Wait 'Till They Get A Load of Me!

I just re watched Batman (1989) on Netflix and wanted to do something different. I've been meaning to draw the Dr Seuss' Grinch for a while and i thought Jack Nicholson's introduction line was perfect to use for the Grinch, re interpreted of course :-)

Merry Christmas Grinches!

"Christmas Freaks terrorizing...Wait 'till they get a load of me" 

Happy Krampus!

Here's a little Christmas treat for you naughty little ghouls and girls!

A watercolor and digitally painted portrait of everyones favorite Christmas creep Krampus. I hope to do another watercolor before years end, I have so much fun doing these. 

The Final Level - the Last Dragon 30th anniversary print

Thanks to my friend Craig at The last Dragon Tribute site, I will be at the The last Dragon 30th anniversary reunion & screening of the film in NY Nov 8th. Since my original last Dragon poster was the 1st piece of art I drew, I wanted to make this 30th anniversary really special by designing a new art print for the show.

One of the challenges I had with creating this new piece was trying to re tell a story that I had done in my first Last Dragon poster. My style and art has changed vastly since my first attempt and I really wanted to re do the whole poster. but doing so, wouldn't be fair and a cop out. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to come up with a great way to show you how awesome this movie is.

Thankfully after a long night of sketches and pizza, i realized that the film in many ways resembled Brice Lees' Game of Death. for example, Bruce Leroy, much like Bruce lee, has to go through different levels of fighters until he reaches the big boss for his final test & fight. I wanted my layout to have this hierarchy to it, showing the minor henchmen all the way up to the big boss, sho nuff.

there was such a bevy of crazy oddball bad guys I could have drawn but I really wanted to include some of my favorites heres. Really had fun bringing this to life and I hope I can share my love of this film with the fans of the film this Nov 8th to celebrate such an awesome film!

Thank you to all the fans of my 1st poster and for supporting what I do!

Shine on!

In the afterlife You could be headed for the serious strife...But tomorrow there'll be Hell to pay

Happy Halloween!!!

It's my favorite time of the year and here is my annual Halloween art piece. I was super influenced by the Squirrel Nut Zippers song "Hell".

Here's a super swanky bar in the afterlife full of Ghosts, skeletons and creeps!

Hope everyone has an awesome holiday!

#boo

T U R T L E...POWER!

I finally did it! For years, ever since the movie, all I ever wanted to draw were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was always afraid however, never really felt good enough or worthy to draw them they way their creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird did. Fear has always limited me in a lot of things and sadly drawing the turtles was one of those struggles.

With this being the 30th anniversary of the TMNT and almost the 25th anniversary of the film, I had to do something to celebrate my favorite film and characters of all time. With mere weeks left until the New York Comic Con, i started to sketch Leonardo, just to get this angst out of me. Wary at how poorly I might draw him, angry at how little confidence I had translating my thoughts onto paper.

Surprisingly, when i had finished Leonardo, I smiled and realized I was able to finally draw him the way I had drawn him in my mind over and over.  Instantly, what started as a one-off turtle, evolved into the final piece you see here. This layout, has been sketched in my head for at least 24 years and i can't believe I was able to finally bring it to life. 

I sincerely hope you all enjoy this as much as I did drawing it, Cowabunga! ....hehe, I made a funny!


I will only make 30 of these available as prints for the New York Comic Con. Any remaining after NYCC will be offered for sale through my site www.MrMauro.com 

Father and Son

I really wanted to add a little turtle next to my Splinter art I did a month ago or so. After a sleepless night I finally was able to bring it to life!

I am going to take this one to the New York Comic Con and see how it does. I really wanted to do all 4 turtles but the more i thought about it, the more I like the idea of a non-specific turtle training with his father. I opted for the classic red traditional color bandana like the comics too.

i tried to think of the most harmless thing

I thought I had lost the original art to this but thankfully I forgot I had scanned it prior to gifting it to the Firefighters at Hook & lader 8, The Ghostbusters firehouse. Being its the 30th anniversary I was excited to paint this right and give it some new life.

so I hope you all enjoy it, everything was done in watercolor and then enchanted in photoshop a tad.

Long Live the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man...and Gozer the Gozerian.

La Evolucion - The Evolution

This is a piece that I did for an art show a few months ago. I only now realize that I never had a chance to upload it here. It's a very open ended piece and was done in watercolors and then colored a little digitally. I had no real theme when drawing this but wanted to show some sort of progressions with life and technology and music meet.

I hope you all like it

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!!!

Hamato Yoshi...The Splinter

This was a really fun drawing I got to do after free flowing sketching on a note pad. With Splinter here, I started to do a traditional lined drawing but I wanted to test myself and relied on colors only to bring this to life. The TMNT are my favorite characters of all time and I wanted to something fun in time of the new movie and the new surge of interested in the turtles.

Here is Hamato Yoshi in his prime. I hope to have this be part of a bigger piece in time for the New York Comic Con in Oct 2014.

Be A Super Hero!!! ... to the Blank Station

I have such a soft spot in my heart for Blankman

As a kid, my family wasn't rich, and I obsessed about the 1966 Batman tv show (the sci-fi channel played it in the mornings before school started). But when Blankman came to theaters, i was watching an average person try to be super hero without Batman's millions, and it was awesome! Damon Wayans brings the character of Blankman to life in a relatable positive light, as Blankman just wants to make a difference.

If you haven't watched Blankman, i strongly recommend you rent it on iTunes or Netflix. It's hysterical and pays its respect to the classic Batman tv series that came before it. Did I mention how funny this movie is? (when Blankman screams like a girl after getting slapped still gets me every time).

After watching the movie this month, I got to doodling, and what was going to be a quick little sketch turned into a full illustration. Eventually, I ha a full fledge poster layout full of 60's pop colors. It wasn't until last night that I realized in August it was the 20th anniversary oof the movie!  What a crazy coincidence and really happy at the turn of events!

Hope you all like it!

Can't Make the Scene, If You Don't Have the Green!!! - The Mask 20th Anniversary Print

I am Stanley Ipkiss...


well, I was him, for a very long time. When the Mask came out in July of 1994, Stanley Ipkiss was me in grammar school. I was shy, picked on, a hopeless romantic with a love for cartoons. Always quiet, I never got the girl but always desperately wanted to. At 10 years old I felt I was watching myself on screen, letting my imagination run wild as the Mask doing everything I've ever wanted, it was all there.

Afterward, I started wearing my own figurative "Mask" whenever I needed a boost of confidence as a kid. When it came to talking to girls, showing a little backbone or just being social, I'd change my personality and stopped being the quiet shy guy. The Mask encouraged me to snap out of my shyness and I like to think that even now I still wear that Mask from time to time.

It was only very recent that I realized the movie was approaching its 20th anniversary in July, which also happens to be my Birthday. So to celebrate these 2 awesome events I designed a print that captures everything about the movie that I love.

It took me a while to think of a great layout, but thankfully i was inspired to design a coco-bongo flyer for the club. I really like the art nouveau style i've seen online and wanted to try something different I thought would work.

Looking at the design, I hope "kid" me would've really gotten a kick of seeing this. I hope at some point I'll have an opportunity to meet Jim Carrey and give him a poster in person. He is still my hero....


The Mask turns 20 years old, I'm turning 30, and I'm happy to mark this milestone by celebrating a movie that encourage me to be different.

S'mokin'...

-Mauro

"Le Masque" - digital painting test of "The Mask"

Sometimes I get an itch to paint and it eats at me until i finally put stylus to tablet and bring it to life.
such is the case with this painting. I hadn't plan on doing this as I was working on another piece about the Mask already. But unfortunately my mind had already started sketching & doing layouts until finally i sat down and painted it.

I wanted to make this a French style caricature- esque design. I love the Mask's suit and how it can be very angular and I wanted to exaggerate it here, kinda like Tex Avery. Tinas hair was a nightmare, I'm really pushing myself more and more to draw more details and I really pushed it with the hair. I must have re drawn it 20 times and I like the way it came out.

Hope you all like it!

Also, the Mask turns 20 this month so go stream it or buy it because its fantastic!

-Mauro

"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 :-)

That's Sar-Doh! NO Mister, accent' on the Doh!!!

Hiya

Here's my submission to the "Art you Afraid of the Dark" art show. One of my favorite recurring characters from the old Nickelodeon kids show. I still watch these episodes every October, they hold up so well! I drew this after buying a book on old timey magician flyers and really liked the concept of Sardo having his very own flyer.

I'm happy how this turned out and it's one of the rare times when I get to just paint and not rely on inking or heavy blacks to come between the poppy color. I plan on having prints of these made for sale in the near future and leave some hanging around NY :-)

Check out my 1st Art Show and Zine!!

howdy

I decided to do my own art show with friends and fellow artists, it's called artyouafraidofthedark.com and yes, it's a show based on the awesome Nickelodeon kid's show. I love a good scare and this show always delivered for me as a kid. I hope you all come and check it out!

If you want to contribute let me know, art is due on April 15th and will be visible and available as a Published zine for purchase! :-)

come and see!!

http://artyouafraidofthedark.com/

Happy New New Years!

Happy New Years!

Hope to give you all more art in the new year and push my creative boundaries as best as I can!

Have an awesome holiday everyone!