My Christmas in Mexico

This photo is of me wearing my Santa hat.

I helped put up our Christmas tree this year and hung the ornaments.

We saw a hot air balloon floating over our town on Christmas Day. Below is a giant gingerbread house.

Here are the sheep and goats and donkeys at the manger in our town square-the zocalo.

This kid is trying to pet them.

Here is my mom and I pretending we are part of this painting.

Here I am walking down the streets with my Dad.

Here we are drinking orange juice from the same cup.

I'm climbing on top of a big stone ball in Parque Juarez.

...and here I am in my pool.






















This is me in an empty swimming pool!

...and here's a picture of me and my friend Olly.

I'm eating breakfast on Christmas Day at Posada Corazon.

A man played a harp.

This is me and my mom standing in front of an old door.






















This picture is for my friend Charlotte who loves horses.

It's of Gitano.

Here's a picture of more horses at night for Charlotte.

A dream about meeting John Lassiter at Pixar

November Drawings

This big guy was mean to a little dragon and his foot got burnt.
It never pays to be a bully.

These are the some of the pets we have at our school.
Shakespeare-the guinea pig, Joy-the lizard and Morgan the parakeet.

Mighty Zeus playing with his thunderbolts.

Here are two horses reacting to the invention of the horseless carriage. They don't look happy to me.

I'm a huge fan of angry birds.

I love the monsters and creatures in Greek Mythology. Here's a harpie-one of the winged creatures that taunted Phineas.
Pictured below is Neptune with his trident and pet dolphin.

There's no place like an adventure

In 2nd grade I wrote and illustrated a story called there's no place like an adventure. Now I am 9 years old and had a REAL, really big one. These photos tell the story of an exciting day working with my family and friends to share our love of Greek Mythology with kids in Germany. I am so lucky to have a super school, cool art teacher Miss Allison Bell and great friends who are really good artists too.

The footage is going to be part of an amazing television show on The German Child Channel. The narrator Ben takes kids on an adventure to uncover the magic of Greek myths and they travel to South Africa, Germany, Greece and San Diego! Melanie Weiss who worked for a film production company in Germany saw my drawings here on my blog and asked to see more of my work. When I made my movie The Quest for a school project it was so much work but really fun. I learned so much more about making a real video from my new friends Mark Nelson and J.P. McLean and their crew. Did I tell you it was hard work but really fun. I got up at 6am and we worked all day to get all the shots we needed.

In this scene, I am drawing at my art desk upstairs and that's Mark, J.P. and the guy with the microphone Scott helping me get started. Mariel also helped with the lighting and Leslie helped organize everything for the shoot. It takes a team of people to get it done.

Here I am downstairs working in my Dad's art studio as they wanted me to show them how I like to paint on wood.

When we were upstairs in my room Mark let me touch his big camera and I got to move the handle. In this scene I was showing them my blog and the movie I made about Jason and the Argonauts.

Here's a super fun part at our school The San Diego Cooperative Charter School with our very wonderful teacher Miss Bell. We did scratchboard but it was a very special kind where the image was white. There were little shells glued all over the frames and together with my friends we drew Greek ships. I have to thank Alexis, Charlotte, Esther, Paige and Ty for coming to class on a Saturday for the workshop. They are such incredible artists and good friends to help me show the kids in Germany what our school is like. I was really proud of my friends and happy to see their artwork that was beautiful.

So I have to tell you that by now I was getting tired because making a video is hard work. We went to the Star of India to film the boats and I felt so lucky to hear this musician playing a steel drum. It did not come from Jamaica but from Berne, Switzerland. It had this very relaxing sound that was just what I needed to keep my energy going.

The last part of the shoot was at Coronado Beach and my best friend Charlotte came along. We drew pictures in the sand-Charlotte drew a horse [because she is really good with horses and even rides them every week]. We played in the ocean and climbed rocks and even though it looks like it is summer it is really the end of November in San Diego.

Here is one of the final scenes from our shoot when I gave a special clue to the host of the show-Ben. I can't tell you what it is because it needs to be a secret till the show comes on German television. I gave my clue sitting up on the rocks in front of the Hotel Del Coronado - my favorite place to watch the sunset.

That's a wrap!

Take a look at my first you-tube video

Yesterday I went to Coronado Beach on a very foggy morning to make my movie called The Quest. Please take a look by clicking on the title in the gray fog color and you can make it change to orange. I hope you look at it full screen so you can see everything.

It was a class project from our teacher Merrill DeGraff and I wanted to tell a story, use my own drawings and film video on the beach. I learned so much about making movies. It isn't easy. I wrote my story down and had to record the narration dozens of times so it would match the action of my movie. You get lots of bloopers like in Pixar movies and sometimes they are really funny. You laugh and get frustrated but you keep on trying to get it right.

I had to make a storyboard and sequence my drawings. I have been learning how to do that in my art class with our teacher Allison Bell. I got my pencil drawings in order and included one watercolor painting of the blue whale for the storm scene. One of my favorite things is to draw letters. I used the plastic sword to write out the film titles in the sand and filmed them and the other moving video to tie my drawings to the big story. I had to shoot lots of footage and cut things out that did not work. You have to be patient and keep trying no matter what.

Music is really important in a movie. Dad and I sat together and listened to the songs of our friend Gil Gutierrez who lives in Mexico and is like my uncle. We picked this one because I thought it was kind of spooky and mysterious like the story. Mom and I worked together in Camtasia studio to put all the pieces together. It was hard work but so much fun and I hope you will try it too. If you get a chance take a look at this film of bonus material where I draw a Greek boat and talk about what I learned .

When we were done we made a big pot of spaghetti and talked all about the quest of making a movie.

Beach Days in San Diego

Drawing of a guinea pig: Shakespeare

This is a drawing of a guinea pig I made. His name is Shakespeare. I fed him and held him a lot, I also read to him and told him stories. I drew a picture of him. One night mom was in bed she was half asleep when I came into the room, hey Santi she said, hi mama I said back what are you doing tonight? she asked. Shakespeare is out of his cage on the table. I lied. Frantic mom ran out of the room she had to save Shakespeare. She sighed in relief as she figured out that I was tricking her. I played animal games, I like animals and I have one named Shakespeare, he's a guinea pig.

One day I went to the beach in my wet suit on my boogie board and I brought my kite. We made holes in the sand which were supposed to have water inside. I got my red sea bucket, I also got buried under the sand. Everything was covered except for my head, it was sticking out. Suddenly the wave's came rolling in and I almost got swept away. Soon it was time to go. I got everything but then my dad went back to get my kite. I found a broken in half shovel to go with my bucket. I took it home with me to fix it.

When it was time to take Shakespeare back to school I gave him a BIG who's gonna miss me scratch. I was holding him. When I was done holding him I put him back in his cage. My dad put the cage in the trunk of the car. Then he climbed in the car and the rest of us climbed in. We drove to school, we climbed out of the car and opened the trunk and brought his cage in the classroom and sat it down on the cabinet. I told my friends how I took care of him and so I decided to type a story about him and that is what I have just told you.

The End

Changing Perspectives on a Greek boat

I like to think like I am making a film when I draw.
Here is the same boat from two different points of view. The boat passes through two large rocks and then we see it from above as if we were an eagle in the sky. One day I want to make a movie with this.