Studiomiguel

The Long Version

I began keeping sketchbooks when I was 12. I would fill them through my teenage years as more of a place to impress girls and express my angst than to really refine ideas. Since then, sketchbooks have become an integral part of my creative process. I carry one wherever I go, and I've trained myself not to be self-conscious about drawing. I have managed to capture some amazing ideas that would have otherwise slipped into the ether. Of the tens of thousands of thoughts that we have each day, the sketchbook offers a way to tangibly diagram them for recollection later. Not just the big ideas that we tend to remember anyway, but the myriad of smaller ones that we can then connect later for more original works. I currently keep my collection online at flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiomiguel).


I was born with a crayon in my brain. I was mesmerized by animation as a youth. The problem was, as a lazy young man, as I learned how the process was made I thought, "now way I can make all of those drawings." How odd that I would end up as an animator, even if it is part-time. I studied with master portraitist Steve Grey as a youth and eventually went on to minor success in my early twenties with mostly animal portraits and fantasy art.
By my mid-twenties, I had managed to land a regular paying gig as a graphic designer. After a few years, I realized I was leaving my painting roots behind and decided that a change was in order.
In 2000 I began attending the Art Institute of Dallas in order to obtain a degree in Computer Animation. When I graduated in 2002, I was back on track. I landed a job with an illustration studio and have been working on jobs vacilating between illustration and animation ever since. Clients have included Fortune 500 companies, numerous ad agencies and groups word-wide. Freelance work has often diversified job demands even further.
Recent years have seen a resurgence in my passion for the drawn line however, and I have begun to refocus on analog techniques. Acrylics, watercolor, pencil and inks have bestowed their siren-call on me and I find conflict in the therapy of scratching out new illustrations the old fashioned way and staying up-to-date with the latest software release. I wonder if Leonardo was conflicted between the latest oil grinds and egg-tempera?

Who Am I?

A native of North Central Texas, graduated from The Art Institute of Dallas in 2002 and presently reside as a commercial artist working primarily in advertising. My weapons of choice for image execution are Photoshop and Modo. The thrill of the work for me is a great concept.

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