Month: December 2024

Motion

Sequoia Gigantis

This project came up when I met Sara Serpa and her band after seeing them perform at a small venue. As the night went along we decided that we had to do some kind of collaboration. They were launching a new single and it was the perfect opportunity to make something together. I was struck by the way Sara conveys emotions through her vocalisations and as a Steinbeck lover making a video for this song was a dream job. The video is ten minutes long and is composed by small loops all done by hand. This animation was awarded a silver medal by the Society of Illustrators of NY.

Books

Lux Frágil

This was one of my favourite projects. Lux Frágil is a special nigh club by the Tagus river in Lisbon. Every year, after closing for balance, they do a big reentre and for that they make special invitations. In 2019 they decided that they would send an undisclosed number of books to the personal addresses of selected group of VIP guests inviting them to the full experience of the first night of the new season. To add to that the original owner and mentor of the place had passed away recently and this would also work as a homage to his life and vision. After a couple tries a monkey with a beret started creeping through the illustration gaining predominance and becoming the main character of the whole thing. The text that accompanies the illustrations was written by João Paulo Cotrim, a friend of the house and of us all.

Books | Children's Books

Paralelo

Paralelo is Teatro Municipal do Porto's illustrated cultural agenda for kids. In 2019 it was illustrated by me and designed in collaboration with Studio Eduardo Aires. It is printed has a small book with free distribution through the city. I Portuguese the word paralelo translates to parallel as these are special activities for schools and families curated off the performances lineup, but in porto it also means a granite brick used to make street pavement. I thought that this double meaning was interesting as a metaphor: the main character is initially a brick, tight and square, he goes through some improvements and he becomes a cloud at the end as a result of going through the cultural system. As if culture makes us lighter and enables us to see the world from an above and more interesting perspective.

Editorial

Vanity Fair

I made one illustration a week for Vanity Fair. It was challenging to come up with fresh concepts every week, and the theme of the column, ranging from matters of the heart and relationships did not make the task easier. As I look to the aggregate I'm grateful to have had the chance to dive into this project.

Longing for my mother.

WE can’t talk, we just fight.
Unhappy and alone.

Caring for someone else’s child.
Just want to scream.
Why settling down is so hard?
I have nosocomephobia.
Tales of miscarriage.
Midlife crisis mess.
I still hear my mother screams.
Will we be meeting again?
Abandonment.
I will never fix my broken heart again.
Love at sixties.
He is never there.
Should I leave or not.
Jail mothers.
Immigrant children.
Fear of love.
Hold on to your children.
Facebook rejections.
Driving afair.

I will always bake you a cake.
Broke heart weighting me down.
Broken mothers.
Missing parents, missing heart.
Books for teens.
All alone.
Initiative.

At the edge.
It is ok to cry for love.
How am I going to bring him into this world.
Love correspondency.
Liar, liar.
Play it forward, play it back.
I’m not over him yet.
Unachievable love.
Missing part.
Love letters.
Following mother steps.
As sadness go by.
Home bound.
Looking for a friend at work.
Surprise!
Estranging parents
Menopause love.
Blocking.
Fear of freedom.
The gift.
Breaking up.
Post partum depression.
I love a younger man.
Depression
Psychotherapy and love.
The choice.
The cat is taking my place.
Love x-ray.
A father’s task.
It’s complicated.
Unhappy at work.
Time to say goodbye.
Not easy to put it in words.
How to avoid predators.
Matchmaker’s right.
Intertwined messes.
Will you marry me?
I miss you father.
Roulette of love.
It is you, not me.
Yes I can!
Long distance affair.
Drawn to toxic love.
I know the way.
Breaking up is hard.
Dwelling.
Looking for prospects, trying to not fall in love.
Hard to let go.
Travelling lifestyle.
I can’t choose between to loves.
We can nurture this together.
Let the games begin.
Waiting and longing.
Shopping for love.
Yes, say Yes!
A life of love.
The courage to leave.
Disability is not imparity.
Should, or shouldn’t I.
We have different interests.
From grief to life.
Learning of families love past.
She prefers the cat.
Childhood ghosts.

Locking it safe.
Pull the plug.
Father’s permission.
My love will take care of you.
Fatherly love.
Struggling to conceive.
He can’t harm us no more.
Left out.
It stings at it withers.
Don’t know who the father is.
Leaving home for good.
I decide to be happy.
To love or not to love.
Fortifying myself.
On reason and love. Or the reason for love.
Was he ever there?
Mending it takes craft.
Lost.
Three too many.
Controlling whispers.

I love them both.
Divorce child.
The wedding ceremony.
Sharp and on edges.

Bare.
Pubescent.
New love on the cards.
Teens out of time.
Fighting old demons out.
Still tied up on my past.
Made of the same cloth.
Will you marry me?
Social media mess.
Childcare rights and duties.
Unresolved past relationships.
Breaking up at our seventies.
Forever mom.
Sorrow baby.
Dancing partners.
Father’s role in divorce.
I’m broken but not done.
Seesaw teen love.
Together apart.

Cyber love.
Disagreement.
The end.
Daydreaming
Missing husband.
Miss Baltus.
Love, care and death.
Done waiting.
I want it like on the television.
Revisiting death.
Children's Books

Bicho de sete cabeças e outros seres fantásticos

I loved collaborating with Brazilian writer Eucanña Ferraz on this book, published by Campo das Letras. The inventiveness of his characters and the way he manages to put them down as poetry in the page is masterful. At the time I was working a lot with cardboard and papier mâché and I think it was a great fit for the project.

Seven headed monster as in making a complication of something simple.
Oroboros
Faun
Mandragora
Fenix
Cumacanga
Onster
Zombie
Ogre
Dragon
Curupira
Nessie
Centaur
Tao Tieh
Pregassus
Saci
Cyclops
Xi Wangmu
Mermaid
Papão / Bogey Man
Martian
Werewolf
Editorial

Felicidário

A Felicidade é passear o gato/ Happiness is walking the cat.
A Felicidade é ser voluntário por um dia / Happiness is to be a volunteer for a day.
A Felicidade é um avião de papel / Happiness is paper airplane.
A Felicidade é andar de calções / Happiness wearing shorts.
A Felicidade é uma viagem de autocaravana / Happiness is a trip on auto caravan.
A Felicidade é uma cautela de natal/ Happiness is the Christmas lottery .
A Felicidade é um churrasco / Happiness is a barbecue.
A Felicidade é um mergulho à noite / Happiness is a swim at night.
A Felicidade é fazer parte da claque/ Happiness is being a cheerleader.
A Felicidade é comer um gelado / Happiness is eating an ice cream.
A Felicidade é a consoada de Natal/ Happiness is the Christmas dinner.
A Felicidade é desenhar à vista / Happiness is life drawing.
A Felicidade é jogar ao homem estátua / Happiness is to play statues.
A Felicidade é devorar um livro num dia / Happiness is to devour a book in a day.
A Felicidade é receber uma encomenda / Happiness is to receive a package.
A Felicidade é falar com um estranho / Happiness is talking to a stranger.
A Felicidade é o cheiro de café acabadiço de fazer / Happiness is the smell of freshly made coffee.
A Felicidade é um solos e guitarra / Happiness isa guitar solo.
A Felicidade é um jantar à luz de velas / Happiness is a dinner by candle light.
A Felicidade é andar de óculos de sol/ Happiness is wear sunglasses.
A Felicidade é uma imperial ao fim da tarde / Happiness is a beer at the end of the afternoon.
A Felicidade é um passeio de mota / Happiness is a motorcycle ride.
A Felicidade é fazer um mergulho / Happiness is to go for a swim.
A Felicidade é um pastel de nata / Happiness is a cream custard.
A Felicidade é visitar umas ruínas / Happiness is visit some ruins.
A Felicidade é uma sardinha no pão / Happiness is a sardine on a slice of bread.
A Felicidade é ser turista na própria cidade / Happiness is to be a tourist in your own city.
A Felicidade é uma botija de água quente/ Happiness is a hot water bottle.
A Felicidade é fazer tudo de novo / Happiness is to do everything anew.
Books

Obscénica

Obscénica was commissioned by Orfeu Negro. The publisher Carla Oliveira took the plunge into publishing this book after seeing some images I made for a friends poetry website. Hilda Hills is a big writer in Brazil with almost no expression in Portugal, so the risk of publishing a book with soft-porn content of an outlier was great! Fortunatelly Hilda's crude yet fluid and emotional writing carries all the weight of the book. Surprisingly it was well received by the general public and got me a lot of visibility. A big shout out to Patrícia Nunes o co-edited the content of the book and was always a positive voice throughout the project. the illustratios were awarded by the society of Illustrators of New York.

Flor, como gostas. / Flower, as you like.
Preliminaries. / Foreplay.
Crassinho. / Little Crassus.
Tu és igual a uma flor, tão doce, bela e pura. / You are like a flower, so beautiful and pure.
Eu ficava com os olhos úmidos mas logo em seguida, apesar da minha timidez, mostrava o pau. / My eyes became wet but, despite my timid nature I revealed my stick.
A natureza da própria pomba ela compreendia muito bem. / She understood very well the nature of her own dove.
O que eu podia fazer com as mulheres além de foder? / What could I do with woman besides fucking?
Quando eram cultas, simplesmente me enojavam. / I made me sick when they were cultured.
Ao redor do buraco de Josete, tatuadas com infinito esmero e extrema competência estavam três damas com seus lindos vestidos de babados. / Around Josete’s hole, tattooed with infinite care and extreme competence, were three ladies in their beautiful ruffled dresses.
Andiamo, andiamo in the great scabrous arse-hole. / Let’s go, let’s go into the great scabrous ass-hole
Aou Ezra, aou my beloved Ezra!
Queria umas três vezes por noite o meu pau rombudo lá dentro. / She wanted my blunt cock inside about three times a night.
Gustibus et coloribus.
Ó, as mulheres! Que sensíveis e doces, que lúdicas ladinas imaginosas e torpes! / Oh, women! How sensitive and sweet, what playful, imaginative and clumsy rogues!
De vez em quando ela dava um beijinho no meu pau. Ele fremia (!) / Every now and then she would give my dick a little kiss. It trembled (!)
“Falus agonicus de Crasso entre peras do outono”. / “Crassus falus agonicus among autumn pears”.
Uma nova história de Lázaro. / A new story of Lazarus.
Vamos inventar uma pornocracia. / Let’s invent a pornocracy.
Foi ele quem deu nome às vaginas pintadas: pomba ladina, pomba aquosa, pomba dementada, columba trevosa, columba vivace, pomba carnívora, pomba luz, pomba geena. / It was he who gave the name to the painted vaginas: ladina dove, watery dove, demented dove, tunderous dove, vivace dove, carnivorous dove, light dove, geenna dove.
Lisa
Obrigado, amiga. / Thank you, friend.
O pau concretizou-se amarelusco na tela. Uma certa luz outonal o circundava bem no centro de um esboço de peras. / The stick materialized yellowish yellow on the screen. A certain autumnal light surrounded him in the very center of an outline of pears.
Sim. Amanhã. Chupa agora. / Yes. Tomorrow. Suck it now.
O dragão espichou a fina língua na cona adolescente, lento de início, como quem rabisca. / The dragon stuck out its thin tongue into the teen’s cunt, slowly at first, like a scribbling.
Guirlandas de amor-perfeito. / Pansy garlands.
Sussurrou para si mesmo: a morte deve ter o mesmo rosto. / He whispered to himself: death must have the same face.
Quero que você saiba, Crasso, que hoje eu vi um antúrio negro. É deslumbrante. / I want you to know, Crassus, that today I saw a black anthurium. It’s stunning.
Se você deixar, esquento os rabanetes pro teu buraquinho. / If you let me, I’ll heat the radishes for your little hole.
E depois esquento a minha pica pro teu buracão. / and then I warm up my dick for your big hole.
E depois esquento a minha pica pro teu buracão. / and then I warm up my dick for your big hole.
Pinte uma vagina dentro de uma casca de ovo, com nuances bleu foncé e negro. /
Paint a vagina inside an eggshell, with bleu foncé and black nuances.
Tocou o desmesurado de Deus. Jorrava sangue e sêmen negro. /
It touched God’s immeasurable. Blood and black semen gushed out.
O falo de Deus. Que loucura. /
The phallus of God. How crazy.
Minha intenção é levar uns docinhos para a mãezinha dela amanhã à noite. / My intention is to take some sweets to her mother tomorrow night.
Não fica com ciúme, não, tua cona é única e eterna. /
Don’t be jealous, no, your pussy is unique and eternal.
Ainda bem, putíssima amada, que tu pintas vaginas e picas. / It’s a good thing, beloved bitch, that you paint vaginas and prick.
Você ia gostar dessa, tem verrugas pretas na ponta. /
You would like this one, it has black warts on the tip.
Bufólicas
Reizinho gay. / Kittle gay king.
Bufólicos na erva. / Bufolics in the grass.
A rainha careca. / The bald queen.
Drida, a maga perversa e fria. / Drida, the wicked and cold mage.
Bufólicos e o gigante. / Bufolics and the giant.
A chapéu. / The riding hood.
O anão triste. / the sad dwarf.
A cantora gritante. / The screaming singer.
Filó, a fadinha lésbica. / Filó, the little lesbian fairy.
Bufólicos à caça de borboletas. / Bufolics hunting for butterflies.
A verdadeira revolução é a santidade. / The true revolution is holiness.
É metafísica ou putaria das grossas?
Poster | Urban Art

Cartas de Lisboa / Lisbon Letters

This project for the Lisboa City Hall was designed to revive and archive of letters that were sent since the XV century from several places in Lisbon. Each letter was addresses from a specific place near a train station where the illustrations were shown.

A letter about a robbery and assassination at Campo das Cebolas, downtown Lisbon, in the XVII century.
A letter from a soldier talking about his injuries during the Napoleonic invasions. IX century.
A complaint to the mayor of the city about smelly raw sewage. XVII century.
A letter complaining about an unfit king and his arrival in Lisbon. XVII century.
A letter from a father to his son’s guardian in Brazil asking him to make good of his zealot son. XVIII century.
A burglar vows to physically harm a magistrate if he does not help him out of prison. XVII Century.
A letter between brothers where one complains being mistreated by the wife of owner of the grocery shop where he works. XVII century.
A letter from a son to a father from India in the XVI century
A letter asking for food to a brother. XVII century.
Poster

Flor

Screen-print for the Underdogs Gallery. This is 50x50 cm 12 color print, about an imaginary girl called Flor who has an adventure that starts with a rabbit in a hurry. Wait! Where do I know this story from?...

Editorial

Leer para Lara.

Over a pleasant Italian dinner after a very tiring day at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, we decided to do something to promote healthy reading habits and Lara from El Bosque de la Maga Colibrí proposed we created a series of workshop and talks. To accompany the texts and the promotions I created this series of illustrations. These illustrations were awarded by the Society of Illustrators of New York.

Just read.
Read in the rain.
Read for kids.
Read over tea.
Read adventures.
Read imaginariums.
Read as a couple.
Read wave.
Read as you walk.
Read twice.
Read twins.
Read for babies.
Write like a savage.
Write like a magician.
Write like a master.