Grandes On The Way!

Posted on January 29, 2015 by John Picacio

The first Loteria Grande Card Sets are here and ready for shipping. 🙂

Update: Good News! All Loteria Grande Card orders received by 11:59pm CST tonight (Thursday / Jan. 29) will ship out this weekend. That means if you order before then, you will receive your Grande Cards by the end of next week if you live in the US (barring Snowpocalypses), and international orders should arrive shortly thereafter.

To all who have already placed orders for the Grande Cards — THANK YOU! Your Grandes will be in that first wave of shipping. For the rest of you — what are you waiting for? Jump aboard and get some of these special-edition cards for yourself!

The Look of Loteria

Posted on January 29, 2015 by John Picacio

When I was a kid, I played Loteria (AKA ‘Mexican Bingo’) with my family. If you know how to play traditional Bingo, then you know how to play the game. Bingo is played with random selections of letters and numbers, but with Loteria, it’s the shuffle of a fifty-four card picture deck that creates the agony and the ecstasy. These cards can do so many fun things. Curanderas (fortune tellers) use them as a personal ‘tarot’ to tell fortunes. My grandma used Loteria cards to play concentration games. She would pick a few random cards, show them to me, turn them over and then I’d have to remember which cards were where. All of those old-school cards are packed with memory and nostalgia.

Many of you have played Loteria with me at large assemblies and featured events when I make my convention road appearances — some of you for the first time ever –and the energy from those games is fantastic and contagious. I love doing it. For those that haven’t played yet, here’s what all fifty-four of the traditional Loteria cards look like, courtesy of the classic set produced by Don Clemente / Pasatiempos Gallo. These cards are beloved by millions, and they’ve been around for more than a century, while the game of Loteria itself is much older than that.

The classic Loteria cards. TM & © Don Clemente / Pasatiempos Gallo, Inc.

I’m currently attempting to create my own series of iconic Loterias — a set of artworks that can honor the rich tradition of the game while inviting the world to collect, play, celebrate, and enjoy.

This series is a labor of love and I’m hard at work on it. As with all endeavors, it doesn’t arrive out of a vacuum. Here are eleven of my Loteria artworks featured as special-edition Grande Cards from Lone Boy (pictured at the right in each grouping), juxtaposed with classic Loterias and inspirations from other artists and creators.

If you have your own favorite Loteria cards, artworks, or memories — let’s hear about ’em! And for those of you that want some of my Loteria Grande cards for your very own, you can purchase them here while supplies last.

My art for 'El Venado' was inspired by the phenomenal YA novels of Leigh Bardugo.

My ‘El Venado’ art was inspired by the phenomenal YA novels of Leigh Bardugo.

‘El Corazon’ has been selected for inclusion in the forthcoming annual, INFECTED BY ART.

‘El Mundo’ is a love letter to my daughter, postmarked from the future.

‘La Escalera’: Do you ever have days like this? Yeah. Me too.

I love when people cosplay as my ‘La Calavera’ art. If you do — send me photos! 🙂

My ‘La Sirena’ art won the 2012 Chesley Award for Best Product Illustration.

‘El Pescado’: There’s more going on here than first meets the eye. 😉

This was the very first Loteria card I did, inspired by an illustration I created for Borderlands Books in San Francisco.

My Loteria work turned a corner after ‘El Arpa’ — one of my favorite works I’ve created in the last few years.

The Loteria icons are gateways. I’m walking through them — writing down the stories, while creating the pictures.

The classic version of ‘La Luna’ (upper left) was always one of my favorite cards when I was a kid. I’m proud that my art for ‘La Luna’ and ‘El Arpa’ were selected for inclusion in the forthcoming INSPIRED Art Annual, via theartorder.com.

My first eleven Loteria Grande Cards are available right now from Lone Boy. Free shipping in the US! 🙂

Home!

Posted on January 26, 2014 by John Picacio

It’s been a long time coming. Today, Lone Boy has a new, improved online home — with a new Shop — and this blog where I’ll share thoughts and processes about all things Lone Boy. I’ll keep updating and improving the look and function of this site in the coming days. However, now that it’s been switched to WordPress, it’s now so much easier to update and improve than the previous version. Down the road, there will be more offerings in the Shop, but right now, Loteria Grande cards are the most-requested item.

Good news, everyone — because of this popular demand, my Loteria Grande cards are available for online purchase, while supplies last! If you’re new to the term “Loteria”, it’s a classic Mexican game of chance played with a fifty-four card deck featuring pictorial icons. Think Mexican Bingo. I’ll soon share more about the rich history of the game — fun stuff!

My Loteria Grande cards are special-edition, giant-sized art collectibles, exclusively produced by Lone Boy. They feature new artwork by me, inspired by the classic iconography of the game. The front sides feature full-color artwork printed on thick cardstock with a durable semi-gloss finish.

The reverse sides present my final pencil art for each work, and this is one of the features that make Loteria Grande cards unique. Future editions of my Loteria cards will not include these drawings on the backside, and that will automatically distinguish these from other sets. In addition, these are the first editions of these Loteria artworks in card form, and in future, I suspect that will make them very desirable for collectors.

So what exactly does “giant-sized” mean, and how are these cards different from your average cards? THIS:

I’m proud to offer The Once Set (pronounced <ohn-say>) — the first eleven of my Loteria Grande cards, sleeved in a custom-made, clear, resealable display bag, priced for $22, while supplies last. Bonus — the price includes FREE shipping to destinations within the US!

For those that kindly supported my 2014 Calendar’s Kickstarter campaign — many of you already acquired the first six of my Loteria Grande cards for free, as campaign rewards. For you, I’m offering The Cinco Set as a convenient option, which includes the next five brand-new Loteria Grande cards for only $10 — including “El Venado”, “El Corazon”, “El Mundo”, “La Escalera”, and “La Calavera”. Cinco Sets will only be available for a limited time, until Wednesday, February 4th, and then after that date, only the Once Sets will be available.

These cards are a labor of love, and I’m excited that they’ve struck a chord with so many of you. Come and get ’em while they last!

In Loteria We Trust.