matthew lopez Illustration

Natural Classic

2011-03-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

Check out bay area hip hop group Natural Classic!

Crystal Castles

2011-02-18T20:39:00.001-08:00

Welcome to their kingdom.

Chocolate and Beer Festival 2011

2011-02-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

Come out to the Chocolate and Beer Festival this Saturday for great chocolate, beer, and music!

Ratchet will be the headliner!!

A fun thing on clouds

2011-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

Some clouds from a carny land.

MADLIB

2011-02-09T15:10:00.001-08:00

This piece is about hip hop artist Madlib and his various influences meshed into one abstract sound! Check him out at Stonesthrow.com.

-Enjoy!

Ratchet

2011-02-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Check out Ratchet and their NUMB tour!

Wanee Music Festival 2011

2011-02-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

Here is my poster design for this years Wanee Music Festival. It still needs some type done, so I will update as soon as I get the lineup on there. The Idea for this came from an idea I had about a band name. I thought "If I ever had my own band, it would be called 'Jars of Jam' and all our hit songs would be different flavors of jam." so now that Wanee fest is more like an Allman Brothers and friends fest, I thought peach jam would be perfect.

Santa Cruz Blues Festival 2011

2011-01-23T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is my entry for the 2011 Santa Cruz Blues Festival. It's sure to be one hell of a show. I missed it last year when they had Derek and Susan play their wonderful songs of love. I'll surely be there this time around!

Bella

2011-01-09T12:43:00.001-08:00

This pastel painting was a commission for Bella's first birthday!

Milkshake quake

2010-10-22T16:30:00.001-07:00

Here's a piece I did about a milkshake!

- enjoy!

a few new spots for fun!

2010-10-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

Power Line Boom

2010-10-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

Heres an illustration for an article about hurricanes and power lines!

Marty McFly Album Cover Final

2010-09-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the final color to the Marty McFly album cover.

This was so much fun to draw and paint!

Once was old, now is new!

2010-09-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

I took this old bronze series Warlock guitar I had and gave it a makeover. I reshaped the body and headstock, gave it a little paint, and put some new humbuckers on it. I swear, if I ever have the start up money and some buyers, I would strip down, repaint, and customize guitars forever.

This is What it used to be.

Rick on Rick

2010-08-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Heres a classy Rick Springfield playing on a bright red Rickinbacker!

Cream and The King

2010-08-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here are two commissions I got after the mini series. I liked doing the whole band and I might do another series of different bands I'm into soon!

mini series

2010-08-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Heres a little series of some people I listen to. Enjoy!

Duane Allman

Neil Young

John Lennon

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Jerry Garcia

Bob Marley

Jimi Hendrix

Bob Dylan

Jimi Page

Kyle and Brandi Bowser

2010-06-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

This was a commission for Kyle and Brandi's 1 year anniversary!

Dog Portraits

2010-06-08T10:13:00.001-07:00

If your looking for dog portraits, go to my new blog mrlopezdog.blogspot.com

In other news, I have just relocated to Orlando FL and will soon be showing in galleries around the area.

Tails n' Trails of Rock n' Roll Images

2010-05-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the 15 full color illustrations for Tales n' Trails of Rock n' Roll. There are still more books available for sale. If you are in Sarasota this summer, I will be having a show at Felices Cafe of these images and all of my blues musician portraits. The show will be during Rosemary Rising, July 16th 2010, so come on down and enjoy one of Felices many fine sandwiches and enjoy some live music and art!

"took a little trip to keep from going insane, spent the rest of my life on the all night train"

-Allman Brothers Band

"The sky is crying"

-S.R.V.

"Crosstown Traffic"

-Jimi Hendrix

"Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers"

-Cream

"There are just as many geese, and their flying down south,

as there are lies pouring out your mouth"

-Donovan

"Confessin The Blues"

-Rolling Stones

"Yer Blues"

-Beatles

"I got the rockin pneumonia, I need a shot of rhythm and blues"

-Chuck Berry

"Little Red Rooster"

-Willie Dixon

"Parchman Farm Blues"

-Bukka White

When they heard that louis was dead, all the people dressed in red"

-Mississippi John Hurt

"Terraplane Blues"

-Robert Johnson

"Death Letter"

-Son House

"I am the man that rolls when icicles are hanging on the trees"

-Robert Johnson

"Hellhounds on my trail"

-Robert Johnson

fake sky

2010-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I made about how all the amazing colors we see in the sky and clouds at sunset are the result of air pollution. Light from the sun is reflected and trapped in greenhouse gasses which form more intense colors which we all seem to love so much.

Tales n' Trails of Rock n' Roll is out, I will post the images from the book within the next week!

sunset time

2010-04-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

this was the finished piece done from the sketch a few posts down. I did something a little different than what I normally do with pastels. I put a coat of spar varnish on, then made some oil glazes and some china marker.

Tails n' Trails of Rock n' Roll

2010-04-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the cover for my book that I have been working on for the past three months. It is a timeline of illustrated song lyrics starting with the early days of guitar pounding delta blues, up to the reverb screaming cries of distorted electricity.

The book will be on display and for sale at the Ringling Senior Illustration Thesis Show on April 30th, and may also be for sale shortly after online.

I will post the other 14 Illustrations and 16 spots after the show so stay tuned!

clouds and flowers

2010-03-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Some pastel drawings I've done in the past few weeks

This was a still life that started out as a silhouette but then I started adding color, and detail, and it became a pretty nice flower drawing. I think I might do more flowers like this.

This was done over spring break, I was going to get some food, and the sun beaming through the clouds looked too cool to pass up. This was a 5 minute sketch but I think because of the short time, it captured a lot of energy.
This was done the other day, I was going to draw the bridge, but thought I might try to paint the sun being blocked by a passing cloud.

Till next time,

-Matt

Gene Evaro

2010-03-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

A little picture I made about Gene Evaro and the wonderful music he and his sisters make. You can listen to it at myspace.com/evaromusic.

Golden Mushroom Woman

2010-03-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

Thats the name I've given my new paint job on my old guitar.

a Bonnaroo design

2010-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

this is a design I did for this years Bonnaroo design contest. Go onto Bonnarroo.com sign up, and vote for it to win, and others that spark your interest!

symphony stories

2010-02-24T20:11:00.001-08:00

These are two paintings derived from listening to Mozart and Beethoven. They were just little drawings I blew up and colored. No real planning was involved, just fun.

This first one is from Beethoven's second movement from Symphony No. 5

And this one is from Mozart's first movement from Symphony No. 40

These were pretty fun to do, for the first time, I transfered these drawings on to wood, put a clear gesso on, and used pastel on that. It was a strange surface, once you lay down a color, the grain of the gesso really sets back and its difficult to layer another color onto that. Its great for holding one vibrant color though. it really grips and is fun to draw on with pastel.

winter time fun

2010-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a little portrait of Keb' Mo' one night messing around with ink and gold leaf paint.

I sanded down an old guitar and repainted it. The original paint was an orange/black sunburst.

Soon, I will paint an old worlock body with an electricity design somewhat like the white stripes poster two posts down.

Cream

2009-12-13T12:14:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to Cream a lot lately so I mashed up a few lyrics and ideas of theirs into this image.

The White Stripes

2009-12-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

Did a little poster for the white stripes. I tried as best as I could to stick to red black and white, but I couldn't help give it some color.

The Strat King

2009-11-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here is Jimi sitting in his guitar throne getting down with the spirits and the sounds of his soul.
Up next is some Cream art.

Taj Majal, Guitar Shorty and Keith Richards

2009-11-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the last three of the blues guitarists.

Taj Majal looking for hope in the sky,

Guitar Shorty on his fire burst strat,

and Keith Richards on the tele.

Derek Trucks

2009-11-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the last blues portraits, Derek Trucks. Keith Richards is up next.

self portrait

2009-11-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is a very Barron Storey inspired self portrait. It was a lot of fun. The color is made from the pastel portrait below, manipulated in photoshop.

tab benoit, lonnie brooks, elmore james, otis rush, and a quick self portrait

2009-11-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

these are the rest of the blues guitar players series I was doing except for keith richards

heres the self portrait

BB King

2009-11-02T00:42:00.000-08:00

Number 12, B B King and Lucille

Eric Clapton

2009-11-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Number 11, Eric Clapton goovin out his Cream years.

T Bone Walker

2009-11-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

Number 1o, T Bone Walker smiling for chicago

Kid Ramos

2009-10-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here's number 9, Kid Ramos formerly from the fabulous thunderbirds.

Duane Allman

2009-10-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Number 8, Duane Allman sliding warm tones out of his Les Paul.

Johnny Winter

2009-10-29T02:38:00.001-07:00

Number 7, Johnny Winter heating things up!

Self Portrait

2009-10-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

Here is number 6, myself beating blues out the guitar.

Muddy Waters

2009-10-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Number 5, Muddy Waters thinking of his delta past.

Blind Lemon Jefferson

2009-10-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Number 4 on Blind Lemon and his big head.

Albert King

2009-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Number three with Albert King Playing his Flying V.

SRV

2009-10-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here is number two in the series, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Skip James

2009-10-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a series of blues guitarists to explore drawing and mixing pastel with other media. Here's number one, Skip James.

Icky Thump

2009-10-19T22:16:00.001-07:00

Just finished this illustration for the White Stripes song "Icky Thump". The songs pretty crazy so I felt the image should be too.

Blues roots

2009-10-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

This was for an article in Rolling Stone about Keith Richards and Jack White talking about their roots in blues music. Was a fun adventure in pastel

2009-10-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Ginsberg

2009-09-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Did a quick pastel of Alan Ginsberg. Thought about using my pen linework in my pastel drawings by blowing up small ink drawings, and preserving the line work with pastels.

2009-09-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

2009-09-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

blues talkin fix up

2009-09-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a little fix up on this piece. I desaturated the ceiling and background colors and also brought the values closer together. Also darkened and desaturated the stage.

pastel dylan

2009-09-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Heres another go at the pastels, Bob Dylan, one of my favorite music peoples.

2009-09-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

pastel city

2009-09-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Found this picture online somewhere and went at it with pastels. More portraits coming.

2009-09-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

2009-09-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

2009-09-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

#28

2009-09-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

2009-09-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

2009-09-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

#27 c

2009-09-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

#27 b

2009-09-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

first few pages of #27

2009-09-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

Summer Sketchbooks

2009-09-06T14:24:00.001-07:00

Been away from this blog for a while now, Im almost done scanning in all the sketchbook stuff I did over the summer. They will be up soon as well as the paintings/illustrations from the summer.

art dump

2009-05-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

3 hour paintings. playing with paint.

Editorial - Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe

Book Cover - Stephen King's "The Body"
paintings from Spanish Point. second one had an accedent and got smudged pretty bad.

Color studies
old watercolor of Dylan cover

paintings

2009-04-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

remington copy

day night revisited

2009-03-30T18:50:00.001-07:00

blew up old sketchbook drawing and used it for a day/night color/value study.

blues fallin down like hail

2009-03-29T21:32:00.001-07:00

3 paintings

2009-03-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

here are three rough photos of the last few paintings ive done. all three hour class paintings.

steel drivin man

2009-03-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

bluetexthead

2009-03-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

and another... I did these colors real quick, Ill play with them more.

-matt

texthead2

2009-03-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

dont know what to call these but I like them

searching for something

2009-03-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

\
heres a scan of my sketchbook I colored with photoshop. im getting into these letter mass values to make pictures. more will come soon.

two paintings, two illustrations

2009-03-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

this first painting was done a few weeks ago, took a while to dry. 3 hour painting

this next one was done tuesday, its another 3 hour pose.
this is an illustration for the movie "the final cut"
and this was for fun of bowie in space rockin out in the groovitational pull

journal 26

2009-03-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

2-2-09 to 3-3-09

SUMO

2009-02-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

another 3 hour illustration about sumo wrestlers getting caught with marijuana in their systems disgracing their sport and country.

Ovation

2009-02-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I got to draw this morning for Ringling's booth at Lakewood Ranch's Ovation Celebration. It was fun drawing to the achapello group that performed, and this little 12 year old(at the most) girl with a voice 3 times her age. Anyways, here are the drawings.

one woman asked if she could have this drawing, and was shocked when I asked, "you want to purchase it?"

journal 25

2009-02-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

heres scans from my most recent sketchbook.. teal started it, but she didnt want the sketchbook no more so I took it and filled it up.

Also, I'm selling my comic book at Big E's for $10 so if you want a copy you should go pick one up.

and I have two more 3/4 hour illustrations ill be scanning in the next few days.

figure painting

2009-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

heres a quick painting from monday morning.

3 hour illustrations, 3 hour figure

2009-01-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

Here are three 3 hour illustration from the past week and a half. I didn't finish them in exactly three hours, but pretty close. These were very fun to do and got me to think faster. They were all random articles handed out at the beginning of class (8:30 am) so it was a surprise every time, and at that time, its a little difficult to get your head thinking as creatively as you would like.

this first one is about the terminator gene that was developed to prevent plants from producing seeds. I thought of female plants cutting and tying each others fallopian tubes.

This article talked about how Rwanda is building its country's economy by weaving baskets and selling them to Macy's.
This last one is about Josef Mengele, a Nazi scientist who was on a mission to make the perfect race out of twins. He fled to a small town in Brazil where he continued his experiments on twins and now, one in every 5 pregnancies in that town, are twins.overall, I think the three hour assignments were great, tought me to think fast and cut time consuming habits out of my process.

Heres a three hour figure painting from thursday's class. I had fun.

Also, there is a student art sale coming up on the 31st which will hopefully bring in some money so I can take my girlfriend out to a decent meal for valentines day. lastly, sketchbook 25 is almost done, so ill be posting scans from that soon.

4 or 5 hour illustration

2009-01-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

heres the first of a few quick illustrations Im working on.

here's a link to the story

#24

2009-01-12T19:27:00.001-08:00

heres my last sketchbook, i finished it last month but just got it all scanned in, so here you go.

new paintings old portrait

2008-12-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is a portrait I did a while back with the series of 30 heads. It was up in a display case for a while so I didnt have a chance then to scan it. so here it is.

Hendrix - graphite and soapy watercolor on frosted mylar

This is a 45 minute oil sketch. It was so much fun painting so quickly, not thinking, just reacting.

heres another sketch of the same model.
this is a 2 hour sketch in oil, fun fun fun painting

So thats kinda what ive been up to as of late, journal 24 is a few pages from being done and once it is, ill make sure to put it up. Also, the cover art for my comic "Anatomy of Desire" is almost finished so stay tuned for that.

Journal 23

2008-11-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

heres a lot of scans of journal 23.... now on to 24

Im still working on this comic book, it will be done mid next week and ill make sure to post it before the weekend.

enjoy

thanks for reading
-matt

3 recent figures

2008-11-10T21:19:00.001-08:00

heres a 3 hour painting from Custode's class. It was really fun to paint so fast. I tryed using more color than usual.
I just finished this painting this morning, it was a 5 hour painting dont all with a knife.
this painting was done the day before on frosted mylar.

30 heads

2008-11-07T14:45:00.001-08:00

here are all but one of the 30 heads I did this past month. Each one is done in a different media, or a different mixture of media. I chose to do all musicians just so i could have some sort of theme going. Ill put the last one of Hendrix up once i get it back from the display case.

enjoy.

Jack White, white stripes - graphite, india ink, acrylic, and transparent paper on board.

Gregg Allman, allman brothers band - Oil knife painting on gessoboard

Win Butler, the arcade fire - nupastel on toned paper
Stevie Ray Vaughan - scratchboard

Omar Rodriguez Lopez, mars volta - ink monotypeon paper
Omar Rodriguez Lopez, mars volta - ink monotype, acrylic, varnish, on paper

Teal Bowser, the spin cycles - turp, nupastel on layout paperDuane Allman, the allman brotheres band - colored ink, gouache, oil on board.
Rivers Cuomo, weezer - colored pencil, oil pastel, ink, varnish on paper
Berry White - Acrylic and ink on board
Jerry Garcia, the greateful dead - nupastel and acrylic on paper
Kele Okereke, bloc party - ink and gouache on paper
Dustin Kensurue, thrice - watersoluable crayons and acrylic on board
Donovan - ink, acrylic, varnish on paper
Mungo Jerry - lacqure transfered color shapes.
Woody Guthrie - cut out paper, acrylic, ink on board.
Isaac Brock, modest mouse - India ink, colored ink on board
Sam Beam, iron and wine - oil on gessoboard
Ben Folds - graphite, acrylic, gouache, colored pencil, oil, on board
Xavier Rudd - ink, lacqure transfer woodgrain on paper
Matisyahu - watercolor on watercolor paper
John Lennon - colored ink, india ink, oil pastel on board
Thom Yorke, radiohead - Watercolor on stratmore 500 plate
Derek Trucks - graphite, colored pencil, oil on board
Ben Gibbard, death cab for cutie, the postal service - india ink, colored ink, oil pastel on paper
Rob Zombie - colored ink, india ink, gouache, glow in the dark paint, on board
Jack Black - crayon on toned paper

Lead Belly - lenolium block print on toned paper
Snoop Dogg - graphite on board
Teppei Teranishi, thrice - india ink, halftone on paper.

thanks for looking,
-Matt

sketchbook 22

2008-11-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

here are some scans of my last sketchbook.

enjoy

-matt

some scans from my last sketchbook

2008-10-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

enjoy,

-matt

Cigar Book, and Paintings

2008-10-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just finished my documentary book for illustration. My intention was to make the box look like a cigar box, and make the book look like a huge cigar. I even made a magnetic wrap for the book to keep it shut tightly. I printed all the pages out, then lacquer transferred the pages onto better paper. The hard board cover is wrapped in real tobacco leaves so the book even smells and feels like a fine cigar. It was an extremely fun project, I learned a lot more than I thought I would, and really enjoyed making images for it. here are some pictures of how the book came out, some more of the original artwork, and some new badly photographed figure paintings. Enjoy.

thanks for reading
-matt

some new stuff

2008-09-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

so heres a big update. first, here is our secondish assignment for computer illustration which was to creat icons. these are all rare or endangered species of monkey. i thought they looked cool so i chose them for this project.

For my illustration 2 class, were making documentary books on a subject of our choice, i chose to do something about the cigar industry. the project is really fun and has a lot to learn in it. we are supposed to go out and research our topics, interview people, make pictures and such, then turn that into a book that we must design inside and out to fit our subject. heres some drawings of historical peoples, people handrolling cigars, and some people hanging out in cigar bars.

also, i scanned in the two last pages from my sketchbook so here they are.

and finaly, here are some low grade pictures of unfinished paintings that i have done over the past few weeks. i probably wont finish them up, but here they are.

This school year is looking great. im having fun in all my classes, and i get to go to 6 figure painting sessions (3 teachers) each week!

thanks for looking and reading
-matt