Don't Dream It, Be It.

Hey babies, I'm back with another design for a really, really incredible show happening over at Creature Features, in Burbank California this Saturday, February 24th.

Last year I was invited by Creature Features to participate in a special Tim Curry event, with Tim in attendance! I took a long time to panic and decide what I could draw from his vast career (He's brilliant in Clue). Thankfully, i'm a big fan of Rocky Horror and the songs he sung so after a few jumps to the left, and a jump to the right, I designed the following:

"Don't Dream It, Be It".

Drawing inspiration from my favorite song, "Don't Dream It, Be It",  I wanted this to be sexy, period. Is this Frankn'furter getting ready before he meets Brad & Janet? Or is this Tim Curry, on set, getting into character? I honestly don't know, and I like that I don't know, you guys decide and tell me :-)

I'm happy with this how turned out, and I hope Tim sees this at the show and smiles. It must have been wild making that movie, and he must have felt and looked fantastic. Now I want to do the Time Warp and dance.

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!!

The Silver Surfer Skateboard!

And now for something completely different!

I've had this design stuck in my head for weeks and i just needed to sit down and design it. I'm fascinated by Skateboard decks, and even tho i suck at it, i still have some of my boards. Art lends itself so well to these blank decks and I've always wanted a Silver Surfer skateboard.

Seriously, how in the last few decades has there not been a Marvel licensed Silver Surfer skateboard???
The character lends itself so well to the skateboarding culture, and yea surfing too, the simple clean design a just screams to be made.

So i sat down, and designed a retro marvel cardback using Jack Kirby's space artwork. The vivid colors, throwback comic book layout and blister packaging make these perfect for collectors. But more importantly, i wanted the design to make you feel as cool as the Silver Surfer as you skate on a board thats infused with the power cosmic.

I'm hoping one of these boards come into production at some point, would love to ride this and presumably fall off it before i'm too old.

Watch out for more "wish this was real" concept work from me, I had too much fun with this. Enjoy!

* note, the Silver Surfer is owned by Marvel comics and this was created as a production concept.

City of Stars

I've recently come to the realization that a lot of my work comes from a very sad outlook. Wether it's a film or cartoon, i noticed they're all a bit melancholy in the way i see them. I came to this realization the other night while watching "La La Land" for the first time. It was a great movie that I wasn't emotionally ready to watch just yet. You ever see a movie, hear a story, or listen to a song that captures the way you're feeling at any given time and sorta shakes you up unexpectedly?

After the movie, I wanted to translate how it made me feel by capturing it with my art. Driving home i tried to figure out what about La La Land made me feel so sad. I won't give any spoilers, but ultimately the films ending reminded me of my past, decisions I should have made and losing people in my life I wish I hadn't.

I saw a lot of similarities between the music in the film and the concept of love between the characters. You see, from my point of view, love is very much like a song. When it begins you're enamored with it, you can't stop thinking of the notes, you fall in love with the words and the way they make you feel, and it becomes your music, your song. But all things end, and in time, you'd find a new song, a new melody to start a new love affair with. But no matter what new song, you never forget your first love, your first song. And that's ultimately what I wanted to capture here with this piece. I wanted to paint the moment you heard your first song for the last time, the second you said goodbye to it. I think this piece below is a good way to say goodbye to this movie...

i know i've been gone for a little while, between moving and starting a new life its been a little difficult to get back into art. Thankfully i've had some recent opportunities to draw for various art shows across the US and it's been fun getting there again.

While I dust off my brushes and set my sights onto open skies, enjoy this new piece called "City of Stars"

Love,
-MrMauro

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.

"Licensed to Trek"

I'm Back!!!

New year, new art ... "Licensed to Trek" is my tribute to the Beastie Boys and Star Trek.

The Beastie Boys are my favorite hip hop group and 'Licensed to ill" is always on my phone. But what makes my love for the Beastie Boys even greater is how connected they are to Star Trek. From their Trek references in their songs to their music being used in the new Star Trek films, its just awesome. So I wanted to do a mashup to pay my respects to both the Beasties & Trek.

Heres my take on the Licensed to ill cover with the Enterprise. I wanted to paint this as close as I could to the original plane. I used different brushes in Photoshop with textures and imitating chrome was a challenge but fun. Added some nods to the album in the art for fun too.

Hope you all dig it!

"Licensed to Trek"
Beasite Boys & Star Trek Cover

"Licensed to ill"
Original Beastie Boys Cover

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!

Holy Update Batman!

I'm back!!!!

we'll i never really left, just been gratefully busy these last few months. Thanks to happenstance and a bit of good timing I've been doing some art for Creature Features art gallery in Burbank California. If you're in the area this month, check out their Godzilla themed art show, All Art Attack 2!

I've contributed two pieces of art, see below,  for their current show and one is actually painted! Been getting my hands dirty with acrylics and having a blast. happy with how these turned out and I hope to continue painting stuff for their future art shows, i really love that place. You can get limited edition prints of both as well originals only at their gallery so check them out this month!

Gojira - digital

Reptar!

one batch, two batch, penny and dime. - Daredevil season 2

I really loved season 2 of Daredevil on Netflix. Been meaning to draw something since I finished it last week and 1 scene has been stuck in the back of my mind.

Listening to the Punisher explain why he does what he does for his family as he bleed out was a great scene. I hope I was able to capture even a little of that awesomeness in the piece below.

New site is coming!

due to popular demand, mostly my own, I decided to completely change my site. expect something fresh and fun coming this week(end) soon! in the meantime, I will update this blog regularly :-)

MrMauro.com will return in 2016.....for Revenge!!

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. 

The Martian

I finished reading the book "The Martian" by Andy Weir and couldn't wait for the film to come out. in between the book and the movie, i did this piece inspired by the novel.

this piece is called "I am completely alone here", which is a heavy theme in the book and something that spoke to me so I wanted to capture that. digitally painted over pencils in paper.

go watch the movie, its just as good the book! :-)

"Shades" - an illustrated look at the famous glasses in pop culture history!

After many months penciling, inking, coloring and designing, my new book "Shades" is here!

"Shades" is an illustrative look at my favorite glasses throughout pop culture history. From the 1933 "Invisible Mans" Motorcycle glasses to the recent tortoiseshell frames worn by "Harry Hart" in the "Kingsmen, Shades captures the gnarliest glasses inspired by my love of films and tv!

As a young shy kid, it fascinated me how sunglasses made people appear so confident and nigh invulnerable. I wanted so badly to be as cool as the characters I saw on tv and felt that a pair of shades would do that for me. Thats what started me collecting all sorts of unique glasses, and as an illustrator, inspired me to draw what made these characters so special to me.

Thats always been the intention for “Shades”, to capture the confidence a pair
of glasses gives a person, the same way I saw these characters in this book as a
kid. I hope you all enjoy the art as much as I did drawing them, it was a lot of fun re visiting these great characters.

If you'd like to see the book in it's entirety, check out my online portfolio MrMauro.com

order your copy via Amazon!

stay Rad!

Mauro

Order a copy of Shades for yourself!