andres vera martinez-cartooning and illustration

LITTLE WHITE DUCK PREVIEW

2011-05-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Making slow progress on my new graphic novel. The release date has been pushed back to Spring of 2012. This allows me more time to obsess over the art making process.

Below are a few pages in no particular order. I'm 40 pages into the art. Only 80 more to go!

POOD 2 & 3

2011-05-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've contributed a couple of more pages to the over-sized newspaper comic anthology called POOD.

BUYING A COPY OF BREUCKELEN 1679:

2011-05-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

It was a small print run but if you are in New York City you can find my book for sale at:

Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201-2711 (718) 222-4111 ‎ brooklynhistory.org

BRIC Rotunda Gallery
33 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201-2706 (718) 683-5604 ‎ bricartsmedia.org

Bergen Street Comics
470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217-2437 (718) 230-5600 ‎ bergenstreetcomics.com

Comic Book Jones
2220 Forest Ave, Staten Island, New York 10303 (718) 448-1234 ‎ comicbookjones.com

If it sells out then you can forever see a copy at the Brooklyn Historical Society Collections Room along with some original pages!

BREUCKELEN 1679

2011-05-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of catching up to do. It's been six months since my last post. I finished a comic book since then. It was funded by a grant from the Brooklyn Historical Society. I adapted a 17th century Dutch journal from their collection. Jasper Dankeart's came to Brooklyn many years ago looking to buy land from colonists or natives. He was very thorough in describing what Brooklyn was like at the time. I took a short excerpt from his 300 page journal and made a comic for the Historical Society and Museum.

Everyone I worked with on the project was great. There was a gallery show to showcase the art that I made along with other artists who interpreted the Museum's collection.

I also was invited to talk and give a lecture about the book to a group of Jr. high school kids. It was all a great experience!

NEW PROJECT

2010-10-29T21:33:00.001-07:00

New project in development. I can't give details, but if it sticks it could be big!

FIRST SIGNING AT FORBIDDEN PLANET!

2010-10-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Good turn out and was tons of fun. I even did sketches for some folks! Great time!

3x3 MAGAZINE GOLD METAL

2010-10-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

I got some great news while I was on China. I was given a GOLD METAL award for my Little White Duck promo images! The preliminary package I made to get the book published has been getting a lot of good exposure and now a gold metal. I'm pretty excited and a little more pressed to make the actual book meet the building expectation. wish me luck and thanks to judges who voted and to 3x3 Magazine!

POOD No.1

2010-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

I was invited to be in a great project last spring. POOD is a super-sized comic anthology that kicks butt. It premiered at MoCCA in April and all the artists involved are very happy with the final product. It got great reviews and hit comic shelves one month later in May. If you haven't gotten your hands on one please do. You won't be disappointed. Issue two should be out in the next month or so, LOOK OUT! Check out some of the reviews HERE, HERE , HERE and the official blog HERE.
Here's me signing at MoCCA! -first time!

Here's my page

andres vera martinez

LECTURE AT TRINITY COLLEGE

2010-10-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

I was invited along with two other cartoonist to give a lecture on comics this past March. The event was put together by N.C. Coach. Here's the info from the press release: Trinity College welcomes three comic strip artists who will honor the late Will Eisner, America’s most influential comic artist. Jerry Craft, Joe T. Staton, and Andres Vera Martinez will discuss Eisner’s legacy as well as their own work at an event entitled "From Comic Strips to Comic Books to Graphic Novels." The event, sponsored by the Departments of American Studies and English at Trinity, is free and open to the public.

The turn out was great and it was a pleasure meeting and getting to know Jerry Craft and Joe T. Staten!

COMPLEX MAGAZINE

2010-10-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to do some work for Complex Magazine. I have always wanted to do some type of illustration for a men's fashion magazine and I got my chance for three straight months. I was asked to illustrate good vs bad fashion ideas. It was fun. Fortunately, it wasn't up to me to decide what is good fashion. Below are the drawings I sent in for each issue. They placed them into a page, added text and what not, but see if you can decide what is good and what is bad.

SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS

2010-07-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

The pages I did to pitch my book Little White Duck got some recognition in the sequential category! Once again I was in great company for the show. Rich Tu, a fellow Alumni of SVA MFA Illustration took this photo for me since I forgot my camera. Thanks Rich! Rich is doing some great work. you can check it out here. http://richtu.com/
andres vera martinez

NEW COMIC ANTHOLOGY: SUPERTALK

2010-02-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was invited to contribute to a new comic anthology:SUPERTALK. This gave me the opportunity to make my first memoir type comic. It's just two pages but It really packs a punch, or not! I spent five wonderful, action-packed years in Chi-Town attending The School of the Art Institute. I was very young and was introduced to the world of fine art at a very impressionable age. I'm happy to be making comics now that I'm old and stubborn.

DEXTER COMIC FUN!

2010-02-16T19:48:00.000-08:00

Being a cartoonist, I was encouraged by the directors of Dexter Early Cuts to approach the images for animation as comic panels, so after the job was done I couldn't help myself. I had to make comic pages out of the art.

Below are a few of the pages and a cover. You can see the complete comic at my website comic gallery.

ENJOY!

DEXTER EARLY CUTS: ONLINE

2010-02-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

The animation is complete. You can see it above or also at the main website here http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/earlycuts/home.do I made a total of 101 drawings to be animated and learned a hell of a lot from this job. I think the best think that came out of it, other than getting the opportunity to work on something related to such a cool show, was I worked out a new style specifically for this project - Lots of photo reference, a particular line quality, and color palette. All this has already served me well as I've moved on to new projects.

Working on Dexter was a lot of fun and also a challenge. Considering my work went through lots of hands- animators, directors, producers and finally Showtime, it changed quite a bit from the original art to the final animation. It was great to see some of the scenes exactly like I imagined and others didn't really hit the mark. Overall, it was a very good experience. It was great to be working on the same project as Kyle Baker and Showtime did me right by not only giving me an awesome project, but also the people I worked with were really nice. The interview was awesome and they even sent me all the season DVD's in the mail!

DEEP COVER

2009-11-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

My wife took some behind the scenes photos of the Behind The Scenes: Dexter Early Cuts interview.

You gotta like that lost look I have on my face.

DEXTER EARLY CUTS: BEHIND THE SCENES

2009-11-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

This is my first post of the Dexter project. I've been working on it since July. The first chapter went online last week, but before I was even close to being finished with the illustrations Showtime actually came to my house/studio and interviewed me about working on the project. I was a bit nervous, knowing that the behind the scenes was going to air multiple times on Showtime, but after watching it way too many times again and again you just come to terms with how goofy you look on TV. Also pleas don't pay attention to what I was rambling about. It doesn't make any sense. Overall, it was a really good experience. It was nice to see my workspace and other artwork on camera.

FIST OF DRACULA PAGE TWO AND THREE

2009-08-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Moving Along!

CHILDHOOD STORIES AND DRACULA

2009-07-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

I've been busy developing a couple of projects, one of my own and the other a collaboration with writer Vito Delsante.

You can see ten pages of this comic newly posted on my website.

Little White Duck came about after my wife and I had our first child. I enjoy my wife’s childhood stories so much that I wanted to pass them on, not only to my daughter, but also to anyone interested in getting to know what China was like in the seventies. On the surface, her stories are about getting to know her relatives, her mother and herself. Upon further inspection you can experience through her formative years a China that is transforming from its once unyielding communistic ideals to a new China that is in the world spotlight and changing even more rapidly everyday.

Now for something totally different ...

Dracula and Mobsters in New York during the 1930's!
Lots of fun. Below are sketches of the characters and the first page of the story which introduces the main character Vogel.

BROOKLYN

2009-07-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while. The Brooklyn Graphic Novel has been stalled due to the grant money being put on hold. The good news is that the NEA might come through with some mula for the Brooklyn Historical Society. This means Brooklyn might see print in 2010!

It's been a good challenge putting this book together and it's still a long way from done, but here's some art.

BOOK SIGNING

2009-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Vito and I will be signing our Babe graphic novel at Books of Wonder this coming weekend!
Saturday noon - 2pm. Click on the Books of Wonder links for the complete details.

BOOK SIGNING AT THE NEW YORK COMIC-CON

2009-01-29T17:28:00.000-08:00

Join me and author, Vito Delsante, for the debut of our new graphic novel, Before They Were Famous: Babe Ruth. The signing will be on Sunday, February 8th from 1:30-2:30 pm at the NEW YORK COMIC-CON, SIMON & SCHUSTER Booth #1402.

Sunday is also designated as KID'S DAY at the Comic-Con so bring the kiddies for this fun filled day and make sure to pick up a signed copy of Babe Ruth!

The New York Comic-Con will take place from February 6th-8th at the Jacob Javits Center 655 West 34th Street New York, NY

SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS 51: SEQUENTIAL SHOW

2009-01-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

My family and I had a great time at the exhibit reception. This was my first time to be represented in the annual and I am very happy and honored that my work was chosen. It was very exciting and humbling to know that my work was receiving recognition along side some of my favorite illustrators and cartoonists. I met cartoonist Peter Kuper.

And also the superbly talented Yuko Shimizu, Ai Tatebayashi and Sara Varon.

I was one of the few artists to show their original art. However, one of my favorites pieces in the exhibit looked to be a print at first, but I later found out that it was, in fact, painted to perfection by the incredible Paolo Rivera. You can see his amazing work for Marvel Comics here.

SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS 51

2008-12-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

I got the great news last week that my short comic Long, Long, Long was chosen for this years Society of Illustrators Annual! It was originally published in the comic anthology Rabid Rabbit no.8

andres vera martinez

SCHOLASTIC

2008-12-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

Well I've been holding off to post some new work that I did for Scholastic.
It's been two months. They didn't want me to post the work up too early since it has to do with there 39 Clues books. This job was a lot of fun. The subject was Nikola Tesla.

AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION 27

2008-12-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

]I'm happy to announce that the title page to one of my Tejano Ghost Stories was accepted to the American Illustration Annual this year. This annual showcases the best artists in the business and it's very exciting to have been chosen.
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MORE RABID RABBIT

2008-11-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

Below is my submission for the latest Rabid Rabbit. It hit your local comic stores on Halloween. The theme is HORROR, of course. I experimented with a little more commercial, dramatic take on my Tejano Ghost Stories. The anthology took an EC COMICS theme to be more exact, so I thought adding a little flare was called for.

Enjoy the 2-pager below. Click to enlarge.

THAT'S A WRAP!

2008-11-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

Hey, It's been a while. I was chained to my drawing table the last few months trying to make a very tight deadline on Babe Ruth. I DID IT! I'm happy, editors are very happy, agent is happy, and my family is happy. Everybody is happy, happy! Yeah!

The book should be out in early February. Hopefully in time for the New York comic-con. I think Simon & Schuster (the publisher) might organize a signing for the the writer, Vito Delsante, and I to do at their booth.

Below are some of the pages. Click to get a better view.

CHARACTER SKETCHES

2008-08-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Following the advice of my all time favorite cartoonist, I've made character sketches for all the main characters in the story. Below is the Big Bambino through the years. I'll post more of his family, his friends, and the Brothers a little later.

NEW BABE PAGES !

2008-08-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

The march is on! I'm almost to page 50. Here are some of the highlights. The pages I'm posting are in chronological order, however, I'm skipping around. If you want to read the story you'll have to wait until late February, when it hits book stores.

COVER DESIGN

2008-05-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

I've been working closely with an art director at Simon & Schuster to get the Babe cover out. The book is part of a young adult comic series so the design had to conform to the previous book. Despite having to conform to a template, I've been able to maintain a great collaborative relationship with the art director who happens to be the designer as well. I think the cover turned out great!

RABID RABBIT NO.8

2008-04-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

I was asked to contribute to the Rabbid Rabbit comic anthology no.8. This is a great publication of collected comics. The theme was lots of fun. They asked 30 comic artists to illustrate the 30 songs off the The Beatles White Album! Rabbid Rabbit no.8 will be on sale soon! Here’s a link of where you can buy this unique book. www.rabidrabbit.org

Below is a preview. This was my interpretation of George Harrison’s song, Long, Long, Long.

Here's a sketch of the first page

BIG NEWS

2008-04-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

My agent found me some steady work. I’ll be illustrating a 120 page graphic novel for Simon & Schuster about Babe Ruth. The script is pretty good. It’s a comic for young adults, so it focuses on Ruth as a kid growing up in Baltimore. It’ll be a lot of fun since I like drawing old cars and buildings.

I already started working on the cover. it was just approved today. Here are some of the sketches, inks, and final color.

FAVORITE MOVIES

2008-03-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

An editor at The New Yorker Magazine asked me to give him some samples of celebrity likenesses in order to assign a particular job. I picked a few of my favorites movies to illustrate. I then realized that i have yet to depict a female actress. The editor did say that if I can draw Jenifer Aniston the job would be in the bag. Not being a big fan of Jenifer, I think I'll stick with Scarlet Johansen in Ghost World.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Training Day

Successful Collaboration

2008-01-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

Owen Brozman at www.owenbrozman.com did some fine inking on this Doctor Strange drawing I did a while back. I just put the finishing color touches on it.

Look forward to seeing more Marvel Heroes. I am having a blast drawing them in my spare time.

2 MORE POSTCARDS

2007-12-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

A couple of more postcards this week. The first is of a character I'm developing for my graphic novel. This is a scene i have planned where he battles a lechusa in Matamoros, Mexico

The next image is just for fun. I guess my version of a B-horror movie poster.

Tejano Ghost Stories in Color

2007-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Trying out some color on the title page of one of my usual black and white comics.

Postcards

2007-12-06T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm in an art-card correspondence with some of my old grad school classmates. They have been diligent in sending me cards consistently. Me on the other hand ...

However, they are in for a dark treat this Xmas. Take a look at some of the cards I'm working on. Are they in the holiday spirit? not necessarily, but they were sure fun to draw.

The first card is from the opening chapter of my favorite book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It shows Colonial Buenda facing the firing squad.

The next image is of an exorcism. It's based loosely on a Posada engraving. I found a great site of Posada's work on line, if anyone is interested, http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/posada/

Last one is Dr. Strange from Marvel Comics. He's one of my favorite heroes. I'm sending this drawing to a friend who requested some work of mine to ink over. He's interested in being an inker in the mainstream comics biz and wants to try inking over someone else's work. Owen is really talented, I'm sure he will improve on my drawing ten fold. I'm looking forward to seeing it. You can see Owen's fine work at
http://www.owenbrozman.com

2007-12-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Got it. Here's the colored version.

2007-12-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

WELCOME!

Hello world,

I'm calling this a journal because as much as I wanted a sketchbook blog, I think ultimately I want some documentation of my work and process. I hope to chime in every now and then to not only post some new drawings but also talk about how things are moving along in general.

For those that have visited my old sight, ya'll will notice some major changes. I put in some long hours this weekend doing some revamping and updates.

The newest stuff in my site is the Mexican Movie Directors Series (that's a mouth full). I couldn't come up with anything else. Anyway, I've had these drawings done for two months now. I've finally gotten around to coloring them.

Since this is the first post in my journal. I guess it's a good opportunity to show how I go about making an illustration

STEP 1: The Sketch

My thumbnails are fairly small. I usually get some reference photos at this point before i enlarge the sketch to define the drawing. I ink over my drawings so this leads to ...

STEP 3: Inking

Here is where I should say hello to Klaus Janson, veteran cartoonist and all around great guy. Klaus took me to school in cartooning. He actually was my adviser for grad school. Watching him ink for a couple of hours was worth more learning than a whole year of classes.

Next...

STEP 3: Coloring

Well, I'm having some trouble posting color files. I guess you can just go to my website to see the final.

Hope to figure it out soon ...