Emroca Flores

Jose Emroca Flores. You most likely know him for this work...

Perhaps the most famous piece from the "I am 8-Bit" collection, and for good reason. Just look at the "?" box glowing with energy. The jagged bricks look solid and real, the magic vine jutting up into the smoggy skies above, the late evening sun still poking holes in the cloudy blankets above. If there's one thing Emroca can do, its atmosphere. I've often heard this piece refereed to as Burton-esque. Hell, I've said it myself. But the more I've researched his portfolio, the more I've learned what a snap judgment I had made on him. It's easy to slap the Burton label on anything with dark foreboding skies, plants with wicked features, and female protagonists with long spindly limbs, but let's look at some of Emroca's other stuff...

Dripping with character.


Notice how, especially in the third piece, Emroca doesn't need to populate his work with activity or characters. Just moody fog, barely masking the vast cityscape in the distance, the lights of the mine cart pierce the drab rainy skies about, an excellent use of contrast against the negative space. Emroca's has woven in alot of design sensibilities into his work. Contrast, negative space, hierarchy, Emroca is every bit a Graphic Designer as he is an Illustrator. He was employed by EA for a time as a graphic artist, but has since moved on to High Moon Studios as Senior Concept Designer.

He has a bit in common with some of the other Californian Illustrators of the past couple of decades. Characters with heavy facial exaggerations twisted with a bit of cynicism (take a look at the cow and the crocodile pics). A subdued earthy color palette, that is only occasionally broken by a soft glowing yellow. Generous applications of deep heavy shadows. Check out Lane Smith and/or Joe Murray for other examples of this Californian style of Illustration (or wait till I'll get to them on my own).

In any case, Emroca, you'll forever be known as the first artist I ever consciously sought out. I regret that our all to brief e-mail correspondence, while pleasant, could not have ended with me declining the invitation to your show (poor college student), but thank you for your time, not just answering my questions, but for helping to light the path of the first few steps when I truly started to learn what style means.

I think next time I'll show off Victor Cayro. Later y'all!