50% Funded – Big thanks to all who’ve supported the campaign so far. On the rare chance that you’re someone who has supported my work in the past, do me a favor and check out this latest campaign today.
To keep it simple– This book is for young kids ages 8-14 who are just starting to become artists! Its for young adults ages 15-22 who already know they love to make art.
How do I know? I have spent the better part of my life working with young people as a teaching artist and as an author/illustrator. I have seen them light up w/ the power of art!
And as I’ve mentioned before, this is for those kids who don’t like reading. I was one of them . But my mom helped me pursue my passion and I believe books like mine can help kids pursue theirs.
And its for you, adults who love art. THANK YOU!!!
Dig this? Check out this video as I flip through my first “Art of Rob” book so you can see what I mean.
One foot after the other, thank you to all my folks who have supported this project by donating, sharing, etc. Hella appreciate you. The best way for me to describe it is for you to WATCH THE CAMPAIGN VIDEO. That way you can get an idea for what i’m making and why.
So when I tell folks about a picture book they get it right away! But for an art book like this, there’s always some question marks. So lemme explain a bit. Check out my art book here.
If you’ve been paying attention I have been talking about “art books” for years now with videos like this. But ok, now that I’ve defined it for you, lemme share some of the books I be talking about so you can get a vibe. See below.
Ok, now that you see these i’m talking about putting these books in front of older elementary, middle school, and even some high school age kids so they can get inspired to be creative, learn some shit about their favorite game, film, sneaker, design, etc. It gets them to unplug from a screen for a minute, annnnd here’s another cool part-it gets them to read. It might just be a few paragraphs at first, but i promise if you get them books about their favorite thing they are going to pick it up. Not only will they learn about that thing but they’re going to be reading for fun! Heres the link to support my book.
My art book has drawings and art which will encourage kids to draw. If they like that it helps them stay OFF the screen, and there are pieces of text within the book too. Check it out.
That’s it fam, thank you so much for reading, supporting, and checking it out.
THANK YOU – BIG shout out to those who’ve supported “Art of Rob Vol 2” so far. In case u just logged on after a few days, I launched my 3rd book project this week. Please check it out here LINK
Hey folks, I appreciate all of you who regularly come check out my blog to see whats what. Can you do me a favor? If you really rock with my work here is one way you can support me. I’m getting ready to launch my 2nd Art of Rob book. The first one, you can see here. And I’m asking folks to sign up early so you can be notified when it launches.
Ok, Its been over a decade since I worked for Rethinking Schools but I’m so happy to be back in the mix. In a day and age where books can be too long, and tik tok clips too short, and the internet filled with AI slop its nice to have a form of physical media that informs. About what you say? Read on….
Rethinking Schools MISSION and VISION:
Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism. Our magazine, books, and other resources promote equity and racial justice in the classroom. We encourage grassroots efforts in our schools and communities to enhance the learning and well-being of our children and to build a broad democratic movement for social and environmental justice.
Our Zinn Education Project — coordinated with Teaching for Change — has more than 100,000 educators who have registered to access our “people’s history” materials.
Here’s a bit of process art to show my thinking when ingesting, sitting with, dissecting, and analyzing former principal Gilbert Juan Armenta’s piece about how school systems continuously target Black children by overly discipling them, singling them out, punishing them, and trying to track them into special education. I know this experience intimately after being suspended from my school for “talking” as a 3rd grader!!!!
The cool thing about this article and the magazine is that it talks about real issues that teachers, educators, and others are experiencing in the classroom. They talk about race, gender, identity, politics, class, racism, and how to address these issues in a way that is radical, sensitive to the age group, and respectful. This is what drew me to the magazine years ago. See my old piece here.
Here are some color directions for this piece.
Heres the final painting, done in ink and watercolor. Shout out to AD Nancy Zucker for the call!
Originally I created this illustration in collaboration with designer Jules Cowan, illustrator Micah Bizant, and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant back in 2025. Individually we have each created artwork in service of social justice movements, campaigns, and issues affecting real people. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant has been doing this work since 1982!!!! Read that again.
The attack on immigrant families specifically Latinos has been hard as fuck for decades, but no one was expecting a level quite like that of 2025 and 2026. So it is especially meaningful to have worked with all these folks and now this billboard collaboration is done with the help of another Bay Area organization called the Multicultural Institute. They help support the housing, rights, fair pay, and advocacy of immigrant workers in the Bay.
Here are the original posters by Micah, Jules, and I. See my original post here.
Dig this? Check out this work for the ACLU in a report that studies how central cal sherriffs collaborate w/ ICE.
Last year I began working with the Booker T Washington Community Service Center in San Francisco California. They are a century old organization offering tons of services and programming for the community in the Western Addition, Fillmore, the Richmond, and beyond. They offer summer camps, afterschool enrichment, free grocery and produce programs, groups for youth and elders, affordable housing, and more.
BTW Mission: Booker T. is a beacon of Black joy and self-determination. We uplift and serve our community, build intergenerational bonds, and work in solidarity with allied communities to reform and reimagine San Francisco.
Vision: All Black people are free to thrive in and shape SF to enable prosperity and belonging for everyone.
Here is some process art showing the originals thumbnail drawings I made, then redrawing them slightly more refined with grey tones to convey shape, tone, etc.
Here’s some color direction to give an idea of how I take an idea and share several color directions. I ended up using a combination of all of these color directions.
Here are the finals, drawn digitally. I tried to keep them loose and textured using photoshop and Astropad. I think the “lift while climbing” sticker is my favorite. Followed by Honor our Heritage.
Hey, this is my most recent children’s portrait of a young boy named Maceo! I have had the pleasure of painting his oldest sister Niara in 2014 and his middle sibling Aissa in 2020. A whole family of kids and I couldn’t be more grateful and honored to paint children like these. Shout to their momma Emilia for entrusting me with this.
As always, here’s a bit of the painting process which is all done by hand. I take a photo, trace it, then transfer it to a wood panel and paint it step by step. I start with the light colors on the face and gradually build up the darker tones and then the garment the child is wearing or what I imagine them to be wearing.
What is this? This is a series of hand painted, hand crafted wooden panel acrylic portraits of children and or families. I began painting these for local friends in 2012 as a way to announce my new career in kids books. And this has grown to include friends of friends, families, and folks I dont even know. If you’d like me to paint your child please commission me by purchasing a portrait here.
OG muralist and teacher Juana Alicia hit me and some other painters/muralists to come help her install her piece in support of Palestinians in Gaza on a church in Oakland/Berkeley. We had lots of help from David Solnit, Yazmin Madriz, Keena Romano, Nadya V, my crew mate and sister Cece Carpio of Trust Your Struggle Collective, and myself. Here we are with some of the folks who work at the church! Diego Mendoza snapped this photo. Shout out to David Solnit who helped lead the installation w/ Tirso (Juana’s husband).
Here are some words from Juana herself:
Thank you so much to the crew that helped us install our mural, Not in Our Name, on St. Columba Catholic Church in Oakland yesterday! San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim’s poem and my illustration are proudly displayed on the exterior wall of the church, facing San Pablo Avenue at Adeline.
This work, which expresses our profound solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine, seeks to touch the hearts of those who see it, and move them to action to support those who are suffering from an ongoing genocide.
Our mural fam came through to work with Tirso Araiza, David Solnit and I on mounting the 7′ x 15′ canvas on the church wall. Deep bows to Father Aidan McAleenan and the staff at the church (Harriet, Margaret and Joyce) for their kindness, cooperation and solidarity! Thanks so much to Keena Romano, Cece Carpio, Yazmín Madriz, Diego Mendoza, Robert Trujillo Liu and Nadya Voynoskyva for their great energy and elbow grease!
This church is super progressive and as a result has been fucked with. But, from what they told me its very inclusive and they stand ten toes down. If you’re in the East Bay go see it.
