my name is Abel Oroz, but feel free to call me Abelo. I am from the Spanish city of Pamplona, and I'm currently doing what I should have done 10 years ago: studying art and illustration in Madrid. I expect to finish it next year and make it my job for a living, simply because it is what I love to do. So, here I'll be hanging my worthwile stuff and maybe sketches too.

Hope you like it, and thanks for watching :)