The Name of the Wind: Tarbean

There are few better sources of inspiration than an amazing book not yet adapted into anything, a virgin field that make your imagination go wild! This is the case of the city of Tarbean, from the awesome books of "The Name of the Wind", dangerous and oppressing never ending city in which our hero tries to survive. So there it goes an illustration I have done for the book, I hope I have done it justice. 

"Tarbean was too big, actually it was bast, inmense. Seas of people, forests of buildings, roads wide as rivers. It smelled like coat and smoke and tar. If I had been in my right mind, I never would have gone there.

You can´t avoid getting lost or accosted in the tangles web of twisting streets and dead end alleys."

Patrick Rothfuss, the Name of the Wind.

Mobile Game Design: Backgrounds

Hi there! I want to share with you today some of the backgrounds I did for an indie RPG mobile game! Hope you like it! More to come!

Welcome to our world! :D :D :D

Enchanted Forest Level
A mystical forest with lush scenary and sparkling rivers where Fairys and such reside, which either would guide you into an spectacular secret place or eat you whole. All of natures beauty can be found here.

 Undead Dungeon Level
A Dull, Cramped and Cold dungeon with echo like rooms and corridors where you can hear strange noises and the rats moving between the walls.

Visual Development! Chinese landscape!

Hi there! Long busy months these ones! Today here it comes another piece, exploring visual development and playing with shapes, inspired by the wonderful China and the hanging monasteries of Datong which are a masterpiece of construction cleverness. Enjoy!!! :D

Israel Hands

"When I tourned around, there was Hands, already half-way towards me, with the dirk in his right hand."

 
"Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face, and his face itself as red as a red ensign with his haste and fury."

                                                                                     Jim Hawkings in Treasure Island.

60 minutes sketch after reading Treasure Island. Long live to Stevenson! :D

Character design for animation

Hi there! Keeping on playing with animation I present here the results of my course of character design for animation at Schoolism with Daniel Arriaga, character director in Pixar films like Toy Story 3 or UP. Totally recommend the course! I developed the 3 main characters of the striking story "How to like it" by Stephen Dobyns, in which a man has lost taste for life and has forgotten "How to like life". He has with him a very lively and loyal pet and a grumpy wife. I have situated them in a prehistorical time period just for fun! :D You can read the story here:

"How to like it" by Steohen Dobyns

I developed as well different characters with this style for other personal stories that you can also see here. Hope you like it! 

latest oil painting comission

Put on your hat on and come to the arena! Oils out and some refreshing traditional painting for a commissioned portrait of this amazing and good person bullfighter. I tried to get some loose interesting brushstrokes to express the energy of the moment and the passion of this person!  Hope you like it! :D

Children of the Forest

“The First Men named us children, The giants called us woh dak nag gran, the squirrel people, because we were small and quick and fond of trees, but we are no squirrels, no children. Our name in the True Tongue means those who sing the song of earth. Before your Old Tongue was ever spoken, we had sung our songs ten thousand years.”

-A Song of Ice and Fire , R.R.Martin

The Children of the forest are some mysterious characters that appear on the books of R.R.Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire. They are awesome and magical, one of my favorite stories on the books. As in the TV series Game of thrones they are very simplified and far from the book description, I have decided to design my took on these creatures. 

They are half man, half animal, with dappled doe skin beneath a cloak of leaves, a very old wisdom and a strong connection with nature. Below you can see some sketches, exploring the mixture between animal and child, old people and kid looking, until I got a satisfying design. I will post more development od these amazing beings with poses and gesture. Stay tuned!

New facebook art page and this month character design challenge: PIRATES!!!!!

Hi everyone!!!! It is finally here, I have finally created a facebook art page where is going to be easier to share things and start the conversation. Sometimes I will post there links from this blogs, sometimes special content will be there! Stay tuned in https://www.facebook.com/almuredondoart


And second, here it goes my submission for the awesome character design challenge group...this month, PIRATES! Have a look to all the brilliant submissions here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CharacterDesignChallenge/

"- Have I ever told you about that time we encountered those Italian pirates on Delaware Bay? We had a hell of a time with them!
- …
- Those were bloody good times, ain´t them? The Golden Age of Piracy!!!!
- ….
- After crossing the Atlantic, we were heading to the town of Lewes, totally exhausted. I remember that day was particularly hot, not even a fly was moving…"

Frozen Fortress

After a year full of learning, there it goes the first design of this brand new one! This time is a finished environmental design, a frozen fortress in the mountains! Enjoy!

Tras un año lleno de aprendizaje, ahí va el primer diseño de este recién estrenado año! Esta vez es un diseño de escenarios, una fortaleza congelada en las montañas! Espero que os guste!