Marcos Mateu-Mestre

No matter what stage artists are in their careers, “it’s necessary to look toward the future eager to learn and to be better every day,” writes artist and best-selling author Marcos Mateu-Mestre (Framed Ink, Framed Perspective Vol. 1 & 2) in his latest book, Framed Drawing Techniques, which is packed with opportunities to do just that. In exquisite and thoughtful detail, Mateu-Mestre lays out distinct approaches to drawing in the book’s chapters—The Ballpoint Pen, Graphite Pencil, The Digital Way, and The Gray Scale—outlining the benefits and challenges of each, and specific techniques that can be applied to one’s work in all the mediums to achieve the greatest results. Alongside his important technical lessons, on everything from depicting reflected light on a character’s hair to how to add rain to dramatize a scene, is Mateu-Mestre’s awe-inspiring artwork, which serves to educate and motivate artists of all levels to discover what incredible storytelling is possible with a single pen or pencil (or tablet).

Perspective is a discipline often set aside when it comes to general art study, though it is essential to master in order to produce any piece of art that is and feels realistic. As intimidating as perspective may seem to aspiring artists, celebrated artist and author Marcos Mateu-Mestre takes the mystery out of understanding and applying it correctly with his highly anticipated two-volume collection, Framed Perspective.

In FramedPerspective, Vol. 1: Technical Drawing for Visual Storytelling, Mateu-Mestre equips artists with the technical knowledge needed to produce successful visual storytelling–related drawings: from understanding the basics of the space around us and how we perceive it, to more sophisticated endeavors such as creating entire environments that are believable.

Sure to be one of the most popular books in your art library, thanks to Mateu-Mestre’s thorough step-by-step explanations and awe-inspiring illustrations, Framed Perspective, Vol. 1 will train you to enjoy every curve and slope you see in the world and, more importantly, translate that vision into art with a solid comprehension of depth and proportion—in short, accuracy. Your perspective will never be the same!

Building on the foundation established with Framed Perspective, Vol. 1: Technical Drawing for Visual Storytelling, artist and best-selling author Marcos Mateu-Mestre delves deeper into particular elements that can make or break an illustration with Framed Perspective, Vol. 2: Technical Drawing for Shadows, Volume, and Characters.

Here he covers such challenging tasks as projecting shadows in proper perspective on various environments and depicting characters in perspective set in different situations—and makes them less daunting. You will also learn how to effectively observe a model or object in order to extract just the right amount of information to then translate it into an impactful graphic and visual image, the goal of every visual storyteller.

Only in Framed Perspective, Vol. 2, will you find Mateu-Mestre’s imaginative scenes explored in great detail, revealing invaluable drawing techniques—from how to capture the essence of a character with one gestural line, to using clothing folds to further define the shape and volume of a character—to help you drastically improve your drawings. It all depends on your perspective!

Framed Ink – The ultimate guide to visual storytelling! How to make the audience “feel” the story while they are “reading” the story. Using his experiences from working in the comic book industry, movie studios and teaching, Marcos introduces the reader to a step‑by‑step system that will create the most successful storyboards and graphics for the best visual communication. After a brief discussion on narrative art, Marcos introduces us to drawing and composing a single image, to composing steady shots to drawing to compose for continuity between all the shots. These lessons are then applied to three diverse story lines ‑ a train accident, a cowboy tale and bikers approaching a mysterious house. In addition to setting up the shots, he also explains and illustrates visual character development, emotive stances and expressions along with development of the environmental setting to fully develop the visual narrative.

Spanish born Marcos Mateu Mestre is a visual concept, traditional animation layout, and graphic novel artist whose film credits include titles such as ‘Balto’, ‘The Prince of Egypt’, ‘Asterix and the Vikings’ and ‘Surf’s Up’ amongst others. With an extensive experience of twenty years in feature animation, working mainly for Dreamworks and Sony Pictures, he has also been teaching drawing, illustration and visual storytelling techniques for twelve years. His works as a film maker have mostly included both the design and cinematic aspects of film, taking care of frame composition, lighting and visual continuity of many key sequences in some major productions.