Victor Sepulveda in LakeArrowhead

This past weekend I went up to Lake Arrowhead and Crestline to my friends house;
We talked about art, ate a lot of meat, drank some beer, spotted some UFO's, and prettymuch had a Blast! We also met artist Scott Westmoreland who had a display of his artwork right along the lake.

Victor Sepulveda, Mario Olalde, Ben Frank

ALSA Car Show

    This past May 21st ALSA Corp had it's first Pinstripe & Car Show in East L.A. and I was invited to do a live Airbrush Demo; Here I am painting one of my Aztec Characters on an Illustration board.       Victor Sepulveda and Eric Nava, owner of Pshocial Pistola

Victor Sepulveda, Edgar Rodriguez (airbrusher), Gerald Mendez, Oscar Monroy and Edgar Rodriguez (Car Paint)

    I didn't even get to finish my painting, but a fan bought it from me before the show ended, this is as far as I got done with it... not even halfway done but they didn't mind, they wanted a Sepulveda Original; The good thing is I thought of taking a picture with it before they left.
    I had a lot of fun at this show, most artists from the Latin Airbrush Association participated and displayed their Artwork, as well as a lot of cars with some amazing murals and graphics.

V. Sepulveda's Latest Tattoo

    This is a Tattoo that I have been working on for the last three years; It's a whole back piece and it goes up to the shoulders.
    I don't get to do a lot of tattoos because a lot of people don't even know I do them, when I do tattoos I want to do collages of my own original Artwork.
    I started doing tattoos about eight years ago, and this is my latest one. It was done last week, the bottom part, that is, with the skull made out of smoke. I did the section on this first top photo last year.

Victor Sepulveda hard at work.

Close up of Sepulveda's Tattoo
Now we just gotta wait till it heals so it matches the rest.

VictorSepulveda in DUB Magazine.

      I just found out today I came out on DUB Magazine's issue for May 2006, The photo was taken when I was doing a live painting last February at the DUB Magazine Concert & Car Show along with four Artists from Crewest. Check it out, there I am on the top right corner.

      Sepulveda Illustration & Design.
        Victor Sepulveda

Victor Sepulveda's Trip to Mexico.

      Here are a few more photos of my trip to Mexico last year. I visited about 40 different cities in a period of four months, all of the photos on this post were taken in November and December 2005.

      The first picture is inside the Palacio Nacional en el Zocalo, inside there are about twenty beautiful murals by Diego Rivera depicting Mexico as it was before the Spanish Conquest as well as a pictorial history of life before, during and after the conquest. From there we visited the section of the Palace where Benito Juarez used to live, they still have the furniture exactly how it used to look in 1872.

Danzantes Aztecas en el Zocalo, con su vestimenta completa, y en el fondo la Cathedral.

      Thats me in the center of the picture in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico city; Inside there are murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jorge Gonzalez Camarena as well as other Artists, this was one of the most beautiful buildings I saw, I could have spent hours just looking at all the Artwork.

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca; Known for its great waves by surfers everywhere. I took a thirteen hour Bus ride from Texcoco with my Cousin, who was working as a Teacher at the Universidad del Mar. Here we met a lot of people, and none of the were Mexican! This was Early November 2005.

      Victor Sepulveda doing a live demo in Coyoacan; every sunday you can find many artists painting here and interacting with the public there are lots of booths selling souvenirs and crafts also.



      This Picture was taken in the City of Huexotla in a building next to the main Church there. The city is located a short distance from Texcoco, Mexico; around this same time I went to Coyoacan to paint live at the plaza on sunday.

Here I am doing a live demo for the students in Saltillo, Coahuila where I was hired to teach a course on Airbrushing this was at the end of November 2005 I stayed there for one week.

Downtown Saltillo

One of the few pictures I took when I went to Acapulco, Mexico (around December 17)...
all I remember is a Blur... but I'm pretty sure we had fun!

Good ol' Mexican Christmas celebration with my cousins Hugo y Julio;
Hey, not everything I did was work down there! "Salu'"

Eventhough you can barely see it, in the center of the photo are the ruins of Old San Juan Parangaricutiro, that the Paricutin Volcano destroyed.

Here it is, Volcan Paricutin en el fondo

TopTenLies told to Naive Artists and Designers.

I've had this link on my favorites list for about two years now, and I always show it to my friends when they call me to tell me about a shady deal they are putting up with one of their jobs; they usually think it won't happen again, or they don't think it would happen to anyone else... but I always say... been there, done that, and from knowing a lot of Artists and Designers myself, I know it happens to a lot of us. Read and Learn, don't get taken advantage of.

Top Ten Lies Told to Naive Artists and Graphic Designers

I don't know who the author is, but since the first time I read it I felt it was written for me... and it has helped me deal with my own clients and how to try to avoid getting ripped off.
If you are an Artist or Graphic Designer... how many of these have you heard in your career?

Sepulveda ALSA Logo.

      I recently started using ALSA Corp. paints and thought I would do my version of their logo using nothing but their paints; I was invited to participate on the company's first Pinstripe & Car Show this May 21st 2006 doing a Live Airbrushing Demo. If you are interested in going check out their website for a map of the location:ALSA Corp.com

      This is a step by step process of my technique with Automotive Airbrushing, the painting is done on an 18" x 24" piece of sheet metal that was prepared at their spray booth; they painted it with a Blue Emerald color that changes depending on the angle you are viewing it from blue to green, then they sprayed a coat of urethane clear so it would be ready for me to Airbrush.
      First I sanded the piece with a 1200 grit sandpaper which is very fine, this is only to scuff the surface and allow adherence from the paints that have been prepared to be used with the Airbrush.

      ↖ Next I project the image I had previously sketched on a piece of paper onto the sheet metal; Using a light colored pencil I draw the image. Once the drawing is visible I proceed to paint; In this case the background color is dark so I begin by laying the foundation using a white basecolor and using the background as the shadows and dark areas of the image. It's hard to see on the photo, but for the spray gun I used a color called "Mirra Chrome" which is like a metallic silver with a very fine pigment so you could do fine detail; I used it to make it stand out from the white basecolor.

      ➚ Here you can see I'm almost done with the White foundation, I used a light tan color for the face and hand but I still let the background show through to represent the shadows and dark areas. Most of my work is done freehand, I like the soft edge look that you get by working like this but mainly I do it because I don't like cutting stencils, plus I change my mind constantly as I'm working on a painting so I wouldn't want to spend time on a stencil and then not use it, there's more freedom if you freehand all your work.



      On this next step you can see how I start detailing the image; I start shading from light to dark so I'm constantly changing colors and I always do a section at a time, for the skin color I use three different shades of brown plus orange or yellow depending on the skin color I'm trying to achieve. The white paint leaves more overspray than the black paint so I always try to finish the detail with black to cut the edges and give it a more clean and sharp look.



      I painted the guy holding the spraygun first trying to leave the area of the logo clean, but I didn't have to be too careful because the logo is in the foreground and it will be taped off but first I need to finish the image and the background effects.
      So far I like the paints, they have very good line and flow control; Also you can mix the colors on the bottle to make your own colors or tones. I am very picky when it comes to paints because I use very thin mixtures to get the smallest details and so far they are working really good; Over the years I have tried many different brands but I am hardly satisfied with the results.


      On this step I decided to do some graphics on the background so the design wouldn't look so simple, especially because the triangle of the logo left two big open spaces on the left and right of the design. I cut out a couple of stencils of a motorcycle and a spraygun and a couple of overlapping lines; I painted these using a turquoise blue very lightly so they wouldn't stand out too much.



      Now the image is starting to look finished, I am very pleased how the background graphics look finished. Here I am painting the logo and letters, first I taped off the triangle shape and I cut out each of the letters to spray them with white. It is a very simple step because there is no shading or detail but you have to cut out the letters, and make sure there are no gaps where the paint could overspray.




      I decided to do a complimentary outline using orange on the guy holding the spraygun, the purpose of this is to make it stand out a little more against the big white shape of the Logo and the blue/green background. Next I make sure the signature is visible, and do any finishing touches before I can say it is finished. I hope they like it at ALSA Corp. I had a lot of fun working on this piece.



      Now the Painting is finally finished. the only thing left is to shoot a clearcoat to bring out the vibrancy of the colors as well as the sparkles and pearls; And to give it that wet shiny look to be displayed. I'd like to hear any comments or questions about the piece. www.victorsepulveda.com

Buy This Book.

      If you are an Artist, Graphic Designer, Illlustrator, Web Designer and you depend on your Artwork to make a living, then you have to get this book; that is if you don't have it already.

      It is the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook, Pricing and Ethical Guidelines ($35); almost every page on it has something useful for you from a thourough explanation of Copyrights, how to register your work and how to take advantage of them by Licensing your work or how to potect yourself against Copyright Infringement. Pricing Guidelines to pretty much anything related to Graphic Design such as Corporate Logos, Advertising rates, Publishing rates, Packaging, Writing your own Contracts, etc.

      To me this is my new Bible, I've been using it for only a couple of months but it's been the best investment I've ever made and I highly recommend it. I can almost assure you it'll be the best 35 bucks you'll ever spend.

Sincerely,
Victor Sepulveda
www.VictorSepulveda.com

The Latin Airbrush Gang

      This February 2006, my friend Herbie from Airbrush Nation organized the grand opening of his shop in Long Beach, CA where all of us from the Latin Airbrush Artists Association got together to support him. Each one of us broght a piece of our most recent Artwork to have displayed for the day, we had food, beers and a great time; Like we always do.

Sepulveda on Lowrider Arte...Again.

That's right, Victor Sepulveda is now appearing on Lowrider Arte Magazine's issue of Feb-March 2006; Photographed last year at the Crewest Gallery Exhibit: "Boyz n the Hood" August 2005, You can read the article on the magazine or you can visit Lowrider Arte's page to check out more photos of the whole exhibit. On this photo I'm standing in front of one of the three Hoods I painted for the show. The Hoods were all salvaged and were painted at the 2005 Orange County Fair.

Sepulveda's Trip to Pachuca, MEJICO!!

I went to Pachuca, Hidalgo last November to teach an intensive Digital Illustration course at the University of CENHIES; I was only there for six days, but I had a Blast!, the students were great, they loved the course, and they actually were really good learning what I taught; We even partied together and I got to meet a lot of great places around the area.

I took this first photograph in downtown Pachuca the first day I was there, it's supposed to be a version of Big Ben in London, from what I learned the state of Higalgo's history has some English heritage that dates back to the days it was founded. Later on in the night I also got to visit some of the nightclubs there and I have to say, the girls are very friendly there!

Here I am at the computer lab where I was teaching the course. Yup, that's me in the middle being all serious and professional; As you can see, all of the students were very interested in learning and this was "not" propped up for the photo. Actually all the students were second and third year graphic design students, so they were very proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator , which made the course a lot easier for them, and to me because I didn't have to go over the basics of the programs.

The course was an intensive five days, four hours a day, and this on top of the classes the students were taking during the day so I have to congratulate them for making the sacrifice.
Something I was not expecting was the certificate we all got, me for teaching the course, and the students for finishing it.

One of the students happened to have his camera ready, so he took pictures of each of the students getting their own certificate, I only posted three of them though, or this would be a very big post if I put a photo of each one!, and besides, the pics below of the after graduation ceremony are a lot better!.















This is what happens when you get too exited about graduating from an intensive 20 hours in one week on top of regular classes course on Digital Illustration with Victor Sepulveda.
After the Certificate ceremony, we all got together to celebrate the end of the course, at first we had some Tacos de Asada with Guacamole, but after getting our fill, we moved on to the "beverages" .
Which comes to show the benefits of being the Teacher, look at the size of my bottle!, it's a "Sol Brava" and that thing has a kick! I had never heard of it, so the guys brought me a couple to "taste", and this on top of what I had been drinking before, so as you can see on the last pic, we ended up very "Happy".


    And here we are close to the end of our little celebration, these kids were great to hang around with, and eventhough I was only there for a few days I had an amazing time with them, I still keep in contact with some of them through the internet, and I've seen a couple of projects they've done using the techniques I showed them.


Real Del Monte
My cousin Osvaldo picked me up from Pachuca on a Saturday morning to take me on a road trip all day, we visited Real del Monte, Mineral del Chico, Omitlan, and a couple of other little towns that I don't remember the names; At the end of the day we drove back to Texcoco, which is only about an hour and a half from Pachuca.

This photo is a little town on the top of a hill, it is called Real del Monte, and it is located about half an hour from Pachuca. We had Breakfast there and walked around for a bit. Afterwards we drove to a couple of towns close by.

Omitlan
That little town down there is called Omitlan, Hidalgo. we stopped on the side of the road on a lookout point to take this photo and then drove dowh through the town. We drove through the little town and it was so quiet I think we encountered about four other cars. We did not plan to go there but from Real del Monte, we were supposed to go uphill to Mineral del Chico, instead we headed downhill and ended up in Omitlan, which was not time wasted... we were on a road trip after all.




This is at the top of the mountain in Mineral del Chico, it's a little town well hidden in the mountains and very cold. I love the picture of the left because of the winding road surrounded by trees, and more trees! and when we got to the top, we could appreciate the whole view, with no buildings anywhere near.

Here is the end of the trip, well, the Pachuca trip at least, I still traveled about two more months through the country afterwards, but I didn't go back to Pachuca. This is a picture I took from the Highway on our way to Texcoco, Mexico; That in the center is: La Piramide del Sol, the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan and on the right of it, La Piramide de la Luna.