Mister Cartoon has taken Chicano culture mainstream—and turned the world into his canvas along the way.
Tattoos for Snoop Dogg and Kobe Bryant. Custom gear for Nike and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Large-scale murals for art galleries around the world. “My work pulls from pachucos and zoot suiters, cholos and lowriders, muralism and street culture,” says the Los Angeles–based artist. “It’s rooted in Chicano culture, but I look across the globe for inspiration. Hopefully no matter who you are, Latino or not, you see who I’m paying tribute to.”
We spoke to the painter, tattooer, product designer, and Angelino about how Adobe Fresco helps him create his signature style.
You’ve worked across so many art forms and media types—do you have a different creative process for each?
Whether creating for a wall, a car, someone’s arm—any surface, really—I take a picture of where the artwork will be placed. Then I grab my iPad and go into Fresco. I’ll add some opacity to the photo, add a new layer, and draw right over the top of it. This way my clients can see exactly what the piece will look like.
How does Fresco help with that process?
I can choose different textures, different brushes and pens. And since it’s all vector files, I can scale everything up or down and it stays razor-sharp.
When working digitally versus analog, do you adjust your style?
Not at all. I hope I’m proof that you can maintain your style in any medium and with any tools. Nothing to me is more hardcore than a graffiti writer, but whether you’re on a wall or an iPad, the hardcore is always the hardcore, the underground is always the underground. Authenticity always comes across and is never lost.
You gotta pay your dues and learn how to do things by hand, but you need to be just as good with an iPad.
What advice do you have for artists who want to get the most out of Fresco?
Learning how to use layers is as important as drawing, so you can make your art more fluid by stacking them, and step backward if needed. Layers also give you the freedom when shading to see the difference the shading layer makes on the rest of the piece.
How did your career begin?
As a teenager I got deep into graffiti. What pushed me to make a living as an artist was partially my parents being artists and partially that my friends doing graffiti were getting busted for vandalism. I started getting into painting by hand after high school. I was doing old English and gold-leaf letters, drop shadows, and pinstriping.
What came next?
I got introduced to paint guns and airbrushing. It looked easy and seemed like a natural progression. Turns out it was really hard. But I stuck with it. A big breakthrough was a trip I took to Japan in the ’90s. Over there I met so many amazing artists. That trip opened up my mind and made me work even harder to dedicate myself to art.
What advice do you have for aspiring artists?
I do a lot of work with youth in Los Angeles, and I tell them all: You gotta pay your dues and learn how to do things by hand, but you need to be just as good with an iPad, and you need to be willing to embrace all the technology that comes next. I let them know I’m in my fifties and I’m still learning. I’ll be learning until it’s time to take the dirt nap. Really, I’m just trying to teach these youngsters while also trying to keep up with them.
Listen to Mister Cartoon discuss the intersection of art and music with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe.