Some 2011 stuff
Some illustrations I did last year that I haven’t blogged yet.
Character and cover design of the card
Sketch of the character
I was also assigned to do some pre-production/concepts for a comic around September. My assignment was to help on some characters of the comics.
Doodle Tuesday
The last two days, My playlist only consist of one song, and that is “Home” by Jay Sean. I like it so much that I started doodling my mug as a house, and of course, it can’t be complete without adding some monsters in the piece. These are baby URBSTERS monsters.
Here’s the awesome song: Jay Sean – “Home”
The doodle from my handy-dandy-sketchbook.
Mug:
Monsters:
Unique Views of Life – Exhibit (1st show)
With the first set of my Exhibit finished, I’d like to show the pieces from it. The other Artist, Richard Chapman’s work were the top six, and mines was the bottom six. The second show is currently running now, and will be up in display till the end of 2011. This time, Richard and I switched with me having the top six spaces for my art.
A closer look.
Here are the pieces from the first show:
-Loveshack- (Originally for a V-Card, but only displayed the cover art in the exhibit)
-Irony-
-Sharing: Movie Night-
-Sharing: BBQ Steak-
-Music in Her Ear-
-Woman Got Culture-
Artist Statement
Here’s my short Artist statement for the 21st anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities ACT.
My name is John Ross Quevedo (JR), I’ve been legally blind my whole life. Growing up, I can always tell I was different from other kids just because everything was harder for me in the classroom, like, reading the white board, or just not knowing my surrounding as well as others. Also, for the most obvious reason, my left-eye was shut-closed before I got my prosthetic eye. I went to a regular public school system and wasn’t aware of any help that was available for me. Switching school during 5th grade, my teacher noticed I was having difficulty with my vision even after sitting in front of the classroom. That’s when she introduced me to my first vision teacher, which gave me the awareness that such help/program existed.
Art has helped me level out the field to this world, the vision world we live in. Its something I’ve done for myself since I was a child. Since I couldn’t see anything far, having a pen and paper to draw gave me the freedom to just create what I couldn’t see. Since drawing and doing art is something I can do like the other kids, it gave me this sense of security that I’m “normal” and one of them. Its not the easiest task to answer, “What’s wrong with you” to everyone. I remember I used to lie to see things, so I wouldn’t get the attention that I was different.
Urbsters (Urban Monsters) is what I called a lot of my monster illustration. They get a bad rep for being different, weird, and not normal. At time, I felt like I was the monster who was different from everyone with just having one eye, and not being able to see very well. That’s why I like to create striped horn to represent my one eye that people would always notice before anything else.
Fast forward to now, I’ve been affiliated with the Lighthouse for The Blind for a couple of years. (other lighthouse post) With only one eye, and 20/400 visions remaining, learning new techniques was something I learned from them. The blind community was so easy for me, because there was no need to explain. Everyone just knows how hard it is. It built my confidence that even though having visual impairments; I can be productive in this visual world we all live in. It might just take me longer and in an unorthodox way, but I will get it done. I’ve also realized that since I never had good vision on my right eye or sight on my left-eye, I wouldn’t know what I’ m missing since I never had it. Overall, I still feel blessed and proud of the way I’ am. I wouldn’t change anything.
The dates will be pushed back till Deceber and I’ll be refreshing my art pieces every two months or so. If you have time, please visit the exhibit starting next week. If you want to come with me< I’ll be gladly to see it with anyone.
One for the Urbsters team
Background outline
Characters outline
I put one of my doodle tusday into illustrator. (original) This took me about two days, on and off. Its all happy, joyful colors because i was listening to: Lindsey Ray – You make me happy (below)
Quick Edits: Growth
Happy New Year everyone!
I’ve been looking back at old photos lately and I’ve seen my growth in photography the last few years. I started with photography around spring of 2006 (more on that story on another blog). Man, I can’t seem to feel embarassed on how I would show people my old pics before. Now, judging it, I see a lot of flaws, like simple flaws that I never saw before. It’s kinda fun comparing my growth in editing.
Here’s an example of how I would edit pics before to now. This is just a simple edit too, not the most fanciest edits, just the necessity. Without judging the composition or others, just how I would treat a regular shot. I cant believed I turned the middle photo in to the school. Yikes!!! This was during my bro’s pumpkin patch festival (2007), where I was assigned to take pics of each classes for the festivities. As you can see, I’ve improved a lot, and now have my own style, the new edits only took about 5 mins. All I knew before was to mess with the contrast, saturation, and of course, the exposure. I would really try to keep everything perfectly exposed, but through the years, I’ve learned that I should just concentrate to what the content is if the surroundings are not important.
Urbsters Love
I’ve been wanting to show two monsters (urbsters) in love in an image, but in a real simple way. I created this two Urbsters in a shape of a heart when the two are combined. I’ve always believed that when someone has found their true love, they’ve found their missing piece in their life. I think there’s only one person that can fill that void and it has to be that perfect right piece to the puzzle or else it wont work. In this image, it represent two Urbsters in love that has filled each others missing piece. I was thinking of making a puzzle pieces that connects with each other but thats to obvious and it seemed too dorky for me. Yes, I know I’m already dorky but that idea was even too much for me. hehe. Well here’s the process of creating the final piece, from sketch, outline, to final color.
URBSTERS
Promotional Gifts
I wanted to give a little gift to my friends at The Lighthouse for The Blind, but I couldn’t think of what to get them. I know that I wanted to give food and somehow put my websites/contact info in it. I was thinking of buying a cake and just sharing it with everyone but I wanted something more individually packed and personal.
After going to an eye-appointment last week, I ate lunch with my Aunt Bonnie at Red Ribbon. Red Ribbon is a Filipino Bakery/Restaurant, and it was a perfect place to look for a cake, but then I found individually packed mamon (sponge cakes). I know it was a good start so I bought 12 pieces. They were individually packed but I didn’t want to just give it in its own plastic (ugly presentation) and I still wanted to put my infos.
Later that day, my assistant, Sokhon, took me to Michael’s craft store to look for nice individual packaging. There, we found the perfect size boxes that fits the mamon and it also came with a sticker sealer. Since they were white boxes, I was thinking on just writing down my infos. When production was going on to put everything together, I tried to put one of my Urbsters promo and it was perfect, since the box had a clear plastic on top to show my logo. With my Urbsters promo in, I didn’t have to write all my info in each one of them anymore (that would’ve took so much time).
All of the people I gave one to liked it and they thought it was such a cute little gift. With positive feedbacks like that, I couldn’t stop thinking to give them out to clients as a thank you promotional gifts. 
URBSTERS
