Proud to be a Carioca

Well, I'm not a Carioca. Wasn't born in Rio. Although I would've loved the lifestyle, the beach and the Brazilian girls rock!

I did all 3 José's yesterday. José's one of my favorite Disney characters. Too bad he'll always be the underdog, at least in America and beyond, except for Brazil, naturally. Where I hear he's still somewhat popular, and there's comics on him there. But my only complaint is that in the newer comics, they redesigned him to make look more hip and modern (he looks more like a 12 or 18 year old, which of course he isn't). No hate to the artists there though, he still retains his charm these days.

Anyway, enough blab. This didn't turn out like I envisioned. The plan was to have a skyline of Rio de Janeiro (Copa or Ipanema) set in the BG, with the characters naturally in the foreground, and there were ALSO supposed to be 2 more José's doing natural Brazilian things (a samba and malandro one was in mind). But that didn't happen, the original BG looked too cluttered and I couldn't crank out the other two José's. So I decided to use a gradient this time, and some simple Samba text to complete the mood. The linework gave me some troubles, I like the outer lines nice, somewhat thick (but not too thick) and black, as you guys know by now.

You have from left to right: a beach goer José, a fútbol José and a Carnaval José.

I had this club in mind when doing the piece. A tribute to the really friendly (at least from what I've read) and fun-loving Cariocas of Rio. Enjoy. And yes, I left out the é in José's name in the copyrights on the bottom. Gah. Couldn't get that symbol down. I feel so incomplete now.

José Carioca © Disney.