This week’s artist’s spotlight focuses on Bamboota (Crystal), who, in collaboration with fellow artist Elliot Fernandez, makes some pretty tasty superhero art.
The Artist’s Spotlight is a Hypable weekly feature that will focus on someone who has caught our attention for fandom-related art, whether it be drawings, songs, crafts, or more! Every week you can expect a new talented artist we think you should be aware of!
My name is Crystal Fontan, and I was born in Puerto Rico, but raised in The Bronx, NY, but then went back to P.R. in my teen years and then ended up in Florida for college! I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl, so I knew that a career in art was what I was supposed to do in life! I used to watch a lot of cartoons when I was growing up (I still do), so I wanted to become an animator when I got older. So, after graduating from the Central High of Visual Arts in San Juan, P.R. — a high school dedicated to kids who had a special talent for the Arts — and after one year at a fine arts college, I decided to study 3D Animation at The Art Insitute of Ft. Lauderdale, where I got a Bachelors in Science Degree in Media Arts and Animation.
Even though I graduated and was ready for the “real world” of animation, I decided that I really didn’t have the passion for animating, but more of a passion for illustrating, so after working as a graphic artist for various companies, I decided to discipline myself in perfecting my graphic design abilities by coming home from work and just drawing and practicing whatever came to mind.
| “[TeeFury] didn’t select my design, but it made me want to keep trying and trying, and it also gave me a reason to practice my art!” |
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In 2011, one of my friends encouraged me to submit a design to www.teefury.com just to see what happened. They didn’t select my design, but it made me want to keep trying and trying, and it also gave me a reason to practice my art! So after 10-15 tries, I finally got a print on a daily tee site…which was on www.riptapparel.com, and after that, I haven’t stopped!
Oh yeah, and I have an adorable black pug named Naboo!
Hypable: What’s your favorite superhero movie?
Bamboota: My favorite superhero movie would have to be the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier film! It was great, and had a great balance of story, action, deepness, and Bucky! *drools*
How did you come up with the concept for these cereal designs?
Actually, the very first Avenger Flakes cereal, ThorriOs, was made for a Marvel T-Shirt competition, but they rejected it because it didn’t fit for what they where looking for or something! I’ve done a couple cereal box designs before and when I wanted to enter this competition, I knew that I had to collaborate with one of my great friends, Elliot Fernandez, 1, because he’s an AMAZING artist, and 2, because he knew everything about anything in the Marvel Universe, so I thought it would be fun to work with him, which it is! Once we did the first one, we just had to do the rest of the Avengers!
What’s been the hardest part about working on these?
The hardest part in creating these cereal designs is coming up with cool/relevant taglines that we can add to make it more believable that it’s a real cereal! Elliot and I brainstorm for hours just to get them right!
What are the pros of working with someone on a design like this? Are there any cons?
The pros are collaborating and getting excited when you come up with some cool ideas together. Also learning from each other, and just the overall teamwork you need to do designs so intricate like these.
The only con is time. Sometimes we both are too busy to work on the cereal series, so that’s why they’re so sparsed out! We’ve been working on this series since 2012 and we haven’t even finished! There’s at least four more Avenger Flakes to go!
These designs are so popular (and rightfully so!). What’s been the best kind of feedback you’ve gotten because of them?
Elliot and I do these designs because they’re so much fun and it’s our way of paying homage to our favorite heroes, so when people email me with pictures saying that its their favorite t-shirt of “All-Time” or when I see people wearing them at cons, its a great feeling!
That and when Tom Hiddleston himself said he liked “Loki Charms” on Nerd HQ!
What are some artists that inspire you the most?
Oh man, there are so many, I don’t think I can list them all, but I’ll start by saying that Elliot Fernandez is absolutely one of my inspirations and it was an honor to work with him on these cereal boxes! We’re actually working on more designs together (non-cereal), so I’m excited about that! My best friend Pertheseus is also a big inspiration to me since I was 14 years old! I’m also working with him on a collaboration as well… but it’s still a Work in Progress! Like I said, if I mention even half of the artists that inspire me, then I would never finish writing! So I’ll just stick with these two for now!
Can you tease us about any future designs in this series?
Well…like I said in question #5, we have about three or four more in the series to go. I’ll tease by saying that Coulson, Black Widow, or Bucky MIGHT make an appearance!
| “I just wanted to create a series where I can accentuate what each character does!” |
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You also do a lot of Firefly artwork. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yes! My Firefly series! I just wanted to create a series where I can accentuate what each character does! For instance, Kaylee Repairs, Captain Mal Delivers, Inara Loves, River Speaks the Future, and Zoe Leads! I’m working on Jayne and Wash next… I just haven’t had the time to really devote my time to conceptualize the designs! I really want to make these the best designs of the series, since they’re both my favorite characters from the show! I can’t wait to do them!
What’s your ultimate goal as an artist?
My ultimate goal as an artist is to keep improving my skills and staying relevant with the times so I can continue to produce art that touch people’s hearts, nostalgia, interests, etc. I also want to spread out more so that I have a wider audience to design for! I constantly stay productive with learning new programs, coming up with complicated concepts, drawing things I don’t usually know how to, like robots (so hard), and reading, just so that I can challenge myself. That’s the only way I really know how to get better!
Bamboota can, thankfully, be found all over the web, as can her partner in crime!
Her website, Tumblr, and DeviantART accounts show off her artwork, which you can purchase on Redbubble, Society6, and Etsy.
And if you want to hang around and chat, you can also hit her up on Facebook and Twitter.
Elliot Fernandez has his own DeviantART and Redbubble accounts where you can check out the work he does with his friend Crystal, as well as the work he does solo.
If you’d like to chat with Elliot, feel free to track him down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.