Bot Fly

Here is another creepy creature design using a nasty little guy known as a bot fly as a reference. Their larvae are internal parasites of mammals, some species growing in the host's flesh and others within the gut. The human bot fly, Dermatobia hominis, is the only species of bot fly known to parasitize humans routinely, though other species of fly do cause myiasis in humans. Sounds delicious doesn't it? As if this species really needed help to be more disturbing, what was I thinking. I also drew inspiration from the creature designs in movies like John Carpenter's The Thing, Silent Hill, and popular game franchise Dead Space. Below is the original sketch, followed by my painting and a reference pic of the actual real life critter. I'm glad my version is just fantasy. Thanks for stopping by, don't let the bed bugs bite. LOL

Creature Creation

Here is a painting I did recently exploring the techniques of creature designer Carlos Huante. Carlos is a super talented designer whose work inspires me tremendously. He has been very cool to me as well, always offering great art advice or just taking the time to chat from time to time. He has worked on a variety of film and game projects throughout the years, If your not familiar with his work, you can check out his website Here. His books are available on The Design Studio Press site. And the DvD tutorials that I referenced for this exercise can be found on the Gnomon Workshop site available as a digital download, hard copy, or as part of a yearly subscription Here. He also has a fantastic self published art book called Blind Spot that can be purchased by following the links on his site. I have all his stuff and I highly recommend all of it. I look forward to any future work he has in the pipeline. So here it is, i'll post more of these as I finish them. The sketch was done with Col-erase prismacolor pencil and the painting in Corel painter X3 and Photoshop cs6. Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy!!!

Art Poster

So I got my promo copy of Rodney Dollah's little book of Monsters in the mail yesterday. This was a fun project to be part of, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do for vol. 2 next year. We got a shout out on Parka blogs, which is one of my favorite blogs to visit from time to time to read up on all the new art related books that are out. You can see the review on Parka Blogs here. And read a blog post I did about the book here. Make sure you follow the link to order your copy, so you can enjoy some Monster goodness in time for this Halloween:) While you're at it don't forget to stop by and order my art book, Jab Jab Whammo!!! using the preview link below

jab, jab, WHAMMO!!! by Rafael Rivera | Make Your Own Book

I been super busy lately, but will be sharing some artwork real soon, for now here is a page from Rodney Dollah's Little Book Of Monsters and a promo poster of my art both new and old for you to enjoy!!! Thanks for stopping by

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, businessman and philanthropist. Often referred to by the honorific nickname "King of Pop", or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "Thriller," were credited with breaking down racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then relatively new television channel MTV to fame. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot, and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and His Story (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s"; 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era; and the estimated sale of over 400 million records worldwide. Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. In what would have been Jackson's 52nd birthday on August 29, 2010, he became the most downloaded artist of all time. Jackson constantly traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism and the 2000 Guinness Book of Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities. Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In the mid-1990s, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the case was settled out of court for about $25 million and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Here is my caricature of The King Of Pop, May he rest in peace. Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy!!!!

Rodney Dollah's Little BOOK of MONSTERS Volume 1

Some exciting news: A few of my pieces have been published in Rodney Dollah's Little Book of Monsters Volume 1, Available now. Click Here for details. It's an honor to be among so much great talent. A special shout out and thanks to Rodney Dollah, The uber talented Brian Haberlin, and an old friend from my Kitchen Sink Press days, James O' Barr (creator of The Crow), for giving me the opportunity to showcase my art in such a cool forum. Make sure you use coupon code LIKE US! at checkout for 10% off your entire order. Here's a Link to the artist page for a list of all the talent involved. I believe this may turn into an annual event, in fact the submissions for book 2, have a deadline of October 18th 2013, so head on over to the facebook page for details, if you are interested. So now that that shameless plug is over (LOL), I'll do what I do best and share some work. I call this one Baboon Heart. He truly fought me to be created. The file got corrupted on me, so I had to paint over a really bad low res version that I saved that had the words WIP written acrossed it. Then right when I finally got done and signed it, I signed it across the wrong layer, yup, the one with all the details. So I had to start that all over again, anyway, I hope it was worth it and you guys like the end result. Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy!!! and go enjoy some Monsters. Keep the lights ON !!!!