Holiday Greeting Cards

Now available through my SHOP.

The Longest Train Ride to Zermatt

New personal work, I posted more about this on my other blog HERE

7” Vinyl Artwork

I was recently commissioned by the indie pop label Cloudberry Records to design the Artwork for the Swedish musician, Nixon’s upcoming album. I had fun painting this while listening to his music, and also got to do a lot of Halmstad reference research (which is where Nixon is from).  Needless to say, I’d really love to travel there someday!

And the album will be a 7” vinyl, which I’m pretty stoked about.

Viva Vinyl!

Media: Gouache, Pen, Brush Pen,  Photoshop

Illustration for Oh Comely Magazine

I was way excited to find this waiting for me in my mailbox yesterday.

I recently did a full page illustration for the article "No Ghosts, No Junk Mail," written by Ellie Phillips featured in Oh Comely  Magazine's Issue 7.  Oh Comely is a UK based lifestyle magazine full of a bunch of cool illustrations and unique articles.  If you're interested in checking it out, you can find it through one of these locations HERE

A big thanks to Laura Callaghan, who was the illustration editor for this!

Aster

My buddies Anna Topuriya and Pei-Jeane Chen just launched Hunters Hunt,a collective site that will serve to promote artists and sell goodies.  This is the painting I contributed to their launch!  

You can purchase this print HERE, (free NPR Calendars with every sale of this print).

New Prints + 2012 NPR Calendar giveaway

I just added some of my latest prints to my Etsy shop.  Also, I am currently giving away free copies of the 2012 National Public Radio Calendars I worked on with every purchase made as a thank you to all my Etsy customers :]

Or if you're interested in just the calendars you can find them through NPR's shop HERE.

Summer, 1996

"Monsieur Bauman and His Beloved Dog Nushka"

"The Balcony of Sunflowers"

"Verveine"

I'm currently working on a personal series based on my childhood summer's at my aunts house in Switzerland.

Bluecanvas Issue 9 Launch Event

Bluecanvas' 9th issue launch event will be tomorrow evening and I will be a part of it!

I will be in both the magazine and the exhibit.  So if you can swing it, please come by and pop some bottles with me! The downtown LA Art Walk will be going on as well. 

Info:

When:  July 14, 2011 6PM-2AM

Where: Exchange LA 618 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014

For the longest time I have been wanting to do one-off gouache paintings of my UFO series and thought this exhibit was the perfect opportunity to finally do it. If you remember, they were all originally done digitally but I must confess I had much more fun painting them traditionally and think the result is much more interesting.

Here are some of the pieces that will be at the show tomorrow. 

They are all gouache on illustration board.

Harry Potter Tribute Exhibition

Hey everyone! This is the painting I did for Gallery Nucleus' Harry Potter Tribute show opening this coming Saturday.  Come by and check out all the cool art work, the list of exhibiting artists is really good!  For more info on the show click HERE. If you want to see what Nucleus wrote about me and my painting, check out their BLOG. 

2012 NPR Calendar

I'm so happy to finally get to present to you the illustration I did for NPR's 2012 Calendar!

It was a really fun project to work on, AND I had lots of freedom with it.  The assignment was to come up with a visual interpretation of what NPR means to me.  One of the reasons I love NPR is because it is a great fountain of information which in turn allows me to feel integrated into my community, despite the hustle and bustle of living in a big city such as Los Angeles.

Art director Katie Burk and the team of designers at NPR gave me a lot of great feedback, which I'm so happy about! The calendars will be available through shop.npr.org in August.  AND my illustration will be for the month of May!

This was my initial sketch

The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow

Lately,  I've been experimenting with a lot of traditional and digital mediums a lot more than ever and I feel it's resulted in a lot of variation in my work. Which I'm pretty happy about......As long as I can keep my style consistent of course!  

This painting was based on the most heart breaking story I have ever read, "The Trail of your Blood in the Snow," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and will be part of a personal series titled "Collected Stories." More to come Soon!! :]

I'm also really Excited because next month I will be an exhibiting artist at the Bluecanvas Issue 9 launch event  in Downtown LA.  And, to top things off I will also be a featured artist in their Issue 9 magazine! Click this link for more info.

AND I will also be part of the Force Fields art exhibit on July 2 in Santa Monica. This will be a benefit show in order to raise money in the fight against malaria in Africa.  I will be providing more details about this show soon!

:]

Gone on the River Album Cover

I recently had the exciting opportunity to design the cover of Kevin Dukes' instrumental solo EP, Gone on the River.  The release of his EP comes at the same time of the Mississippi River flooding disaster, so in efforts to help with relief, he will be donating the proceeds of the first weeks sales to the Red Cross.

Find it on Itunes or Amazon.  

Foxes

Now selling limited edition Giclee prints of my original gouache "Foxes" painting on ETSY.

Signed and numbered. :]

New Blog!

Hello fellow artists, friends and wonderful folks who come from great distances to visit my blog!
I have jumped onto the Tumblr band wagon, which means I have a NEW BLOG!
Hope to see you there! :]

UPDATE: Art For Japan

The Painting I did for "Art For Japan" is finally up on Ebay being auctioned! I believe the auction will end in exactly one week! So if you'd like to own an original gouache painting by yours truly, then start your bids! All proceeds will be donated to AmeriCare for the benefit of Japan.  Thanks to the talented illustrator Meg Hunt who put this auction together!

Book Project

This was the initial style I was playing with for a children's book I'm currently working on.   The style has shifted in a new direction, that for now,  must remain a mystery.  However, I really wanted to share these initial illustrations I did!

Update!!

Update: My new website is finally up and running!

I'm currently in the process of changing up my website to a new host. So in the meantime it will be down and so will my email unfortunately :[ but for now you can contact me at portillo.josie[at]gmail.com if you need/want! Thank you!!

Also,  I'm currently busy working on a handful of projects, so hopefully I will be adding some of that work to my new website.  Stay tuned!! :]

Mid Century Modern Designers

Two little gouache paintings of some of my favorite MCM designers. More little portraits to come!

George Nelson

Charles&Ray Eames

Art For Japan

When I was 18 Years old I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Japan with my high school dance team (Yes, believe it or not I used to dance). When I was there I was lucky enough be graced by their genuine hospitality, wonderful culture and not to mention amazing food, I will never forget that experience. Now that I’m an illustrator I’m happy to give back to Japan in any way that I can. This is an illustration (inspired by my stay in Shinjuku, Tokyo) I did for an art auction called “Art For Japan,” put on by the talented illustrator Meg Hunt and her sister.

For more details about this auction visit: Art For Japan

Gouache on 8×10 wood panel

And...here's a sketch I did for it...

You can also see this post in my new blog 

New Prints!

Hello! I just added 7 new prints of some my latest work to my   Etsy shop.

Thanks for stopping by!! :]

Off With Her Head!

Two gouache paintings I did for an upcoming Alice in Wonderland show.  

I think I had "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane on repeat when I was painting this, seriously one of my favorite songs. :X

17 Poisoned Englishmen

I have a new  blog,  I'll try to keep it a bit different than this one.

Jet d'Eau

" The years of glory and power had been left behind forever, and now only the years of of his death remained."

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Bon Voyage, Mr. President

A lot of my childhood summers were spent at my aunts house in Geneva, Switzerland.  I truly miss this peaceful place I consider my second home.

17 Rosaries

I Sell My Dreams

"Some windows had to be opened  and others closed to achieve the perfect degree of warmth, and there had to be a certain kind of light from a certain direction, and absolute silence." 


 -Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Mid Century Home

I was recently contacted by Marco of the "Mid Century Home" to do guest posts on his blog every Sunday. Here's my first post! Check it out if you haven't already!

Blue Canvas

I will be featured in Blue Canvas' home page for a whole week 1.18.11-1.24.11.

Also I was chosen to be published in Issue Nine of BLUECANVAS Magazine scheduled to be released July 2011. Thank you Blue Canvas!

Check them out if you haven't already.

Les Diaboliques

I was inspired to paint this after watching Les Diaboliques, a 1955 french suspense film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.  I need to watch more movies like this. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Modern Findings

I feel so honored to be featured in Modern Findings. One of my favorite mid-century inspired blogs!
Check out the rest of the Article!

The Wizard of Dark Street

I got the chance to Work with Egmont USA to design the book cover for The Wizard of Dark Street (a mystery and detective novel) by the talented Shawn Thomas Odyssey, Set to be released nation wide July 26, 2011.