HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2013 has come to an end and I just wanted to thank everyone for an amazing year with your likes, comments, and shares. There will be some new change for the coming year both in my work and life and I cannot wait to share it all with you. Unfortunately, I have not been posting regularly on this blog. That is because on Jan 2, 2014 I will be posting new sketches, upcoming events and new illustrations on my new website blog page. Below you will find a link to the new site.

http://patrickballesteros.com/blog

To thank everyone for taking the time to make the jump to my new site and layout here are some changes I will be making to the new posting format.

1) I will resume posting regularly so every Friday will be SketchFriday where I share new sketches or finished illustrations.

2) Q&A sessions. Once a month I will take your questions emailed to me about the industry, my work, art schools, etc. and answer them on my blog. To email me your questions and to view the guidelines for this please visit my site at http://patrickballesteros.com/pat-can-answer.

3) Livestreams. I am still working on setting this up but once a month I am aiming to do some live painting/drawing sessions online for you to watch from anywhere in the world.  This will be a peak into how I work and my process so I will be posting on my new blog site when I will be doing this.

There is more to come so please stay tuned and I look forward to seeing you on my new site. Thank you again for your support!

Best,
Patrick

Celebrate the World of Anime and Manga Jan. 5, 2014

We're just 2 weeks away from the opening reception of the Hero exhibition! The exhibit will showcase a great body of work in various mediums by artists who will pay tribute to manga, anime, and its creators. I'm lucky enough to be one of those artists. Here's a sneak peek of one of my pieces:

It'd be great if you all can make it to the opening reception on Sunday, January 5, from 10am to 2pm. Can't make it to the opening reception? Well then it's a good thing the exhibit will be up until June 13, 2014. For more information on Hero, the opening reception, and general gallery hours, please go to http://www.ocgp.org/2013/11/great-park-gallery-celebrates-world-japanese-anime-manga-hero/. 

Been Away TOOOO LONG

Sorry for the long absence from the blog. It has been a busy month with the holidays and work. Pretty soon I will be switching over to a new blog on my website but I will definitely let you all know when that happens. I just wanted to thank everyone for the follows and comments on here. It has been really cool interactacting with so many of you around the world.

To thank everyone I am planning on doing a livestream soon where you can hang out, ask questions and watch my process of designing and painting. I will most likely do a demonstration of a character design. I am trying to do this before the end of the year and for those interested I will post the time and date on my blog of when I will do it.

Anyways, let's see some art dangnabbit! Here is a new illustration I just wrapped up for the season of giving. Do you recognize all the kids decorating?

HAPPY HULKIDAYS

This will be available as a print in my online store. If you are interested just click on the link below.

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I have a few more exciting events coming up this month and of course I will be dropping in more sketches on here so please stay tuned! Again, thanks everyone and I hope you are enjoying December!

-Patrick

Designer Con Nov 9-10

Designer Con (DCON) is this weekend, November 9-10, at Pasadena, CA (http://www.designercon.com/). Find me at booth #330.

This year I was given the privilege to design the official DCON T-shirt as well as create a DCON exclusive print available only at the show.

Close up of Art

My exclusive print sold thru DCON

New prints that will be available at the show!

Rooftop Rover

Friday Night Frights

I’m very much looking forward to this weekend and I hope to see you all there!

Comikaze Expo

Comikaze Expo starts this Friday in downtown Los Angeles. I'll be sharing booth #1244 with amazing cover artist Dave Wilkins and the talented Jin Yung Kim. I'm very excited to debut a couple of new prints! As always, I'll be available to take commissions all day Friday and after 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Come by and say hello!

Also, here is the final print I will have ready at the show. I think some of you big kids will recognize these little trouble makers. The piece is called Rooftop Rover and, well, you get the point. 

This print measures 18"x9" and will be $20. For those of you who cannot make it the show, this print will be available for preorder by clicking on the link below.

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To make sure you find us here's a little map to make your life a little bit easier. Again, looking forward to seeing you all out there and have a great week everyone!

Friday Night Frights---New Illustration

Growing up, sneaking out and catching the newest horror flick in the theaters was an adventure in itself.  What was even more exciting was getting ready to seat in that seat and get the Begeezus scared out of me. Each time going you never knew what to expect. That was the whole fun, not only the movie but the environment, stale air and popcorn, overpriced soda, and sticky seats.....well maybe not that. This image is not only a tribute to my favorite holiday of the year, but to those Friday nights were I lay awake in my bed ready to fend off Freddy, Jason, or Michael from entering my room. It was quite terrifying but a part of my childhood that I will always remember and cherish.

Here we have, Friday Night Frights! 

This print measures 9"x18" and is $20 plus shipping and handling. It will be available for preorder and will ship starting Oct 23, just in time for Halloween! I will also have this available at 2 upcoming conventions in November, more about those can be found here.

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Thanks for stopping by everyone and be safe out there you devious trick or treaters you!

Sketch Friday

My apologies for the late posts, if you read my previous post I have been busy with a few projects especially a big on due out in Feb. However, I am still sketching daily especially for this whole inktober thing. I saw a few of my favorite artists do it on Instagram so thought why not give it a shot. I am trying to do it daily and since it is October I am basing mine off of familiar horror characters. The main rule for inktober is that it has to be traditional with ink (pencil underdrawing allowed).

Here are my first few for the month.

The black lagoon.

Everyone's favorite Mogwai.

Hail to the King baby!

Looking for the Keymaster?

I have 27 more days to go so wish me luck!

THE RESPONSE

I have a tiny announcement to make, but I figure a short little comic strip would be the best way to do it. Hope you enjoy and yes this all actually happened.

Pirates

Hello, sorry for not posting on Friday these days just go by faster and faster I swear. Well below are some character concepts I never really got a round to finishing. Maybe someday I will, but for now they will get filed away as rough ideas that I hope to get to one day. Anyways, I though it would be interesting just to show you how rough I go with the initial idea and then the finish.

Here is my rough pass. I do have a general idea of what I want to do in these but mainly for this phase I am really thinking about personality and a fun/cool shape to use that will appeal to the viewer and also work for the entire lineup. One thing that helps is working on your cast in a row like this so that you can really create variety and contrast from one character to the next. Of course there is more to character design than just that but those are my initial thoughts.

The final drawing can sometimes change and stiffen up a little from the rough sketch, which happens to me all the time. However, this is the phase where you have to tie things down and get it ready for presentation. Rough sketches are great but some clients do not understand them so you have to be able to answer all their questions and create confidence between them and you work. This does not hold true for all clients but just be aware sometimes you do have to spell everything out.

More on this later but thanks again for dropping by.

Sketch Friday

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long gap in between posts. I am trying to keep consistent by posting every Friday, but work and just life in general catches up with you fast. It's like you blink and all the sudden it's September? Where the heck did summer go? As for me, I have been working on quite a few projects that I can't talk about just yet but I am super excited and cannot wait to show you. For the upcoming conventions In November I am working on quite a few new prints, Thundercats, Pacific Rim, and some horror movie characters are all going to be given the Patrick Ballesteros twist to them so stay tuned!

In the meantime I know it is Friday and we all what to get out and enjoy the weekend, but dangit doesn't it always seem like something comes up right before you are about to leave to go home? I call this the "Monkey Hour". It's basically when someone gives me some BS work to do that I could have done earlier in the day and really is of no importance. However, you have to treat it as a rush item and finish it before your weekend can start.

This is how I feel sometimes doing this "Monkey Work."

Not to end on a bitter note here are some sketches that I did out and about this week. Enjoy the weekend and get the Monkey Work done so you can finally relax! I know, it's been a long week for us all.

Cheers!

Patrick

Sketch Friday

The Land Of Cheer

Just experimenting and messing around with a few things like subject matter and color choices. It is a bit random but as an artist you have to shake it up every once in a while to get out of the old artistic funk. This is what happens when you are eating cereal and watching Game of Thrones in the morning. 

Happy weekend everyone!

GAME OVER

Well hello there again! The past few posts I have been putting up sneak peeks of my piece that was included in the Seattle show "Press Start to Continue" at LTD. Art Gallery. Well enough peeks, here is the full color illustration depicting a nice friendly game of Tug of War.

If you are interested there are still a few limited edition prints for sale which can be purchased online.

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I am working on a few more new pieces for a few conventions in November. In the coming weeks I will be posting a few peeks at those as well.

Thanks again for dropping in!

Sign up and take a class with me at CDA!

Hi everyone, the good folks at the Concept Design Academy of in Pasadena have invited me back to teach another term of Dynamic Sketching. So what better way to end your year then by fine tuning and improving those drawing skills! Fall term starts October 5, 2013 and registration is now open. Click here to be taken to the CDA online enrollment and it is easy as 1,2,3. Below are some samples of what you can expect from class:

In class instructor demonstrations

Student Work

If you have any questions please feel free to email me. Thanks again everyone and I am looking forward to seeing some of you in class!

Sketch Friday and Gallery Show

So this post is going to be 2 for one deal. First if you are in Seattle or at PAX please stop by Ltd. Art Gallery for their show "Press Start to Continue."The show opens tonight at 7PM and it is a celebration of new and old video games and with the roster of talent it looks to be super fun. Below is the flier with more info on the event.

Next up is another sneak peek of my piece. This is the sketch/lineart before the final i take things to the final color stage. Interested in seeing the final color image? Well I guess you will just have to check out the show tonight. There will be some limited edition prints of theses available at the gallery so make sure to grab one for yourself this weekend!

My apologies for not posting as often, juggling a few projects but if you are interested in following some of my daily sketches please feel free to check out my Instagram account at patrickballesteros. Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone and I will attempt to get back on a regular posting schedule next week.

Press Start to Continue Art Show---Sneak Peek

Hi All.,

Friday, Aug 30th I will be in another gallery show with the good folds at Ltd. Art Gallery in Seatte. The show "Press Start to Continue" is combining old school and new school games in a mash up brought to you by some of the best in the video game industry. The show is during PAX so if you are attending that event then drop on over to the gallery at night to see some cool art!

Below is a tiny sneak peak of my piece, hopefully you can tell some of the characters I am depicting in my "Pat" way of course.

This is just 1/4 of the piece so rest assured there are more surprises to come, to see the whole thing, well you have to go to the show!

Divulge Magazine---Artist of the Month

Last month I was asked to be featured as the artist of the month for Divulge Magazine's July issue. I did an interview with them about my art and process and they even did a small photo shoot of me and my artwork. I may post some of the pics of the photo shoot at a later date, it's just weird seeing pictures of yourself published. Anyways, I was also asked to contribute some artwork for the main feature of the magazine which was about cosplayers!

So below are photos taken by the talented Victoria Lara and I added some of my flavor to the mix with a few illustrated characters here and there. Can you guess who is who?

Working with different artists is always a blast and I had so much fun with this project. Well, thanks again for dropping in and hope you all enjoyed the collaboration! If you are interested in getting a hard copy or digital copy of this issue then click here.

Sketch Friday

Hi all, sorry for the long delay in posts. Been working on quite a few projects I can't talk about yet but I will be revealing soon I promise! To tide you over here is my entry for today's sketch Friday. Just your typical lion, mech, pirate hybrid.

Also to make up for my lack of posting here are a few demonstrations I have done for my students the past few weeks in my Dynamic Sketching class.

PLANT DEMOS

ANIMAL DEMOS

TECH DEMOS

INSECT DEMOS

GUN DEMO

COLOR DEMO

Thanks again for stopping by and for checking out my tiny sketch dump! Hope you enjoy!