2015: An Illustration Year in Review

As I did last year, here I present you a digital art compilation of nearly everything I have done during 2015. This last year has been what I consider to bee a transition one. Nothing life changing has happened, but still, a lot of little things have established stuff that I’ve been doing in the recent years, specially in what’s related to my job.

Overall, it’s been a great year for the studio, with lots of clients (I even got the chance to work with one of my favorite bands, Antimatter!) and specially lots of workshops and conferences, thanks to Adobe who has been trusting me all this time to be one of their speakers. Also we harvested what we did last year with Photoshop’s 25th Anniversary campaign, “Dream On”: We won a Pencil D&AD, Three Cannes Lions and an Emmy nomination. That’s something, actually!

But in the other hand, it’s been an exhausting year. I’ve had so much work that I’ve been trapped on the studio all day long and I hardly have had any time to invest on myself, and that’s paying off now. In fact, my plan for 2016 is to slow down this rythm for a big while. I really need some fresh air.

So, cheers for a great year and for a new one that has started in the best way possible. I hope to make a post as extensive as this one in 12 months!

Personal Artwork

This year I have not had much time to create personal work. I’ve been flooded with client commissions and I have had hardly any time to dedicate to my own visions. The highlight of this was the photo session I had with my friend Cristina Martín, from which I took most model shots I have been using this year. Other than that, one of my objectives of 2015 was to slowly stop using photography as the base of my work, as I was feeling that it was starting to put very heavy limits to my creativity. Therefore, most of my own time was invested in learning 3D and improving my painting skills, so most of my personal works from this time period are heavily painted or modeled (but it’s going to be more noticeable during this 2016, as all the works I have ready to finish or sketched are painting or 3D based).

Concept-wise, I’ve been aiming, more than ever, to capture moments with my work. I’ve been trying to capture these kind of turning points in the peak of certain sensations. Not like telling a whole story, like in my previous pieces, but more to convey a way of feeling abstract things, like raw emotion. Since I don’t know if I made myself clear with this statement, I hope this digital art compilation will 🙂

Medea

The New Generations

Shelter

Countdown

Pause

Tremors

Sometimes (2015)

Emperor of Nothing (2016)

Conscience

Turning Point

Client Work

What can I say? It was a fantastic year for me. I got the chance to work with one of my all-time favorite bands, I licensed a lot of illustrations and created several packagings for great musicians (although no books were commissioned in 2015, I had the chance to design a Theatrical Set and several Performance brandings and advertising ). As you can see, most work is heavily based in 3D and digital painting instead of raw photo. I also got to create several pieces for Adobe, which is always a milestone for a digital artist these days!

Antimatter – The Judas Table CD cover artwork

Reason to Rebel: This Gun is Human – Click to view Full Project

‘Prometheus’ set design – Click to view Full Project

Heonia: Portraits – Click to view Full Project

Penumbra – Era 4.0 CD cover artwork

Jay Arana: Gemini

Mickey Wilson – Press Start

Ambits: Ecstasy and Infinity

Gloomball: The Quiet Monster – Click to view Full Project

The reality of yourself – Two worlds CD cover artwork

Mass Sky Raid: Enemy

Vulnicura for Adobe Assets Lab – Click to view Full Project

Herbal Movement for Adobe Make It Layered – Click to view Full Project

Old pieces restoration

In 2015 I also took advantage of my from-time-to-time lack of inspiration to so something I had been waiting to do for quite some time: To restore some old pieces. I did a selection of artworks from 2006 to 2010 and did some corrections, mostly very subtle in color and lighting, restoring over and sub exposed areas, but in some cases the retouching had to be stronger and painting was involved, as I don’t have most of these old PSDs anymore. If by any chance you were planning to purchase a copy of these images, please get in touch with me first to check if the new versions are already on sale 🙂

Videos

Another thing I was interested in working with, was video. Since I didn’t commit myself to create much personal work, I invested that time in creating making ofs, animated versions of my artworks and creating video teasers of several performances (have I ever said that most of my friends are performers?). Here’s a brief selection. If you want to watch them all, head to my Youtube channel!

Events & Workshops

Without a doubt, the highlight of this year was the amount of masterclasses, conferences and workshops I had the pleasure to teach all over my homeland. They didn’t take me abroad but I had the chance to teach some on-line with Adobe for a wider audience all over the world. This is a side of my work that I’m actually enjoying very much, and slowly I’m taking my place in this field and a lot of new ones are coming in this 2016! 😀

Following, here’s a list of some of them. They may include videos of the sessions!

• “Illustrate yourself! Live from your art”: Bellafest. Faculty of Fine Arts. University of Murcia. March 2015.
• “How to be a Behance Star”: Adobe Creative Cloud on-line courses. May 2015.
• “Based on actual events”: Photoshop Rockstars. Callao City Lights, Madrid. June 2015.
• “Breathless Compositions on the go!” with Adobe and Microsoft. Brief Festival. La Casa Encendida, Madrid. October 2015. 
• “Make it Layered!”: Adobe Creative Cloud Masterclasses. November 2015. 

This has been my 2015! I cannot complain. 2016 is going to be a lighter year. In order to fill my mind with great ideas again, I’m going to need some adventure. I’m going to be traveling most part of the year. I want to be inspired by nature so I’ll be going from woods to jungles, from lakes to beaches, from towns to cities… I need to discover more of this world to be able to keep on telling these stories! But worry not, my friends! The studio will be opened for all your needs. I might be away but I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, so don’t hesitate in getting in touch with me to ask for commissions, workshops, ask for prints or just to say hello! 🙂

Happy 2016!