Again, I have been featured in another article on CNN's website which tells us about fan art creations; written by Henry Hanks.
[link]

He vuelto a salir en otro articulo en la web de CNN que trata sobre el fenómeno fan art; escrito por Henry Hanks
[link]

I have been recently invited by Henry Hanks from CNN iReport to write a short article telling how, as an artist, Game of Thrones has inspired me. Check it out
ILLUSTRATING A GAME OF THRONES- CNN IReport [link]


He sido recientemente invitado por Henry Hanks de CNN iReport a escribir un breve articulo contando de qué manera Juego de Tronos ha inspirado mi trabajo como ilustrador. Podeis leerlo aquí (en inglés)


ILLUSTRANDO JUEGO DE TRONOS- CNN IReport [link]

The next Expomanga Comic-Con of Madrid is coming. "El Pabellon de Cristal de la Casa de Campo" will host this big event in which fans around the country will enjoy a lovely environment full of Manga comics, cosplays, guest artists, some samples of the Oriental Culture and of course, exhibitions.
One of the exhibitions of this year is the Tribute to Akira Toriyama's DRAGON BALL. It will be made up of illustrations from several artists and some of them will be mine. Maybe the most remarkable think about my 4 illustrations is that the Majin Bu's portrail, which is an original of one metre height oil-portrait on board, will be there, so it is your opportunity to watch it in live. I hope all of you enjoy the exhibition and the Expomanga and remember: 11-13th MAY in MADRID. You can find more information on their  FACEBOOK's Page [link]

El próximo Expomanga está a la vuelta de la esquina. Este año, el Pabellón de Cristal de la Casa de Campo de Madrid albergara este gran evento en el que fans de todo el pais se dan cita para disfrutar de unos días de Manga, cosplays, artistas invitados, algunas muestras de la cultura oriental y por supuesto exposiciones. Una de las de este años es la del Homenaje a la obra del Maestro Toriyama, Dragon Ball, la cual estará formada por ilustraciones de diferentes artistas entre ellas las mías. Tal vez lo más remarcable de mis 4 aportaciones es que el retrato de Majin Bu (un original de un metro de altura pintado al óleo sobre tabla) también estará allí, así que es la oportunidad perfecta para verlo en vivo. Espero que disfrutéis de la expo y del Salón. Recordad, 11-13 de Mayo en Madrid. Podeis encontrar más información en su página de FACEBOOK [link]

Sorry for the lag of posts but as some of you know, I have recently move to England. It's being difficult days for carry on all the responsibilities (studying the language and manage all the commissions) so I have no time enough to keep the blog updated. Anyway, I would like to share with you my last interview for Grandes Artistas (it's in spanish) in whitch I outline about my job and my illustrations. I hope that it would be useful or at least interesting for you. Furthemore, I'm glad to announce that I have been featured at the second issue of Erotic Fantasy Art which is published by ILEX. Inside them, you will find three of my illustrations. Two of them are showed at the bottom of the post and the last one cannot be shown in digital medias yet because of the contract agreement's terms with my client. So if you want to watch it, you might go and buy your book

GRANDES ARTISTAS INTERVIEW--[link] (Only in Spanish)

Disculpad la ausencia de posts pero como algunos ya sabéis, recientemente me he mudado a Inglaterra. Está siendo días de mucho trabajo y no puedo atender correctamente todas mis responsabilidades. Asistir  a clases y pintar todos los encargos apenas deja tiempo libre para responder mensajes o tener el blog al día. Aun así, dejo aquí un enlace a una entrevista que me hicieron recientemente desde el blog Grandes Artistas en el cual hablo de mi trabajo y dibujos. Espero que os resulte útil o al menos entretenida. Además me complace anunciar que tres de mis ilustraciones han sido publicadas en el segundo volumen de Erotic Fantasy Art que publica ILEX. Podeis ver dos de las imágenes justo aquí abajo y la tercera no puedo enseñarla en medios digitales todavía por acuerdos con mi cliente, de modo que si queréis verla tendréis que hacheros con un ejemplar del libro

GRANDES ARTISTAS ENTREVISTA--[link]

I will be this weekend at the Tourney of Stahleck 2011 witch is celebrated in Germany. I will draw commisions, sign cards and sell some prints of my illustrations (Dragon Ball, A Game of Thrones included). See you there!



Este fin de semana estaré en el Torneo de Stahleck 2011 que se celebra en Alemania. Estaré por alli dibujando encargos, firmando cartas y vendiendo algunas láminas de mis ilustraciones (Dragon Ball, Juego de tronos incluidas). Espero veros!

Fantasy Art is a Chinese monthly printed magazine with full of interviews of illustrators from all over the world. Some weeks ago I received a couple of samples of the may 2011 issue, in which I was interviewed. I don't understand Chinese but I suppose it says something like this (I hope):


You can read the full interview in spanish here
PART 1 [link]
PART 2  [link]


1.You did so many portrait painting, in the early year, but most of their subject is life. When you did the illustration, you did so many different subjects, from the sci-fi to fantasy, form the human to monster. But the most is human. So, I want to know, is that because you like to painting human?
Or just because it was what your most be familiar with?
I usually paint people, as well as being my job I thoroughly enjoy it. I like developing my paintings through human figures and portraits. It is often a common subject of study with a great expressive strength.
As spectators, the human figure or face is what most captures our attention. We are closely related to them. We tend to humanize all we see around us and because of this reason I like working with this topic, I want to pass on the personality of the things I paint.

2.Please talk about the Buccaneer subject. I saw you had did many images about this subject. Why?
The pirate was one of the first series that I decided to paint with a wacom tablet after several years in which I did no digital painting. The idea was simple; I wanted to paint a single character at different stages of her life, since she was sailor up until she became a famous pirate.
These images were actually meant to be used for an online game but it finally didn't happen. I became very fond of the character and I painted some more illustrations around the same idea. Who doesn't like pirates?

3. Do you want to talk about your fans painting, like the Dragon Ball series. Why you will did them? Was the Dragon Ball that your favourite manga? Do you like other manga? Or Anime?
This thing of fan art began in my last years at school, I started to paint characters that we are used to see in a cartoon or pixel style, but in a rather more human or realistic way.
I remember teachers were surprised to see those pictures. But I had a lot of fun and they had quite a good reception so I decided to paint more and more. I've been painting fan art of my favorite TV series such Dragon Ball. In Spain it caused a huge rattle and marked a whole generation of children. Also enjoyed Kinnikuman and of course, Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

4. Your work keep some peculiarity of oil painting, like the some "big brush", some omission. Not like some new Digital Arts, ever thing is detailed. I must say, some oil skill base on the peculiarity of Oil painting, and it not really rightness with digital art. How do you think about this question? How do you chose what you will keep?
I think that is a matter of style. It doesn't matter if you paint in a more polished or rough way. What's really important is if it works on the illustration. In my case, I guess that because of using traditional media in my early career, I have a way of understanding the creative process ina more traditional way and maybe that's why I paint like I would do with brushes and color pencils or similar stuff. But in the end, like I usually say, style is constantly evolving and who knows how we will draw ten years from now?

5. You had strong skill of the texture. Could you talk about some experience or small knack of it?
Just as color, brightness or shape, texture is an important subject to keep in mind when we paint. It gives to the surfaces a more believable look and they are also the traces of the creative process. I have in mind an interview to Craig Mullins in which he talked about one of his sketches (Tarzan kneeling in front of a cliff, holding a spear). He established hierarchies based on the properties of each surface. You could see clean shadows almost lost in the floor, where the knees hold all the weight. The straight and tangible hair or the fluffy clouds that were done with loose brush strokes contrast with the hand holding a spear which was treated with strong gesture. These are small details that give credibility to our drawings and we must know how to apply properly.


6. How do you think about the modern art ask the expression of self and the deconstruction of reality? It so different with the applied arts like illustration that ask the artist for the precision and the concrete. Do you think those two different art will have some intersection?
It's a touchy subject. I think that there is a place for every sorts of art as long as it's beautiful. Most of modern art falls in the concept of the breakdown of the traditional art and forgets that the success of art is the aesthetic experience. Maybe I decided to aim my efforts in illustration because in this area it's more clear what works and what not. You don't need a piece of paper along with your drawing to explain your work.
Even though, I think being an illustrator doesn't mean refusing your personal expression, quite the opposite. Although we sometimes work with franchises and characters that aren't ours, all the drawings have the spirit and soul of their creator and just like art you'd fing at galleries, it's very easy to recognize the author of a drawing by his quirks and clichés

7. You did so many yellow tone images, is that because you like the yellow tone?
Not specially, I suppose that I do it subconsciously. Since yellow is a color that I associate to light, and my drawings are distinguished by a rather "natural" treatment of light. In the other hand, I guess that when I think about something epic, posters such as the Indiana Jones' saga by Drew Struzan with typical yellow sunset lights or warm atmospheres that Rembrandt used to paint in his indoor pictures come to my mind.

8. Your colour looks amazing. Do you want tell us how do you chose the colour? And how do you make them so different?
The color palette is something that builds up according to the illustration progresses. I usually haven't got a clear idea when I start to draw, so I like to think for a while about the colors that the location I want to paint could have. If it's bright, gloomy, cold, warm, etc. I also look at other authors to get an idea of color schemes that could work in each situation. Then I just get on with it. There are some good tricks like not repeating the same color tones or trying to keep the more saturated or light tones focused in only one or two points of the illustration

9. Do you have some advices to younger artist?
Probably I'd tell them what I tell myself every morning. Don't be discouraged and try to be persistent and critical with your work. Painting is a hard job that requires a lot of commitment with yourself if you want to improve your skills. But with time, it provides many satisfactions. So all in all, enjoy what you do!

10. What you plan for the future?
My future plans are quite uncertain. I don't even know what I'm going to do next week! For the moment I want to continue improving my skills and trying to work with more important companies. I'm interested in everything, from concept art to illustration and cover art, so I don't want to get stuck in anything. I usually think about going to live to London for some months to improve my English and maybe find some new work opportunities there.

Fantasy Art is a Chinese monthly printed magazine with full of interviews of illustrators from all over the world. Some weeks ago I received a couple of samples of the may 2011 issue, in which I was interviewed. I don't understand Chinese but I suppose it says something like this (I hope):

*you can read the interview in spanish here

[link]



1 Please first introduce yourself

My name is Nacho Molina, I'm a 25-year-old artist from a small town called Beneixama (Spain). For the last seven years I've been living in Valencia (SPAIN), where I majored in Fine Arts at UPV in 2008. Ever since then I've been working as an illustrator and concept artist in a various projects.

2 How did you find your way to becoming an artist?

I guess most people start the same way. I've always been interested in drawing, since I was a child. I must say that I spent most of my childhood watching TV, because at that time the cartoon and videogame industry were at it's best (I recall spending many summer evenings copying Dragon Ball and Metal Gear drawings). At the age of 18 I decided to study Fine Arts, to learn how to draw and paint properly so I could become a great artist instead of doing it just for fun.

3 How did you get your first art job? What is the story of that?

After finishing my studies, I started painting oil portraits on commission but if you ask me about an illustration gig in particular I'd say that it was a poster for a short movie of a Spanish producer (When Apollo met Dionysus). The director of the short contacted me by e-mail after seeing some of my work on the Internet. He thought my style would be perfect to do the poster, and I remember thinking "Great! I'll make a poster for a movie! What would Struzan do in my place?"
Actually, I was pretty new at this and I didn't know exactly how to approach a movie poster. I started sketching digitally but I wasn't satisfied with that so I tried painting it with oils, but to be honest I wasn't very happy with that either, so finally I snapped a copy of the oil painting and finished it in Photoshop. It was a lot of work, but in the end I was quite happy and the customer was satisfied.

4 How did you find your artistic style?

It's complicated because style is something continuously evolving, especially in one's early years. In my case, I received a rather traditional art training in painting and drawing. I always felt very close to classical figurative art (from Velázquez to Sargent) and you can notice those influences in my work. When I finished my studies I discovered the world of digital painting and somehow I dragged that traditional training to my digital work, that's why there is a strong traditional feeling to it. However, as I always say, your style is the sum of all the styles you like, stuff you absorb even if you don't want to.

5 Which artist has influenced you the most?

Everything that I see and hear is an influence to me. A landscape, a sunset, a scene from a movie or an interesting conversation, a story and of course other artists. There are many and from each one I take something maybe from his style, his thematic or I simply fall in love of their quality. Besides A. Toriyama, I remember being fascinated as a kid with the works of Alan Lee and John Howe. I guess that by looking at their work on Tolkien's books I got curious on how they achieved to create such wonders just based on a written source. They were one of my earliest influences to become an illustrator. Step by step I have been discovering and rediscovering artists that in some moment have had a strong influence on me, and like I said before even without wanting they show up when I'm painting something like the second and third voices in a choir. But if I have to name a few of my influences I would say Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Alphonse Mucha, Adam Hughes, Craig Mullins, Drew Struzan and many others.

6 How long does a new image generally take you to create?

Drawings usually take me between 4-7 days. But it depends on the theme, the look I want to give them and of course, how inspired I feel.

7 How do you train your skill in the usually?

The best training is daily work and learning to observe. We learn to paint while painting, but we should teach our hand, eyes and mind because they are an indivisible team. Besides drawing, it's good disconnect and to do other stuff, because if not you would run the risk of getting stuck within yourself and becoming redundant.
Also, it's very useful to look at the work of other people who paint better than you and whom you can learn valuable lessons from. You should be auto critical and realise that everything can be done better.
It's also quite helpful to get out; a lot of answers we look for in front of our workspace or tablet are in nature. You just have to know where to look for!
8．When starting a new work, what is the first thing you think about? Can you describe your work flow and process?

I try to concentrate and tap into what I paint, I try to imagine how that world may be, how the clothes may look and what attitude may they have. Then I try to picture mentally a powerful scene, evoking or interesting and sketch it quickly on paper before I forget it. Sometimes it's too hard to find a really good composition. I try to document myself as much as I can to be sure I can achieve what I aim for. Planning is an important stage because if it's done properly everything flows smoother. Although, I do improvise quite a bit while I paint something. It's true that when ideas take shape on the screen, you have to know how to dialogue with them and answer accordingly (What is wrong? What does this image need?). The first steps are always the hardest ones for me and I'm not calmed until I'm able to work out the light and the space in my drawing. It's from this point that I relax and I start enjoying my work.

9 Do you listen to music while working? What kind of music is your favorite? How does the music affect your artwork?

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. At early stages (composition, first spots, lights and shadows, etc) I prefer working in silence, for I get easily distracted. But once the illustration is on it's way I love listening to music.
I'm quite fond of Hard Rock and classic old school heavy metal ... Judas Priest, KISS, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Led Zeppelin, etc and I also enjoy soundtracks.
Music is great and sometimes it marks a rhythm of your work and helps to tuning better with your job. I sometimes look back at my old drawings, and recall the song or album I was listening at the time.
10 How do you usually find inspiration?

It's very important knowing what you're painting, so previous research is vital to tune in what you're going to paint. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I had to paint a concept piece for a movie script that took place in WWII. They asked me for a plane's viewpoint of the russian fields of Kursk, with all the tanks in the middle of the battle. That day I was at my parent's house, so my brother and I got in the car and went up a hill nearby for where I could see the whole valley, and understand how it feels to see everything from high above. That same afternoon I spent some time with my grandfather, and asked him about the war and how people live back in the day. With all that information and further research on WWII, I started working on the painting.
Some other times it's quite useful to look back at other artist's work to get in situation, for example, if I've got to paint barbarians, looking at Frazetta's and Buscema's work or watching barbarian movies would be very helpful, I'd see what has been done on that theme (clothing, cliches…)
Despite everything I've mentioned, many times a painting simply resists, and the composition just doesn't work. In these cases the best you can do is going to bed and probably tomorrow everything will work out (a lot of paintings I've done came to my mind just before going to sleep).
   
11 What is your most difficult challenge when making art? How do you overcome it?

It's a double race, you've got to find professional openings which suit your work, and you've got to get people and firms to know you, and at the same time you race against yourself.
With the first one the main difficulty is that you don't know how to call the attention of editors or how to connect with their work. To tell the truth most of the times the customer has come to me ant not the other way arround. There's a lot of good artists willing to work with important companies and just can't achieve it, and many other companies take advantage of young inexperience artists and barely pay them what their work and talent is worth. But all this escapes our control.
Then we have the race against yourself, what you demand yourself and overcoming whatever may show up day after day makes this a very hard profession (time to time you encounter an old painting you can't even look at anymore)… The secret is being persistent and not getting obsessive, it's all part of a continuous learning process and we all evolve inevitably.
  
12 How many companies have you worked for? What the peculiarity of each company your feel? Please simple introduce.

I've been working as an illustrator for just a few years and I haven't worked with that many companies, but the companies I have worked for are quite different one from another, I've worked for both spanish and american companies, I've done stuff for RPGs, card games, concept art for movies, advertising, videogames, character design, comibook covers, illustrated books…(Blizzard, Fantasy Flight Games, Image, Luminous Arts, Imperial Design LLC., Contrapunto Co., Bromera Publishing, etc)
Each company treats you in a different way, not to speak about the money, sometimes the customer gives you freedom to paint whatever you want to, and other you are tied and have to paint exactly what they ask you to. A comic cover requires a completely different approach than an illustration for game card or for a concept piece. Although the basics are the same for all of them, there are certain elements that make a painting more suitable for a purpose or another.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

Fantasy Flight Games has announced that I will be one of the Special Guess Artists that will asist to the seventh Tourney of the Castle of Stahlek (Germany), where there will be a trading card competition for all the fans of A Game of Thrones LCG and Warhammer Invasion LCG.

You can find all the information here [link]


Fantasy Flight Games ha anunciado que asistiré como artista invitado al próximo Torneo de Stahlek que se celebra en dicho castillo (Alemania) y en donde tendrá lugar un campeonato para todos los fans de Juego de Tronos LCG y Warhammer Invasion en su versiones de cartas.

Podeis encontrar toda la información referente al evento y a cómo apuntarse aquí [link]

Este jueves 28 a las 19.30 inauguro exposición en la Sala Bancaja Abadía de Castellón. Teneis toda la información en blog [link]

Ya está lista la página en Facebook. Ahora tambien podeis seguir y compartir las últimas actualizaciones con vuestros contactos de la red social simplemente con un "Me gusta". Os dejo aquí el link.

SÍGUEME EN FACEBOOK [link]



My Facebook page is already. Now you can follow and share the last updates with your friends of the social network just with a "I like it". This is the link.

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK [link]

Ya he colgado en Youtube el speed painting de Almería. Podeis verme pintar en vivo en este enlace:

[link]

I have upload on Youtube the speed painting of Almería. Now you can watch me painting at real time in this link:

[link]

Quiero anunciarles que desde el 11 de Noviembre al 11 de Diciembre y tendremos una exposición retrospectiva de nuestros trabajos digitales en las Jornadas del Comic de Almeria, donde tambien daremos una pequeña demostración de speedpainting en vivo (esto será el sábado 13 por la mañana), más información aqui [link].

From 11st November to 11st December and   will have a retrospective exhibition of our digital works in the Almeria Comic Con. Also we will perform a live demostration of digital speedpainting (it will be Saturday 13, morning) more info here. [link]

Ya ha sido publicada la revista online dedicada a ilustración THE ART PLAYGROUND MAGAZINE que en su tercer número trae mi dibujo de God Panther en portada. En su interior podreis encontrar una selección de trabajos de varios artistas así como completas entrevistas a cada uno de ellos (eso si, en inglés).
Podeis descargarla en este enlace Megaupload ([link] formato PDF y haceros con numeros atrasados en el blog de la revista ([link].

Y para los que no os aclareis mucho con el inglés podeis encontrar la entrevista traducida al español en mi BLOG www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com



It has been published the illustration magazine online THE ART PLAYGROUND in its third issue brings my GOD PANTHER drawing on the cover. Inside you can find a selection of works by several artists as well as complete interviews with each of them (in English).
You can download a PDF of the 3rd issue in the Megaupload [link] and find past issues here ([link].

And for those who don't understand English you can find the interview translated into Spanish in my BLOG
www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com

De salón en salón y tiro porque me toca. Simplemente anunciar un par de exposiciones colectivas para las próximas semanas. La primera es una exposición dedicada a la obra de Miyazaki en el Salón del Manga de Granada y la segunda es otra al 70 aniversario de Batman en el Salón del Comic de Almería en la cual he participado con esta pieza [link]

I just want to announce a couple of collective exhibitions in the following weeks. The first is dedicated to the work of Miyazaki at the Manga Comic-con of Granada and the second for the 70th aniversary of Batman at the Almería Comic-con in whose I participe with these piece [link]

Ya ha llegado a mis manos un ejemplar del Previews de este més y tal y como os prometí aquí os muestro mi dibujo en la esquina de la página 8. Bieeeeen!!! La impresión no es que me complazca mucho ya que esta totalmente oscura y se pierden todas las sombras pero bueno... ya se sabe que con los de imprenta uno se puede esperar cualquier cosa mala.

En cualquier caso aqui podeis ver el enlace a mi blog con la página en cuestion.

www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com

Gracias Toni por guardarme un ejemplar. Amigos, compren tebeos en Gotham Comics, Valencia!!!



I already have the Previews magazine of this month and as i promised you I show my illustration in the corner of the page 8. I don't like the print so much because it's too dark and all the shadow tones have been lost. But the prints shops are sinonimos of something bad done as everybody knows.

In any case you can see te page in the link to my blog.

www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com

Thanks Toni for save me a magazine. Buy comics in Gotham comics Valencia my friends!

PREVIEWS [link], la revista americana especializada en cómic y su version online me han nombrado Artista del Mes por la ilustración de Arma X ([link] que pinte hace unos meses.
Por ahora tan solo puedo mostrar el enlace a la web, pero a ver si me hago con una de ellas la semana que viene cuando lleguen a España para ver que bien queda impresa en la esquina de una hoja.
De momento podeis verla en este enlace: STAR ARTIST OF THE MONTH [link]

PREVIEWS [link], the american comic magazine and its online version, have named me Star Artist of the Month by the illustration of Weapon X ([link] that I pinted a couple of months ago.
I only can show you the web link but I want to catch one of the printed magazines the next week when it arrives to Spain and see my picture printed in a corner of a page.
Now you can see it in this link: STAR ARTIST OF THE MONTH [link]

Ya podeis ver algunas fotos de los oleos originales expuestos del día 18 de septiembre al 1 de octubre en los siguientes enlaces.

You can see some photos of the original oils that are being exposed from 18th september to 1st october in Alicante in the following links.

[link]

[link]

[link]

[link]

EXPOSICIÓN de PINTURA,NACHO MOLINA
El próximo viernes 18 de Septiembre se inaugura en La Sala de Ámbito Cultural de El Corte Inglés de Alicante (Avenida de Federico Soto 1-3, 5a planta) una exposición que recoge una pequeña muestra de mis últimos trabajos de pintura al óleo.
Para quienes quieran y puedan asistir a la ceremonia de apertura será ese mismo viernes 18 a las 19.30 aunque los cuadros permanecerán expuestos hasta el día 1 de octubre de lunes a viernes de 10:00 a 14:00 y de 17:00 a 21:00.

Más información consultar este www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com
¡Estais todos invitados!


NACHO MOLINA's PAINTING EXHIBITION

Next Friday, the 18th of September there inaugurates in The Room of Cultural Area of El Corte Ingés of Alicante (Federico Soto's Avenue 1-3, 5th floor) an exhibition that gathers a small sample of my last works of oil paint.
For whom they want and could be present at the ceremony of opening it will be the same Friday, the 18th to the 19.30 though the pictures will remain exposed until October 1 from Monday until Friday of 10:00 to 14:00 and of 17:00 to 21:00.

More information to consult this www.nachomolinablog.blogspot.com
You're all guests!