The Twilight Cafe

Twilight Cafe is a menu and restaurant concept that was inspired by futuristic themes and motifs of the 50s as well as stylizations from the cartoon The Jetsons. Boomerang shapes, things relating to outer space, colors blue, pink, red and green, the future, exploration and modernism were heavy themes that shaped the design output during the 50s and the early part of the 60s. I decided to first create a menu design using these ideas. I wanted the menu to be playful, intriguing, reflective of the look and feel I was going for and interactive to some degree. The prices and selections of the menu items had to represent the time period and style. Prices were of course going to be much lower. For example, a burger might be 50 cents or a sundae might be a nickel rather than what the prices are today. A restaurant such as this would offer traditional American foods that would fit into the theme.

I discovered during my research that it was common for many restaurants during the 50s to offer juices and fruit selections as appetizers. Today these items are normally sold as side orders or placed within the beverage or dessert menu so it would look rather unusual to see juices offered as starters now. These two pieces are vector illustrations and were created entirely in Illustrator. I also created a tangible copy of the menu. I printed out the layout for the menu, had it assembled, laminated and presented as a real menu that a restaurant would actually use.

"Club Worship Flyer"

As with all of my other business and advertisement concepts, this one is themed very specifically. If money were no issue, I'd definitely establish a club called Club Worship in a hot spot or location. The flyer presents Worship as a themed night for a fictitious club called Club Panorama but Club Worship would be an offshoot of that club...so it would be an addition to that franchise.

Club Worship would be based on a solar theme. The club's interior would be a mix of oranges, yellows and orange-reds, but mostly the latter two hues. The walls would be glazed to give a candy-like appearance and there would be lots of sun motifs and decorative references about the entire interior space. The club's style would be lush, warm, sophisticated, inviting, and hip with a very intoxicating setting.

The club would showcase bands, spoken word poetry, storytelling nights and eccentric but funny stand-up comics. Bar would be full while featuring an assortment of special house cocktail drinks and there would be a kitchen serving tasty and decadent foods at the honey-colored cushioned tables and chair sets made with blond wood arranged around the various floor sections in different lounge areas (including the sun deck and patio spots).

This flyer is a fictitious advertisement for this club concept created in illustrator and taken into Photoshop for depth. The female character is dazed and possessed by the glowing and dazzling lights around her and especially above her head.

Originally the design for this piece was for a class project in a design advertisement and marketing class that I was taking. The objective was to come up with a word and associate and image with it to not only create a statement but to also highlight another word within the original word. I chose the word worship...focused on HIP in worship and decided that the female character that I'd illustrate around the word selection would be designed right within the word "hip" around her hip area.

The implication was of a woman obsessed with being beautiful, being hip, "in", "popular" and accepted. Her eyes were to be glazed over, completely showing white, and she'd be looking upward in a complete haze totally worshiping the idea of beauty and fame...the limelight (represented by the sun)...all the while holding a sweet lollipop which represents innocence, yearning and craving.

“Pygmy Halloween House”

This was created in Flash. Last year around mid-summer, I began working in Flash for illustrative pieces. This was a different process because I primarily use Illustrator (in accompaniment with Photoshop) to create most of my pieces.

Flash has its advantages as an illustrative tool because if you are setting up art work or art assets for Flash animations for games, characterization and shorts, the native files are smaller and remain vectorized rather than larger imported bitmap images.

The objective was to create a Halloween themed scene. The first thing I thought about was a nocturnal haunted house illustration but I wanted the house to look spooky in a quirky, off-beat and playful manner. I also thought about making the house look like gnomes or pygmy-sized being lived in it...hence the proportion of the fencing and tree around the house and the size of the house are off-kilter.

"The Land of Xroi"

Remember to Click on Images to Enlarge

The Land of Xroi is a game concept...as well as a story idea. I am going to develop it further in the future along with all of my other game ideas. The game is kind of difficult to describe because the static view is so abstract. It would incorporate some functions of a pinball, time management and arcade game.

The object of the game would be for the guided rabbit-looking character with a face-eater belly to traverse through landscapes picking up and eating as many egg orbs as possible without getting deterred by random taunting and trickster-like creatures and objects in the game that would try to block him and/or take away the egg orbs before he reaches them. The more egg orbs collected, the higher the score and the more special abilities the character can unlock to help him in his quest.

The music of the game would be as quirky as the graphics and background images. Think Katamari Damacy in some respects.

As a veteran gamer since the inception of Atari 2600 and the mid-life of Intellivision, I am passionate about anything involving game design and gameplay. I'd love to develop one of my game concepts into blueprint prototype stage and perhaps after researching on protecting my work, network with various developers to see if I can spark a deal. That's definitely on my list of to-do's. I am interested in games for the casual games market as well as for consoles and handhelds.

This design will be also refined as I think of more ideas. It was developed in Illustrator and then taken into Photoshop. However I enjoy using feathering in Illustrator for creating the look of painteresque highlights and shadows on objects and scenes. I find that with this feature, you can do work that looks as if it was either created in Photoshop or involved using gradient meshes in Illustrator (without using gradients).

"Interworldly Creatures"

What happens when two creatures seemingly from different worlds meet one another and discover that they are not only very similar in several ways but that they are linked together romantically through fate?

This illustration is a theme related to the real-world dynamics of interracial dating, particularly between black women and white men or within the arena of black and white relations. The subject has been reinterpreted in an imaginative out-of-this-world context.

I think that by bringing it into this fantasy realm, people can step back and take an objective look at the underlying message. I also think the story stands on its own as a playful and innocent love story between two different but similar creatures.

I created this illustration originally in Illustrator 10 and brought it into Photoshop for further enhancement. This piece, like many of my artworks, has gone through a few rounds of revisions. I am happy with the way it has turned out so far. I especially like the glowing and textural effects that I included on both of the creatures' bodies. I am intrigued and highly stimulated by anything that glows, radiates, shines and gives off radiosity. I don't see a lot of digital designs that incorporate the effects of radiosity.

Radiosity is a term often used in or by 3D programs. I like to use it outside of the category of 3D computer graphic jargon.

If a bright blue ball sits on a shiny marble white flooring with a top left light source, not only will that ball cast a shadow and display a reflection on the marble flooring, but the blue coloring of the ball will cast a subtle blue tint onto the marble flooring right underneath it. That would be an effect of radiosity. I love that effect both in nature and in art.

I try to incorporate this into my work whenever I can or when it seems that it would be a very effective element too add.

"Confetti Palace"

I came up with the concept for this fictitious company about a year ago. I was working on a project in an Adobe After Effects course and the objective was to come up with an idea for an advertisement short.

I thought of many ideas but I wanted whatever it was to be fun, different, exciting and playful. I thought about my interests and desires in life. I've always thought that if I ever became very independently wealthy, I would often plan and host themed parties and events for friends and family.

I love the idea of entertaining and creating fun. I liken creating fun to the effect of an explosive display of confetti, fireworks or dazzling bright light shows. These types of effects and actions surprise, entice and engender a very euphoric and celebratory series of feelings. I think many people find anything that breeds these emotions exciting and alluring.

I also thought about the movie The Game with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. The unusual plot of the movie gave me more ideas.

So I thought to create a make-believe advertisement for a surprise party planning business. I thought for days on what the business name should be as well as the slogan. I finally came up with the name Confetti Palace and the slogan: Celebrate The Unexpected!

I thought both the name and slogan were catchy and emotive.

I created a video for the advertisement in After Effects and after I completed the project, I uploaded it on YouTube. It can be seen here:



The music is by the artist Twink. He's a favorite. The title of the track is called "Not Enough Crayons For Everyone". He's an artist that uses toy piano to compose his music. He's quite the artist in many facets, which includes illustration.

I decided to use the graphics that I illustrated and designed for the video to create an advertisement for the faux business. Recently, I went in finalized the design and layout by illustrating it further. It was created in Illustrator and then taken in Photoshop to finalize the digital painting involved in many of the highlights, shadows, sky drop and surfaces.

In order to see the details of the piece, click on the image to download a larger version of the image in a new window.

"Tangelo Nostalgia"

Tangelo Nostalgia was originally a casual story concept that came about randomly. Over time I came up with a plot surrounding the title and illustration theme. In the future, it will become a full-fledge book series.

This piece was created in Illustrator 10 on a very large scale. I felt that the title fit the energy of the illustration. Most people who've seen it say they get this hazy, dream-like sentimental feeling from just looking at it and that's exactly the impression that I wanted to create.

The storyline also centers around this impression and involves time travel transformation, through longings, wishes and regrets, among friends who've known one another since childhood.

"Beach Scene"

I created this illustration in Illustrator CS3 and really didn't have any idea of what I was going to create in terms of a vacation scene. As I looked at various images online to brainstorm some ideas, I immediately knew I wanted something playful and child-like.

I thought of a vacation that never ends where you have an entire island to yourself...clean beige sand granules intermixed with eroded minuscule rock crystals, fragrant salty sea water stretching out into the far away milk-chocolate colored mountains in the horizon, arched palm trees that flirt right above your head which provide nurturing shade and curious but fun-inspiring sailboats and beach umbrellas sprinkled about respectively on both water and land.

I am reminded of the times I've visited several artist colonies and towns along the central coast of California. One of my favorite places in that area to go is Cambria near San Simeon. There are great stretches of beach which are literally covered and littered with tons of semi-precious rocks and stones including moonstones. Many stones are jasper, agate and so forth. Collecting these wonderfully little stones for hour after hour is what I consider one of life's simple but highly rewarding pleasures.

I'll have to make a trip back out there someday and this time, I'd like to experiment with some of the rocks I'll collect for jewelry and mosaic tile designs.

"Floraline Metropolis"

This piece was created in Illustrator 10. I wanted to create my own rendition of the color wheel thus I decided to work with a floral theme. This illustration took a long time to create and the piece had many many layers. After the initial design was drawn in Illustrator, I took it over to Photoshop CS to began digital painting and manipulation. The detail (as there is a LOT) of this piece can really be seen and fully appreciated at a larger scale. The original size is 3000 x 3000 pixels.

Several people mentioned that this piece looked like a mandala of some sort and it made them feel a sense of well-being looking at it. I like this interpretation and I'd say there was a dormant objective in this vein of thought when I created the illustration. Nature, reflection, harmony, peace and the power of color and energy (unity) are entities projected amid a stylized metropolitan background.