The Shape of Water

I'm back!!!!! I mean, I never left, just been busy babies!

Here's a vintage inspired poster for the movie "The Shape of Water". Go see this movie, it's beautiful, sad, and moving. If you love Pan's Labyrinth, you'll fall in love with this new film by Guillermo De Toro.

I wanted to do something fun and reminiscent of retro film and dance posters. Trying to be as subtle and non descriptive as possible in the piece so i didn't draw spoilers.

I love the colors in the film and hope I did it justice here.

see you soonish and enjoy!!

Alpha 5unk

Heres' a fun piece i just finished for Meltdown Comics "Power Rangers" art show sponsored by Saban. Crazy i get to contribute to something i vividly grew up with as a kid. So rather than draw the rangers, I challenged myself with giving a minor character a cooler look. Alpha 5 was always that cartoonish robot so here he is with a more Daft Punk inspired tone.

some art notes:

• panting scratched up brass is hard so used different sized strokes for scratches. 
• "Alpha 5unk" was the best title i could come up with, my other option was "Up all night to get morphin" but it didn't sit right with me lol.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Willy Wonka

Back at it again with the blog post

Wanted to show you guys the 1st contribution I've made to the Creature Features art gallery show. This piece was for there Roald Dahl gallery show back in June 26th. I decided to draw the one terrifying scene from 1 of my favorite films, Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I will never forget the insane yet calm expression on Gene Wilder during the boat scene. painting this even gave me the chills, just something about his smile made me uneasy.

Hope you guys dig it, i had so much fun doing this for the show! Whomever bought the original also got a bonus surprise on the back as I painted an Oompa Loompa behind the frame.

The Sailors Way

custom carved "W" and acrylic Oompa Loompa!

Hello Internet!

Hi io9!

Today is an awesome day, I've been featured in io9! I can't say how happy I am and to hear all the nice feedback from everyone about my art. Since my website MrMauro.com can't handle the power of the internet, I'm going to post some of my more recent projects here.

for anyone interested in commissioning work, feel free to contact me @ MauroBalcazar@gmail.com


on to the work :-)

Here are 2 Mural I designed and painted for the Newark Venture Partners in downtown Newark NJ. I went with a very futuristic art deco meets tron feel. It took almost 3 solid weeks of non stop painting to get done.

I did a movie screening this Christmas and illustrated a poster for my favorite Christmas movie, Jingle all the way. Here's my design for the poster we gave away at the screening. also included is the invite i painted for the event.

                              

Now that the X-Files is back on screen, i thought its great timing to show you a design i illustrated for threadless' X-Files shirt contest. Based off of my favorite episode, "The Unnatural", here's Josh Exley in all his Baseball glory. watch the episode, it will make you cry, sorry not sorry. 

Heres a new take on the "Martian" illustration i did. It's based off of a scene in the book i quite liked with Watney trying to pose for a picture as the Fonz. Really liked the book and I hope it shows in this piece. 

lastly, some digital paintings i did on the ipad a while ago of Iron man. This was a fun way to destress after a long day. 

Dead but Delicious... What We Do In The Shadows!

Please Please go and see What We do in the Shadows ASAP! I haven't laughed so hard watching a movie in a very very long time. 

 Immediately after the film i just had to draw one of my favorite scenes from the film with Jemaine Clements Character "Vladislav'. 

The movie is hitting US theaters in limited release in February and you can support the movie by visiting their Kickstarter campaign so please check it out! - M

Hail Caesar!...rise of the planet of the apes

After watching rise of the planet of the apes I needed to draw something fast! The movie was so much fun and its amazing how far CGI has come. I honestly forgot the apes weren't real very soon once the movie started. I thoroughly enjoyed the first rebooted film and this one really stands out on its own as a great film into the franchise.

So i whipped this drawing up. and what i thought would be a quick little drawing turned into a full fledged painting, a lot of fun was had with this piece, enjoy!


*UPDATE!!!

after posting this I saw that Caesar himself, Andy Serkis, had liked my photo on Instagram. This has made my day!! really glad I got to draw this. Now go watch the movie!!!

"I tried to think of the most harmless thing" Stay Puft - 55 Central Park West

I've always been in love with Ghostbusters. It's a part of my childhood and hard wired to my creativity. I recently found a stack of 17 x 6 watercolor board and really wanted to do something interesting with it. What better way then to utilize the length of the paper by drawing that infamous building where gozer the gozerian conquered (well, tried to anyway).

This was done using ink wash, watercolor, colored pencil, and micron pens. really happy the way this came out.

fun fact. on Saturday April 19th, I visit the Hook and ladder 8 firehouse and donated this piece to the fire fighters working that night. Was a really great moment and I couldn't be happier knowing the art is where it should be :-)

Pacific Rim, the Movie Poster by Mauro Balcazar

I can't wait for this film.

I've been a fan of del Toro for many years, I've gone as far as meeting the man on a book signing even after my car had been broken into earlier in the day (Thanks you bastards). I had brought him a drawing I made him when i was younger, looking back now it was very rough and it's cool to see how my art has developed over the years. (pictured below). He was a great guy to talk to, very friendly and instantly spoke to me in Spanish when he saw me. Threw me off because it felt like i was talking to a normal person, i don't bust the Spanish out for just anyone, even my GF was awe struck lol.

When you mix my love for giant Monster movies and Robots you get the awesome that is Pacific Rim! I remember seeing the director Guillermo del Toro talk about the film at New York Comic Con (i Snuck into the press Q&A and got so close to asking him a question :-/ ). He talked about the Kaiju Monster films that inspired him making the film and what a great experience Pacific Rim was going to be. I thought, finally, a great Monster Movie done by a Westerner!!!!

The excitement continued when my GF and I bought tix to go see him speak at the Nerdist podcast live after the NYCC. He talked about the film further, going into detail about the Kaiju culture and the awesome Mechs that the films human characters pilot. It was a great night, hearing someone i actually admire talk about movies and his passion for making them (he talked about having to fight the studios to get Ron Perlman cast as Hellboy for Christ's sake!). 

 After hearing all this awesome pacific Rim talk, and after the trailer came out, I really wanted to try and design something that I would have loved to see adorn a movie theater. Honestly, I drew this for myself, when it was all done i stepped back and realize dthat this is why i am so looking forward to seeing the movie. Giant landscapes and two titans battling with the city as there backdrop, it's epic in scale and i get a feeling of wonder. (imagine if Cloverfield had to fight a robot, it'd even the odds lol)  Obviously I'm not privy to the monster designs so i embellished what i could on the poster.

so there you have it, I hope you like it. I know it's not a Modo print ( one day :-) i wish) but a lot went into this poster and I hope you connect to it in some way.

enjoy!- M

MIB3 Men in Black 3 poster by Mauro Balcazar

Hi, I think it's fitting for me to end, possibly, my Men in Black related art thread with a psychedelic inspired poster for the 3rd film. I've drawn as many characters and retro aliens as I could find. I really love young Agent K's look. it's like a cross between the Mad Men era and the Andy Warhol scene mashed up. really bright colors which i try to never do, but it was fun. enjoy!