C.B. Canga Art

Back in the day

2012-01-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

Going through some old stuff... and i was stoked to find this article about me and some friends in the contra costa times... this was in 95... old school:)

Cigarettes

2012-01-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

i did these using pen, acrylic, ink washes, and prismacolor pencils

Location Sketches

2012-01-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

gonna make more of an effort to update my blog... i'm constantly creating art.. just haven't had much of a desire lately to show it off.. anyway, gonna try and change that for 2012.

these were either done with a ball point or felt tip pen. i always switch back and fort depending on my mood.

New Stuff

2011-12-28T10:13:00.001-08:00

i've got a couple hundred new drawings... always hard to decide what to put up on the blog... here's a few...

Summer Art

2011-08-10T08:40:00.001-07:00

The Hand

2011-08-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Art!!!

2011-05-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

drawings in a 8.5 by 11 moleskin sketchbook

Drawing Session, Hatching

2011-03-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any of my 5-20 minute poses in a very long time.

I did these using a ball point pen. For this session I really wanted to practice my pen hatching and pressure sensitivity... haven't practice my hatching in a long time... purely academic:)

The Pit of Bones

2011-03-08T11:29:00.001-08:00

The Sea

2011-02-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

Sketchbooks

2011-01-11T02:28:00.000-08:00

finishing touches. why? for fun...:)

thumbing through my current sketcbook. you will recognize some drawing in here from previous posts.

Sketchbook 2

Sketchbook 3

Emma Drawing

2011-01-05T02:12:00.000-08:00

It amazes me how focus my 2yr old daughter emma gets when she draws.

Angel

2010-11-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

prismacolor on canson vellum

mix medium collage in moleskin sketchbook

markers, pens, and graphite in moleskin sketchbook

Quick Studies

2010-10-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Most of these are mixed medium. I draw with whatever I have at the moment. Otherwise I use a Bic ball point pen in my 8 by 11 moleskin sketchbook.

into the cave again

2010-09-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

a sketchbook drawing with a ball point pen.

yea, though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil, for you are with me....

Forbidden Island Reviews and Tutorials

2010-06-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some reviews and tutorials on Forbidden Island, the board game I recently illustrated. The ones with the kids are really cute:)

Sketchbook

2010-04-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent drawings done on a 8 1/2 by 11 moleskin at my quickstudies workshop.

Mousehunter 2

2010-03-30T11:19:00.001-07:00

Mousehunter 2 is officially out in US stores in April.

Pickle Impossible

2010-03-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

I did the cover and interiors artwork for Eli Stutz's book, Pickle Impossible. The book is to be published by Bloomsbury. It will be available for purchase May 25, 2010.

You can pre order the book on Amazon. Click on this link... Pickle Impossible

Forbidden Island Board Game

2010-01-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to work with Gamewright to create artwork for a board game called Forbidden Island. I created all the artwork for the game, this includes: the box, play pieces, board tiles, and player cards. The play pieces will be sculpted in China.

The release date for the game will be somewhere around March of 2010. I am looking forward to playing the game when it is out. You can see the teaser trailer for the game on You Tube. Here's the link... Forbidden Island Trailer

These are a series of sketches to one of the board tiles. This board tile was eventually chosen to be the image for the box art.

Here is the box art image. As you can see it is a combination of elements from the sketches above.

Forbidden Island box tin front and back.

These are some of the sketches for the board tiles. These are all locations in the game.

Here are some of the finished board tiles.

Playing around with island shapes.

La-Z-Boy Christmas Card

2009-12-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

I illustrated the annual Christmas card for the La-Z-Boy sofa company.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

25th Annual Sketchcrawl SF

2009-11-22T11:47:00.000-08:00

Mr. Erwin Madrid finally managed to drag me to my first sketchcrawl:) Naw, I've actually been wanting to go for a long time now. I finally found the time. Yay! It was fun sketching with everyone. I'll surly go to more in the future.

Here's the link to the sketchcrawls forum to see what others did that day. www.sketchcrawl.com

These are the results. I probably would have gotten more sketches done if I didn't spend so much time socializing with everyone:) The time went by so fast.

How to Train Your Dragon

2009-11-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

I did the cover for A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons, one of the books in the Hiccup the Viking Series. It's very exciting to see the Dreamworks trailer to the movie.

Scroll down to my August 31st post to see the cover I illustrated.

Here's the movie trailer. It looks amazing.

The Red Badge of Courage

2009-10-20T10:04:00.001-07:00

I recently finished illustrating the cover and interiors for Stephen Crane's classic novel, The Red Badge of Courage.

The book will be available January 2010 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group www.abdopub.com, or your educational wholesaler.

I decided to take the poses myself, and have a friend shoot me for photo reference. I don't usually do this, but I felt an urge to do so for this project. It was fun getting to play the characters.

These are a some of the interior illustrations I did for the book. I inked these with a sumi pen.

The Farmer

2009-10-06T18:41:00.001-07:00

One of the images from a recent story I illustrated.

This is a retrospective scene, where the farmer is remembering the good old days on the farm.

A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons

2009-08-31T22:38:00.001-07:00

I did the cover art for Cressida Cowell's book, A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons. This book is now available at all major book stores.

Dreamworks is making a feature film on the characters in this series. Read more about it on this link. www.imdb.com

Field Trip Mysteries

2009-08-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

I just got my copies for the Field Trip Mystery Series. I did the cover and interiors for all 4 books. The books were written by Steve Brezenoff and published by Stone Arch Books.

Here are the main characters in the series

The Goblin Baby

2009-06-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Random House send me copies of the Goblin Baby book I did the cover art for. Yay!

The story is written by Berlie Doherty, and the interior art was done by Lesley Harker. The book was published in May so it should be out in all major book stores.

The Star-Figher of Murphey Street

2009-05-21T23:51:00.001-07:00

Today I got my copies of The Star-Fighter of Murphy Street trilogy, published by Zonderkidz. I Illustrated the covers and interior spots about a year ago. I've been looking forward to seeing these books published. It's always a treat for me to see the final outcome of my illustration work.

These books were really fun to illustrate. I love the titles for each book:)

Spring Cleaning. Yay!!!

2009-03-24T09:07:00.001-07:00

I just cleaned out my locker at the Academy just before spring break. I had about 3 years worth of drawing pads in there. I brought home about 15, 18 X 24 drawings pads, 100 pages per pad. Each pad is jammed packed with drawings from my classes. A lot of them were demos I've given, and drawings from my workshop. I am in the process of transferring and cataloging them in my computer. It will take quite a bit of time to sort through all of them but I am working on it.

I didn't realize I had accumulated so many drawings is such a short amount of time. I'm glad these drawings are finally getting the chance to see the light of day again:) I'm seriously thinking of putting these drawings together in a book format. We'll see...

I have enough material to update my blog for a couple of years now. Ha! I'll show you guys the drawings in small increments.

Most of the drawings I've been posting on my blog are nude quickstudies. I love drawing the clothed figure as well. I find folds very fascinating and challenging to draw.

These drawings are all 20 minute poses.These are all done with a compress charcoal stick on 18 by 24 smooth news print.

I used a red prsmacolor stick for this one

Pencil in sketchbook

New Baby/ Anatomy Drawings

2009-03-17T12:05:00.001-07:00

Thanks for all your feedback on the last post. My goal is to post at least once a month, so check back every so often.

I been quite busy with the family, teaching, and freelancing. We have a new baby in the house. Emma Beatrice Canga was born November 17, 08. She is a bundle of joy and a handful.

4 months here

Been getting back to anatomy lately. Every so often I like to freshen up my knowledge, by studying the drawings of the great Renaissance masters, and look at a lot of Greek and Roman sculptures. They are very inspiring to me.

All of these were done at my Quickstudies workshop. The poses range from 1-3 minutes.

Quick Studies/ Workshop Part 5

2009-02-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been some time since my last update. Thanks for everyone's feedback on the last post.

It's good to have the Spring 09 Quickstudies in session. Here are some drawings from yesterday night.

King Midas

2008-12-17T10:40:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the images from a story I illustrated for Pearson Education. The story is about King Midas, the man with the golden touch.

Most of the storytelling here is done through body language and facial expressions.

These images are copywritten by Pearson Education

Who needs Structure?

2008-11-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

Yes structure is very important, but sometimes I like to add a dash of unpredictability and chaos to the mix. Just a dash...

These were done with a felt tip pen. Towards the end my pen started to run out of ink. The lines started to get scratchy. I like happy accidents such as that.

Our model was amazing. She did a lot of great poses.

Children's Books

2008-11-16T11:12:00.001-08:00

Just recently got my copies of the Alec Flint, and Fearless Flynn books I worked on. It's always a pleasant treat for me to see my work in print.

I did the cover and interior art for Alec Flint Super Sleuth. The book is published by Scholastic and is written by Jill Santopolo.
The book comes with a key chain medallion.

Fearless Flynn and other tales is a book comprised of 3 short stories. I didn't do the cover for this book, but I illustrated one of the stories called Thirteen Crows. The book is published by Harper Collins and the story is written by Gillian Shields.

Hear are a few of the pages I illustrated from the book.

Quickstudies Workshop Part 4

2008-11-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Some sketchbook pages from Mondays quickstudies workshop. These were done using a sumi pen and graphite stick.

Quickstudies Workshop Part 3

2008-11-05T17:45:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my sketchbook pages from the last 2 quickstudies workshops. These are done in Pen. Yes, we go through a lot of paper:)

More to come...

The Mousehunter

2008-10-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

I did the cover for the American version of Alex Milway's book, The Mousehunter. The book will be out February 1, 09. You can read more about the book on The Mousehunter website and blog. Here's the links.
www.themousehunter.com
www.themousehunter.com/blog/

I designed the gold borders framing the image as well. Portrayed on the cover is Emiline, the main character, and her mouse friends.

Here is the cover layout along with the title. I did not design the title. You can read a brief description of the book here.

Thanks to the folks at Little Brown for giving me permission to post this on my blog.

Quickstudies Workshop Part 2

2008-10-15T11:02:00.001-07:00

Here are a few drawings from my quickstudies workshop. The workshop is held once a week, on Monday nights from 4-7 pm. In one workshop the model will do as many as 74 poses. The poses range from 1-5 minutes. I use charcoals of varying colors and prismacolor sticks.

You can go through a lot of paper in one workshop, so I like to cram my pages up. Here are some example of that. I will post more of these in the future.

This is a head studies demo I gave in class the other day. We each took turns doing 5-10 minute poses. I drew the students as they posed, while others watched.

The Violinist/ Kids at Play

2008-09-17T09:24:00.001-07:00

Kids at play

Landscapes Sketches

2008-08-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback on the last post. I really appreciate it.

I like to think of my sketchbook as a visual journal. Looking back at my drawings I can remember everything that went on the day I drew each image.

I find sketching landscapes very therapeutic and relaxing. It is always my goal to do more. These were all drawn in different areas. I used prismacolor pencils on all of these.

An old railroad bridge in Pacheco

A view of the Pacheco Cemetery

Walnut Creek. These were done in the neighborhood near the Lindsay Wildlife Museum.

Temescal Lake Recreational Park. The Oakland Hills are in the background.

Brionies Recreational Park. There was no one on this road for the longest time. I was about to finish the sketch when a Jeep came rolling by, kicking up some dust. I decided to draw it in.

A cowboy parked his trailer right in front of me and took his horse on the trail.

San Ramon Park

I sketched this at the Martinez Marina. This is a great place to draw and paint. The city of Martinez is a beautiful place. John Muir, the famous naturalist and author, knew what he was doing when he settled down in Martinez, California.

I was really captivated by the shapes of these trees. I had to draw them.

Snow White Frames/ Summer Class

2008-08-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

Shown here are 20 of the Snow White frames ; I illustrated over 70 frames total. I decided to post mainly establishing shots and back views of the characters. I'll save the rest for the premier.

Thanks to the folks at Green Screen Games for giving me permission to post these.

These frames are not in any particular order. I had a lot of fun using color and value to create a certain mood for each frame.

Here's an example of my thumbnail process for the opening frame of Snow White's castle. This is the stage where I think about designing an effective composition which will lead the viewer through the image. I do as many thumbnails as it takes, till I get what I am looking for. Sometimes I'll place a little star on the lower right hand corner of the ones I am considering. Once I finally decide on a particular composition, I take that drawing and refine it. After that it is ready to be painted in Photoshop.

Before and after shots of Snow White's castle. The evil queen did a lot of redecorating, that's for sure:) I enjoyed making the castle and surrounding areas evil and decrepit.

The good king and queen longed for a child. I wanted to create a sense of hope as they looked out of the window.

Exhausted, Show White sees a cottage in the middle of the woods. Again there's a sense of hope as she leaves the darkness and walks towards the light.

Snow White and the prince are married a top of a hill overlooking the prince's castle. I used the river in the background as a directional line that leads the eye back and forth to the wedding ceremony and the castle.

My Summer Class ended not too long ago. Here is our class pic with a few students missing.

Snow White Characters

2008-07-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

I worked with Green Screen Games to produce an interactive children's book for the Nintendo Wii. I illustrated the story of Snow White. These are some of my character designs.

The Game/Storybook is scheduled to come out this October. It's called Story Hour Fairy Tales. I will post a couple of the frames I created later down the line.

I did these using a regular graphite number 2 pencil in my sketchbook. I like to cram my pages with characters, that way I am forced to design the character to fit a specific space. It allows for some interesting shapes and poses.

Snow White

The Evil Queen

Some of my designs for the 7 dwarfs

The Huntsman

The Prince

The good King (Snow White's father)

The Starry Night / More Sketches

2008-07-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

"And so the journey begins..."

More sketchbook drawings

My kids are spending a lot of time in the pool this summer. Between grandma's house, swimming lessons, or water polo, they are all drenched. I drew these at the YMCA in Pleasant Hill, CA. Children are the most difficult to sketch due to their constant movement.

Students drawing using a floor easel.

Drawing Them Draw

2008-07-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Decided to draw the students drawing in class yesterday. These are a bit more refine compared to the Emergency Sketches below. I was more relaxed this day.

The head shots on the left are a couple of boys I saw on the Bart train on my way home from the city. At one point I thought one of the boys caught me sketching them, but it was never confirmed. They must have been in their early teens (12-13 yrs. I'm guessing). Their constant movement, along with the bumpy train ride, made them hard to draw. This is the challenge of sketching people in public.

I like to cram each page in my sketchbook. I usually have the pages filled, front and back. I don't like to waist paper. I'll turn the sketchbook in different angles to try and fit a sketch in.

Emergency Sketching

2008-07-02T20:30:00.001-07:00

Took my mom to the hospital today. Not a very fun place to spend the afternoon, but I made the best of it.

Didn't get a chance to bring my sketchbook. I found and old daily planner stashed in my car, borrowed a ballpoint pen from the receptionist, and I was good to go.

I felt sorry for this old man, slumped in a chair reading a magazine, with his breathing machine.

The lady on the right has very interesting proportions to say the least.

This woman nervously waited as the technicians drew blood from her new born baby. I could hear the baby screaming in the next room:(

Refuge Above

2008-06-23T21:06:00.001-07:00

"I take solace above the trees. This is where I am the most at peace."

I've been working on a lot of introspective pieces lately. I had a vague idea of the final outcome before I started this piece. Sometimes I let the painting take charge rather than me trying to mold it too much. I put my brain in to cruse control mode, so I don't do too much thinking, and watch what I come up with. A lot of times I'll watch TV while I paint so it gets me thinking about other things. It's funny, a lot of subconscious thoughts and feelings come through when I work this way. I often surprise myself. It's definitely subjects I like to paint, it just happens to be scrambled in ways I didn't expect. I'm still trying to figure out what this image means to me.

Gunman On The Grassy Knole

2008-06-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone that commented on the last post. This just motivates me to post even more pieces. Thanks for the support yall!

"Domo arigato Mr. Roboto!"

I like figuring out many different ways to show contras in my pieces. In this piece I am contrasting the Robot, up against the sky and grassy stalks. Machine vs. nature is one way to create contras. If you put a tall person next to a short person that is another way to create contras, because It makes the tall person appear much taller, and the short person... ...you get the point.

The Wall

2008-06-01T09:37:00.001-07:00

Inspiration comes at odd times. This is a dream I had last night. I painted this first thing in the morning when I woke up.

I'm hungry now. Time to get some breakfast:)

No S@%# Sherlock!

2008-05-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

Waz up Holmes? Elementary my dear Watson, elementary...:)

Did this drawing of Sherlock Holmes a couple of months ago. Decided to add some color before I went to bed. Night, Night.

I'll save Watson for another day maybe...

"Draw me Canga!!!"

2008-05-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

There's just something so cool about samurais. I love drawing them.

Spring's End

2008-05-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

My Monday and Wednesday class is at and end. Great group of artist. Though I am sad to see these groups go, I am looking forward to having a bit of a break so I can recharge my batteries, and be ready to tackle then next batch of students during the Summer semester.

What do you get when you have a bunch of art geeks and a cockatoo in one room? I'm not too sure, but this has to come close. Thanks for the bunny ears Andrew. And Romaldo, please get your mouth out of my ear=)

Nice outfit Omari:) You are clearly the focal point:) The Baron, and Jack's T-shirt is trying to steal some of that attention though. Ha! Peace out...

THE NEWEST MEMBER

Indy is the newest member to our family. He's about 8 weeks old now. Here are some pics of him. He's a Catahoula Leopard Dog. Most people have not heard about this type of breed before. They are head turners, that's for sure. Here's a link if you want to read up on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catahoula_Leopard_Dog

Indy will be a good companion to our other dog, Camo. Camo is also a Catahoula Leopard Dog. Here's Indy making himself at home.

Indiana Jones is his full name:)

Camo at his finest:) He was 7 months old in this picture. Camo is 1 yr. and 2 months now.

Demos

2008-05-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketchbook demos I gave in class the other day. I used a gray marker with a black calligraphy pen. I also used a prismacolor pencil on the ones with the color.

We'll Miss You Barbara Bradley (1927-2008)

2008-05-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

I am deeply saddened by the loss of such a great teacher and friend.

When I was in Barbara’s class, my goal was to get Barbara’s stamp of approval on all of the drawings I did. This was tough, because her standards were so high. She demanded a lot from all of her students. When you screwed up on a drawing, boy she would let you know. When you did a good job, you were rewarded with that wonderful smile that made all the countless hours toiled over the drawing board worth it. I would work late in to the night on all of her assignments, pushing myself to understand and capture the concepts she was trying to teach us. With each assignment, I strived to be better and better. I don’t think I have ever worked that hard for anyone (willingly at least). The respect I had for her then, grew even stronger once I started teaching, and we became friends.

Her standards have become mine. I strive for them each time my drawing tool strikes the pad. Motivating someone to strive for excellence is one of the greatest gifts you can give a person. It’s a tool for success in life. I am forever grateful for that amazing gift Barbara has given me. Thank You.

This picture was taken on December 2007 for Barbara's 80th Birthday.

The Grand Dutchess

2008-05-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've just been inspired to experimenting lately. I did this piece in about 2 hrs on Photoshop. This is my second fully digital piece. I didn't start out with a drawing. I started blocking in shapes, working fairly abstract before I went in for some detail. I did this piece more painterly than I normally work. I had fun... I am planning to incorporate more of this to what I normally do.

MORE EXPERIMENTING...

These are drawings in my sketchbook using a gray marker in combination with a calligraphy pen. I took it in to Photoshop for the coloring.

Lost and Found

2008-04-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

"Now you see her, Now you don't."

These are drawings in my sketchbook using the lost and found technique. The goal in lost and found is to get the viewer a bit more engaged in the drawing by having them complete the lost areas in their mind. It also speeds up the process if you don't have to draw everything=)

This was done with a pilot rollerball pen in my sketchbook.

This was done with a Prismacolor Pencil in my sketchbook.

Quickstudies/ Workshop

2008-04-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

These drawings were done with a brown colerase prismacolor pencil in my sketchbook.

I realized I haven't posted any drawings from my quickstudies workshop. Anyway, here are a few. We work on time poses ranging anywhere from 1 - 3 minutes. These drawings are all 3 minute studies. The goal of these drawings are to capture the gesture and rhythm of the nude figure.

I do believe it is important for artist to practice drawing the nude or clothed figure from life as often as they can. It's a great way to train eye to hand coordination. Drawing workshops are also great places to meet, socialize, and network with other artist. Good times...

Maybe I'll post more of these studies in the future.

Bonaparte

2008-03-17T21:03:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd throw in some pencil drawings.

I was researching Napolone Bonaparte for a project and I was inspired to do this quick sketch. The Heinrich Kley in me couldn't resist to put the little lady:)

The Lone Crossing

2008-02-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

My friend Thomas has been bugging me to do a traditional painting, so here it is. I painted this in watercolor. I tried to move through this piece as fast as I could.

It was good to play around with real paint once again. I actually got to mix colors:) Yes, it's been awhile. I will try to do more traditional works on the side.

This piece is about exploration, isolation, perspective, and composition. Their is not much to give an idea as to the scale of this creature. I wanted to keep the viewer guessing. It could be a huge dinosaure size animal, or something the size of a squirrel. You decide.

My Studio

2008-02-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

A couple of monthes ago I had an old shead in my backyard transformed in to a studio. My friend Dave did most of the work. I did the floors and the painting.

It's been my dream for a long time to have my own place separate from the main house. Don't have to hear the kids running and screaming while I'm working. They still come banging at my door though. Ha!

Outside view
I'm a bit of a neat freak, so this is as dirty as it gets.

My dog Camo beeing lazy. He keeps me company when I'm working.
This is where i rest when I get lazy:)

Dragon Bride

2008-02-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Originally I was going to have a spear running thought the dragon's chest, didn't want it to be too bloody. I changed my mind last minute. This is more of a piece about contrasting characters, sort of like Beauty and the Beast. I also wanted an excuse to do a landscape and play around with atmospheric perspective.

Scarecrow

2008-01-04T23:20:00.000-08:00

If I only had a brain...:( This would be pretty damn frustrating if i was caught in this predicament. I wanted to capture that in this illustration.

I Stalk My Prey...

2007-12-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

"beware of the prowling artist that stalks its prey, in a moments notice, he pounces and begins sketching:)"

i was at the book store doing some research when i decided to sketch the scene in front of me. book stores/coffee shops are always a good place to do some sketching. lots of interesting people. always a good place to listen in on some gossip:)

just a quick drawing workout in the middle of my researching is all i needed to jump start things.

i have to say, coffee shops are getting more cluttered every year, especially during the holidays. this one is stocked to the brim with impulse items. traps everywhere you look.

The Baron Sketch

2007-12-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

the baron of chesterfill didn't look too happy as he waited for me to finish drawing him.

i did this using a ballpoint pen (the really cheap ones, may have hawked this one from a hotel. real cheap if it's for free) in my sketchbook.