I was contacted by Peruvian artist Manuel yesterday asking for some promotion advice for his surreal illustrations often created in a fun old fashioned style. I liked his work, and decided to help kick start his campaign of promotion with a post here on Ape on the Moon.

What stood out for me the most, apart from his frequent use of intense, distorted facial expressions, is his application of retro effects to his work, which he explains below.

Most of my “aging” effects are done in Photoshop. I mainly work with ink and brush on textured card stock, so my artwork is basically lineal. All the cracks and stains are real cracks and stains scanned from real, yellowish paper, old card or newsprint. The halftones are created entirely in Photoshop.

There are many ways to create these effects. The first time I created those “fake comic book covers”, I did it intuitively, experimenting with colors and shapes. It took me a while to figure out how to created the best look.

© Manuel Gomez Burns, 2010