The Art of Carla Rodrigues

Looking back on 2011

2012-01-04T22:00:00.005Z

I noticed that some awesome artists I really admire (Evan "Doc" Shaner, Dean Trippe and Mike Maihack) updated their tumblrs/websites recently with a look back at some of the art they produced on 2011. It's an awesome idea, so here's a little montage with some of the pieces I did on 2011. Enjoy!

MVT'S Absurd Auditorium

2011-12-28T20:24:00.005Z

I had the pleasure of collaborating with my friend Magnus von Tesla on a brand new 2 page comic! Magnus wrote the script, I then pencilled, ink and colored the comic, and then it went back to Magnus, who worked his lettering magic. Here it is for you to see - a reflexion on the song "Every Breath you Take" (aka The Stalker Song). Enjoy!

Don't forget to fullview. Hope you enjoy this!

A Garagem de Kubrick 35

2011-12-13T21:51:00.003Z

Here's a page from the webcomic I draw, A Garagem de Kubrick (Kubrick's Garage), I didn't post before. I got it all nice and translated for you, so I hope you enjoy!

Come join us on facebook!

A Garagem de Kubrick Total Film 3

2011-11-29T21:50:00.003Z

Here is the third installment of A Garagem de Kubrick created for Total Film, originally published on Total Film Portugal number 5. I apologize for the lack of translation, but basically what we mean is: the Smurfs movie probably sucked and is destined to be shown on tv for many Sunday afternoons to come. Hope you like this!

Tintin

2011-11-22T19:41:00.002Z

You guys might recall the double dose of Attack the Block drawings me and Mike Horowitz gave you a couple of months ago - we both had unfinished sketches and we made a deal that we’d both finish and post our drawings. That was a lot of fun, so we decided to repeat the experience.

This time, Mike suggested we drew something from Tintin. I loved the idea, because I read pretty much all the Tintin comics when I was a kid, and they’re still an important part of my comic references. The Shooting Star was one of my favorite Tintin comics and I thought it’d be cool to recreate a moment from the book. This is the result.

Check out Mike’s Tumblr to see his awesome drawing! Hope you enjoy this new double dose of Carla/Mike drawings, it was a lot of fun.

Drive

2011-11-16T11:09:00.002Z

Last weekend I got to see Drive. It was awesome, so here's a Drive-related drawing for you.

Enjoy!

Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy

2011-11-14T19:58:00.004Z

Last week, I finally got to buy the second volume of the adventures of two portuguese comic book heroes, Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy. To put you up to speed, Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy are the main characters of what's probably the most popular portuguese comic these days, and they're a creation of my hyper-talented friend Filipe Melo. Filipe worked with the awesome Juan Cavia and Santiago Villa to bring these characters to life in some of the funniest comic adventures you'll ever read. They're so much fun that I made this drawing for Filipe and the team.

The second volume - "The Extraordinary Adventures of Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy II - Apocalipse"- was just published in Portugal, but fear not - if you want to get to know these guys, pick up Dark Horse Presents #4, 5 and 6, and there you'll find a new Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy adventure.

Enjoy!

A Garagem de Kubrick no P3

2011-11-03T19:53:00.003Z

I hope my english-speaking followers will forgive me, but this entry will be written in portuguese!

Ora bem, hoje é mais um daqueles dias a destacar na história do webcomic que eu e o J.B. Martins fazemos com muito gosto, A Garagem de Kubrick. Isto porque o nosso webcomic teve direito a ver um artigo totalmente dedicado a ele no P3.

Fazendo minhas as palavras do J.B.: "Se querem saber porque é que a Garagem de Kubrick se chama assim e quantos morcegos fomos obrigados a degolar com os dentes só para pintar a primeira edição, cliquem aqui."

Happy Halloween

2011-10-28T17:45:00.004+01:00

Since it's almost Halloween, here are a couple of Halloween related pieces for you:

I drew this simple Nosferatu for Monster Month! I was planning on doing a bunch more drawings, but I just realized we’re nearing the end of October and I won’t have time to draw more Monster Month submissions. Bummer. If so, I hope you liked this one. You can check it out over at Monster Month.

In addition to this, Chris Haley drew a pretty kick ass black and white set of Halloween-related characters and made them available for people to color. The drawings were too much fun and I couldn’t resist, so here’s Chris Haley’s young mummy dressed up as frankenstein with my colors on it.

Make sure you check out the other drawings over at Chris’ Tumblr, and make sure you check out the webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again. It’s pretty much my favorite webcomic.

Have a happy and safe Halloween, you guys!

Jamie Lannister

2011-10-26T20:04:00.004+01:00

Last week, I quickly wipped up this Jamie Lannister drawing to go with the previous ones I did of Jon Snow and Ned Stark. I'm planning to draw some more characters, I think it'd be fun to have a whole set of these drawings. We'll see how that goes. For now, hope you enjoy this new one!

A Garagem de Kubrick - So long, partner.

2011-10-17T21:05:00.002+01:00

On the most recent page of our webcomic, A Garagem de Kubrick (or, in english, Kubrick’s Garage), me and J.B. Martins (my friend and writer of said webcomic) decided to pay a little homage to Steve Jobs. I translated the page for you guys, so go ahead and check it out.

Fido

2011-10-10T20:08:00.003+01:00

Here’s something new for you. A few months ago, Matt Mogk - author and creator of the Zombie Research Society - invited me to do an illustration for his upcoming book. The illustration should be of a famous zombie from film history. This is exactly my cup of tea, so even though I didn’t have much time for drawing, I managed to create this black and white simple drawing of Fido, the zombie.

Matt Mogk’s book - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies - is now out and you can get it through Amazon, Book Depository and all that. It features my ilustration and many others by some awesome artists, so make sure you buy it!

Plus, you know, zombies. Matt Mogk is pretty much an authority on the subject, so I’m sure you’re gonna want to have this book by your side when the plague of the undead hits.

EDIT - I now have the book in my hands, and I can't wait to read it. Here's the published Fido:

The Rocketeer

2011-10-04T00:14:00.004+01:00

Can you believe I had never watched this movie? Shame on me, I know. All is right with the world now, though. I drew this as a gift for Pedro, because he's awesome and he introduced me to The Rocketeer!

Capitão Falcão

2011-09-22T00:21:00.003+01:00

I got home pretty tired from work today, so I decided to draw something fun to clear my head. I chose to draw something inspired by the adventures of Capitão Falcão (Captain Falcon, in english), a fictional portuguese hero a la Green Hornet that will be the main character on a new comedy tv show. I thought the “old comic” look would fit the characters, so I went with it.
If you want to check out the trailer for Capitão Falcão, just head over here.

Attack the Block

2011-09-19T21:46:00.002+01:00

Here's a new piece, based on the cool new sci-fi movie by Joe Cornish, Attack the Block. Enjoy, and see this movie! It's a lot of fun. Believe!

Freakazoid

2011-09-13T20:02:00.004+01:00

I now have a Tumblr account. Yes, I caved in, and I guess I'm one of the cool kids now. I'm still trying to get the general hang of the place, but so far it's nice. I like it. I did this super quick drawing of Freakazoid to post there, so now it's time to post it here. Enjoy!

And if you want to visit my tumblr, just click here.

Captain America

2011-09-06T22:29:00.002+01:00

I really dug the Captain America movie. It's another one of those cases where I didn't mind the character much before the movie, but the movie really sold me on them (happened to me before with Thor). It didn't reinvent the super hero genre, but it was compelling, exciting and entertaining, and that's more than you get from most summer blockbusters these days. I really liked his costume. Actually I just saw some photos from The Avengers movie and I have to say I'm kind of disappointed with the new costume, it looks pretty cheesy... Anyway, I had a couple of free minutes to draw the Cap, so here he is. I'll try to draw something more ellaborate in the future.

Ned Stark

2011-08-31T19:54:00.003+01:00

Man, A Song of Ice and Fire is so addicting. I finished a Clash of Kings a week ago, ordered A Storm of Swords, but that damn book is taking its sweet time to get to my house, so I've been listening to podcasts to quench my thirst of the saga. I haven't been drawing much ever since I got back from my vacations (nothing I can show yet, at least), but, since we're on the subject of Game of Thrones, I'll leave you with this simple drawing of Ned Stark I did a few weeks ago.

Hope you dig it!

Scarlet Spider

2011-08-10T19:33:00.003+01:00

I've always been a huge fan of Spiderman, and back in the 90s, don't ask me why, I actually dug the Clone Saga, and Ben Reilly - the Scarlet Spider - was one of my favorite characters. His costume his so 90s - just notice the little pouches on his ankles - but I still kind of like it anyway. Today I took a little time off to draw him. Enjoy a little experiment and the full colored version below.

Sloth

2011-08-09T21:42:00.005+01:00

Here's my contribution, once again, to Hungry for Lines. This time, the theme was Sloth. I drew this with a mechanical pencil on 250g Bristol Board paper, then inked it with 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 pens.

The color was done digitally. Hope you enjoy it!

Don't forget to visit Hungry for Lines!

A Garagem de Kubrick Total Film 2

2011-08-09T14:44:00.003+01:00

Here is the second installment of A Garagem de Kubrick created for Total Film, originally published on Total Film Portugal number 4. Can you believe the first Harry Potter movie came out on 2001?!

Don't forget to keep up with us on Facebook!

Jon Snow

2011-08-04T00:46:00.002+01:00

Is it possible to not be addicted to A Game of Thrones? The show's first season was fantastic, the book is even better, and the saga is just getting more interesting the more I read. I fear for my wallet, because I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stop reading these things at least until I catch up - I'm only reading A Clash of Kings, so I'm sort of a newcomer to the Song and Ice Fire bandwagon. Anyway, here's a simple doodle done just before going to bed. It's Jon Snow, one of my favorite characters. Hope you enjoy it!

Snape and Harry

2011-07-22T17:05:00.005+01:00

In case you guys didn't know, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I started reading the books when they first started getting published in Portugal, and the whole Potter world became a big part of my imagination. Even now, as a grown adult, the series is still a big part of me, even if there will be no more Harry Potter books or movies. Last weekend I went to the movies to check out Deathly Hallows: Part 2. I really liked it - obviously, as a fan, I have a tendency to nitpick, but I think it was a really good wrap-up for the series. Snape pretty much stole the show, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen the movie or read the book yet. Since he was so awesome, I felt like drawing something with Snape and Harry, and I decided to represent a scene that used to be typical at Hogwarts. Hope you enjoy it!

As a little treat, here's a progress shot of this particular piece: first lines only, then the flats, and finally the finished drawing.

A Garagem de Kubrick Total Film 1

2011-07-15T19:57:00.003+01:00

I don't think I've kept you guys up to date regarding some recent developments, but finally, today, I'll spill the beans. Since last month, the comic "Garagem de Kubrick" that I keep with my friend J.B. Martins (he writes, I draw) started getting published in the portuguese version of the famous movie magazine Total Film. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty awesome. We're doing brand new pages for the magazine, so all we publish is new material. To prove that, here's the first page we created for Total Film Portugal. Sorry for the lack of translation in the header, but yeah, it's self-explanatory. Hope you enjoy this!

Don't forget to keep up with us on Facebook!

Bob's Burguers

2011-06-27T22:08:00.003+01:00

Me and my boyfriend recently started watching two new tv shows: Game of Thrones and Bob's Burgers. It's a great ballance, really: Game of Thrones is intense and dark, and Bob's Burgers is extremely funny, and it really feels good to laugh a bit after watching some Lannisters prance around the screen for a while (grrr Lannisters suck!). Since I like Bob's Burgers so much, I had to try my hand at drawing the family, so I did. I came up with this extremely simple drawing while I had a day off from work and decided it was a good idea to practice my digital drawing skills (sadly underdeveloped so far). I hope you enjoy it, and trust me, check out Bob's Burgers!

What about fan art for Game of Thrones, you ask? Maybe soon you'll see some. Check out Game of Thrones too, while you're at it. Fantastic show and even better book series.

Thor

2011-06-21T23:33:00.002+01:00

I've been wanting to draw Thor ever since I saw the movie a few weeks ago. I thought it was a really fun summer blockbuster, and it kind of made me curious about the character. I never really cared much for Thor before, but suddendly he won me over. I even read Thor: The Mighty Avenger, a comic series that was, I can now say, very unfairly cancelled, so I was just waiting for that precious little bit of free time to doodle Thor. I had the chance to do so today, so here's the result. It's just a very simple drawing, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. More drawings will be here soon, I promise!

Mad Scientist

2011-06-08T20:34:00.008+01:00

My newest contribution to Hungry for Lines was an interpretation of the theme "Mad Scientist". Here I give you not one, but two versions of this drawing: the inked version and the colored version.

I drew this with a mechanical pencil, inked it with a mix of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 pens, as well as a brush pen. I hope you dig it!

Myth - The 7th Labor

2011-05-30T18:07:00.005+01:00

Last week's theme over at the Hungry for Lines website was "Myth". When I started thinking about the theme “Myth”, I immediately thought of greek mythology, and how it’s so richly populated by epic stories and characters we all, in some way or another, are familiar with. So I decided to dive into the rich well of greek mythology and draw something from it. After thinking about it, I decided to draw one of the labors of Heracles, and I ended up choosing the 7th labor, in which King Eurystheus ordered Heracles to capture the Cretan Bull. I hope you enjoy this light-hearted aproach to the 7th Labor of Heracles!

I drew this with a mechanical pencil, inked it with a mix of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 pens, as well as a brush pen. The color was done digitally, and I added a texture from this website.

Link - Dominion Rod

2011-05-27T23:12:00.003+01:00

An artist friend from Deviantart, Felo, invited me to be a part of a mega Zelda collab he was putting together. The idea was to pick one of the several items from the Zelda games and draw Link with it. I ended up getting the Dominion Rod, so here it is! It's a simple drawing, but I hoe you enjoy it.

Fnac + drawing process video

2011-05-25T20:01:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I had the chance to join a few of my artist friends for a small FNAC pannel dedicated to the most recent Zona publications. I talked a little bit about my work process, and in the end I played a small time lapse video, in which I drew, pencils-to-inks, a simple illustration of Alfaiate Martins, the villain from the comic I just finished posting here ("Empregado precisa-se"). I'll leave you with a couple of photos and then the video. I hope you dig it!

"Empregado precisa-se" - page 3

2011-05-23T22:25:00.003+01:00

This is it, the last and final page of the short comic I created with J. B. Martins: "Empregado precisa-se". I think this is my favorite page of this particular comic, although the story doesn't end well for our young job seeker... maybe his tale of misfortune will be useful to warn others. Enjoy!

This comic was published on Zona Negra 2. You can buy it here.

"Empregado precisa-se" - page 2

2011-05-18T14:26:00.004+01:00

As promised, here is the 2nd page of mine and J.B. Martins' comic "Empregado Precisa-se" (could be loosely translated into "Help Wanted"). In this page, our young job seeker faces what no one ever wants to face when looking for a job: a mad hunchback lab-assistent with a blood stained apron. What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out!

This comic was published in the comic anthology Zona Negra 2, and you can order it here.

"Empregado precisa-se" - page 1

2011-05-11T22:22:00.000+01:00

Well, Zona Negra II has been out for a few months (I posted a teaser back in November here) and I think it's safe to say it's okay to show the short comic I worked on for it, together with my friend J. B. Martins, who wrote it. I haven't been able to show the newest things I've been working on, but I was pretty happy with how this particular comic came out, so I proudly present the first page from "Empregado Precisa-se". The story starts when a young man arrives at the Tailor Martins' shop, after reading about a job offer. I apologize for the lack of translation, but I think the rest is pretty self explanatory. Don't forget to full view, and enjoy!

I'll be posting the other pages during the next few days.

Ride

2011-05-05T21:22:00.002+01:00

Finally, some new drawings, right? And it's a new drawing, and also some cool news: I am the newest member of the Hungry for Lines collective, an art collective that, every two weeks, creates work related to a specific theme. I'm really happy to be a part of it, because it will not only give me a chance to practice and improve, but also because some of my current favorite portuguese artists are members of Hungry for Lines, so I can't help but be proud to be a part of it too. This week's theme is Ride, so here's what I drew for it:

I invite all of you guys to check out the website: hungryforlines.com and have fun browsing through the artwork. I promise it's all awesome!

Monstra and Anigamix con

2011-04-28T21:45:00.006+01:00

During the month of April, the new issue of Zona - Zona Monstra - was released on a couple of events: on Monstra, the Lisbon Animation Festival, and on Anigamix, a con dedicated to anime, comics, video games, and a lot more. I was in both events, drawing and signing, so check out a few photos before I post some new artwork!

Here's the Zona pannel during the Monstra presentation: Joana Afonso, Miguel Peres, André Oliveira and Fil.

Here I am, drawing a...

...zombie, what else!

Here's my a page of my work, next to Pedro Carvalho's, on Anigamix.

Zona won an award - Best Editorial Comics Projects.

Here I am talking to someone, next to Manuel Alves and Filipe Andrade.

Drawing!

Sometimes I look too serious, sometimes I look downright silly. Here I am looking downright silly next to my friend Filipe Melo.

I'll finish the post with me drawing on the collaborative mural at Anigamix.

And that's it! I'm going to post some new drawings soon, I promise. I have new material ready to see the light. Stay tuned!

Fourth ZvC personalized edition

2011-04-14T22:32:00.005+01:00

And so we arrive to the fourth, and last, personalization of a Zombies vs. Cheerleaders issue (basically because I don't have any more issues left to sell). For those of you that don't know, I worked on the cover colors (with lines drawn by Mark Slater) for an issue of the comic Zombies vs. Cheerleaders. This one went to Rui Rolo, I had the pleasure of drawing four Naruto characters for him. It was a bit of challenge because it has been a long time since I last saw a Naruto episode (I used to be a big fan in the beginning, but when the show started dragging I pretty much quit watching), but all in all it was a lot of fun. Here are some photos for you to check out the drawings. I hope you enjoy them.

Atomic Robo pin-up

2011-04-12T19:52:00.003+01:00

Last weekend, I finally got my hands on the issue of Atomic Robo that featured the pin-up I drew. It's Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #3. I'm really happy I was able to get a pin-up published in one of my favorite comics, so here is a couple of pictures of the issue, so you can share my excitement.

It's best if you fullview. If you want to check out the full illustration, just go here.
I have a few things in line to post (some photos from the latest round of Zona related book tours and some sketches), but I've been having real trouble finding time to dedicate to my online projects. I'm sorry guys, and I promise I'll have some more new stuff soon!

Third ZvC personalized edition

2011-03-30T20:23:00.004+01:00

That's right, one more issue of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders #2 found its home! This time, I had the pleasure of drawing for my good friend and fellow artist Fil, mastermind behind the Zona project. He requested Vash the Stampede, Alita Battle Angel, the Bride, and Ash. Here they are!

I also have to tell you guys that I'm all out of these issues. I'm sorry! More opportunities will come soon, in case you want to send some commission requests my way.

Cornered!

2011-03-29T23:10:00.005+01:00

A few days ago I got a piece featured on the Cornered blog. For those of you that don't know, Cornered, as the creators put it, is a blog that features recreations of the spot character illustrations which appeared in the upper left-hand corners of many classic comics, from Marvel to DC to Harvey, Charlton and beyond!

I chose to recreate the corner from Spider-Man vs Wolverine (v0l 1) since, well, I love them both and thought it should be fun. I was right, it was. Here's the little Corner I drew:

You can check out the original Cornered post right here. Hope you enjoy it!

Metal Slug

2011-03-23T19:52:00.003Z

If you used to go to the arcades back in the day, you know you loved Metal Slug. Was there a more awesome way to spend your money than to insert it on a machine and desperately try to find heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to kill some enemies - even zombies? No, there sure wasn't. Surprisingly, I never drew Metal Slug characters, even though I always loved the game series, so I decided to draw a few characters some weeks ago. Now you get to see the result.

Hope you enjoy it!

Art for Japan

2011-03-21T21:06:00.007Z

So Meg Hunt, illustrator extraordinaire, put together a Call to Action: Art for Japan a few days ago. Her idea? To gather enough artwork to set up an eBay auction with all proceeds going towards Japan relief. Like Meg puts it: " Basically, we will be holding an eBay auction of cool goodies in the upcoming weeks and donating the proceeds to Japanese earthquake relief; it’s not rocket science, but like NASA, it DOES depend on you. We need you to donate whatever you can—art, books, whatever—from your creative endeavors in order to make this a roaring success. All proceeds will go to help the Japanese people dig out from under this pile of calamities, and you’ll get the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from doing something nice for people in a whole mess of trouble."

I immediately wanted to send some goodie to participate in this relief auction, so I prepared a set of prints to send along. There's even a new piece I haven't even posted here yet. Here are the prints:

Keep an eye for Meg's tumblr page, where she will post updates regarding the auction! Meg just recently closed submissions due to the overwhelming participation, but I hope my set makes it in on time.

Zona Monstra

2011-03-17T19:49:00.005Z

Yes, the rumors are true! There is a new issue of Zona - the collaborative comics and illustration project I'm a part of - coming your way. This information is a little more relevant to my portuguese followers, but I'll keep it in english so everyone can understand.

The next issue of the alternative magazine Zona, Zona Monstra, will be released on March 26th, on the animation festival Monstra, in Lisbon. For those of you that don't know, MONSTRA | Lisbon Animated Film Festival is the oldest cinema festival in the city and its 10^th edition will occur between 21 and 27 March 2011. This festival presents the best in the world of animation cinema and discloses new proposals of dialog between animation arts and performance, interactivity, among others. It will be an awesome place to showcase Zona and show our work.

This time, the cover was created by the awesome Filipe Andrade:

This particular issue is close to 90 pages, all dedicated to one theme: monsters! It features work by a lot of incredibly talented artists, like you can see below, on the index (don't forget to fullview!).

I collaborated with my friend, and co-creator of Kubrick's Garage, J.B. Martins, to create a 4-page comic. I can't show it to you yet - you'll have to buy Zona Monstra if you want to see it - but I can give you a little tease: here's a pannel from my comic.

So I hope to see you guys in Lisbon, Cinema S. Jorge, March 26th at around 18h45, we can chat and draw and it'll be awesome!

If you want to buy this, or other, issues, please go to Zona's blog and you can take it from there. Shipping is free to Portugal.

Second ZvC personalized edition

2011-03-10T12:45:00.004Z

Here are a couple mores of skecthes I did for someone who bought an issue of the Zombies vs. Cheerleaders issue with my colors on the cover. This time, the commission came from my friend Diogo Campos.

If you want the same deal let me know, but be quick because I only have ONE left! Get on it!

Abe Sapien

2011-03-03T17:31:00.004Z

I really love Hellboy and the comic's assemble of characters, so when David commissioned a black and white drawing of Abe Sapien from me, it was really a pleasure to draw the guy. It was almost a first, too - at least, it was the first time I drew something besides a head shot of Abe Sapien.

David was happy with the drawing, and that's what matters most. You can visit his blog here.

If you're interest in getting a commission from me, you know how to reach me! I'll post my rates really soon. I haven't really had time for commissions lately, but probably, from now on, I'll be able to squeeze in a couple every now and then. So get in touch!

A Garagem de Kubrick 28 - Black Swan 3-D

2011-03-01T20:46:00.004Z

Here is the latest issue of the webcomic I draw and my friend J.B Martins writes, A Garagem de Kubrick. I'm trying to redeem myself, so to all of you, my international friends, I present the translated page. I can hear you jump with joy! :) Have a look and let me know what you think.

Don't forget to fullview!

Join our Facebook page to be up to date with strips, sketches and a lot more!

The Amazing Joy Buzzards

2011-02-24T20:37:00.002Z

I don't have a lot of new work I can show you guys just yet, so I'll leave you with this little homage to the awesome comic that is The Amazing Joy Buzzards I did back in 2009. It's a creation that belongs to Mark Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp, and I highly recommend a read. Hope you like this!

A Garagem de Kubrick 27 - The Deadly Network

2011-02-15T21:05:00.007Z

The new page from the webcomic I draw, A Garagem de Kubrick, written by my friend J.B. Martins, is finally out! I apologize for being in portuguese only, but hopefully the drawings can be universally enjoyed. Right? Right? (I know that you're missing out on the joke for not knowing portuguese, but I promise I'll be better and I'll translate these more often. Deal?).

Don't forget to fullview!

Join our Facebook page to be up to date with strips, sketches and a lot more!

ZvC personalized edition

2011-01-20T14:03:00.003Z

Since there's not much in the way of new work that I can show you (it'll be coming soon, hopefully) I'll leave you with some examples of skecthes I did for someone who bought an issue of the Zombies vs. Cheerleaders issue with my colors on the cover. If you want the same deal let me know, but be quick because I don't have many left!

Let me know what you think!

Pin-up for Saints and Warlords

2011-01-12T23:20:00.004Z

I've talked about my talented friend Mark Slater on the blog before, since I had the pleasure of collaborating with him on the cover for issue number 2 of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders. I also was honored when he asked me, early last year, to draw a pin up for his webcomic, Saints and Warlords. Since I don't have much new work to show these days (because I'm working on a new comic that I can't show yet), here's the pin-up!

Speaking of Mark and Zombies versus Cheerleaders, I recently received a few copies of issue number 2, with a cover by me and Mark. If you'd like one of those issues, completed with 4 awesome sketches of your choice, just let me know and we'll work a deal out!

O Colega de Quarto página 4

2010-12-31T17:16:00.003Z

Nothing better than the last page of the comic I've been posting to close the New Year, uh? I bet you've been itching to know how it ends. Well, itch no more, for here it is!

Time for the reveal: this story was based on the famous urban legend "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?", that you can check out on the place for all things related to urban legends, Snopes.

I hope you enjoy the last page, and Happy New Year! I hope all of you have an awesome 2011. See you next year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T12:47:00.003Z

Just a quick post to wish everyone who visits this littl corner of the interwebs, takes a look at my work and comments, a very Merry Christmas! Have a good one, guys!

Fun fact - This is the first entirely digital work I'm halfway pleased with, and I did it in a rush. It's a Christmas miracle!

Kubrick's Garage 26

2010-12-15T22:49:00.006Z

Finally, Kubrick's Garage is back! For those not in the know, Kubrick's Garage - or, in its original portuguese title, A Garagem de Kubrick - is a webcomic I draw, written by my friend J.B. Martins, that focuses mainly on cinema. We were forced to a little hiatus due to both being buried in work, but now we're back. And we did this very special splash page to open the new season.

We worked with our friend Filipe Melo, a portuguese jazz pianist, comic writer and movie director and producer (and super talented in all these fields!), to produce this little homage to a very special person who passed away recently, o Senhor do Adeus. He loved cinema, so we thought this would be a good idea for a tribute.

I thought it would be nice to show the evolution of this particular piece in a different way, so check it out below. Hope you enjoy it!

O Colega de Quarto página 3

2010-12-15T22:33:00.004Z

How are those guesses coming along? Hmm? I gave you plenty of time since my last post (hum, yeah, huh... that's the reason why I haven't posted lately). No cigar? Well, it doesn't seem like it. Anyway, here's the third page of The Roomate! Only one to go before the revealing and extraordinary climax.

O Colega de Quarto página 2

2010-12-03T12:11:00.002Z

So? Did you guess the urban legend my comic was based on yet? Well, if not, here's the second page to help you out. I'll give you a hint - you might be familiar with the story, but with two girls as the main characters. Brainstorm a little more!

O Colega de Quarto - The Roommate

2010-11-30T16:53:00.005Z

Since I've been working on a few things that I can't show you just yet, I thought it'd be nice to dig into my files and post some work I haven't posted before. This year I had the opportunity to create a short comic for the portuguese publication "Venham +5".

I worked on a four page comic based on a very popular urban legend. I'll post the 4 pages here, and you guys can try and guess which urban legend it is before I post the final page. I apologize about posting the pages only in portuguese, but I didn't have time to translate them. Still, I think you may be able to guess with only the help of the drawings.

Hope you enjoy, and keep checking the blog for the next pages!

Zona Negra 2 - a sneak peek

2010-11-22T20:58:00.003Z

Finally, after a few printing issues, the latest issue of Zona - Zona Negra II - is out! I already have my book, and it looks awesome. I'm not just saying that because I have a comic published in there (well, maybe a little bit), but I seriously think the books have been growing in quality and it's a joy being a witness, as well as a part of, this progression.
I can't really show you my work just yet - you'll have to buy the book, which you can do online through the project's blog or, if you're in Portugal, chances are your local comic shop will carry it. I will, however, share a few photos that work as a sneak peak to the comic I drew, written by my friend and Kubrick's Garage co-creator and writer, J.B. Martins. Enjoy!

Todd Ingram - Now with weird colors

2010-11-12T23:34:00.004Z

Since I couldn't make anything new to post the last few days, I decided to throw some colors on the Todd Ingram (the super powered vegan from Scott Pilgrim) sketch I had to post here. I'm going to blame this color scheme on sleep deprivation. Still, hope you enjoy! More to come soon!

Todd Ingram

2010-11-04T23:15:00.002Z

Well, my scanner has decided to be a little bit of a party pooper this week and I haven't been able to use it. I'm hoping I can get whatever problem it has fixed this weekend so I can get on with work, but while it's not working, here's a photo of a drawing I did today and that I plan on coloring: it's Todd Ingram, the super-powered vegan from the Scott Pilgrim comics. Enjoy, and hopefully I'll have the colored version up soon!

21º FIBDA

2010-11-02T20:58:00.007Z

For those of you that don't know, FIBDA - also known as Festival Internacional de BD da Amadora - is the main comic festival in Portugal. I never got the chance to go before, because it's kind of far from where I live, and it's not always possible to travel 600 km on a weekend, but finally this year I got to go. And as an invited author, to sign autographs and draw! It was a great experience. Not only did I get to share it with my talented better half Pedro Carvalho, but we got to see friends we don't get to see often, we got to meet other talented people and, most of all, we got to draw. A lot. Which is awesome. I met some really nice people who support my work ,and that really makes me want to keep pushing and keep going, no matter how hard it gets. It's not always easy, but events like this boost my confidence and my will power. So now I'll leave you with a little photo sum-up of the weekend I spent at FIBDA.

This is me, with my usual nobility, sat down and ready for the first signing to begin. GO!

Ah! Signing already. That's good. I was signing the first Zona Negra, so I think I as drawing a zombie.
It was the only zombie I drew, too. I felt proud.

Here's Pedro Carvalho and João Raz.

Here's the line-up of artists signing on Saturday. You can only see a little bit of my head, I'm behind Pedro.

After some long hours of drawing, what do artists do? Draw more, of course. We all went to dinner and couldn't help drawing all over. This part of the table was mine, Pedro's and Fil's.

On to day 2! Here's me and Paulo Marques. Photo courtesy of Bongop :)

Here I am again, totally focused on drawing the Hammer Killer. Whack! Photo courtesy of Nuno Neves.

Here's a super quick drawing of Scott Pilgrim I drew for Bongop!

Aaand here's a Atomic Robo I drew for someone else.

I don't have more photos for now, I spent all the time drawing and didn't take many photos. However, you can expect some more photos the next few days, since my friends will probably get me some more photos.

See you soon with some new scribbles!

Atomic Robo

2010-10-21T23:20:00.003+01:00

I recently discovered the Atomic Robo comics and I have to say... I highly enjoy them. They're a lot of fun, Robo is a really cool character, and I absolutely love the art. I couldn't help doing a quick bit of fan art. Enjoy, and I highly recommend you read Atomic Robo!

Zona Negra 2

2010-10-20T20:45:00.005+01:00

Alright, this information is a little bit more relevant to my portuguese watchers, but I'll keep it in english so everyone can understand it. The next issue of the alternative magazine Zona, Zona Negra 2, will be released on October 30th, on the Amadora BD festival. For those of you that don't know, Amadora BD is the largest festival dedicated to comics in Portugal, so this is pretty cool. Zona Negra 2 is focused on horror, and has 96 pages of comics and illustrations in black and white, dedicated to the theme. In addition to that, it features an interview with Manuel Alves, a long-term collaborator. The awesome cover for this issue, that you can check out below, was created by Ricardo Reis. I, along with many other artists, will be there signing autographs on October 30th and 31st, so if you're in the area, please stop by!

I collaborated with my friend, and co-creator of Kubrick's Garage, J.B. Martins, to create a 3-page comic. I can't show it to you yet - you'll have to buy Zona Negra 2 if you want to see it - but I can give you a little tease: here's a pannel from my comic.

This issue has a selection of works created by 28 authors:

Adelina Menaia - www.osescudosdalusitania.blogspot.com
André Adonis
André Oliveira - www.andreoliveirabd.blogspot.com
Carla Rodrigues - www.cool-slayer.deviantart.com
Carlos Páscoa - www.wappendorf.deviantart.com
Catarina Guerreiro - www.maquie.deviantart.com
César Évora - www.cesarcartoon.blogspot.com
Diana David - www.dianadavid.webuda.com
Diogo Campos - www.full-of-void.blogspot.com
Fil - www.filbd.blogspot.com
Gabriel Martins - www.alternative-prison.blogspot.com
JB Martins - www.cineblog.blogs.sapo.pt
João Figueiredo - www.osescudosdalusitania.blogspot.com
João Raz - www.razael.synthasite.com
LLL - www.r2fl.blogspot.com
Locato Buscaglia
Manuel Alves - www.utopia-studio.blogspot.com
Miguel Gabriel - www.nosnalinha.pt
Miguel Santos - www.pictishscout.deviantart.com
Pedro Carvalho - www.cosmic-rocket-man.deviantart.com
Ricardo Correia - www.osescudosdalusitania.blogspot.com
Ricardo Reis - www.ricardoreis.deviantart.com
Rodolfo Buscaglia - www.rodolfobuscaglia.daportfolio.com
Rui Alex - www.jackolta.blogspot.com/
Sónia Brochado
Sónia Oliveira - www.cirandara.com
Véte - www.vetesketchbooks.blogspot.com
Z! - www.burnay.deviantart.com

If you want to buy this, or other, issues, please go to Zona's blog and you can take it from there. Shipping is free to Portugal.

So I recently watched Aachi and Ssipak...

2010-10-11T23:34:00.005+01:00

It's a south-korean animated movie, and it's simultaneously one of the coolest and weirdest movies I've ever seen. Here's a super quick drawing of one of the characters. Enjoy!

Toy Story

2010-10-04T19:06:00.004+01:00

Toy Story is one of my favorite franchises of all time, animated or otherwise. I saw the first one when I was 10 years old and now, as a grown up of 25, I saw the story come full circle with Toy Story 3. These are great movie, full of heart and humor, and with such a colorful cast of characters, that I felt sorry for never drawing Woody and Buzz - outside of their brief appearance on one of the Kubrick's Garage strips. Today I had a day off from work and decided to right that wrong. Here's a quick pic of Woody and Buzz I managed to put together in this lazy day that I've been long deserving. Hope you enjoy it!

Kubrick's Garage 24

2010-09-27T21:25:00.002+01:00

Once again, sorry for not translating this, but time is something I haven't been able to afford lately, ugh! This is Kubrick's Garage number 24, and who can honestly say didn't feel this way at the end of Toy Story 3? I know I did. *sniff*

Join our Facebook page to be up to date with strips, sketches and a lot more!

Zombies vs. Cheerleaders issue 2 - Cover

2010-09-13T20:01:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I received the amazing news that me and my super talented friend Mark Slater made the cover of issue 2 of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders. I was extremely excited to hear this, not only because it was an honor to colaborate with Mark on this piece - I had the pleasure of coloring his awesome linework - and I'm really proud that we made the cover. So now you know: on November, look up Zombies vs. Cheerleaders issue 2! Click to fullview!

Vampires through time

2010-09-09T22:01:00.007+01:00

I know I'm saying this so many times that it's starting to lose meaning, but I'm really sorry for the erratic posting! These days are wreaking havoc on my drawing productivity, since my day job is eating most of my time. I really feel sad about this because all I want to do is draw, sadly it's just hard to find the chance to. Hopefully things will look up soon!

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a work I haven't posted anywhere else yet. It's the short comic I made for the most recently release of Zona, Zona Gráfica. It's called Vampires Through Time, and although it's only available in portuguese for now, I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Hint: Twilight vampires are garbage. As always, click to fullview. I hope you enjoy this, and I hope to be back with more new works soon!

Deadpool

2010-08-21T13:29:00.003+01:00

Lately, me and Pedro Carvalho have been getting into Deadpool. We weren't very familiar with the character, so we started buying some of the newest Deadpool comics, and surprise, surprise... we really liked them. I mean, there's not much in the way of depth here, but Deadpool - also known as the Merc with a Mouth - is a very funny character and that makes the comics entertaining. So it was only a matter of time before I tried to draw Deadpool. And here is a short cute-ish Deadpool for you. See, I promised new stuff and here it is. More to come soon, I hope you like this!

Savage Dragon

2010-08-18T20:26:00.002+01:00

So a while ago I read all of Pedro Carvalho's old issues of Savage Dragon. I had never read it, and since I kept hearing about it, I decided to give it a go.

It's not really a type of comic for a 25 year old girl to read. The huge amount of women that throw themselves at Dragon, each of them with more boobage than the next, lets me know that this is a comic made with a sort of male adolescent target. But, that being said, the Dragon is actually a pretty badass character and there are some good storylines and a really cool sense of humor. So, despite me rolling my eyes sometimes, I enjoyed the ride. Back then, I did a little drawing of Savaga Dragon himself, so here he is now. It's from last October so it's almost one year old, but here's hoping you enjoy it anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to post some new works soon!

Kubrick's Garage 23

2010-08-17T14:23:00.002+01:00

After my hiatus, nothing better to catch up with posting than with a Kubrick's Garage I hadn't posted yet, Kubrick's Garage number 23. This one I didn't translate, because either way I don't think the joke would get across - this is a gag that involves not only old Indiana Jones, but also a portuguese movie (O Crime do Padre Amaro) that, big as it was in my country, isn't really big outside its borders. But hey, all you need to know is that there's a refrigerator gag and I hope you enjoy the drawings anyway! As always, don't forget to click on the page to fullview.

I have a new computer - a laptop - and I'm still getting used to the screen. The colors come off very differently from what they used to in my old monitor, so I have to adjust myself a little and practice the coloring on this new machine.

Metamorpho for Nate Bellegarde

2010-07-30T20:35:00.003+01:00

So today is Nate Bellegarde's birthday. He is an amazing artist, and I urge you all to go check out his blog here. His request for birthday gifts was very simple: he asked people to draw Metamorpho for him. And so I did! I don't know Nate personally, and to be honest I'm not that familiar with Metamorpho either, but he is an artist whose work I really admire, and so I couldn't let his birthday go by without drawing good ol' Metamorpho. I've been with a horrible lack of drawing time - as you can all guess by the irregular posting - but I manage to save a couple of minutes last night to draw this humble sketch of Metamorpho.

Happy birthday, Nate!

Edit: Comics Alliance made a nice round up of all the Metamorphos drawn for Nate, so you can check all of them out - and mine too! - at the Comics Alliance website, here. Go, go, go!

Toxic Avenger

2010-07-30T00:02:00.005+01:00

Awesome illustrator and all around cool guy Carl Pearce promoted a little competition over at his deviantart page a while ago. What was the theme of the competition? Well, nothing more nothing less than the Toxic Avenger. He suggested people drew whatever they wanted from the Toxic Avenger universe, and it sounded like a really cool idea to me - Toxie is one of those iconic B-movie characters, and I had never drawn him before, so this was a great excuse to do so. Carl liked this pic, and I had a blast doing it, so it all came together nicely. You might have seen the pic before, but even if you have, I hope you enjoy it all over again.

Kubrick's Garage 22

2010-07-22T00:07:00.004+01:00

Here's the latest Kubrick's Garage, for your viewing delight! I even translated this one, but I've been told that wouldn't have been necessary, since the punchline on this strip is so clear. And that is: Ash + shotgun + shooting a vampire in the head = win. Formula for success, kids. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it, and don't feel sorry for Edward. He's a vampire, he's dead already.

Don't forget to click on the page to fullview!

Hammer Killer - page 3

2010-07-19T20:29:00.004+01:00

Hey guys! Time to get hammered: here's the third and final page of my first Hammer Killer story. Hopefully I'll get around to creating more material with him in the future, because I have a strange fondness for this character. Hope you enjoyed the story - or the drawings, at least. I'll keep my promise of translating this, cheesy one-liners and all!

Hammer Killer - page 2

2010-07-16T20:09:00.006+01:00

Hey, guys!

Here's the second page of my 3-page epic (ah!) comic of the Hammer Killer. My original black and white version of this page was exhibited on the International Comics Festival of Beja, so I don't have it with me right now to take a photo of the inks and post it. But anyway, here's the colored version and a photo of my little niche in Beja. Enjoy!

Enjoy, and stay tuned for the third page!
P.S. I'm sorry for posting this in portuguese only, but I believe the hammering to be an universal language (I'm kidding, I've just been incredibly busy and didn't get around to translate it. I hope to do it sometime!).

Hammer Killer - page 1

2010-07-15T20:04:00.005+01:00

It just hit me that I never got around to posting the 3-page comic I made for Zona Fantástica (a comics/illustration magazine). So why not do it now? I've been extremely busy and it's been difficult to find the time to produce new material, so that gives me a good excuse to post pages that are a few months old.

The comic I did was supposed to work like a Grindhouse trailer. I get a real kick out of those old, horror-grindhouse movie trailers - which are frequently better than the movies themselves - with lots of violence and cheesy taglines, so I tried to capture a little bit of that spirit with the comic. It was also a way to use my character - the Hammer Killer - on something other than a few random illustrations. He's a psychopath - much like Jason or Michael Myers - that comes out in St. John's night and starts hammering people to death. Fun, uh? Well, the joke is that in my hometown (Oporto, Portugal) people celebrate St. John's night by going outside and hammering each other in the head with plastic hammers. This guy just happens to use a real one.

Well, enough typing for now. I leave you with the first page of the Hammer Killer's comic debut. Click on the page to fullview, and enjoy!

If you want to buy any or all of the Zona issues so far, you can do so at Zona's Blog (shipping is free inside Portugal).

Walter Sobchak

2010-07-13T23:39:00.003+01:00

The Big Lebowski is an awesome movie, and that is a good enough reason to break out the good old pencil and paper and work on a little fan art. That's what I did last year, and this was the result. I did this in a time crunch, so I used a very simple coloring technique, to mimic the style and look of an old, worn out comic. I have to do a more elaborate piece dedicated to the Dude and the rest of the awesome cast of characters this movie has, but, for now, here's Walter Sobchak keeping you company. Enjoy!

Great Scott! 25 already?

2010-07-03T14:45:00.007+01:00

Yeah, it's true. Today is the 25th birthday of Back to the Future, that cinematic slice of awesomeness! My friend J.B. Martins, writer of Kubrick's Garage, said it'd be cool if I drew up a little pic to celebrate this important date. I didn't have much time to put something together, but here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it! Click on the image to fullview.

Happy birthday to Doc Brown and Marty McFly. Thanks for all the hours of fun!
You can check the original post on Cineblog here.

Getting a life

2010-06-28T21:52:00.003+01:00

Since I now have the reputation of being somewhat of a Scott Pilgrim nut, I have to keep that up. Last week I came across a couple of free hours to make a drawing and this is what I came up - a drawing inspired by Scott Pilgrim's movie trailer. I finished coloring it today. I'll update this post with the linework when I get the original drawing back (I wasn't home when I drew it). I hope you enjoy this!

And hey, movie distributors. Please make this movie open in Portuguese theaters. The sooner, the better. Deal?

Scott Pilgrim

2010-06-21T22:32:00.004+01:00

Alright. You've been hanging out here for a while, plus you might know me from twitter and facebook too, and if that's the case, you know I think Scott Pilgrim is pretty much the coolest thing since the dawn of times. I really love the comic and I couldn't be more excited for the movie and the game. I mean, did you see those trailers? Epic stuff. Well, when the first movie teaser came out, I made this drawing. I did it very quickly (it's pretty much a glorified sketch), but I had to draw something Scott-related. Ta-da!

I'm sorry that this isn't exactly new work, but I'm still dealing with a horrible lack of drawing time. I hope you enjoy this either way!

A Garagem de Kubrick 21

2010-06-15T21:41:00.004+01:00

A new thing for today: this week's Kubrick's Garage strip is being released here first, so I can post it to the webcomic's Official Facebook Page. In a few days it'll be up at Cineblog (its regular home), so keep checking it out there, because we always release the pages first at Cineblog and on the facebook page - this is just a one time thing :) Enjoy!

Don't forget to click on the image to see the fullview!

Hellboy 2010

2010-06-04T20:00:00.004+01:00

A while ago I started talking art with Kelley, one of the members of the Night of the Living Podcast crew. He's also an artist and is currently working on his own webcomic project. Somehow we ended up talking about Hellboy, how awesome Mignola is, and how tough Hellboy really is to draw. I always have trouble drawing an half-decent Hellboy. It wasn't long before we challenged each other to draw an Hellboy, and here's my part of the challenge (it's a blog exclusive for now!).

Still not an ideal Hellboy. He's too rigid, but you know... practice makes perfect. I hope to one day post an awesome Hellboy in this blog, look back at this one and see how far I've come. I post these two versions because I couldn't decided on which I liked best - the right one looks strange at first, but I ended up liking the sort of watery look the colors had. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Kubrick's Garage - 19

2010-05-27T21:31:00.003+01:00

Oh boy, do I have a special treat for my international followers today. I actually translated a Kubrick's Garage to post here! Yes, all 3 sentences of it. I'm sorry I haven't done this much before, but I've been incredibly busy and translating pages with a lot of dialogue is a bit time consuming. That being said, I hope you enjoy this page! It's pretty self-explanatory, so it probably didn't even need the translation, but there you have it.

Click on the page to full-view it! Also, don't forget to look on the right-side of the blog for the link to the Kubrick's Garage facebook fan page. Follow us there! You'll get the pages before anywhere else, plus sketches and other slices of coolness. It's a win-win situation!

Zona Gráfica

2010-05-25T23:34:00.003+01:00

Hello, everyone! I'm still busy as hell, so updating hasn't been easy - but here I am today with some cool news. The new issue of Zona (a comics and illustration project I've had the pleasure of being a part of), Zona Gráfica, will be released at the 30th May in the International Comics Festival, in Beja, Portugal (so if you're in Portugal, you know what you should be doing next Sunday).

It's composed of two volumes: the first one is 106 pages of awesomeness, in black and white, with a fantastic cover by the artist Z! (a.k.a. José Pinto Coelho). Roll in the awesomeness of this cover for a while. You know you want to.

On the other hand, the second volume is composed of 52 fully-colored pages, and the cover was created by Manuel Alves, who did a kick ass job on it! Look at it. Love it.

I have an interview on the black and white issue, and a short 1-page comic on the colored issue, so I've spread my sillyness over two volumes. Nice. If you want to know what other artists contributed for Zona Gráfica, just look here:

Try to spot me! I already gave you a clue, I'm on both volumes.
I'll keep you posted about the release. Expect some photos after next weekend, and hopefully I'll get to post some art meanwhile!

Night of the Living Podcast

2010-05-21T23:25:00.004+01:00

As you all know, I love horror movies. When I started listening to podcasts, I discovered a lot of horror podcast, and started following some of them.

Night of the Living Podcast quickly became my favorite - not only did they discuss horror movies, but all the hosts are hilarious and I swear I almost can't listen to the show on public places because it's hard not to crack up. So, a while back (so this isn't exactly new work), I decided to draw a little gift for the hosts, and this is what I came up with

It was easy deciding on what I wanted to do: since it's a podcast "dedicated to all things horror", trying to reproduce the general look of an old, vintage EC comics cover seemed like a perfect choice. That's what I went for, and hopefully that's the vibe you got.

I can't recommend this podcast enough to horror fans, the hosts are not only hilarious but very capable of delivering some really interesting discussions about horror movies and film in general. It's my favorite podcast out there, so go to NOTLP and check it out for yourself!

Sketchcards - now with 100% more eBay!

2010-05-19T20:34:00.002+01:00

Remember those sketchcards I posted a while back? No? Well, here's a refresher:

I donated them to Comics for Cures, and they're now up for auction on eBay. They'll later be part of a gallery show starting May 22nd on Comic 2 Games, Florence, KY. You should bid on them, it's for a really good cause: all the money made from the sale of the cards goes to the American Cancer Society. To bid, just click on:

Boba Fett
Lion-O
Lobster Johnson
Terry Bogard

Yeah, Terry was renamed "Tenny", but his fighting soul remains intact. I hope you also check out the other cards up for auction, there is some really good stuff - including some awesome cards by my lovable and talented boyfriend Pedro Carvalho (no, I'm not biased!).

New stuff coming soon, hopefully!

Herbert West: Re-animator

2010-05-15T12:29:00.003+01:00

As you may or may not know, I am a huge horror fan. There's nothing like watching a good horror movie and feeling those chills on the back of your net, the goosebumps on your skin, and that feeling that you won't be able to go to sleep with all the lights turned off. But on the other hand, watching a bad horror movie can also be fun: the combination of crappy acting, horrible dialogue, cheesy special effects and cheap scares make some bad horror movies more hilarious than most of the regular comedies churned out by Hollywood.

That being said, Re-animator is one of my absolute horror movies. It doesn't take itself seriously, I really like the acting, the story is great, and the gore and crazyness level is through the roof: it makes for a very well-paced and fun horror movie. Last time I watched it, I couldn't help but making a little tribute to good old Dr. West.

I'll try to upload this post with a couple more tidbits (sketches and stuff). I've been incredibly busy lately, and I don't want to leave this blog collecting dust! I apologize to all of you, but soon there'll be new things to look at over here, so stay tuned!

Kubrick's Garage - 18

2010-05-05T14:46:00.004+01:00

I'm already working on page number 19 of the ongoing Kubrick's Garage webcomic, and I just realized I forgot to post page number 18. It's no big deal, since the stories are mostly unrelated, but I want to show it anyway. Once again, I apologize for the lack of translation - it gets tricky to translate somethings properly. But I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Click on the page for the full-size! And don't forget, the webcomic has a facebook page that is regularly updated with sketches, drawings and, of course, the finished pages. Go here to check it out!

I'll leave you with a little bonus. I didn't get to photograph any of the sketches I did for people at both "Zona Fantástica"'s release parties, but I did get to photograph some sketches I did on a couple of volumes for my friends. Jules Winnfield is up first, and then on another book I drew a cartoony Shaun, from Shaun of the Dead, and Watchmen's Ozymandias. Enjoy!

Iron Man

2010-04-29T17:10:00.003+01:00

Well, Iron Man 2 is coming to theaters this week, and even though it's not getting the best reviews so far, I'm still curious to go see it. The first one was a very solid piece of entertainment and actually spiked my interest for a character I never cared much about before. I thought the sequel gave me a great excuse to draw Iron Man, especially since I never did before - that's right, this is my first Iron Man! This is also the first place where I'll post this, so you might get a look at this before the good folks over at my other galleries. Hope you like it!

Rex Splode

2010-04-27T20:20:00.003+01:00

Do you guys read Invincible? NO? Well then, what are you waiting for? It's only one of the coolest comics around these days and you should absolutely check it out. Which leads me to this drawing I made of Rex Splode, one of the secondary characters of the comic. In case you haven't seen it already, enjoy! And if you have seen it before, enjoy it yet again!

Invinciible and its characters are a creation of the wonderful minds of Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker.

Cadavre Exquis page 44

2010-04-24T12:05:00.005+01:00

A cadavre exquis, or "exquisite corpse" in english, is a collaborative method of creation in which each author adds a sentence, or a drawing, to a previous set of sentences or drawings made by other authors, in order to create a story that makes sense in the whole. Maybe this isn't the best explanation ever, but most of you are probably familiar with the concept of the thing already.

Well, portuguese comic artist extraordinaire Daniel Maia started a Cadavre Exquis back in 2008, with the participation of many portuguese comic artists and illustrators, each artist creating a page. The project is a lot of fun, and Daniel invited me to contribute with the 44th page of this ongoing story! I accepted, of course, and it a lot of fun. After 43 pages, you can imagine how insane the story got, with different people putting their own spin on the characters and events, and my page ended up being no different. I went a little crazy with it and made a giant baby stomp around! I apologize to my international followers for only having the page in portuguese, but don't worry - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense detached from the other pages, so understanding the plot is not essential. And it's pretty self-explanatory anyway. Still, here it is, and I hope you enjoy it!

Click on the page to see it bigger! And if you want to see the original post on the Cadavre Exquis blog, go here.

Kick Ass

2010-04-22T10:48:00.002+01:00

Kick Ass opens in portuguese cinemas today, and to celebrate, I drew a quick Kick Ass! I really enjoyed the comic, and everyone who's seen it says the movie is great, so I'm definitely very curious to see it.

Kubrick's Garage - 17

2010-04-20T21:35:00.004+01:00

As you may or may not know (you probably don't know if you're an entirely new visitor), I've been collaborating with my friend J.B. Martins on a regular webcomic focused on cinema and pop culture. It's called Kubrick's Garage. You might have heard of it if you used to follow my other blog, or follow me on deviantart or twitter - I pretty much talk about it a lot, not only because I want to promote it, but because I'm genuinely proud of this project. J.B. delivers consistently funny scripts, and I love drawing them. But since I haven't posted anything about the webcomic on this blog so far, I'll leave you with the latest strip, number 17. I apologize that the text is in portuguese, but I didn't get a chance to translate it yet.

Click on the page to see it bigger!

By the way, Kubrick's Garage has a fan page on facebook, where we post sketches, finished strips, and all kinds of other goodies. So come join us there: Kubrick's Garage on Facebook.

Bang Bang

2010-04-16T14:40:00.005+01:00

Hello, everyone! Your eyes are looking at an exclusive. This is a drawing that I hadn't yet posted on deviantart or elsewhere, and I decided it was time to give you something to look at that hadn't been posted anywhere before.
A while ago, late last year, my friend Hugo Teixeira asked me to contribute with a pin-up for the upcoming volume of his manga, Bang Bang. It was a pleasure to contribute with this piece for his book:

And here is a photo of it, on the book:

Enjoy!

Zona Fantástica

2010-04-15T20:06:00.005+01:00

This year, I was lucky enough to participate in a new project, involving comics and illustration, called Zona Fantástica. Fil is the artist and mastermind behind Zona, he had the idea to create a collaborative publication, that would allow artists to showcase their work in comics in a country where there aren't many opportunities to do just that. It started with Zona Zero, then Zona Negra came along (dedicated to horror, and released in Lisbon's International Movie Festival, MOTELx - I'll probably post the illustration I did for it sometime in the future) and, last but definitely not least, came Zona Fantástica, the third volume of this project, released in Oporto's International Film Festival, Fantasporto. It was the most ambitious volume so far, with 80 pages printed in full color and over 30 artists collaborating. I created a 3-page comic to be published inside, and I also had the pleasure (and honor!) of creating the cover. Here's a photo of a preliminary phase, the inks in process:

The cover features characters that can be found in comics and illustrations on the inside of the book (one of them is mine), and here is the final version:

I wanted to give it an old, almost grindhouse-poster like feel, because I thought it would be fitting - Fantasporto started out being a festival dedicated mainly to horror cinema, and I have a soft spot for horror grindhouse flicks. I don't know if it's the cheesy dialogue or bad effects, but it's something that appeals to me - so much so that my comic inside plays out like a grindhouse trailer (or at least, that was my initial plan). I can't post the comic for now, but when it's cool to post it, I will. This was a great experience, I got to collaborate with some great people and we got to have a couple autograph sessions, which were very cool.

(The geek in the pink-striped sweater is yours truly).

It was very exciting when I started seeing the book pop in various bookstores, alongside other comics I read and love.

Especially since I drew and colored the cover, I feel a little more attached to this book and so felt extra happy to see it achieve success - the first edition sold out on the first week, and a new batch has very recently been ordered. The book is now available on Fnac stores too (before it was only available through online orders and specialized comic book shops).

(There it is, right in the middle, sharing a shelf with Persepolis and many others!)

The book even got blurbs on national magazines, and has been having a great reception with the audience, receiving good reviews on blogs and websites.

(it's in Portuguese only, this blurb was published on the magazine NS, of Jornal de Notícias)

So it's all pretty much been going wonderfully, and I have no doubt that the new volumes will be even better. The next one is already in the oven, and will be released at the International Comics Festival of Beja (where several original works from most of the authors will also be exposed)! This has been a great project to participate in, to learn from and to grow with. I hope we can continue for many years.

Nostalgia Zombie

2010-04-14T13:12:00.003+01:00

I'm pretty sure all of you know the Angry Videogame Nerd and the Nostalgia Critic. You are, after all, on the internet, and are bound to have bumped into them sometime. They both make review videos, but the AVGN reviews games (old ones, mostly) and the NC reviews movies (really bad ones, mostly). Back in 2009, they set up a little rivalry, trading back and forth punches in their videos, culminating on a huge battle video where they both kicked each others asses for the entertainment of the audience. It was all in good fun, and the trading card game company Diving Dragon Games created an expansion pack for their Geek Fight series featuring only the AVGN, the NC and characters related to them. I was lucky enough to be contacted by them to do the Nostalgia Zombie card - basically, the Nostalgia Critic as a zombie. Since I love zombies and enjoy the NC's reviews, I was more than happy to do the card. This was what I came up with:

The good folks at Diving Dragon Games were happy with the picture, and so was I. It was the first time I had done something for a trading card game, so I was excited but a little scared, so I ended up making the image pretty simple - but I think it worked. I couldn't wait to see the real card, but until then I had to settle for watching the mock up they posted on their website:

It already looked awesome to me, but it looked even better when I got the chance to take a look at the real cards. I'll leave you with some photos of the deck, and remember, if you go to the Diving Dragon website: http://www.divingdragongames.org/ you can still buy the decks, it's a lot of fun to play. And I'm happy to say I'm still collaborating with the company, so as soon as I can release any more news/work, I will.

Sketchcard 4 - Lion-O

2010-04-08T18:41:00.006+01:00

Well, the time has come to post the fourth and final sketchcard I did for this year's Comics for Cures, the BlueLinePro/Sketch Magazine Sketchcard Event for Cancer. I picked Lion-O, not only because of nostalgia but also because I realized I had never drawn him before. And who didn't love the Thundercats?

Here are the inked lines. As before, I totally forgot to take a photo of the pencils only stage, but it didn't differ too much from this except that it was, you know, penciled and not inked. I didn't get too crazy with the drawing, so it was pretty simple and straightforward.

Then, I started coloring the card with pencils. I used the same method for all four of the cards.

The background was, like in the other cards, just a simple color.

And know here are the cards all together! You might have seen them before on deviantart, but still, it's a first for this blog, so I hope you enjoy the set.

Sketchcards are really a ton of fun to make. I'd love to go a little crazier and be a bit more bold in the next ones. Hopefully I'll get to draw many more in the future.
I'll let you know once these cards are up for auction!

Usagi Yojimbo on the Covered Blog

2010-04-06T11:18:00.004+01:00

A while ago, I stumbled upon a cool blog called Covered. It's a blog where basically artist's take on existing comic book covers and create their own versions. The new covers are posted on the website along the original ones, and only one cover is posted per day. I had a lot of fun browsing through the site - some covers were wonderfully re-created - and it wasn't long before I felt the urge to contribute. After I knew my participation would be welcome, I started thinking about what to cover. That turned out to be easy as well - I had been reading Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, and loving it, so I immediately turned to that. Who could resist drawing a rabbit ronin? So I covered Usagi Yojimbo number 37. It's been a while since I drew the piece, and the site is receiving a lot of contributions, so my work was scheduled to show up on April 5th. And sure enough, there it was, yesterday!

That's a screenshot I took of the blog, showing Stan Sakai's original on the left, and mine on the right. You can take a better look at my version below. I hope you enjoy it, and read Usagi Yojimbo if you get the chance!

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated

2010-04-01T15:26:00.004+01:00

Happy April Fool's, everyone! Let's get that right out of the way, so you know I won't try to trick you with anything I post. Instead, I'll post some drawings, how's that?

Back on 2008, I got invited by Mike Schneider to participate on a big project he was curating. It basically involved creating an animated version of George Romero's classic, Night of the Living Dead. He was contacting several artists, on several fields, to contribute to the project, and I was one of them. I was very excited, and I quickly accepted. I love horror movies, and Night of the Living Dead is probably the most important zombie movie of all time, so working on an animated version sounded awesome. Thing is, I'm not an animator. I had never animated anything in my life, so I started out doing some illustrations, like this one:

And this one:And also this one:

I ended up doing a very big bulk of illustrations for the movie, (probably the most I've done at one time) and then Mike asked me specifically for an animated sequence. It was one of the biggest challenges I ever faced, but I ended up actually animating one tiny sequence (when Ben is tuning the radio, shortly after he arrives at the house). The movie is now making the round in several festivals and is due shortly for a DVD release. It was definitely a very interesting experience, both in illustration and in animation, and I learned a lot!

Though not designed by me (it was created by Mike) I'll leave you with one of the posters for the project, which features some of my artwork, and you can always go to the official website for more information.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2010-03-31T15:51:00.000+01:00

Ah, the turtles. We all loved them, right? If you point me to someone born and raised in the 80s who didn't love the old Turtles cartoon, I'll give you a cookie. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever when I was a little girl, and today I look back at the cartoon with nostalgia. Sure, the Turtles are still on tv and movies, but it's just not the same. Just as I grew up, the turtles changed and I can no longer identify with the newer series. That being said, they're still a lot of fun to draw. That's why I dedicating this post to some of the most recent pieces I've done on the turtles and the villains from the show.

On December 2008, I wanted to offer a cool poster, made by me, to my boyfriend for his birthday. It didn't take long before I decided it should be something related to the Turtles (since we were both such huge fans when we were kids). This is what I came up with:

I offered it to him and, to my joy, he loved it, so I later posted it to my deviantart page. It turns out this started a challenge with my friend Oscar, where we would challenge each other to keep drawing characters from the turtles. So, in February 2009, my gallery saw the arrival of Krang, complete with bright, 80ish colors.

The following month, in March, we both drew Rocksteady, and here is mine:

I wanted him to look ridiculous, to match his somewhat dumb personality in the show, so I gave him a big upper body and tiny legs - something I would also do when Bebop's turn came around. Me and Oscar kept forgetting to draw poor Bebop, and I only got around to drawing him last March - funnily enough, almost exactly one year after I posted Rocksteady. Here's Bebop:

I hope you enjoyed this look back through my TMNT themed artwork. Let me know what you think, and stay tuned for new posts!

Sketchcard 3 - Boba Fett

2010-03-30T16:12:00.000+01:00

And now, another post dedicated to a sketch card. This time, it was Boba Fett's turn! I had never drew Bobba Fett before, but since so many people like this character, I thought it would be a good pick for the card. After all, if you draw popular characters, there's a higher chance that people will buy them, and the whole point of this is to raise as much money as possible for charity.

Here is the inked version. As with Lobster Johnson, I forgot to take photos of the pencils, so we're jumping straight into the inks.

Next, I started laying down the colors, using colored pencils (like I did before). This photo didn't turn out great, I apologize for the weird lighting.

And here's the end result! Used a simple colored background, like I did before.

I hope you enjoy yet another post dedicated to a sketch card. There's still one more to go, so expect that one soon!