Christmas Begins With Christ

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14 written c. 758 BC)

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. " (Micah 5:2 written c. 710 BC)

"A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 written c. 600 BC)

Here's the Christmas story told with three of over three hundred Old Testaments prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus Christ. The first was completed when Jesus was born from a virign, Mary (Matthew 1:18-25). The second was his birth in a small town of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1). And the third was fulfilled when the Magi didn't report back to Herod the Great where the child was born. Fearing the throne will be taken away from him by the Messiah, Herod ordered the slaughter of all male children two years old and under. By this time, Jesus was taken to Egypt by his earthly parents, Joseph and Mary (a fulfillment of another prophecy). The probability of one being fulfilled in one man is 1 in 10 million. The probability of eight being fulfilled is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. It blows me away that the probability that over three hundred prophecies being fulfilled in one man are incomprehensible. The birth of Jesus Christ is truly the hinge in human history! Fulfilling the old covenant and ushering us to the new, from BC to AD! For two thousand years, no Herod "can put the God man down". Amazing.

May the true meaning of this season be with you all. Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year!

Paintings are all done in PS.

Beauty & The Beast

©Armand Serrano.
A different take on Belle and the Beast. We we're at the dental clinic for my daughter yesterday morning and they were showing this favorite film of mine which I haven't seen for a while. Got inspired and thought that it would be refreshing to see a different take on it. Here it is all done in PS.

Dirigible

©Armand Serrano.
Been busy helping out on our Hotel T. project here at Sony that's why I haven't posted for a few weeks. Anyway, here's an image of an airship that for some reason I kept seeing in my mind while driving home yesterday. So late last night, I grabbed my pen and did it in PS.

Pyramid...maybe?

©Armand Serrano.
Just another quick doodle in PS.

Equites

©Armand Serrano.
This is a traditional painting I did back in 2002 for our annual union exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art during my Disney years. Equites were gladiators on horseback. Traditionally, they were the first ones to compete in games, rode a white horse and only fight their own kind. Oil on canvas 18"x24".

Falls

©Armand Serrano.
A very quick doodle of a water falls in PS.

Lizard Troop Revisited

©Armand Serrano.
New images for an old personal project. Been revisiting my old story projects and looking into pitching one or two at the studio. I'm also thinking on the possibility of compiling them into a book together with all the artworks. We'll see.

Aqueduct

©Armand Serrano.
Another sleepless night last night so I decided to doodle in photoshop that turned out to be an aqueduct.

Doodles

©Armand Serrano.
A couple of personal thumbnail studies of light for a piece I'm working on.

Volcanic Eruption

©ArmandSerrano.
Always had the urge to draw a volcanic eruption. So late last night, I had the chance and here's it is. All in PS.

Another Sci-Fi Doodle

©Armand Serrano.
Another spacemen thumbnail while still in the sci-fi mode for now. Enjoy.

Sci-Fi Doodles

©Armand Serrano
I've been painting in PS a lot at work lately. So while in that mode, I tried to continue painting at home (whenever I find time which was normally either 12 midnight or 5 am!)) and do some more practice pieces. Sci Fi was the chosen theme and here're my doodles from last week. By the way, for the next six weeks, I'll be busy working on a new feature film here at Sony in collaboration with Aardman Animations. Definitely looking forward to this venture and I'll try to continue posting as much as I could during those weeks.

An ArtRage Piece

©Armand Serrano.
A few months ago, I posted my very first ArtRage piece, Well, I havent touched the software since till a couple of nights ago. I was talking to another artist in the studio how tedious and slow Painter software is. Well I got reminded of Artrage and decided to play around with it again. After a couple of hours of enjoyment, I'm so satisfied with the simplicity and ease of use versus the very complex Painter. The textures are working out fine and not to mention that it doesn't lag down even when I'm using a big brush. It has no fancy saturation, color balance, even brightness and contrast controls so it trains me to be sharp in choosing my values and colors. I'll be definitely using it more in combination with Photoshop for the new project I'll be art directing at the studio. It has my endorsement if you guys want to check it out. By the way, did I say it's only $25 bucks! This is the piece I did that night - I'd say 99% Artrage and 1% Photoshop (just for a slight tonal gradation).

Norseman Using ArtRage

Convinced by my friend Simon Rodgers, who's I'm sure having a great vacation as we speak in his hometown in Ireland, I finally purchased ArtRage. I'm impressed by the paint textures, the simplicity and ease of use as compared to Painter (and not to mention the price). This was a half an hour quickpaint cocktailed with a slight Photoshop. Great software.

"Murmillo" / Marcos Mateu

Finally an artwork as promised. Can't sleep one night so I decided to do something. I saw an old sketch I was planning to paint a long time ago. It was inspired by an old 50's epic film titled "Demetrius and the Gladiators" starring Victor Mature. That film was the sequel to the classic "The Robe", the very first film shot in cinemascope with Richard Burton and Jean Simmons. Both are part of the list of films I love to watch when I was a kid (hey, only re-runs on Holy Week, I'm not that old!) and inspired me to work in the industry. Finally after a long wait, I was able to paint it, not in oil (thank goodness no mess!), but in Photoshop in three and a half hours. The painting depicts a Murmillo (with an Ernest Borgnine physique) entering the arena facing the uncertainty of survival. Love this historical subject when I was a kid.
On another note, my very good friend MARCOS MATEU is moving back to Dreamworks. Last Friday was his last day at Sony and honestly, it hasn't sunk in yet that he won't be at the studio when we go back to work on Monday. It's definitely different for me and my friend Marcelo. Marcos is incomparable and I've never met any other artist with such caliber. Definitely I echo how Marcelo described him in his blog - a virtuoso! Marcos gave this Roman drawing to me during our first few days working together in Surf's Up while jokingly talking about how to do production design in a live action movie. What a priceless learning experience for me working with him. All the best my friend.

Space Dock

Seldom I draw sci-fi art and I admit I'm very picky and selective about it. I have a few hours of downtime at work so might as well be productive and do a practice. My goal in this piece is to show a design that I haven't seen before but within the boundaries of believability. It's a dock and a town built on what's left of a moon where space sailors could hang out. Anyway, I'm happy on how it turned out and thanks to Marcelo and Simon for their constructive comments. Now go back to work.

Carved Temple

A recent practice piece that actually started as a doodle in Photoshop playing around with the idea of a carved temple inspired by Petra. But instead of being carved from a rock, a temple is carved from a massive tree. Anyway, it's a visdev idea that might come in handy for another project in the future.

Dense Jungle 2

This is another practice jungle piece for lighting snd composition using mid-ground elements for framing. Done in Photoshop.

The Empty Tomb

Easter is here and what a great opportunity to illustrate the origin of this very significant celebration - the empty tomb. This is my depiction of the dawn after the stone was rolled away for all to see that the Savior has risen from the dead. This is a fun one hour Photoshop session and I only used two colors - green and red. As red echoes the death on the cross, green swallows it up with hope and new life.
Happy Easter to all.

Dense Jungle

©2006 Armand Serrano.
I've notice that I've been designing a lot of foliage and organic elements for features in the past six or seven years. As of last month, I'm officially doing visdev on "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" for Sony which is slated for 2009. And the first production task I have to do is design two environments heavy on foliage. Why am I not surprised! Anyway, so I've been busy lately with work, at the same time doing the final editing for the music video and finishing up the script for my David and Goliath project on the side. So for now, I'm posting another practice piece which I did last year. I love playing around with foreground elements using them to create another "aspect ratio" for my shot. The intention for this practice is to make the elements graphically designed yet dimentional and not to feel like "cut-outs". Lighting plays a big part as always.