1-2 minute

For this set of quick sketches I’m doing simple lines but I’m also trying to add a bit of shading. For a more traditional cubism style I would have to incorporate the same image from different angles and exaggerate the form. I will get there with more practice.

5-minute

If the pose will be long I try to get two sketches done, the first one is a study of the shape and the second one is a more detailed figure drawing. These next examples are explorations using simple lines, shading and block form.

10-20 minutes

Sometimes the quick sketches end up looking better than the more detailed drawings, or at least I prefer them. My idea of a good sketch when a stylized representation of the model is simple enough to represent the shape, action and possibly some emotion. When doing sketches my goal is to capture the subject in a simple form but at the same time I try to learn about lighting, shading, perspective, depth, and movement.

I hope you enjoyed this set of figure drawing sketches. Although the first sketches are not traditional cubism style I feel some of them are beginning to enter that look. I have to play with exaggerated shapes, different angles and overlapping images in order to get closer to that style. I will continue exploring cubism during figure drawing sessions in the next few months. Hopefully I won’t get too embarrassed when my blocky drawings look very amateurish compared to other great life-like drawing artists. I’m sure some constructive feedback will help me improve my skills. Till next time.

Drawings: 5-10 minutes

These drawings were quickly sketched. I used charcoal pencil for the black and white Conté for the white. Conté is a type of pencil which has been used for drawing for many centuries, its a mixture of graphite and clay, and it’s one of the most popular materials used in drawing.

Often times a prop is used to add some variation to the poses. Since I’m not very fast at drawing I leave the props to the end, which usually means an unfinished area in the drawing.

Using a color background is a quick way to add impact to the drawing. I use the background color as my base and try to fill in only the light and dark areas, leaving the middle tones for the eyes to fill.

Drawings: 10-20 Minutes

Although I prefer longer poses, I realized I get a lot more out of the drawing sessions with shorter poses. The short poses can be action and expression poses while the long ones are usually resting poses.

On this drawing you can see I began to outline the figure with the white pencil.  Although the pose is very still, these white lines outside the drawing give it some form of action and movement.

The construction paper I used for these last drawings is the larger 18″x12″, which made it a bit more difficult to scan. You can see some dark areas where I tried merging the scans. This large construction paper provided more area to work on and some of the sheets had a nice texture effect added.

I hope you enjoyed the drawings. I have a lot more sketches, but these were some of my favorite ones. Since drawing sessions start with short (1 or 2 minute) poses, many of the other sketches are very rough and unfinished. If I get a chance I will try posting some of those initial sketches, perhaps they can show additional insight into drawing. Till next time.

We begin with an empty canvas, made out of concrete. The mural was approximately 8′x5.5′. We use painter’s tape to mark the borders.  I like to add a second border on our mural because people generally like to get closer, sometimes stepping on the artwork.

Because the design was very basic, we did a simple 2×4 grid. This design allowed plenty of room for free-hand drawing.

We begin applying the lighter colors first. Since our mural needed many layers of chalk, we begin with the solid yellow and gradually add other colors to the swirl pattern.

Day one ended with this this much drawing. We only drew the bottom half of the design because we knew the colors would smudge overnight. We also didn’t have anything to cover our mural with.

Here’s a close up of the “baby”. I’m never too concerned with the details of the design, although I wish I could do a better job in defining the facial attributes.

When drawing with chalk I like to wear gloves. These protect my hand from the chalk, the concrete when I lean on it, and specially when the chalk material gets really small there is always a chance of hurting your fingers and scratching them against the concrete.

Here is Ender on day Two. On this day we applied many layers of blue for the sky. Ender uses a special patented tool for this process. He found it easier to smash the chalk first then smudging it on the concrete. This technique helped give the sky a nice gradation.

Here I am adding the final touches. The last details included going over the white lines and adding the stars.

Its really difficult to draw towards the center of the mural once its mostly complete. I try to lean over as much as I can without falling in.

And here is the final piece. We were both really happy with the final result. Although the design was very simple, I think we executed it well. Adding many layers of yellow and blue helped bring out the colors nicely.

Here are a few other drawings I found interesting:

We met a new friend at the festival, a  first-timer, Miho. She did a great job with the design. I look forward to her mural next year.

This drawing reminds me of the “fisheye” drawings I’ve done. Of course, they are completely different, but I like the concept.

Here’s a 3d drawing, well, it’s a composition with the purpose of a 3d effect. I think it worked really well.

This is a chalk drawing that goes well beyond 3d. Not only did the sculpture look amazing, it also had cool effects like smoke coming out of its nose.

Here’s our mural “Mother and Child”. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I definitely enjoyed this event, probably more than other years because this mural did not required a lot of details, which is usually what drains all of my energy.  Hopefully next year we’ll step it up with another unique drawing and we’ll try to raise the level of difficulty. Till next time.

Here is the original sketch for this drawing. I usually create a quick frame and draw a simple sketch inside. The top-left block was my first idea. It was going to be an underwater theme, but I decided to go with the flowers instead. I may go back and revisit this idea later. I tend to get more detailed with the sketches once I decide on a theme. I even include little notes.

Here is the empty canvas. I chose a paper with a dark background because I thought it would help pop the colors out, specially since I prefer using bright colors on my drawings. The size is approximately 18″x24, the paper is called ColourFix and it has a semi-rough finish, which is perfect for chalk.

Here I am sketching the drawing. I’m sitting at a small table I set up in my garage; this is my work-area for now. I’m wearing gloves because it was a bit chilly that morning, around 8am, but I decided to keep them on the whole time because it helped handle chalk better without getting this dusty and fragile material all over my hands.

I take out all the material I will need and test some of it on a piece of paper. This is where I can decide what colors would work together best. This chalk is leftover material from past festivals. I have tons more.

Here is the first outline of the drawing. It can be a bit frightening putting the first lines down because this will be my guide for the whole piece.

I start using the some colors and begin shading around the edges. This is also a good opportunity to test out the colors against a dark background.

After I added a first layer I tried removing the excess chalk, but I didn’t do this correctly or fast enough, and it smudged the black area around the stems. Oh well, now I know this paper can get smudged very quickly.

In this step I began shading the flower. I wanted to make the flowers a light-yellow color, but more towards white.

The composition is starting to take form after I added small swirl lines. The colors really begin to pop with the dark background.

I finished the swirls here. At this point I thought it was done, but the more I viewed it I noticed it needed some more contrast.

And here is the final piece after I added some dark lines to create more contrast. The lines helped outline the shapes and helped add a little more shading. Everyone I showed this image compared the swirls style to Van-Gogh. I don’t really try to imitate his style, but it’s clear I’m influenced in some way.

Here’s a close up of the chalk drawing. I try to make the design strong and bold, and to worry too much about the details. If I go over another color by mistake I don’t worry too much. My goal is to create a colorful and pleasing composition.

A close up of the stem of the flower. Since I try to work quickly, I don’t have much time to perfect the shading, I do however admire chalk artists who are able to do perfect blends with chalk. It takes a lot of time and patience.

Here is the final drawing as viewed from the top. Once framed, this is what the drawing will look like. This chalk drawing was going to be called “Three Flowers”, but I decided to change it because “family” is really the subtle theme of this drawing. I consciously gave each flower a family role (mother, father, child), there fore I decided to rename it “Flower Family”. I hope you enjoyed the process as much as I did drawing. If I have any additional information regarding the sale, I will post it here. Till next time.

Drawing sessions usually begin with short poses, about 1 or 2 minutes long, and gradually increase to up to 30 minutes. It usually begins with several 2-minute poses, then we break, then we start 5 minutes poses then break again. A couple of 10-minute poses and the longer poses can be up to the group. My favorite poses used to be 30-minute long poses, but now I feel I get more out of the drawing sessions with shorter poses.

I normally begin drawing on regular white drawing paper using charcoal pencil, but as the session progresses I tend to change it up. Another reason I change up the media is because its easy to go through lots of paper after so many sessions. One day I decided to try watercolor. It seemed a quick way to give a colorful touch to quick sketches.

These watercolor sketches were done in about 5 to 10 minutes. Some of the sketches with more layers were probably 15-20 minute poses. None of the sketches were drawn or outlined with pencil first, I used the watercolors directly. I begin with a light mixture first, then analyze the shadows and apply a darker mix.

During the many drawing sessions I’ve attended there has been a series of models, with different body types – different shapes, weight, height, gender, race, etc. The models are usually fully nude but often times its fun to vary it up with props. The props help create new lines, angles and shadows.

I sometimes like to draw the faces of the models. With so little time to draw these quick portraits, I find it very challenging to draw a face or some shadows that will give enough details to know its a face. Its definitely a good exercise.

A few more drawings:

All of these watercolor drawings were done on 9″x12″ water color paper (90lbs). I really like the texture of the paper and I’m happy with the unfinished look of the drawings. I like the artwork to highlight the media used, not to look like a realistic photograph. For now I’ve stopped doing figure drawing on this media, but have moved on to other material. I will post those other drawings as soon as I get a good set. Unlike other posts, its difficult to show progress of these drawings since the sketches are done very quickly. I hope you enjoyed these watercolor sketches. Till next time.

Day one, 7am began with some heavy rains. We picked up our squeegees, and waited for the cement to dry. Around 10 am it became safe enough to get started.

This was the original idea for the mural. I found this drawing online. This is the cover of a comic book for “El Santo”. El Santo is the name of a Mexican wrestler who became very famous in Mexico and around Latin America during the 60′s. So famous he starred in movies and comic books. He was a real life super hero for many fans, because while other countries had fictitious characters as super heroes, this persona actually existed and battled villains regularly, both on screen and in the ring.

While the cement began to dry, we first created a grid and began outlining the main characters.

After outlining the characters we began filling in and shading the color areas. We left all the dark colors for later (Sunday)

The rest of the day was mostly cloudy. We continued adding colors and filling in the areas. By this time we got some help from a new team member, Nash. She did a great job with the sky.

Here I am working on the monster, while Nash (top) is working on the Sky.

This is what the drawing looked like after day one. This picture was taken on Sunday morning. Notice there are no dark colors. We leave the dark color for the end because they tend to smudge really quick and its harder to correct them.

While most people cover their murals with plastic on Saturday night, we usually just leave it uncovered. Yes, sometimes careless people step on it. Oh well.

Here is Ender and Nash making lots of progress on the mural.  Ender is applying the dark colors while Nash is working on the sky and mountains.

Here is a close up of the girl’s face. Both Ender and I worked on the face and body of the girl. She was fun to draw, and people passing by often commented on how curvy this character was.

Here I am making progress on the mural. By this time most of the area is covered and only the details were left.

We attempt to complete the mural by  Sunday early afternoon so we can enjoy the rest of the day.

They gave us this t-shirt and some chalk material. Every year they provide goodies for the artists.

And here I am adding the final touches. From here we just remove the tape around the borders and sit and enjoy the rest of the day.

We often get compliments from visitors and always get questions about the mural. There are people who immediately recognize the character while others have no idea. Some funny comments from passers: “Rey Misterio!”, “Nacho” (from the movie nacho libre)., others thought it was “Blue Demon” another famous Mexican wrestler, which is understandable. The character was mostly blue, where El Santo is supposed to be silver. Surprisingly, the person who was most familiar with this character and Mexican wrestling altogether was an Asian guy. He knew about this character, his son El Hijo del Santo, and about Mexican wrestling federations. He commented about attending live events in California and following the careers of a number of Mexican wrestlers. It was really fun meeting someone  enjoyed this genre.

This is the final piece. Although I was happy with results. I think we could have worked a bit more on the details towards the bottom of the piece. I will try to push myself a bit more next time.

Unfortunately short after I took this picture my digital camera fell out of my hands and the screen broke (its fixed now), so I couldn’t take any additional pictures. However, my brother Sergio was there to save the day and took some great photos, Enjoy:

And that is all for the 2009 Pasadena Chalk Festival. Hope you enjoyed the photos as we sure enjoyed the event. Here is the team, me Henry, Ender and Nash. This is definitely turning into an eclectic team; I was born in Peru, Ender in Honduras, and Nash in Iran. I hope I have the energy to continue participating again  next year. Till next time.

From all the drawing, paintings and sketches I’ve done, the number of pieces I’ve given away I can count on one hand. I get too attached to my stuff and don’t seem to want to let it go. The painting I did for this auction was a recreation of the larger “Mother and Child” painting I’ve done in the past. This painting for the auction is only 12″ x 12″. Here are some photos:

Here I am painting. This photo was taken a few months ago, when I was working on a separate project, but this is essentially what I look like every time I paint. I usually wake up really early on a weekend and paint for about 3 hours.

Unfortunately I was not able to take photos of the painting process. For this painting I did about 3 layers, first I apply a coat of the basic colors, blue and orange, then let it dry, then I apply a second coating and begin adding the outline and gradation. The last step is all the details. I have to wait for the painting to dry for a few days every time.

I get a little nervous when I do the outline in black or white, because if I make a mistake it will get smudged with the other colors. In the end I can always paint over or try to blend it, but its just more work.

Here’s a close up of the face. I try not to worry about what colors to use or if the image will look like a real face. As long as I have some indication that it’s a face and there are some shadows to indicate that, I’m happy with it.

I’m now comfortable with adding my signature on my paintings, I’ve only started doing that about a year or so. If I know a painting can use more fixes I hold off on putting my signature.

And here’s the final painting temporarily hanging on my wall. I added a layer of clear coating to make it look shinier and protect the paint. It took me about 8 hours to complete this 1′x1′ painting.

I’m pretty happy with the final results and feel good about putting this painting up for auction. I believe the silent auction starts at $5. If no one bids, I’m buying it back. Ja! Remember all proceeds go to a fundraiser. If you’re interested in bidding for this item you will have to attend the 2009 Pasadena Chalk Festival in Paseo Colorado on June 20-21, 2009. Hope to see you there.

On day 1 we arrived at Barceloneta and stayed at an appartment about a block away from the Beach. This was our view from our tiny balcony. You can see the beach way back there. Although we didn’t get in the water, there were many people who did, some of them topless.

After catching up with the new timezone -9 hours ahead of pacific time and a 15 hour flight, the next day we were ready to go out and begin our adventure.  Here in Barceloneta there were always musicians performing in the street.

During our stay we were lucky the weather was very favorable. It was not hot or cold, just a bit cloudly. Little did we know we would be walking at least 5 hours a day, every day.

We stumbled upon a salsa club. Ok, Sonia did some research. It was fun. This photo was taken about 3am.

After a day of recouperating, we headed to Montpellier, France. We took the rail for a 5-hour train ride. The ride was nice, nothing elegant, just confortable enough, but there were nice views on the way.

France has a lot of historic buildings and old structures. This is not a tipical street, but its an area where people still live.

Here I am taking the ‘guided’ tour. Unfortunately for me, the tour was in French, so I had a little device to listen to the tour in English.

During our tour we saw many buidlings such as this. We took a little train ride that takes you all around the main parts of the city for a 30-minute trip.

Sonia doesn’t like to take photos, right…

The main tourist areas in Montepellier were taken care of nicely.  We headed to the top of the arch…

View from the top of the arch. This area was limited to guided tours.

After a long day, we relaxed with a little Ice Cream. Back in Spain, we had ‘gelato’ many times. If seemed like you could find a gelato vendor every other block.

There were many inmense buildings in Montpellier. These have been around for hundreds of years.

Makes you feel tiny with all these tall buildings around.

On our way back to Barcelona for the last part of our trip we looked out the window and saw many beautiful views.

Barcelona has many plazas, many of these have decorative statues in the center. Reminds me of Peru.

The world famous La Boqueria market. I wish we had a market like this in the states. In this market you can find a huge variety of fresh seafood, fruits, ham, candy, chocolate, olives and other goodies.

I love olives. Check out the huge variety of olives.. hmmmmm

On this day I met up with my cousin Goyo (middle) from Peru. He moved from Peru to Madrid about 9 years ago and now lives there with his family.  I hadn’t seen my cousin in about 20 years. It was very emotional to see him again, after so long. On the other side of the photo is his nephew.

Continuing our trip, we headed to one of Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces, La Casa Mila. This is a view from the courtyard in the first floor.

On the rooftop at Casa Mila. Gaudi was a very creative modernist architech.

La Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera contains many of these weird heads. They look like alien helmets. This house was built in 1912, thats almost 100 years ago.

Here’s a wider view of the rooftop. On the floors below there are other exhibitions about the construction of this and other buildings by Gaudi.

El Parque Guell, another creation of Antoni Gaudi is another Spanish Landmark.

Weird, but cool looking house. Many of these designs are based on patterns and styles found in nature.

A lot of tile work was put into the creation of these buildings. These buildings now serve as gift shops.

The park is fairly big, and it has many areas which look completely distinct. This is also Park Guell.

Sonia in the middle of the two houses at Park Guell.

Musicians at Park Guell. I’m not sure what style of music it was, it was very different from anything I had heard before.

Another landmark, this is La Sagrada Familia. It’s been in construction for about 100 years, and it’s schedule to complete in about 20 years. I should be back for the inauguration.

Antoni Gaudi created all the plans for this inmense cathedral. He passed away before it could be completed, but he left all the plans for its completion. Here you can see the nature pattern he uses for the stairs.

One side of the window inside the Church. A lot of work is still head as there are many unfinished windows .

Lots of statues on one side of the church

A view from the top of the Sagrada Familia.

And this concludes the trip to France and Spain. This is a photo taken on train station on our way to France.

Barcelona was exciting. There was so much to do and the city is full of energy. I really liked the underground metro system, where the longest wait time was 5 minutes, and it was fairly affordable as well. The week we arrived in Barcelona the local soccer team had just won a championship, so there was celebration everywhere. Soccer is a religion for many people there. Montpellier had its own charm. There were many things to do around the ‘Place de la Comédie’, with many fancy shops and lots of places to just sit and relax. Can’t wait for the next trip to Europe. Till next time.

This sketch was done on a 6.5″ x 6.5″ sketch pad. It was a rough idea, but I wanted to incorporate the swirls and stars.

I got started and began painting the fist layer right on canvas, with no pencil drawings to guide me. I used light layers of paint for the initial sketch. The canvas is 24″ x 18″.

With the first layer of paint completed, I let the painting dry for a few days to add a second and third layer of paint. The second and third layers are for brighter colors, more details and better paint texture.

The next day of painting I worked on the sky, adding different shades of blue and giving the sky a light swirl effect along with some gradient effects and faded stars.

At this stage the painting was almost complete. I added more orange and red shades, and defined the lines. I also began sharing a few photos with friends for feedback. I felt it needed a bit more contrast, but I was getting closer to a final stage.

And here is the final painting. I added darker lines and a white border for additional contrast. It helps separate the colors, but also helps the painting pop-out.

For the first time, I felt bold enough to add my last name to the painting.

Here’s a close up of the painting. I try to keep the shapes simple, but try to get details on the shading.

And this is the final piece. I was able to find a nice frame on sale, but still, the frame costs as much as the  materials used in the painting. Not a bad investment to make any room look colorful.

Hope you enjoyed the painting. Till next time.

This is the original sketch for this painting.  It took only a few seconds to do, but the painting took over a year to complete (mostly because I needed to get back to painting)

This is the first layer of paint on the canvas. This is where I decide where the objects are going to be placed and what colors will be used.

The first sketch looks a lot like watercolors, I try to use a light coating so the lines can be easily changes if I’m not happy with the placement. You can see some of the lines have been modified.

Close-up of the sketch. At this stage I dilute the oil paint as much as possible (with paint thinner) and begin to mark the lines and shadows.

I began to apply a second layer of paint. I was still very undecided on the size of “Fish Eye”.

This is about the third layer of paint. I decided to eliminate most of the blue and use green as the dominant color for the whole painting.

This is the completed piece drying up. It takes about 5 days to dry. I decided to use the swirl effect I used on my previous painting.

I added a coat of spray-on laquer to the painting. The glossy finish adds a nice gloss and contrast to the painting.

Another close up of the painting. This is one of the tentacles of the plant. Not sure what king of plan it is. I made it up.

This is the final piece. I need to frame it and hang it on my wall. I think the size of the “fish eye” worked out. The painting will look good if placed in a room where the colors will complement the painting.

Hope you enjoyed the painting. Total hours spent.. hmm I have no idea, but if I had to guess, about 10 hours.