Kiki Kokí Puerto Rico 2010

Here are photos from the Christmas trip to Puerto Rico. We did quite a few media interviews Mall events. I will be updating KikiKokí.com later this week with more images.

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas! I just got back from another Kiki Kokí campaign in Puerto Rico. This time I was there in part as a benefit to El Hospital del Niño, a children's hospital on the island. This is a banner I created for a fund raising booth they had at the Plaza las America Mall.

Kiki Kokí T Shirts have arrived!

Borders Books in Puerto Rico is doing a Kiki Kokí fixture in 3 of their stores. I printed shirts to plus out the book and plush. Outside of Borders PR the only place to find the shirts is the IdeaRworks store. Check 'em out!

Visit us at CTN in Burbank Nov 19-21 Table T-37 (Click here for Link)

If you are attending CTN this weekend be sure to swing by the IdeaRworks table. I am in Opportunity Alley T-37 across from Disney animation. I will have Kiki Kokí Books, Plush and Tee Shirts that are literally hot off the press. It's a great show. I hope to see you there!

Helllooo Kitty!

A friend invited me to San Rio's Small Gift Celebration last Thursday night. San Rio was celebrating Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary. It was held at an Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport. The art gallery in particular was really inspirational. There were a lot of great artists on display. If you are a Hello Kitty fan you need to get down there. I provided the link, the show runs through Nov 21.  Here are a few pics I took with my phone.

Isle of inspiration

 As part of this blog I will post some of the photo reference that I used as inspiration and how show it made it into the final story.

 

The Spanish Colonial City of Old San Juan. Note the Sentry box above and below.

The streets of the Frog Village in Kiki Kokí have blue stone streets, inspired by the blue brick streets of Old San Juan.

The colors of Old San Juan were an obvious source of inspiration.

The IdeaRworks Store (Click here to visit)

I opened a store to sell Kiki Kokí products. Currently I sell the Book and the Plush. I will be adding Tee Shirts and Art Prints from Kokí as well as some of my other art work.

September 14, 2010 Kiki Kokí is born!

Two and a half weeks ago Kiki Kokí the book, appeared on a store shelf for the first time. It was also the day we held a press conference at the Borders Store in Plaza las Americas Mall in Puerto Rico.

I have posted images from the week at KikiKoki.com.

Kiki Koki on the world-wide web! (click here to visit)

I created KikiKoki.com to keep anyone interested in the property up to date. I also added a store where you can buy the book and the plush...yes plush.

Kiki Kokí, the book

A big part of the inspiration for Kiki Kokí came from the Taino Indians. These are the people that populated the islands in the Caribbean when Columbus first sailed to the New World. I thought it fitting that the origins of the story be attributed to them as there are folk tales regarding the Coqui that originate from the Tainos.

For the cover I wanted to subtly get across the idea of a Coquí frog longing to be a boy again (hope I didn't spoil it). I found it fitting for Koki to create a petroglyphs of himself as a boy. The Tainos created many petroglyphs, they have been found all over Puerto Rico. There is one petroglyth of the Coqui frog, I used it as a graphic on the title page of the book. 


The book is printed in both English and Spanish. Both versions are available at KikiKoki.com

Intoducing Kiki Kokí

Kiki Kokí the Enchanted Legend of the Coquí Frog is my first children's book. As the title implies it is a made-up back story to the real life Coqui Frog found in the mountains and wetlands of Puerto Rico. If you have ever been to Puerto Rico you know about the Coquí. It is the beloved mascot of the island. At night the Coquí frogs fill the balmy island air with a high pitched chirp-like call..."KoKee". As a city kid from Brooklyn visiting my grandparents on the island I was intrigued by this mysterious little tree frog.

In 2000 I visited Puerto Rico with my wife and our children and fell in love with Coquí and the island all over again. I left inspired to do something featuring all the great places we had visited on that trip. They included Spanish fortresses, pristine beaches and enormous caves, among cool other places. For years I sketched from the photos I had taken, then two years ago I took a short break between jobs and wrote the story of Kiki Kokí.

I have spent most nights and weekends of the last two years working on some aspect of the Kiki Kokí project. A gluten for punishment, I decided that illustrating the book was not enough and decided to self-publish and create product to support the property. I will give insight into that process in the future. For now I hope to share with you the creative process and journey of Kiki Kokí and IdeaRworks, the publishing company I formed to print the book under.

Wise old Turtle

This was a quick marker sketch that I added color to. As you can tell I like drawing amphibians.

Terror on the Greens

 This guy loves golf...uh golfers. I had fun drawing and rendering him.

Gone Batty

I did a rough sketch of this character a while back. Tonight I tightened this sketch up and added color on the Cintique.

The King

This is a quick caricature and color comp I created tonight.

African Rhino

A pencil sketch with Faux Gouache.

I'm Back!

Hey, I have been away from my blog for a while. I'm back and have a few things in various stages of development that I will be posting soon. The reason for my lack of posting is that I have been swamped. In addition to my day job I have been working on a Children's book for the past year and a half. In adition to the art i decided to publish and distribute it. I will be posting images and info on here as we get closer to the September release date. In the mean time here is a bench warmer I tried to crank out relatively quickly. I love gouache but never have time to set up to paint traditionally. So I created this one digitally.
be back soon.

Sketch to final

Savanna Blues

Vespa Couple

I haven't had a chance to add to the Blog in a while. I hope to get a few pieces done this weekend. I started this work a while back. I finally got around to completing it tonight.

Slow as a turtle

I've been slow as a turtle uploading to the blog. I have been busy with this art project that I've been working on. I will be sharing it in the near future. For now here's a quick AI sketch.

More Animals

Here are a couple more animals.

I draw people too...

Over the last year I really got into Adobe Illustrator. It allows me to sketch loose and create my final images in vector. It can be time consuming so one of my resolutions is to work on a quick Photoshop technique that I can turn around quickly...oh I guess it will force me to do better drawings as well.

The Road Runner

I created this guy a while back. I keep finding myself drawing more and more birds. Something about their expressions that reflect human traits. Sneakers help too.

Happy New Year! What a Croc!