This days we are commemorating the 75th Howard Phillips Lovecraft death anniversary (is he is really death?) and I think it’s the right moment to do a little tribute to the master of horror.

For this illustration I took the complete works of Lovecraft, from this website, and counted the most used words dropping this list: one (1650),things (1185),old (992),seemed (952),now (892),great (873),time (869),even (831),like (804),night (709),man (691),saw (691),though (675),place (664),must (643),found (602),house (592),came (585),strange (585),might (565),looked (551),whose (540),come (539),certain (533),long (525),upon (518),black (516),dreams (514),never (491),men (490),city (486),dark (484),light (484),made (480),day (477),much (472),thought (464),know (461),still (461),stone (449),years (448),many (446),see (444),beyond (438),two (437),first (434),last (427),well (423),heard (414),world (408),eyes (407),seen (404),fear (401),form (399),far (397),knew (397),sound (397),open (391),yet (388),room (386),street (386),almost (384),back (384),told (382),near (381),way (381),door (378),new (371),walls (371),face (370),horror (369)…

The font used in the first illustration was “Nightmare 5″ from dafont.com. For the following I used “Lovecraft’s Diary” font with nice alphabet inspired in Necronomicon (I think).

It’s one of my favourite quotes “Here is my secret, it is very simple: One sees well only with the heart; The essential is invisible to the eyes”. It comes from one of those unforgettable books, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

I spread the quote over a portrait of Antoine (he was a pioneering aviator!) in three different languages, including French.

This book is one of my favourite readings since I was a child. That’s the reason why I read it again from time to time… and also because I have a wonderful hand writing quote in my copy of “The Little Prince”.

Click to see Spanish version.

Click to see English version.

There are a lot of people talking again about Titanic, and it’s because next April 14 will be the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

It’s amazing to see how people’s fascination with the Titanic is growing day by day. Facts, legends, mysteries, new theories… everything surrounding Titanic generates a powerful attraction.

But remember, 1.500 people died that day. And for most of them it was a travel to hope.

As a tribute to them, and because I can’t escape from Titanic attraction, I spread the names of the 1.500 victims (taken from this website) over a picture and a painting of Titanic.

You can also download vector pdf version:

JO-D-120314-Titanic01
JO-D-120314-Titanic02

Ha pasado casi un año desde que decidí que todas las donaciones recibidas las destinaría a aquellos que están ayudando a los niños. Y ha llegado la hora de contaros a quien he decidido mandar vuestro dinero.

Las donaciones no han sido muchas, por eso quiero agradecer enormemente a aquellos que con su generosidad contribuido a esta pequeña causa. Así que Borja, Brian, Kathleen, Geoffrey, Victor, Jamela y Henrik… GRACIAS!

Por mi parte no se me ocurre nada que me satisfaga más que sumarme a vosotros para que el total de la donación llegue a los 300$.

Para mí era importante que esta donación no se convirtiese en algo impersonal, no quería que fuese una mera transferencia a una cuenta bancaria sino algo entre personas. Vosotros me disteis vuestro dinero y yo quiero contaros a quien se lo estamos dando y saber algo más de él.

Así que esto es lo que ocurrió…

Pablo me paró en la calle cuando volvía  a casa de trabajar, con una gran sonrisa y una enorme amabilidad me hablo de la ONG a la que pertenecía y de lo mucho que ayudaría a los niños una pequeña cantidad de dinero anual.

Me convenció, pero a cambio le pedí que nos contase algo sobre él. Y estas son sus palabras.

¿Puedes contarnos algo sobre ti?, ¿Quién eres?

Soy Pablo Martín, soy un chico de 24 años que está estudiando ingeniería informática de sistemas, y que trabaja a media jornada en las campañas de calle de Plan España. También he trabajado de voluntario sobre todo con ancianos y vendiendo productos de comercio justo, que invito a que compréis.

Actualmente estoy apadrinando a dos niños, y colaborando con una ONG de comercio justo.

¿Qué te llevó a ayudar a otros?

Supongo que desde pequeño me han enseñado a valorar mucho las cosas que tengo, así que cuando me di cuenta de que había mucha gente que no tenía ni siquiera para comer, me pregunte ¿qué puedo hacer yo? Las respuesta fue “haciendo trabajo de voluntario y colaborando con varias ONG’s “

Desde que tenía 12 años he estado apadrinando un niño, en bachillerato unos cuantos compañeros y yo nos animamos a hacer un periódico, para con los beneficios, apadrinar un niño.

¿Cómo te sientes?, ¿Que añade eso a tu vida?

Apadrinar me hace sentir que estoy devolviendo una parte de lo que se me ha regalado a la gente más necesitada, también me hace crecer como persona. Cada vez más pienso que nos preocupamos demasiado por el tener y demasiado poco por el ser, y dejamos de lado a las personas.

Un amigo que es cooperante me contaba, que cuando estuvo en Perú, le hizo un avión de papel a un niño. El niño jugaba todos los días con ese avión y lo cuidaba mucho, y siempre le ponía una sonrisa en la cara, sin embargo nosotros (yo el primero) muchas veces no valoramos lo que tenemos y siempre queremos más. El apoyar a esta gente me hace darme cuenta de lo que realmente es importante, las personas.

¿Qué le dirías a tu mejor amigo para que ayudase?

Dime una sola cosa mejor en la que puedas invertir el dinero, que tanto te cuesta ganar, que en darle un futuro y una vida digna a una persona.

Muchas gracias por tu tiempo y tu amabilidad Pablo.

El dinero lo he transferido hoy a la ONG Plan, para saber más sobre ellos puedes visitar su website español o internacional.

Mil gracias a todos.

There is a lot of people celebrating two hundred years of Charles Dickens and I also want to do a little tribute to this great English writer.

I took more than fifty books and novels by Dickens (including the most iconic like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol) and counted the words. I spread the words over two different portraits images.

The first words in the list. oliver (868),upon (755),replied (548),bumble (399),gentleman (366),lady (359),sikes (357),dear (330),jew (325),fagin (317),sir (314),away (298),another (275),without (253),woman (229),poor (204),window (202),shall (192),heart (185),quite (181),child (177),arm (172),brownlow (167),something (166),returned (164),doctor (161),master (161),manner (160),whether (156),moment (153),observed (152),seen (150),london (149),sat (149),indeed (147),present (147),office (145),rather (145),bill (144),speak (143),expression (139)…

The illustrations represents the single word counting, but I also counted two and three words combo. If you are curious the three words combo list start with: gentleman in the white waistcoat (13),poor mercantile jack (11),waiter who ought to wait upon (8),great salt lake (7),queer small boy (7),spoken young man (7),well spoken young (7),french flemish country (6),titbull’s aims houses (6)…

Another portrait.

Did you know that his life is probably most challenging that any of his novel histories. Visit his Wikipedia article to know more about this incredible man.

Has long since my last post, but the true is that I’m running out of free time. Lot of changes in my life, three kids, blablabla… you know, life!.

But I do not want to miss the opportunity to make a little tribute to Antoni Tapies, one of those unique artists, tireless worker sometimes misunderstood, who left us last February 6.

For this illustration I took his spanish wikipedia article and spread the most commonly used words over a portrait of Tapies.

Download PDF version of Antoni Tapies.

It’s a calendar based in Matrix effect. I did it using the nice Matrix Code NFI and Miltown2 fonts. I know it looks a little bit crazy, but believe me it’s a fully working calendar.

You only need to know two basic rules: each column represents a month and each week look like a colour gradient, starting on Monday (the darker). Despite of the characters, they all are random. Each week also has it’s own alpha level, it helps reading and also mimic the Matrix effect.

I was developing code for my “Crisis Calendar” (the simplest calendar ever) when I noticed that my draft files were really close to something similar to the unforgettable Matrix code screen . I spend a little time adapting it so I’m not sure if I will have time enough to  finish my other calendar ideas before the end of year.

Download PDF, vector based, 2012 Matrix Calendar.

Merry Christmas!

She is more than a singer, probably the smarter and talented artist out there. With more than 300 million records sold worldwide, along 30 years of career, she is probably the most successful woman in the music industry.

I took more than four hundred Madonna lyrics and counted the most commonly used words. Again Love is the most used. The beginning of the list: love, know, get, can, like, just, want, baby, make, time, go, got, feel, one, take, say, never, come, see, now, waiting, oh, give, cause, heart, think, thing, keep… In the above illustration words size is proportional to it’s repetition. As seed image I took the album cover of “True Blue”.

Along the years she changed a lot her music and her image but I still love the more “Like a Virgin” (yes I’m getting old!) and I never tire of “Dress You Up” music video. No special effects, no composition, live… pure Madonna!. That’s the reason why I did this second illustration based on one of the video moments.

In this calendar you can find years from 2012 to 2042 (30 years!), that’s the reason why I called it fractal, but the true is that it isn’t fractal at all so please don’t blame me!.

Download Vector PDF:

2012 English Fractal Calendar
2012 Spanish Fractal Calendar

An updated version of my generative grass calendar.

Download pdf:
English, White Background: JO-D-111120-GrassCalendar-ing-white
English, Black Background: JO-D-111120-GrassCalendar-ing-black

Spanish, White Background: JO-D-111120-GrassCalendar-esp-white
Spanish, Black Background: JO-D-111120-GrassCalendar-esp-black

Black background sample.