Joe the crab

Hi there folks!
Today it was a very bussy day, I worked in the morning and at 1 pm I went out with my family cos my sister was going to go to her hula classes and my brother to English class, and I needed to go with them  cos I needed to buy my new glasses because the ones I had broke down  a couple of months ago. And I need to use glasses everyday for a problem I have to see things that are too far away. In these last months I've been using my mom's ones, but these aren't as good as ones that had cos weren't made for my eye's problem.

Going to the center of the city here is usually an oddisey! XD Although, not much that it is in Mexico D.F. or Mexico city, but going there and wait for my glasses and then for my siblings, took all the rest of the day.
Now I got a headache because of the traffic and smog. But well at least I think I can come "like a lighting" (I mean quickly, it's an expression we say in mexico "como de rayo") and share a nice piece of art :)
And I chose this one, in part cos there's not much to explain about it *chuckles*, but in great part cos I would like to make a little tribute to the friend of my friend Tim Hill, and specially to my dearest friend and mentor Jennifer Stolzer ^^

This is an painting of Joe the crab from the series of books of the same name. I did it for fun a month ago cos at that day (see the date in the piece) I was trying to draw a few sketches of marine animals for my new story's script (for a comic I'm planning, I hope I can release it next year) that I talked a bit of here, to see how cartoon animals would look in my style.
I was looking for some equilibrium between cartoon and a realistic style; since this story isn't meant to be only for entertainment, but also it was imagined since the beginning to be a cartoon-documentary show (originally was created to be a cartoon show, although in nowadays I settle with making it a comic or book/graphic novel, you know, because that's how most of tv shows started..) but none of the scribbles I did pleased me. I think "I was trying too hard" like they say in america, so I tried to relax and remember I do art in the first place; cos I love art, cos it's fun and warms up my soul, and the I started reminding the illustration that my friend did, so that's why I ended up drawing this! *chuckles*
And later I felt excited to share it, I guess cos I feel this is the more iconic piece of her work, the one people know her more for. And of course I wanted people to know her a lot more! :D

By the way, it's just this year when I first removed a background, yes as silly as it sounds but it's true! XD  I discovered this by accident (like most of scientific discovering) when I got tired of JPG in other programs that aren't photoshop (as I said in other entry my photoshop doesn't work) cos it was so tired of my stuff loosing quality when being saved. So I tried PNG one day by chance, I never had tried it before to save stuff, but I did, and I discovered something with so much amazement; this is the only one format that doesn't lose quality no matter with what software you paint it. EVEN with MS paint! Oh my!

I wish I knew this waaaaaay earlier!! XD There are lots of old old pieces from when I started painting digitally that look awful in quality because of that!

And obviously, I had heard and seen from other artists that in this format you can remove the background, I just  haven't tried it myself cos I was kinda afraid of ruinning my stuff XD

I know what most of people are going to say "this is something too ambitious" or "it's impossible, you'll never do it", and I know cos I've seen people commenting that when I shared my very first sketches of a couple of the characters, that were not as good as the ones I've recently made I must say *chuckles*.
And yes, also I myself know this is in it's nature an "very ambitious" idea, to combine a cartoon whose goal it's "to entertain" with a documentary show, that it's supposed to "teach and be boring".  And specially for the way I would like to combine them.

But in my experience in this life-time journey as an artist, I've discovered an obvious truth: If the artist has fear of failing, if the artist doesn't believe in their own stories, ideas and dreams: nobody else will. And you will never try and thus your will never know if your artwork would have been loved and admired or not.

That's something I discovered some time ago, due lots of events that happened in my life, I only wish I discovered this way years before...I wish it was as obvious to me when I was a kid or a teen, as it is now...But well, I didn't, but now I do! I think it's better later than never. So from now on, I'll have faith in my stuff, as well as my mentor and friend Jen showed me!
Thanks a lot Jamie!!

And that's the best advice I can give to my fellow artists; believe in your stuff and love it, have faith in it and be willing to nurture and develop it, even with the fear of failing that it's always there, cos your ideas and artwork are like your children.
Other people could dislike your ideas and stuff, but you must love them cos they are part of you, they come from you, if you love them you love yourself too.