Now that school’s over I had to
make some serious changes in my life. Nobody likes change, or at least, nobody
welcomes it with an anxious-free attitude. The reason for this is mainly
because even minor changes can screw with your routine, comfort and an already
established efficiency. It’s been four months since my last entry and I hate to
admit that I have not drawn enough. That does not mean I haven’t been busy. In
these months I had to move from New York, one of the greatest cities and the
art capital of the world to my hometown, Guayaquil, in Ecuador. It may sound as
a downgrade, but this is simply not the case. You see, I love my city and my
country, and there are apparently some advantages here that New York could not
have offered me, ever! Let’s start with the fact that I have my family here, which
support me no matter what crazy idea pops into my head. Also I have a lot of
connections here. Living in a small city for around 30 years will do that to
you. Food is cheaper and time goes slower. It is hot in here, and it will get
hotter in the winter, go figure. It sounds as if I’m saying it backwards, but
lots of things are backwards here and that is one of the facts why I love it so
much. Space is an important factor since in New York I had none, at least
compared to what I have here. For instance, I designated one room as my man cave/studio/comic
room. All the inspiration I can get in one place. I even have a vintage comic
book roulette rack. So it took a lot of effort and time to build my perfect
spot for working, so it would be absolutely wrong not to brag about it ;) Here
are some pictures of it and I have made a list specifying some of the stuff I
have in it so you can know me better. I’m pretty sure you will end up with some
opinions about me and you may not be wrong about some of them.
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| Panoramic Picture of Journey Studios |
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| Journey Studios 1 |
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| Journey Studios 2 |
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| Journey Studios 3 |
69 Things to Brag About
- Mask
collection.
- Original art of
Eddie by Derek Riggs. (The official Iron Maiden illustrator)
- DC Eaglemoss
figurine collection. (almost complete)
- Lots of art
books and references.
- Lightbox. Never
use it, and I don’t think I ever will L
- Soccer Trophy.
Granted, it was from elementary school and we ended up sixth but they still
gave it to us as consolation price. I have no idea why the hell I have it. I
play no soccer whatsoever.
- Favorite Flash
cap.
- Drafting table.
The one I used in New York.
- Comfy chair.
Kind of expensive though.
- Portable easel
when I feel like painting with traditional tools. Sadly I have no room for it
at my place so I think it will stay that way for a while. Also oil painting
stinks the whole apartment.
- Vintage comic
book roulette rack.
- The Flash
cardboard. (Wally West)
- Batman statue.
(Museum Quality)
- The Hulk. (He
is always angry as you can see)
- Golden Link of
the Legend of Zelda. #Truefan
- Darth Maul with
mechanical legs. (Sideshow Collectibles)
- Luke hanging
from Cloud City after learning the truth from his father. Honestly, ruling a
galaxy as father and son doesn’t seem so bad.
- Journey
Studios. (Based on my signature JO)
- My beloved
Cintiq. www.wacom.com
- UPS voltage
regulator. Believe it or not, blackouts happen regularly.
- Favorite mug of
the Man of Steel.
- iMac.
- Comic-con
badges. Yes, I collect them too.
- Cork with lost
of essential information and reference. Also I have a picture of my nephews up
there.
- Marathon
finisher medals. (New York, Miami, and Chicago)
- A3 Hewlett
Packard printer.
- TV used as an
extra monitor.
- Darth Vader
helmet.
- Poster of
Showcase # 4. (First appearance of the silver age Flash)
- The Flash
placemat with his origin revealed.
- Poster of
Eduardo Risso’s illustration of 100 Bullets, dedicated to me of course.
- Conan O’Brien
sculpture I made of clay.
- Coca Cola
through the decades.
- South Park
characters.
- Blu-Ray
collection and some small books.
- Original Art by
Greg LaRocque. Favorite interpretation of the Flash.
- Manga
collection. (A very small one)
- Favorite trade
paperbacks.
- Female figure
Artist Model. (The male is lying around somewhere)
- Absolute
hardcovers.
- Victoria Secret
catalogs. (They are used for reference!)
- Comfy chair
again. It is so good that it needed to be mentioned twice.
- I guess the
Superman cup is as good as the chair since it’s already on the list.
- Flash mouse pad.
(I guess you’ve figured it out already. I like The Flash)
- Gentle Giant
Star Wars Bust collection.
- The Flash by
Alex Ross.
- Pull up bar to
stretch my back. Rarely used for exercise.
- Rorschach bust.
- DC Comics
superheroes lithography by Warner Brothers.
- Leia in the
golden bikini of course.
- Storm Shadow
bust.
- SVA Graduation
cap.
- Kingdom Come
Superman statue sculpted by Alex Ross.
- Star Wars
statues collection.
- Other statues.
- The Joker
statue collection.
- Custom Joker
statue. Who is the artist I wonder?
- The Flash
collection.
- Comics. Lots of
them.
- Munny Flash
painted by Jo. (That’s me)
- Resin statue
made by Jo.
- More trade
paperbacks.
- Even More trade
paperbacks. (That Flash hardcover is in Italian)
- Dylan Dog
collection (in Italian of course) donated by a good friend of mine.
- Luigi, number
one! (This time number sixty five)
- Mug of the
Flash and me, given as a gift from my brother.
- Books.
- Preacher action
figures.
- Souvenir from
my honeymoon. A man drawing on a drafting table made of tin. (Granted, the tin
figure is supposed to be an architect, but you get the idea)
It is important to add that there
is no comic book market here. Ok, so anybody with an inch of common sense will
argue that this is not such a good scenario for me, a freelance artist who
specializes in drawing comics; but the fact of the matter is that there is a
lot of potential on this virgin soil and I’m one of the few who knows how to do
this kind of magic (comics) in this city and probably in the whole country.
It’s true that I’d have to start a campaign in order for people to start caring
more about graphic novels at all, but if I would have to guess, and correct me
if I’m wrong, there is a strong tendency in the world of people taking what I
do more seriously. I still have to battle with some people who cannot, for the
love of God, understand what I do for a living, after I have explained it to them
thoroughly. It is not a popular career here in Ecuador, and I don’t think it
will be anytime soon. I don’t blame people for not understanding. It seems that
in third world countries, politics, businesses, and agriculture dominate the
economy; art, on the other hand, occupies the last entry in the priority list.
Things are changing though, slowly, but they are changing, and I will be part
of this cultural shift when storytelling and art takes an important role in Ecuador.
Create awareness seems like a lot of work, especially if I am eager to make
some money doing what I love, so my plan is to sell my products to
international markets right away. The good news is that I do have some
commissions but they are not precisely in the comics department.
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| Portrait of my sister Mariella |
In any case, this is my home now
and I’m happy to be here, however, I’m also nostalgic and kind of regretful of
leaving New York behind. The city that never sleeps made possible my biggest
dream, so I will always be in its debt. Hopefully I will be back to visit soon
in order to walk those noisy but beautiful streets under a 14 degree Fahrenheit
morning to get to one of the many great restaurants in the city to have an unparalleled
brunch. So yeah, I miss it, a lot. Like people say, “You will love to hate New
York”, but now that I’m not there I can only think good memories of it.
So now that I have no classes to
go over with you, what are we going to cover? You see what I mean with minor
changes? The task of achieving 10,000 hours doing art is still going on so I
guess I will show you my progress and cover the most interesting phases of my
life while showing you my latest work. I hate to admit that I will not be
showing every piece as I did in previous posts when I was in school. The reason for this is that
I have to be more careful in showing my content. I’m afraid of people illegally
using my images and sometimes I will be legally obligated to restrain myself of
showing some artwork. In any case, I will upload whatever I can even if I have
to watermark some of my work. The idea is to get my art out there so, what are
you waiting for, spread the word. The only way to be great at this is with the
help of the fans, or some publisher who can see not only the talent and
sacrifice, but also the potential in me.
Soon I will be uploading my new website,
and not to worry, Master Art Skills WILL be a part of it. I don’t want to spoil
the surprise but I can tell you this, the name of my studio will be Journey
Studios. You see, my family and my closest friends call me Jo. It all started when
my sister, Mariella, was just a baby and could not say my whole name, which is
Jose Luis by the way. So she started calling me Jo 20 years ago and somehow it
stuck. I decided that if some people change their names to help recognition and
awareness, my artist name could easily be changed to Jo. Why Journey Studios
you ask? Well, it starts with “Jo” right, but I have put more thought into it,
believe you me. The Journey was the first mini-comic I made in Jessica Abel and
Matt Madden’s storytelling class. It was a compilation of all my homework in
that class but it was my first comic nonetheless. It seems premonitory now that
I think about it. This has been and still is, my journey, so without further
ado here I present my logo designed by none other than my brother Oswaldo.
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| Journey Studios Logo |
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| Mini-comic The Journey |
I’ve been doing a lot of
illustrations and I’m happy to say they have been well received. I’m trying to
post them all via Twitter (@bielero), Instagram (@bielero), Tumblr (Mastering
Art / bielero.tumblr.com), Deviantart (bielero), and Facebook (Jose Molestina).
Feel free to follow me or request a friendship if you wish to do so. I will
gladly accept. I wish there was one application so you could post once and
upload them in all the social networks available. Sometimes I spend so much
time posting my work when it could have been more productive making more art.
Anyways, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon and if you do know one
software or app that does this, please do tell me about it.
There are two
anecdotes with two of my illustrations. The first one was a comic style
painting I made of “El Chapulin Colorado”, which is a character in a comedy
about a Mexican Superhero performed brilliantly by Chespirito (You may have heard
him in “El Chavo del 8”). I dare to say that the majority of Latin America and
mainly my generation hold this actor with high regard. He made our childhoods
sweeter and everybody will remember him as what he really is, a legend. The
fact that not only he acknowledged my illustration but also thanked me for it
and reposted it using his own account in Instagram made me smile for the rest
of the day. The second work was a caricature of a well-known politician and now
major of my city Guayaquil, Jaime Nebot, who not only thanked me for it but
also took a picture of himself holding the caricature. I respect him a lot so
it was a great honor to get this recognition. Also via his Facebook account my
work reached almost 10,000 likes, which is not too shabby, no, not too shabby
at all ;)
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| El Chapulin Colorado |
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| Jaime Nebot caricature |
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| Jaime Nebot with caricature |
I also made a Superman with and
angry Lex Luthor, a Batman colored sketch, a Hulk fighting the Marvel Universe
using digital inks, the infamous Joker, a new re-imagined Justice League based
on the next generation of sidekicks of the DC Universe, and a couple of new
superheroes based on two good friends of mine. I don’t think they are too happy
on me promoting this illustration but their attitude towards it was refreshing
and very positive. Still, nobody paid me for that one; it was paid off with my
laughter ;) I made most of them using Manga Studio 5 EX which I highly
recommend.
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| Superman vs. Lex Luthor |
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| Batman colored sketch |
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| Hulk vs. The Marvel Universe |
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| The Joker |
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| The New Justice League |
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| The Buff and The Photogenic Kid |
So why is the title of the entry
“Back to Unreality? Mainly because although I’m back to reality, meaning that
I’m back in my home country making my stay in New York learning art and comics
just a great memory, it is not the life I left behind when I first travel
there. I’m back, but to be able to make comics in this city feels unreal,
bordering in unbelievable. It is a dream come true and nobody can take this way
from me. I though it was going to feel weird but ‘au contraire’, it feels just
about right. I was always sure that I made the right choice, but now I’m even
more convinced that I’m in the right path. Follow your dreams, the payoff is so
much greater that you could possibly imagine, and it IS attainable. It took me
3 years of my life, but it may as well have taken me a lifetime or not happen
at all if I hadn’t had the courage to make the leap unto the uncertain. I will
say goodbye now, but before I do here is a couple of videos of my process
in making the Joker that you can also see via You Tube
The Joker Video
Godspeed,
Jose Luis
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