I like to think of Alberto Ruiz as an "indie artist" - sort of a a counterpart to the whole indie thing we've got going on here in the mac developer community. Only instead of flinging code around and playing with compilers all day, he's got a bunch of blue col-erase pencils and he's making some pretty amazing art.

Recently he announced that he's starting up a company named Brandstudio Press to publish works from awesome friends and folks. "Nine months in the making, countless sleepless hours, one thousand and one tongue burritos and an equal amount of Coronas. And of course, plenty of sweat, blood and tears, but no fears, just passion and stubbornness. A lot of people have said: 'Don't do it!, man, you will get hurt' but did I listen to the nay sayers? . . .Yes, I did, but I ignored them all, 'cause that's the way we roll.

"All I can say is we are in it for the passion not for the money (and that's not just a tag line), our business model doesn't rape the artist, encourages and rewards artistic freedom and favors originality and creativity."

I love that attitude. Go Alberto!

And just recently he announced the first nine books Brandstudio is putting out. Wow- Sean Galloway, Robin Mitchell, Erwin Haya, and some other folks that I hadn't come across yet like Andrew Wilson. Wow.

Time to start saving my pennies.

If you like any of the above links, also check out E-Ville Press (a handful of pixar dudes), Stuart Ng Books for hard to get works, and Ragnar's stuff is pretty awesome too.

And of course The Disclaimer. Some of these links take you to drawings of partially clothed or naked females. You might be offended by this for some reason. Sorry. But you have to admit they are freankingawesome drawings of naked females. Or maybe it's just me. Years of art and art history classes in college really make me appreciate raw talent when I see it. And when you combine that with the independent streak these guys have- I just love it and have to share.