Eric Valdez

I did a flyer a couple weeks ago for a rocksteady, ska and reggae show in Chino on May 11th. There’s never anything to do out there, so those of you who are in the Inland Empire and dig good music should attend.

On April 13th I’ll be participating in a group show that should be a lot of fun since it’s a video game themed art show. I’m going to be showing a few pieces (maybe 1 or 2 paintings and a couple of digital things) and I’m really excited about this since I was already working on some video game inspired art when I found out about the show. Anyway, if you’re looking for something to do in the Long Beach area in a couple of weeks then I highly recommend that you stop by Chatismo 101 Studiofor this.

This is a piece that I did with Illustrator and Photoshop and it might make it into the show without too many more changes. I will of course have prints available for sale.

I should really start posting more often. My bad. Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of graphic design stuff recently and here’s some of the newest projects that I’ve worked on.

A friend of mine asked me to make show posters/flyers for a couple of up-coming traditional ska shows featuring some pioneers of the ska and rocksteady genres. I’m really happy with the way they came out and I hope to do some more in the near future. If the skinheads that I hung out with in high school would have known that I’d end up designing a Derrick Morgan poster then they would have thought I was a lot cooler.

Get more info at the Facebook event page.

Get your tickets HERE!

I also designed the logo for Orange County Great Park’s 2011 New Year’s Eve celebration, which was also a very fun project.

First of all, thanks to Steven Amado (AKA “Chatismo”) for asking me to participate in another fun Al Borde Dia de los Muertos event. The highlight of the event was an amazing performance by El Conjunto Nueva Ola, who tore it up that night. My contribution to the show was a tribute to one of the most important bands ever, The Ramones.

This Saturday my Ramones piece will be topping off an altar at, one of my favorite spots in Highland Park, Mi Vida‘s “Altarwalk” during NELA’s Art Walk. Come by and join me for probably the last Dia de los Muertos event of the season.

I currently have some pieces up at Casita del Pueblo in Uptown Whittier as part of their annual Dia de los Muertos group show, which will be up for a couple more weeks.

DIRECTIONS

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On November 2nd I’ll, once again, be participating in art show portion of Al Borde’s annual Dia de los Muertos event. Their events are always lot of fun and I’m really excited about being a part of it again. It’s a free all-ages event and you can attend by RSVPing here.

DIRECTIONS

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On November 6th I’ll have an altar up at Alhambra Latino Association’s Day of the Dead festival at San Gabriel High School. I’m from Alhambra and SGHS is my alma mater so the invitation to participate was a huge honor.

DIRECTIONS

My new limited edition Dia de los Muertos album cover redesign prints are now available at Casita del Pueblo in Uptown Whittier and Mi Vida Boutique in Highland Park. Mi Vida will also be among the many vendors at the Dia de los Muertos festival at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on October 22nd and the Self Help Graphics Dia de los Muertos Celebration on November 2nd and will have the prints available at those events as well.

Misfits – Walk Among Us

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Duran Duran – Rio

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Maybe this will turn into a screen printed thing for Dia de los Muertos…I dunno.

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In late June Dimitri Coats of OFF! posted a picture of Keith Morris, Ian McKaye and Henry Rollins that was taken outside of the legendary 9:30 Club in D.C.. I’m a huge fan of each of their work and these guys have continued to influence me so, the moment I saw the picture, I knew I had to turn it into a painting.

Photo by Dimitri Coats

Last year my friend Doreen of Little Sweeties Cupcakes (I can’t recommend her cupcakes enough! Follow and Like) purchased the Joe Strummer vinyl portrait that I had made. It was a gift for her husband who, like myself, is a HUGE fan of The Clash. He dug the piece so much that Doreen commission me to produce portraits of the rest of the band for an anniversary gift.

I got done with them last week and can confidently say that all parties involved are very happy with the results.

A buddy of mine once mentioned that I should consider posting images of how I go about creating these vinyl portraits, but that’s actually pretty long and boring. Instead, here are the sketches that I started with, including the Joe Strummer sketch from last year.

As you can see, I’m not usually that concerned about getting a close likeness down right away unless I’m really far off. If needed, as in the case of the Mick and Paul sketches, I’ll do some refining along the way and hopefully by the end, the portraits look as spot-on as possible.

A Go-Go – Acrylic on Toyota fender (model and year unknown)

My buddy Gabriel works at a body shop and he gave myself and a bunch of other artists some damaged car parts to paint on. This is what I came up with. Next step: shooting an auto body clear coat to make the colors pop even more.