INK ART

When it comes to ink... I have found a mixture of Copic and Pro Markers (alcohol based ink markers), Chinese ink and Staedtler pigment liner pens to be the perfect combination for my needs.

Alcohol based markers, such as Copic or Promarkers, are great for blending colors.  When it comes to shapes and shades I love this kind of markers, especially since I do lots of faces and I can blend different shades of colors to make skin look as good as possible.  They also have a blender which is a clear marker that allows you to have an even greater blend between shades. I also like the fact that they have different tips which lets me have better control.

I use Chinese ink and Staedtler pigment liner pens for fine dark detail.  I've tried several pens and I think Staedtler pigment liner pens are the perfect ones to use with alcohol based markers, since you can apply the marker on top of them without bleeding (which many others do).  I love to use brushes. Chinese ink allows me to do so in this kind of work (In some way sometimes I feel more comfortable using the brush to do certain things).

Here is some of my work I've done this past year:

WEB

FACEBOOK

Tribute To My Grandparents, The Making

Before starting a painting I can spend hours, days, weeks, months, sometimes even years trying to find the right figure that will fulfill my imagination.  This painting was a bit different, the figures were always there, I had to look in my imagination for all the amazing feelings I have towards them.  Painting my amazing grandparents was a difficult task.  Not only did I want it to be beautiful and incredible but I wanted to be able to express many amazing feelings and ideas i have of them.

Here are some of the steps I took before finishing one of my favorite works I’ve done so far:

1.  Objects and clothing are an important part in my paintings, every time I paint someone or something I make sure to incorporate things that are important for that particular painting.  In this case they are my grandparents and there are millions of things I could have included.  After several days going around my head I finally decided to go for things that when I see I think of them. They’ve always had solid wood antic furniture with a tint of Bordeaux, so I had no doubt about that, actually the two chairs and the table with the white lace cloth (which my grandma always had) is what they have at the moment.

I made sure they dressed in their style.  My grandpa wearing his traditional plane light shirt and slacks, which is the way I always picture him. My grandma with her colorful blouses (leopard design) and beautiful pearls on her neck and wrist.

2.  When I had everything figured out I started to paint.  As I always do, I did the outline and some important shades using Raw Umber acrylic paint (always looking more at shapes than the actual figure).

3.  Once the acrylic paint is dried (which doesn’t take long), I started with the first oil layer (the Raw Umber-under layer).  I usually do two or three layers of umber, but in this case I did four because I wanted to have more detail.  In this stage is very important that whatever you are painting starts to look a lot like you want the final painting to look like without color.

4.  After a couple of days, when the umber layer was dried to the touch, I started working a bit more on the background, adding color and a little more detail.  Adding the correct flesh tone is very important. If the color is just a little off, it can make the subject look like a different one.  To make this flesh tones I mixed red, blue, ochre, brown and white to make it lighter.

5.  For this painting I did 3 color layers, but you can do as little as one or as many as you want.  I waited until the painting was completely dry to the touch and I painted the “detail Layer”.  This stage is when I applied little lines, specific detail and transparent color (specially reds and blues to the faces to make them come alive).  To be able to make a color more transparent and to make it slide more easily, just add linseed oil to the paint.

6.  Finally I waited for the painting to be dried to the touch again and put a thin layer of linseed oil, J.G. Vibert painting medium, and tempentine to make the painting look more uniform.

There are many personal sentimental values in this painting.  I decided to add three eggs because my grandma have always collected porcelain figures.  If you look closely, you can see that each egg has a different design, one for each country that they’ve lived in.  The crown represents Spain, the sun Uruguay and the eagle USA. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did when I was painting it.

WEB

FACEBOOK

Choosing the right materials for you paintings

When it comes to painting, there are many decisions to be made beforehand.  Here is a brief summary of my choices.

Before starting to paint there are two things that you have to take into-consideration.  Being able to understand and pick the correct kind of canvas and painting technique, in my opinion is very important for the finishing look of the painting. 

Cotton or linen canvas? Because of my personal experiences with both, I’d rather use linen canvases.  Even though they are more expensive than cotton it’s compensated for in quality and durability. Traditional linen canvases are a bit rough and they are not as smooth as cotton, but now a days there are many options out there.  In my local art store there are more than 30 different types of linen canvases, from very thin and smooth to very thick and rough.  My personal choice is always the thinest and smoothest ones because of the type of work I do, it allows me to create better, thinner lines and detail.

Although I tend to use acrylics for my under-layer because it dries quickly, I prefer using oils for my paintings for many reasons.  I like to work slowly focusing on each detail as much as possible, acrylics dry very quickly, it does not allow me to fix any mistake and/or blend the paint as I like to. Also, acrylic changes it’s color once dry which makes it very difficult to always match the exact color.  Despite the fact that after many years oils dry with a slight yellow tinge, while working on the painting it does not change it’s color.  Traditional oil’s solvents are turpentine or mineral spirits, which does not bother me, but for some people can be a problem, that’s why now stores offer a new type of water soluble oil paints that are very nice to use.  Something I love about oils is that they have many types of mediums. I use many of them but I would like to highlight a couple.  Linseed oil is one of the most used and the most traditional ones. It is already in the mix of the paint.  It allows you to make it more liquid and transparent but it slows down the drying time, this is great to make the texture of the paint smoother and to add more color or sometimes change something you have already done once it’s already dry to touch.  Liquin medium is a great one when it comes to deadlines since it makes the paint dry to touch in approximately 24 hours, letting you work much faster.

Once the painting is done there are also some crucial facts to think about.  Because of the properties of the oils, sometimes when dry it can have different gloss in different parts of the painting. There are a couple of things you can use to fix this until it dries completely (6 months to a year) and you can varnish it.  When the painting is dry to touch you can use Retouch Varnish, which is a “varnish” made to use before the oil is dried completely. You can also paint over it if you like. In my case, I use a mixture of mediums that my friend and master of oil painting, Alex Alemany, showed me and I fell in love with. Equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and J.G. Vibert painting medium .  Once the painting is dry I apply a thin layer of semi-gloss vanish. 

               

Mixed media technique

Among all the mediums I use (oil paint, color pencils, charcol, and many more),  I'm going to highlight one I loved using at the begining of my artistic career, and continue enjoying it.

Watercolor is in a sense what made me the artist I am today. Even though now my tendency is to use oil paint when working on a piece, in the early stages of my artistic development I used a water based mixed media in a lot of my works being watercolors my main one.  That's why I thought it would be interesting to share the process with you.

First, I prapare the heavy weight watercolor paper by stretching it onto a pre-prepared wooden board.  Once the paper in stretched, dry and ready to use, I start painting the underlayer (a quick, light watercolor layer adding main colors).  After that, once the first layer is dry, I do the second watercolor layer. This time not as light and concentrating a little bit more on details, especially when painting people.  I let it dry one more time and I repeat the same process as many times as it needs, each time concentrating more and more on detail.  Once I feel the picture is ready, I add the mixed media.  I add mediums such as watercolor color pencils, acrylic paint (for very small highlights) and even in some cases I use gold, silver or copper leafing. I let it dry again and apply a mixed media varnish (very thin layer).

Web

Facebook

Here are some samples I created a while back:

Journey in the Imagination of an Innocent Mind

There are many things that inspire me when doing a painting.  Today I want to talk about one of my oil paintings, maybe the one that I had the most fun with, not only because I love the palette of color I used but because it's a portrait of my amazing son and our beautiful dog ("Journey in the Imagination of an Innocent Mind").

I wanted to create a perfect world where I could see the the image of my young son forever.  To do so I had to reflect his personality and an imagination of a child onto the canvas. Also, I couldn't forget about my dog which needed to have the perfect and unique expression that only people close to her can recognize.

I added different toys to show some symbols of his childhood.  I recreated his strong personality by painting him as the king, which he is in my family. Also, by making him holding his stuffed bunny (Foofoo), that he had since he was a baby, and putting him in his pajamas, I portrayed the innocent and affectionate nature he has.

When it comes to the surroundings, I had to paint something that will make you feel young forever, that will remind you of your childhood.  What better way of doing that than painting a background reminiscent of Peter Pan.

WEB

FACEBOOK

Nector and Tor Tor oil painting, the making.

There are many ways and methods I put in to use when doing an oil painting.  I thought it would be fun to describe one that I find to be the best when doing portraits.

A while ago I was commissioned to do an oil painting of a dog (Tor) and his owner (Nector).  Tor is a beautiful black labrador with a really nice and unique personality, which made my work to be more challenging since I had to capture his appearance exactly.  Also I have never painted big portions of black with different shades and I was intrigued by how it was going to turn out.

Throughout the days it took me to finish this painting, I decided to take several pictures to be able to explain every step.

1.  Acrylic layer.

Many people choose to outline the canvas using charcoal or pencil, in my case I use a light layer of Raw Sienna acrylic paint.  Looking at important features and shades, I try to apply different forms and shapes on the canvas until it stars to look like the subject.

Acrylic dries very fast, that’s the reason I use it for the first two layers of my oil paintings, always keeping in mind that once I use oil I cannot use acrylic again.

2.  Acrylic layer 2.

Once the first Acrylic layer is completely dry, I go over the whole canvas with another thin layer of a very light green, which I create by mixing Hansa Yellow, Cerulean Blue, some Quinacridone Red, a touch of black and white.  Then I let it dry again.  The reason of this is so that when applying color into the canvas I don’t have such a big contrast with the white color of the canvas (this is called Imprimatura, or Toning the Canvas)

3.  Raw Umber oil layer.

In this paticular painting I decided to use Raw Umber for the under-layer because of the colors of the subject and the finish I wanted to have.  For other paintings, depending on the effect I want to have on the final piece, I use a different under-layer color or even colors.

This step is one of the most important for portraits in my opinion, since details you do here will be noticed at the end.  Here I start looking more for unique features of the subject and adding them.

Once I’m happy with the under-layer I let it dry for about 3 - 5 days, sometime for me it is even necessary to do a second or even a third one if I want to add more detail.

4.  Adding color

One of my favorite ones, choosing right colors and mixing them is fun.  Depending on the color or mixture I use, people will have different opinions and feeling about it. For example, if for the skin tone I add blues the subject will have a cooler and paler feeling.  On the other hand, if I add more reds it will appear more warm and healthy. I enjoy playing around with different colors until I find the right one.

When it’s done I let it dry for another 3-5 days.

5.  Adding detail.

In the final step, as the title says, I add detail.  I look for “mistakes” and fix them, If I think a part of the skin tone need more reds, blues, or other colors, I add them, most of the times using a transparent color or making it transparent by adding linseed oil.

I let it dry this time for 10 days, to make sure it’s completely dry to the touch and apply a very thin coat of a mixture of linseed oil, J.G. Vibert painting medium, and tempentine.  This, makes the texture of the paining look more neutral (not so shinny or so mate) and better finish until it can be varnish. I let it dry for 10-15 days, until is dry to the touch and frame it.

NECTOR AND TOR TOR

WEB

FACEBOOK

Why am I an Artist?

Why am I an artist? Who am I as an artist? What kind of art do I do? What do I try to do or tell throughout my art? Do i want my paintings to be just like any other paintings? This is a subject that concerned me for a long time. I have had great teachers and mentors throughout my artistic learning, which I would like to highlight not only as great teachers but as good friends: Ginny Miller and Xavier Monsalvatje. Like any other person, artists will always have someone to look up to, artist that we admire, that we can somehow relate to. In my case I have, among many of them, Salvardor Dali, Diego Velázquez, Matt Hughes and James Tissot, that in many ways made me who I am as an artist today.  All those years analyzing myself, thinking over and over about my art, trying new techniques  and searching inside my soul, I finally understand all those questions above. 

As an artist, I interpret both personal feelings and those of others. There are many souls, including my own, waiting to be released. Hoping that their own bodies give the command to get discovered to express the harsh reality that humanity does not accept. People, who for fear of what someone else might think, do not dare to bare their souls.

In analyzing my work, these souls try to communicate with their own bodies, making the whole feel identified. Each trying to describe themselves through the corresponding work. I want to create a world

where human beings feel free to express themselves, where there is no discrimination, where the person is accepted as is and not  for what they have or how well they lie. I want the critic not only criticize the beauty of the colors and / or technique, but to know how to communicate with my work, knowing how to listen to it and not only speak about it.

I create pieces from death and depression, to life and happiness, even with both.

My objective is for those who feel alluded, to be able through my work to know how to untie themselves from such a tight knot.

WEB

FACEBOOK