Saturday, December 27, 2025
Coral - The Band
The last time I performed on stage was back in 2013.
Twelve years later, my friend Ken asked me to fill in on bass for his band, Coral. Coral is a music project headed by Raven. Raven and Ken met via a Craigslist ad and have been writing music together since last year.
Raven is the rhythm guitarist and vocalist of the band. Ken plays guitar. Josh, a friend of Raven's back in Miami, plays drums.
You can listen to Raven's demos here:
When my friend Ken asked me to be a part of this project, I was excited, but also nervous. While I have continued to play guitar and record music since leaving my band Toons back in 2013, I have not been on stage or played in front of a live audience since.
This was a fun challenge to take on. I had to learn new music, create bass lines, and collaborate and rehearse with people I've never played with before.
The photos were taken by my brother, Kevin.
In preparation for the show, I also made new artwork. The poster gave me the opportunity to create artwork with purpose.
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| Coral Band Promo Poster for the Band's First Show at Piano's in October 2025 |
I also made a limited run of linocut prints for sale for the show. A few remain. If you want to purchase one, they can be found here: https://coralband.bandcamp.com/album/iv
They look like this:
I made the prints at my parent's place when I came by to visit NYC and rehearse with the band at Astoria Soundworks. The dining room table was my work table for a day. It was very nostalgic because I've made many other things in the past on that table.
Pen and Ink Drawing of Coral Reef by Alex Ariza, 2025
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| Drawing of Coral Reef, Pen and India Ink on Paper 9 x 12 inches, Alex Ariza, 2025 |
This intricate pen and ink drawing features a variety of coral reefs in black and white by Alex Ariza. The artwork was created for the band, Coral, and their upcoming album. The ink drawing has many details and textures. The artist explored the many ways ink can convey roughness, smoothness, contrast, and movement.
Coral Band Poster and Album Art by Alex Ariza 2025
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| Coral Band Poster, 9 x 12 inches, Ink on Illustration Board, Alex Ariza, 2025 |
Black and white poster for the band, Coral, featuring a highly intricate ink drawing on illustration board by Alex Ariza. The drawing is of a woman's head surrounded by a variety of coral, reefs, and seaweed. Coral is growing out of the top of the woman's head and her eyes. The woman appears lifeless and floating underwater. The background fades into a black abyss. The ink style is reminiscent of horror comic book art and Japanese Manga.
2024 Christmas Cards for Friends
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| What Can Possibly Go Wrong? Acrylic Paint and Color Pencil 10 x 7 inches |
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| Santa v Krampus Boxing Match. Watercolor and Ink on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Santa's Boxing Gloves. Acrylic on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Tangled Christmas Lights Monster. Acrylic Paint on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Christmas Elf Slaying Hydra. Acrylic Paint on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Elf Facing Off Christmas Ent. Acrylic Paint on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Dungeon Entrance. Acrylic Paint on Paper 5 x 7 inches |
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| Christmas Elf Faces Off Evil Snowman in Dungeon. Acrylic Paint on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Ice Cave. Acrylic Paint on Paper 5 x 7 inches. |
2024 was a good year. Here are some Christmas cards I made for my friends. I took this as an opportunity to practice painting with acrylics, and more specifically layering transparent color without using white. These paintings required a bit more planning when it came to the shading portion to retain the white of the paper. I used thin glazes of paint to build up the mid-tones and shadows.
2025 Christmas Card Gifts for Friends
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| "Master Copy" of a Vintage Christmas Card. Acrylic on Paper 5 x 7 inches. |
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| Elf Melting Snowmen With A Flamethrower. Color Pencil on Paper 10 x 7 inches |
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| Jack Frost Bringing in Snow. Paper Cut Out and Color Pencil 5 x 7 inches. |
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| Where Are You Santa? Graphite on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
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| Where Are You Santa? (Interior) |
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| Santa With The Head Of Krampus. Acrylics on Illustration Board 5 x 7 inches. |
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| Mecha Santa vs Krampus Color Pencil on Paper 10 x 7 inches. |
Every year I like to make Christmas cards for my closest friends with the goal of making them laugh or just say - wow.
While I'd love to say everything from this batch is 100% my work, I cannot. This year I used pre-existing images online from all different places. The Warhammer inspired illustrations are the most blatant rip off I'm guilty of. I used the poses, costumes, lighting - almost everything - and then put a Christmas twist to them. These illustrations are not for commercial purposes and the creation of these cards are more of an hommage and opportunity to produce "master copies" from the original source material.
I'm not practiced enough to come up with these kinds of beautiful and dynamic poses like these illustrators at Warhammer, Blizzard, etc. The vintage looking Christmas card with the little girl and reindeer is another example of copying that work. Once again, I take no ownership of the original image, I just thought it looked cute and wanted to practice copying a well thought out illustration.
The only original images of the bunch were, Elf Melting Snowmen with a Flamethrower, and, Where Are you Santa? These were fun to make from scratch. I had to do quite a few thumbnail sketches before getting to the finished images, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to spend crafting the other cards, which is why I took the somewhat lazy route of copying other people's work.
Every year that I make these cards I try to push myself to make more elaborate images. I'm looking forward to the following year to see what I can come up with.
Monday, May 27, 2024
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Oil on 8.5 x 11 in. paper sketch Oil on 8.5 x 11 in. paper sketch Gouache and ink on 8.5 x 11 in. paper doodle Gouache and...
