Happy New Year! Busting out some new new for 2026. Here’s a character of a girl dad and his daughter dancing 🙂
What’s this? This is from a long series of character drawings, paintings, and doodles to stay loose. My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I’m an author/illustrator from the Bay Area and my most recent picture book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco” published by Lee & Low. Get it at your local public library or independent bookstore.
This summer I got to do two presentations at the 81st Ave branch of the Oakland Public Library. One was about art books and one was about character design. These photos are from a huge room of students and families doing an exercise in character design.
I have done this workshop several times but never to a room this large. It was organized by Aspire Education in Oakland who provide tutoring, mentoring, and support to public school students in the Bay Area.
When I start the workshop I talk to them about “line of action” and how to make characters seem calm, or dynamic. I demonstrate figure drawing to get them to warm up, then I have them model for each other. Librarian Isaiah Hurtado brought a bunch of cool books for them to see examples of what they were learning in practice!
Here you can see kids drawing. While they’re doing that I typically talk about how character design and how its used in the media they use like films, video games, animation, and more. These kids are freaking awesome!
The topics I talked about:
Figure drawing
Fan Art
Group work
Remixing existing characters
Film, Gaming, Animation, Theater, etc
Art career
Aspire hit them with a double whamy of food, snacks, and lots of books so families went home with bellies full and lots of books. Hopefully some inspiration too.
I ran out of time on this one, but we still got some fan art, drawing, and group work in during the workshop before folks had to leave.
Early in the afternoon I spoke to some teen students about the power of art books. Its always hard to tell if they’re feeling the topic, but there were a few students who came forward to ask questions about careers in the arts and I definitely had fun talking about ART!!!
Dig this? Check out some photos from other visits:
I just took a Loish class online which was inspired by Eliza Ivanova and a few others and tried out what they do using pencil and smudging or shading and it came out dope. Using her reference I made this and thought of sister opening a portal.
This is Stoney played by Jada Pinkett Smith in the 90s film Set it Off. There are four main characters in the film which I’ve painted here : Frankie, Cleo, and TT. But, the film centers around four friends but the story is really Stoney’s as she was the heart of the film, her brother, relationship, etc. Jada did a phenomenal job in this classic film.
On the film: I saw Set It Off when it came out. I think it was shortly after F. Gary Gray did “Friday” with Ice Cube, Nia Long, and Chris Tucker. I loved it back then. You never got to see 4 Black women wreck shit in a heist film back then so I was excited. I loved all of their characters, how they struggled, cared for each other, and I think writer Takashi Bufford who wrote the screenplay did a great job. I know he’s mentioned there are things that he’d change if he could redo the film. But I think it still stands up today. Shout out to Jada, Latifah, Vivica,Kimberly, and all of the cast and crew.
About me: My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I’m an author/illustrator from the Bay Area and my most recent book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco”. Get it at your local public library or independent bookstore.
Dig this? Check out my throwback drawings of three characters from the 90’s film Mi Vida Loca
This is Frankie, played by the incredible Vivica A. Fox. Frankie in the film Set it Off was brave, traumatized, enraged, strategic, and fierce. She had lead her team, with her own flaws, and a comradery for her girls that was inspiring to see. One of Vivica’s best performances. The captain, the ring leader, the one to set it off.
On the film: I saw Set It Off when it came out. I think it was shortly after F. Gary Gray did “Friday” with Ice Cube, Nia Long, and Chris Tucker. I loved it back then. You never got to see 4 Black women wreck shit in a heist film back then so I was excited. I loved all of their characters, how they struggled, cared for each other, and I think writer Takashi Bufford who wrote the screenplay did a great job. I know he’s mentioned there are things that he’d change if he could redo the film. But I think it still stands up today. Shout out to Jada, Latifah, Vivica,Kimberly, and all of the cast and crew.
About me: My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I’m an author/illustrator from the Bay Area and my most recent book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco”. Get it at your local public library or independent bookstore.
Dig this? Check out my throwback drawings of three characters from the 90’s film Mi Vida Loca
This is Cleo from the 1996 film “Set It Off” played by actor and emcee extraordinaire Queen Latifah. I try to do these characters as my fan art, for fun in between books and other projects to practice. In Set it Off Cleo is a lowrider, a masculine queer woman, a get away driver, and a big source of strength within the crew of friends. In order to escape poverty, she and three of her friends pull off multiple bank heists. Stay tuned for more.
On the film: I saw Set It Off when it came out. I think it was shortly after F. Gary Gray did “Friday” with Ice Cube, Nia Long, and Chris Tucker. I loved it back then. You never got to see 4 Black women wreck shit in a heist film back then so I was excited. I loved all of their characters, how they struggled, cared for each other, and I think writer Takashi Bufford who wrote the screenplay did a great job. I know he’s mentioned there are things that he’d change if he could redo the film. But I think it still stands up today. Shout out to Jada, Latifah, Vivica,Kimberly, and all of the cast and crew.
About me: My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I’m an author/illustrator from the Bay Area and my most recent book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco”. Get it at your local public library or independent bookstore.
Dig this? Check out my throwback drawings of three characters from the 90’s film Mi Vida Loca
This is Tisean or TT from the 1996 film “Set It Off” played by actor Kimberly Elise. I’ve been slacking on my characters and its nice to stretch out by doing this illustration of TT. In the film she was quiet, timid, a single mother, but a fierce ally and team member of the crew. In order to escape poverty, she and three of her friends pull off multiple bank heists. Stay tuned for more.
On the film: I saw Set It Off when it came out. I think it was shortly after F. Gary Gray did “Friday” with Ice Cube, Nia Long, and Chris Tucker. I loved it back then. You never got to see 4 Black women wreck shit in a heist film back then so I was excited. I loved all of their characters, how they struggled, cared for each other, and I think writer Takashi Bufford who wrote the screenplay did a great job. I know he’s mentioned there are things that he’d change if he could redo the film. But I think it still stands up today. Shout out to Jada, Latifah, Vivica,Kimberly, and all of the cast and crew.
About me: My name is Robert Liu-Trujillo. I’m an author/illustrator from the Bay Area and my most recent book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco”. Get it at your local public library or independent bookstore.
Dig this? Check out my throwback drawings of three characters from the 90’s film Mi Vida Loca
This was cool. I’ve never ever done a school visit in Union City. I met an educator named Roxanne Ramirez at the San Jose Made last year who has been a teacher for over 20 years. Not only that but shes an ethnic studies educator. Anyways, she invited me to her school in the Southern part of the Bay Area and I spoke to a whole bunch of students from 1st grade up to 5th.
They kids were super sweet, curious, and inquisitive so I had fun chopping it up with them, asking them questions, and being silly.
Some of the things we talked about or did on the first day were:
Several picture book readings
Q & A about writing and drawing
Revising your work, working with a team
Fruits, veggies, and community
Different types of family structures
Some of the things we talked about on the second day were more focused on:
Character design
Art Books
Figure drawing
Collaboration
Public Art/ Graffiti
Video Games, Animation, Film
Social Justice
I really had a blast drawing with them and talking with these young minds, meeting their teachers, their principal, and many of the staff members. And I hope to make it back to this school again in the future.
School and Library Visits: I’ve been visiting students as a storyteller since 2012 yall. I started as an illustrator first and then I became an author. I visit many schools every single year. I’ve been all over the Bay Area and Ive read to students in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, and Ohio. At this point I’ve visited over 100 libraries and schools. Recently I put out the call to visit more cities in Northern and Central California. If you’d like to invite me to visit your school or library in the Bay or outside of it, I’m open to travel! Shoot me an email at info@robdontstop.com
These are the educators who spend countless hours prepping, reading, researching, and teaching our babies. They were kind enough to take a picture with me. Photos by Victor Guzman Benitez and Roxanne Ramirez. Shout out to the Social Justice Academy and the Ethnic Studies educators there. Hella appreciate y’all!
Been messing round with gouache again lately to try something new. Still getting the hang of it but I enjoyed painted this one of who I imagine is a sister training other sisters on self defense because we need to be able to defend ourselves.
