Portrait of Mariana

Hello folks, this is a quick portrait I did.
Vine charcoal, chalk and charcoal pencil on drawing paper.
Thanks for stopping by.

Figure Sketches

Hello folks, I just felt like posting something today.
These were from yesterday's Figure Drawing Class.
Prismacolor pencil on paper.
Thanks for stopping by.

Freelance Illustrations

Hello folks!
The illustrations above were developed for a Brazilian magazine called SuperInteressante. It was for their special edition, "Inside the Secret Societies".
The one with the guy holding the box is a one page, the other one is a 2 page spread. As you already know, the empty areas were reserved for text.
The illustrations are now property of Editora Novo Continente S/A.
Hope you guys enjoy'em.
I sure had fun painting them.
Thanks for stopping by.

Vehicle sketches

Hello! It's been a while since my last update and for that I apologize.
Things have been pretty wild lately. I've been doing a lot of freelance stuff and teaching a lot of classes. On top of that, my son is almost 2 years old and he wants me to stop whatever I'm doing to go play with him. It's fun but it leaves me no time to update the blog.
Anyways... These were done yesterday, I started off with abstract shapes using markers then sketched on top of the shapes with black pen trying to make some sense out of the silhouettes.
Those little light effects and some shading were added digitally.
Thanks for stopping by.

Atmospheric Perspective - line and value

What's up people?
This is a part of a handout I put together for my students.
It's about applying the principles of Atmospheric Perspective to the figure.
I wanted to show them how to increase the sense of depth in both line and value drawing.
Thanks for stopping by.

TV Doodles

I haven't had time to take any painting/drawing seriously these past days. I wanted to finish some of my WIPs but I've been so busy I couldn't get any personal work done.
Well, there's always pen and paper around.
And there's always television.
Put the two together and this is what you get.
Thanks for stopping by.

Gestures and Block-in

Hello folks, these sketches are part of a handout I put together for my students.
It's about the importance of starting the drawing with the line of action - capturing the gesture of the figure - and only then start detailing and blocking in the shadows. More often than not they start drawing the details too soon.
The handout itself is not this colorful. In this update I used different colors to set the figures and their drawing processes apart from one another.
Feedbacks are always welcome.
I hope you guys like it.
Thanks for stopping by.

Small Concept Study

Hello folks!
This is a quick demonstration I did for my students.
It's a small concept design piece.
I started off with different abstract shapes in several different layers, then I adjusted the blending modes, kinda merged them together (in Photoshop), and finally added the details and adjusted the colors.
Hope you guys enjoy it.
I think it turned out ok.
One of my students, Mauro Salgado, did an amazing job today in class (way better than mine, by the way). In order to check his work, just click on his name (highlighted above) or check the links section.
Way to go dude! I'm proud of you.
Thanks fellas for stopping by.

The Chimp - WIP

Hello folks, how are you doing today?
A lot of people ask me about the chimp. Why is your blog called "The Laughing Chimp"? Who is this chimp that you speak of?
Well, I like chimps - that's the answer to the first question.
And I specially like my Chimp, the one I can't get off my back. That's the one, the answer for the second question.
I was able to sneak in and get a quick glance of the Chimp in its natural environment.
It's a work in progress, I'll post the final version as soon as it's finished.
I just hope the Chimp will like it. That UZI on the table tells me he's lock and loaded.
Thanks for stopping by...

Little Red sketch

Hello. I'm thinking about painting this sketch digitally.
Pencil on paper (and a bit of Photoshop).
Thanks for stopping by.

Head step-by-step

Hello folks, this is a quick head drawing tutorial I put together for my students.
Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for stopping by.

Testosterone attack!

Hello folks. These are some sketches from a fighting championship DVD I was watching.
Sorry about the quality. The pages I used were bigger than my scanner's scanning area, so I had to take pictures and put them together in Photoshop.
Pencil on Bristol paper.
Thanks for stopping by.

Quick step-by-step

Hello folks! How are you doing?
As you can see I didn't have time to finish up that personal piece I was working on. I'll finish, I'll finish, I just don't know when... yet. But I'll post it as soon as I finish it.
In the meantime I wanted to update the blog.
This is a step-by-step I prepared for my students. I noticed that some of them were having difficulty to draw because they start drawing without measuring, without planning ahead, etc.
With this sketch I started with the overall gesture, then the block-in, adding details and correcting where necessary and last but not least adding the values. Pretty simple but still they find a way to complicate things.
Please keep in mind that this was done pretty quick, it's just a sketch. I had no intention to spend more than 20-25 min. with the whole thing.
Thanks for stopping by.

More Death Doodles

Hello folks, I was sketching these at work today and I thought it would be a good idea to post it and get a little feedback.
They're from my comic strip project.
Thanks for the support.

Work in Progress

Hello folks, how are you doing today?
I decided to post a personal piece I'm working on. Although I'm not a big fan of posting things in progress.
I mean, it's nice because one can see the artist's process, but in my case, my process is kinda messy. It's not very "pretty". I have a vague idea about what I want to show but my head keeps spinning until the last stages of the painting.
Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy the process.
As you can see on panel 1, I started with very loose strokes to define some shapes and I didn't care much about color at this point. I only knew I wanted something warm and - at this stage - I thought I wanted the spaceship to be the focal point.
On panel 2 you can see that I decided to shift the focal point of the picture. It went from the ship to the creatures fighting one of the things coming out of the ship. That happened because I decided to work on the foreground and a thought came to mind. Damn you "What if..."! Also I defined the background a little more and worked a little on the main mountain and the ground.
On panel 3 I tried to vary the shape of the foreground monster-thingy because I still didn't know what I wanted exactly for the creature at this point. I added some bigger figures on the foreground, changed the shape of the ship, defined the mountains on the background and messed up the main mountain on the middle-ground.
On panel 4 I defined (better yet, fixed) the main mountain and I'm still not sure about the shape of the ship. Maybe I'll turn it into a more organic form, following the same 'style' as the worm-like creatures (which I now like, except for the spikes, I'm thinking about getting rid of them altogether). Then I defined some of the figures interacting with the creature and decided to vary the size of the bigger figures on the foreground, they felt too symmetrical before. I Also made the sky on the left side lighter because I want the focal point to be the struggle between the figures and the creature. Later I'll add some more layers of atmospheric perspective to knock back the ship and the mountain a little, they feel like they're getting too much attention at this point. I'll also introduce some tiny figures fighting the small creature on the right side of the picture. Oh, yeah, nevermind the colors, I'll be tweaking them towards the end. That'll be fun.
I'll be posting some more panels of this work in progress throughout the week and hopefully I'll finish it up by the weekend.
Thanks for stopping by.

Once you're out of the zone... There's no turning back

This is a quick digital sketch done in Photoshop.
I was trying to get out of my Safe Zone, experimenting with new brushes, textures, and even drawing/painting style.
I was getting tired of the same old stuff. I felt the need to be bold.
It's not that great but it was quick and free. I kinda like the way it turned out.
It's fun to experiment.
See ya next update.

Fooling around with Pastels

Hey folks, these are some quick sketches done with hard pastel sticks.
I asked my students to start to work with color in order to loosen up a little.
But first I had to tell them how I wanted it to be done, and I had to do some sketches to show them one of the many possible ways to go from there.
Hope you enjoy them (although they're kinda rough, very very sketchy).
Thanks for stopping by and for your support.

Girl - In progress

Hello folks, tough day today, just got back from work.
This painting is an in-class demonstration I did for my students.
I tried to show them my process step-by-step. Photoshop on this one.
Hope you guys enjoy it. See ya next update.

More from the sketchbook

Hello folks, this is another page from my sketchbook.
The old man was (badly) painted on Photoshop. I had some ideas regarding the Death character sketched here. If everything turns out ok, I'll start uploading some cartoon strips with Death as the main character. I've been having some weird ideas. Weird but fun. I mean Fun in a very dry, sarcastic way. Just wait and see.
Thanks for stopping by.

Angry Old Lady

I had a few beers this afternoon.
I decided to sketch.
Well, there you go.
See you next update.

Gesture sketches

More sketches done with Prismacolor pencil on paper.
Thanks for stopping by.

Feet, feet and some more feet

Some feet sketches.
Prismacolor Pencil on paper.
Thanks for stopping by.

Atmospheric Perspective Sketch

Hey folks, how are you doing?
Just playing around with atmospheric perspective principles.
This may not be one of my my best sketches but I think I was able to achieve my goal. To create the illusion of depth.
Hi-tech pen on toned sketchbook.
Thanks for stopping by.

Hand Gestures

These are some quick sketches (about 30 seconds each) done with Prismacolor pencil on paper.
Gotta work on those gestures from time to time...
Thanks for stopping by.

More from yesterday...

This head sketch was done in 15 minutes.
Vine charcoal, charcoal pencil and white chalk on this one.
Thanks for stopping by.

Hooray! An update!!!

Hey folks how are you doing?
It's been a while since the last update but things are pretty hectic around here.
Anyways, these are some 2 to 3 min. sketches from yesterday.
I tried to use the side of the charcoal in order to get away from the lines. Lines are fun but sometimes it's nice to approach the sketches like a painting.
The line sketch on the right (the one with the model lying down) took me about 5 minutes.
Hope you guys enjoy them.

More Sketches from life

Hey what's up, man? 2 in a row? Yes, I know...
These were done yesterday, they're quick sketches (about 5 min. each).
Charcoal, white chalk and Prismacolor pencil on toned paper.
Hope you guys enjoy' em.
Thanks for stopping by.

Figure Sketch

Hello folks! It's been a long time since my last update. Busy, busy, busy...
I felt I needed to post something. This isn't one of my best sketches but it's an update nonetheless.
This sketch was done in about 7 minutes, from life.
Thanks for stopping by.

Magazine Illustration

Hello folks, I know it's been a while but things have got pretty hectic around here.
This is one of 5 illustrations I developed for a Brazilian magazine called "Voce S/A".
Hope you guys enjoy it.
Thanks for stopping by.

It's been a while...

Hello folks, thanks for your patience.
It's been a while since I last updated the blog, thankfully my life's been busy. Being a dad, teaching in 2 places, doing freelance stuff, etc.
This is a charcoal drawing done from a photograph. Just to shake the rust off, you know? It took me about 35 minutes.
Thanks for stopping by.

PS - I updated the links, there's some new stuff worth checking out.