Skills:

 

Drawing - Illustration, Graphic Design, Drawing Instructor, Concept Art, Character Design, Portraits, Screen Print Design, Story boards.

Software - Adobe Creative Suite, FCPX. Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design.

Video - Video Producer, Photography, Editing, DSLR, Lighting, Final Cut Pro, Premiere.

Education - Parsons School of Design, BFA, Illustration.

​

Project Highlights:

 

Commercial Campaigns for Agencies

• Packaging illustrations - Blue Moon Brewing Company, Miller Coors, Molson, E&J Gallo, Mountain Dew. Created illustrations for beverage branding.

• Brand Characters  - Created cute family characters and illustrations for Subway's special advertising promotions with Jack Morton Agency. Print and web. Vector art.

• Logos - Choose Breakfast Campaign, Saatchi and Saatchi NY, created characters and logos for General Mills cereal boxes, promotions, and TV spots.

 

Editorial Illustrations

• Portraits - illustrated for national publications. Rock n Roll legends for Rolling Stone Magazine, and financials, Fortune 500 CEOs, young entrepreneurs…

• Featured Articles - Beer For Data, Water Thieves, Veterans with PTSD - illustrations that set the scene where complicated stories unfold.

• Book /Magazine Covers - Small World.   I'm (Still) Here.   MS-13 in San Francisco. High Country News, The Phoenix New Times

 

Public and Environmental Art 

• Concept art for urban development project -  Rooftop Miniature Golf Course on top of a luxury building. San Diego, CA.

• Mural for luxury condos - Godzilla - Created a life sized decorative polygon “Godzilla” matching interior designers color scheme. 5 stories tall. San Diego, California. 

• Retail Space Mural - Surreal desert landscape featuring flying bowling pins, motorcycles, and cactus. Delivered artwork as Vector, for super hi res printed output. Over 75 feet wide x 16 feet tall. Tavern and Bowl, Arizona.

• Public Art Tuna Fishing Sculpture - Designed 100 foot, stainless steel sculpture for Ariel Building. 100 pencil sketches. Final art in Adobe Illustrator. Sculpture spans 1 city block facing the San Diego Bay.

• Restaurant Branding - illustrated decorative walls and branding collateral for the best Sushi restaurants in Southern California. Blue Smoke Sushi, Big Bang Sushi.

 

Character Development

• Women’s Sports Foundation - designed a group of ethnically diverse characters for a national campaign encouraging girls well being, and sports participation.

• TV Pilot characters, Game Characters - created characters according to specific client descriptions. Character turnarounds and hero poses.

• Branding. Jolly Green Giant - Rebrand and character development with Saatchi and Saatchi, NY. Concept illustrations of the Giant and the Green Valley. Shot model reference photography for the 3D animators at Calabash.

 

Workshops & Live Events

• Oceanside Museum Fundraiser - Art Show and Instructor lead workshop on creating “Dias Dos Los Muertos” masks from cardboard and paint. 

• Life Drawing Instructor - Instructed a series of 8 weeks long figure drawing workshops, teaching the artists and animators how to draw the human figure.

• Drawing demonstrations - Strathmore Artist Papers, Live drawing demonstrations at art supply convention. 

• Live Art Performance - Onstage for Blue Moon Brewing Company at a beer convention recreating artwork from my label designs, using pen and ink.

• Featured Artist and Speaker - Southwestern College, West Coast Drawing Group - Topics: professional practices, requirements of freelance artists, and the art development process.

 

Art Shows:

• Art Institute San Diego - Book signing and art show

• Oceanside Museum of Art - Art After Dark, Dias Dos Los Muertos

• The IN Gallery - Figurative Art Show

• Terror at the Tenth - Monsters Show, featuring “The Guardian”

• City Gallery - “New Contemporaries” San Diego Art Prize Nomination

• Southwestern College, Comic Book Art and Illustration Process Show

• Subtext Gallery - Superhero Show

 

Video and Photography

• Edutainment Videos - created over 100 videos exploring the art creation process, drawing time lapses, and interviews with artists. 

• Video Instruction Series - Sketchbook Fury: The Art Ninja’s Guidebook - for Strathmore Artists Papers.

• Art Events - Video Officer for a Burning Man camp, Comic Con Interviews, Interviews at Monsterpalooza. 

• Art Process - Videos about the Creative Process. Making Monsters, Sketchbook Process, Cosplayers, time-lapse video.

• Music Videos - when a friend writes a song, I make a video. (Annabell)  (Pampellone) 

• TV Spots -Blue Moon Brewing Company, Mountain West Football - art made for animation in After Effects for TV commercials.

 

Art Groups

• Drawsome! Sketchbook Sessions San Diego - Awarded Certificate of Appreciation from California Senate for our Art Show highlighting artists in the underserved community of Chula Vista, California.

• The Britney Henry Project - Community give back project - Olympic Hopefuls. Created media, press kit, videos, and social presence, blog. Assembled team of photographers/marketers resulting in sponsorship deals, interviews, including a short promotional film by GoPro. 

• Life Drawing - Participation in local San Diego Life Drawing groups, exercising my passion for figure drawing, creating mixed media pieces, as demos and art.

 

Art Book

• Marks Vol. 1 - Xupuy -Featuring my figurative artwork and drawings. Photographed artwork creating hi res files. Created the layouts in Photoshop. Designed and prepress of 48 page book, using inDesign. Delivered as PDF. 

 

Leadership

• Art Director, organized and inspired 6 in house designers, 12 freelance designers. Strategized with head of sales to recognize trends, client demands. Maintained relationships with 120 clients in New York/ Los Angeles/London Fashion Industry. Licensed Properties: Disney, NFL, NBA, Levis Strauss and Co. adhering strictly to Style Guide specifications, color matching, and client approval.

• Art Director - ArtMasters - a graphic design partnership creating Corporate Identities, logos, sales collateral, product design, and illustration.

• Graham Smith Illustration - Sole Proprietorship doing everything necessary to run a creative services business.