Inspiring Artist - Zeke Peña

 

Zeke Peña is an incredible artist working in traditional fine art, and digital illustration. I don't remember which piece brought me to his work but I love it. The rich colors, the realism and the exaggeration. I love how his work portrays all types of people and how he tells a story through visuals.

Zeke has worked on a bunch of books! Picture books, comics, and middle grade covers. And I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more illustration and some writing coming from him soon. In addition to book work you can tell he really digs working with the community on art projects that puts their stories first.

Here you can see a video presentation where he talks about some of his work.

If you dig his work go check him out at www.zpvisual.com

And the last inspiring artist I shared was Gabby Zapata and Bisa Butler

Inspiring Artist - Paul Davey (Mattahan)

Paul Davey is one of my favorite artists. He paints and draws digitally mostly. And he captures young Black women exquisitely! I don't know much about him except, that he is super talented. You can check out more of his work here: http://www.mattahan.com/

Have you ever seen the work of Syd Mead (RIP) ?

Short Story 15- Ramen Shop

On 41st. and Broadway in Oaktown California several people visited the new Ramen shop. "How was it?" Ms Huan Le asked, smiling. "Incredible! Oh my god sis, the best I've ever tasted!" With his hands up the man said "I'm so glad I brought my niece here. She's been talking about going to eat some ramen noodles for the last two weeks." As Mr Washington turned to Ms Huan Le, Macy a precocious 6 year old raised her hand in agreement. She slurped and continued to slurp, for she could eat an entire adult sized bowl her self and didnt say a word.

Yo, took quite a while to finish this short. Not because of how difficult, just because of so many things going at once. I did it in watercolor first, but decided to redo it digitally. Check out some of the process shots as I experimented with brushes, texture, and a Wacom tablet (thank u Boo). It's rough, but Im done with it for now. Let me know what you think. This image is based on a real idea, real people, and something to come very soon.

Short Story 7 + Process

La India ( a hyper intelligent 5th grader) had twenty seconds to go before security at Atlantic Trading Company International alerted their security against hackers. It took her, Desiree, and Sol three hours to break past the fire wall, embedded security code, encrypted file folders, and finally the account password. Poised, ever ready and calm, India's fingers touched the screens light as feathers. Sol looked on eagerly awaiting while Desiree prayed to "La Virgen" to keep them out of jail so they could move onto junior high school.

Process: I had fun experimenting with painting digitally for this one. My biggest influences for digital painting right now are Kazu Kibuishi and Dani Jones. Both exceptional illustrator/ storytellers. How am I doing? :)