2 more birthday cups...

Howdy, people!

Before proceeding, I have to apologize for these almost 2 months of inactivity, in the Lion's Vault. So, for those of you that are mad because it took me so long to put something new on the Vault, I'm really sorry!
Trying to compensate, I've decided to present to you the graphics I made for the last 2 cups that I got as birthday gifts to 2 more of my friends.

Back in March, by this time, I posted the graphics for Catarina's and Vanessa's cup. Now it's time to show you the graphics for João's/Bull's and Patrícia's cup.

João's birthday was back in May, and for this I got inspired on our group vacation and all the dumb and incredibly funny environment that we've created then.
I used 2 specific moments as themes for the cup.
One was on the beach, in the morning, when we were in Spain. I took a picture, just for fun, of João drinking his chocolate milk.
By that time, we were always trying to look and meet girls, there, and as we all know, chocolate milk is as manly as a drink gets. So, to make a little fun, I took the picture, there, and showed him saying:
"Now the slogan should be... 'El desayuno del macho latino'!"
The other thing was a picture I took in the 2nd week of vacation, when we went to Algarve. One of the early mornings, I found João sleeping in one of the most unusual ways ever. He appears to be thinking or just playing around, making pose. But he wasn't! He was really sleeping like that!
Even when dreaming, this guy gets deep. Look how concentrated he looks...
Then I decided that had to be in the cup, and the phrase couldn't have been another one. This image was screaming for Shakespeare!

All this is made look like it's on top of a brushed metal surface, and colored in hot colors, to remember the summer and to symbolize the "latino" way.

The other cup was made for Patrícia, whose birthday was in the past week, now in June. The young lady in brown eyes ("menina dos olhos castanhos"), and for a long time, a great source of inspiration for me and my works. For a long time, she was kind of my muse.
Now you can understand how this had to be one of the easiest cup graphics for me to produce, as I should get inspiration really easily.

The color is green, as it represents one of the strongest traces of her personality. Like me, she has a deep passion for her favorite football team (Although her favorite football team - Sporting CP - is a weaker team in the national and international panorama, than my favorite football team - SL Benfica. And both are old rivals).
The images were all taken from our group vacation in the Summer of 2008. As it happens in João's graphic, all 3 photos were taken by me too.
On the left, there's a picture taken by the swimming pool, in Algarve. The middle and also the base image was taken on the castle of Málaga, when she was admiring the view... On the right, the picture was taken early, on the way to our stay in Spain. We were in 2 separate cars, and started taking pictures for fun when trapped in a traffic jam.

Also, on top of all the images, I added a texture of a detail showing drops of dew on a leaf. This was supposed to add some extra freshness to the final graphic.

I hope you like it, and feel free to leave me a comment!
Stay cool, people!
Peace ;p

"You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted." (Ruth E. Renkl)

Howdy, people!

I didn't post this before because I was hoping someone would comment on the last one, and it seems just Morgaine felt like cheering Lion up a bit.
Thanks for the comment, little cousin!

Truth is, after some days spent in pain, Lion started thinking about his life. He thought how suffering, as it is part of life, it's also something that we have to not let take over our heart.
He learned that many times in life we're going to get hurt, but it's how we respond to that pain that determines what we are made of.

It's okay to suffer for love, just cowards and heartless people never do. But Lion understands now that there's a time when we need to say "no" to our heart, because he can get addicted to a lioness even though she's not the lioness of one's life.
Because, when defining "being the woman (or lioness) of one's life", we have to understand that it's not just one being in love with that person (or lioness), it's also getting some love in return.

Love is definitely a beautiful thing, but it's not worth it if all it gives us is pain. We may need to suffer, but sooner or later we have to get something good out of it, otherwise it's not worth the pain.

One thing that is always worth it is living in a way as much positive as possible! Taking the opportunities that life presents to us and enjoying the ride, not letting any blocking obsession get in our way...

Is Lion definitely cured from whatever love, obsession or passion that he feels for that specific lioness?!
No, I don't think so...
Did he understand he needs to be stronger than that feeling and search for happiness in other places and with other felines?!
Sure!

As a final announcement, Lion is back with his chest pumped up with will to live, and finally determined to let other lionesses get into his life.

This is another self-portrait showing the - maybe forced, but true - confidence with which Lion is determined to start facing life and the lionesses he'll be wanting to meet, from now on!

The technique I used to make this one was the same as the last one.
By the way, Morgaine, "Indian Ink" is what we call "Tinta da China". I don't really know why the country changes with the translation, but well... That's what they call it! xP
Turning the outline into a vector is what I usually do in illustrations like this, where there's a "cartoony" shape with an outline.
There's this software called Illustrator that is made for - make your bets - illustration. And it works with vectors rather than just with bitmaps.

The difference between a vector and a bitmap is that the vector is not treated like an image, but an object. This way, when you zoom in into a vector, you don't get to see any pixels, as you will if you zoom in into a bitmap image, which is a map of tiny pixels.
We can then shape and colour a vector as a complete surface, and stretch it as much as we like without loss of quality (which we can't in an image).

So, by turning the outline into a vector and paint the drawing using Illustrator (creating vectors rather than maps of pixels), I'll be creating an image that I can stretch to whatever size or resolution I want, just needing to stretch it in Illustrator and then drag it into Photoshop, where it will be turned into a regular image, as a map of pixels (already in the size I want to be working), and then paint the shadows and highlights, with my Wacom tablet, to make that cool effect that you usually see in Lions' pictures since Bullions' new image got out!

Stay cool, people!
Peace ;p

"(...) life is a lesson | you learn it when you're through (...)" (Limp Bizkit)

Howdy, people!

It's Easter holidays.
One week to be with the family (or try)...
One week to relax and do something more than just work (or try)...

Basically, this week that is ending was almost all filled with being at home working on the course's final project.
Of course there was time for other things, like drawing stuff for fun, talking to friends (even if almost only by Messenger), even playing a little PS2 (I have to admit I missed it), etc.

On a depressing final of the week, I took my time to draw, between several things, a kind of emotional self-portrait, representing how Lion was feeling in these final days of the week.

I did it using the same technique I always use:
Drawing it on paper, outline it with my faithful Indian ink artist pen. Then I scanned it into my Mac, turned the outline into vector and colour it in Illustrator.
Finally I imported it from Photoshop and did the final art (shadows, highlights and reflection).

Some people asked me: What happened to Lion?! Why is he sad?!
Well, it was hard for me to get an answer from him, but it turns out that he's sad and depressed because there was this she-lion that he loved for a long time, and he found out she's going out with another lion...

Poor Lion. His heart got crushed into a thousand pieces...
Let's hope he heals fast, because we need the old funny Lion with the fantastic sense of humour.
One thing that will definitely help trying to get him to smile again is if there's some new comments on the Vault and on this post! Keep them coming, please, friends!

Stay cool, people!
Peace ;p

Alma Dupla

Howdy, people!

This is a work I did for a birthday gift to my beautiful twin friends, Catarina and Vanessa.
The work consisted in making the graphics for two cups. Each of them to each sister.

My idea was to blend a photo of each girl in a background paper texture, and then use the concept of "water drops" to insert half of the sisters' clothing brand's logo, in each cup.
After that, digitally inserting the signatures of all parties involved in the gift and, finally, getting an effect that would make possible, while putting the two cups side-by-side, close together, to make the entire logo (which works based on the idea of two female symmetric souls facing each other). This way, making stronger the idea that the two sisters (represented by the two souls) complete each other.

These were the final results...

This was the graphic made for Catarina's cup.
As she is the most energetic and dynamic of the two sisters, the graphic for her cup is, mostly, red.

And this was the graphic made for Vanessa's cup.
As she is the most calm and harmonious of the two sisters, the graphic for her cup is, mostly, blue.

I hope you liked it.
Stay cool!
Peace ;p

Guitar's Voice

Howdy, people!

I've not been posting here as much as I liked and as I should have. This was a logo I made for a band called Guitar's Voice.

I hope you like it.
Stay cool!
Peace ;p

ETIC_Xmas '08

Howdy, people!

It has been almost three months since the last post. I promise I will go back to post more frequently. It's just that the last weeks in school, before Christmas, were crazy. And when I entered these mini-holidays, I just got really, really lazy, having so much time to sleep and all.

Anyway, the routine is back, and with it came a new power of will to work even harder and start being more active in my 2 web blogs (let's see how long I can take it).

I decided to start this "comeback" to the Vault with a product of a team work. Teaming up with my collegues PWNY and Jusko, I created this communicative poster for a work selling and demonstration faire that our classes made happen at our school, early on December, this past year.

I hope you enjoy. More to be coming in no time (I hope).
Stick around and keep visiting, commenting and showing to your friends, family and everyone you can think of. I promise I'll be more active from now on.

Stay cool, people!... And take care!
Peace ;p

Wallpapers #2 - NCB, ETIC and Coriscada's Wallpapers

More wallpapers' experiences...
This time, they're not dedicated to Bullions.
They're dedicated to three other things (from top to bottom):
"NCB" (the Portuguese korfball club you might remember from my old video-post "Treino NCB"), ETIC (my school for the course of Design of Comunication and Multimedia), and Coriscada (my grandparents' little home village).

Hope you people like it...
Stay cool, everyone!
Peace ;p

Wallpapers #1 - Bullions Wallpapers

Howdy, people!
It's been a while, I know, but I am back to post some more of my artworks, here, at the Vault.
This time I decided to post a series of six walppapers made in honour of the "father-blog", Bullions (where "Lion" was "born"). The wallpapers are not in a final version, and they're not in any final resolution.

What I mean is that these here are just for display at the Vault (you can see they're watermarked as I usually do in my works here), but you can ask for one or more (for free, of course), through the e-mail of Bullions (you can see the address at the end of Bullions' sidebar).
Just ask for your favourite and tell me the dimensions (in pixels) of your screen...

Anyway... These were made in a mix of experiences and tutorials I've been working over in these last days (we have to keep learning, otherwise we're doomed, right?! xP).

Hope you like it... And feel free to comment!
Stay cool!
Peace ;p

Best Of Ill Niño (Album and Concert for "Graphic Production")

WOW! This has to be some kind of record that I have just broken!... This is the 2nd post in row! (2 posts in 2 days... I'm the David Villa of the blogs, now... or not)

This time, I present you an artwork I made as a phantom work for the New Metal American band called "Ill Niño"! It was the final work for "Graphic Production", in Design of Communication and Multimedia, at ETIC.

The idea was to choose a music band/artist and make a whole production for them, creating a Pin, CD cover, CD label and the poster and ticket for a phantom show they would have at a specific time and place (informations given by the teacher).

I thought of doing a campaign for a "10 year celebration" CD... A "Best Of". I think they already made a "Best Of"... But I don't care. I did a "Best Of Ill Niño" anyway!

I hope you like it!... More artwork coming in no time! I have to put this blog moving!
Stay cool, people!
Peace ;p

Work for a friend #1

Okay... I'm sorry that I haven't done much updating in my Vault, lately, but I had a pretty major reason for that: I had 2 weeks of doing nothing (let the one of you guys that never felt like doing "nothing" when you go on holidays throw the first rock)!

But, do not despair, my dear fans (aka mom, dad and sister), Lion's back and with a nice little project of a personal wallpaper for a friend.

It's nothing too fancy, I know... But I kind of like the result, here.
I mean, just the work on the girl: She's actually ugly as hell!...
Okay, okay... She's even more beautiful than she looks on the image, so I had no work there.
But, there's the wings (came from a seagull's picture from SXC, and got some lighting, saturation and brushing to look more "angelically white"), the sky (completely "handmade", with a blue to lighter blue gradient and a lot of hand brushing and clouds' brushes), the tattoo, lettering and the light beam done with Pen Tool and Layer Effects!

Hope you people enjoy. And, please, comment!
First one to comment will receive her personal contact as an award!
... NOT! Don't even think about it... But, please... Just a little "feedback" on a comment!

Stay cool, people!
Peace ;p

PS: For a correct visualization of the image, please click on it so your browser opens the file on the original size (original size of the web version, of course). Giving that, as said above, it's a Wallpaper, it's made to be seen big, and not in a kind of small "thumbnail" like it's presented on the post.
It's not going to be suddenly perfect, but it sure will look a little better...