My Journey As An Artist. (a visual timeline)

My Journey As An Artist. _(a visual timeline)

I decided to do something fun with you guys and show you a very brief and summarized version of my artistic journey.

I've drawn my entire life, I always had a knack for stealing pens and drawing wherever I could.

fun fact: Movies that influenced my childhood:
1)watching Hook and drawing stick figures of peter pan fighting pirates.
2)watching Excalibur when I was 7 (what the hell dad?) and wanting to draw stick figure
medieval dungeons and bloody battles.
3)watching Akira when I was 9 (T.V ratings mean nothing in Colombia) resulting in drawing stick figure scenes that concerned my psychologist. -

Age 10

"Sketches" graphite (first sketchbook pages drawn on 9/23/2000)

The reason why I'm starting here is because for the first time I'm actually trying to "draw". I'm not doing stick figures, I realized that I was actually interested in drawing some sort of form.
From top left to bottom right.

1. A plant and its leafs. I was so scared of drawing bad that I barely drew it at all. its almost entirely erased.
2. a parking lot and see those weird circles? those are bushes.
3. my sister sitting in a curb sketching too.
4. a tree!

I still remember that day so vividly, what a wild experience. Even though I had always felt a gravity towards art, this was the moment I figured out it was my vocation calling for me.

Age 12

"Illusions" oil pastels, color pencils. (2 years of drawing nonstop since the above image)

A short story on my style :

For reasons that shall remain undisclosed in the online records, I was summoned to the principals office in 5th grade. You know how offices have coffee tables full of magazines to entertain yourself while you wait? Well while I was in the waiting room I discovered a book hidden away from all the other reading materials. A book on "Optical Illusions" filled with the work of MC Escher and other 2D illusions that blew my mind. I couldn't put it into words at the age, but I think I realized that everyone's perception of reality is arbitrary, because our eyes can be optically tricked.

"what is essential is invisible to the eye."
- The Little Prince

While this might look like a big gap from the previous 10 year old post. 99% of this drawing is just shapes with color. I still didn't know how to approach the creation of form, but its funny how as early as this I was already drawing eyes and snakes with a innate psychedelic style - a recurrent theme throughout my work.

Age 12.

"The Kiss - tribute" pastels

So after realizing I needed to go beyond shapes and colors on the last one, I finally started tackling my fear of form later that year! My take on "The Kiss" by Rodin.
I remember I always wanted to draw people but girls in particular.
So at this point I finally started to attempt drawing them. I really liked Rodin's work, I couldn't believe the moments he captured and in the whole dimension of 3D space!
p.s: I love how absolutely deformed all the limbs and proportions are in this drawing! :]

Age 14.

pen, marker, paint

Boy...that escalated quickly.
So clearly something took a turn between the ages 12 and 14. (Damn you hormonal puberty!)

Here is a prime example of my teenage angst phase feeling misunderstood and fueled with Rammstein and The Crow.

A couple of good things though :
I have started to draw faces and they kind of look like faces! not weird flat unrelated shapes.
But my favorite thing about this piece is the sequential drawing of a heart exploding in the bottom right corner!

^^^ A sequence of drawings with a continuous movement!? Is this foreshadowing my future career as an animator!? I think so.

Age 15. color pencils

Aaaaaand we are back to colors. My goodness what hormones can do to the youth (see previous post)
Can you guys tell I'm out of my Rammstein phase and into my Sgt.Peppers phase? I even hid the viewfinder of The Yellow Submarine in there. So while my lines and complexity are getting better my work is still very flat. It's pretty much just flat shapes and colors and perhaps a couple forms here and there. (eyes mostly)

Age 16.

"Jimi" spraypaint

The Infamous Taco-Mobile # 1

_The burgundy leather interior illegal tints Oldsmobile 91' Royal.

When I was 12 I made it a personal goal to paint the very first car I owned. Refusing to let my dreams stretch and become just that -dreams ; I bought my very first car the day I turned 15 and could legally drive to school. I worked my first job as a busboy at a restaurant and one of the waiters wanted to get rid of the car asap, the car was in terrible condition from a mechanical point of view but for $1,250 cash it wasn't a deal I could pass.

Its funny how when we find something that fits our personality we cling to it and create an sense of identity with it. At the time, I discovered similar tastes of art and music with the whole 1960s and ofcourse I fell for the trick of "this is who I am" and became an emblem of that theme. Although my art has this particular time period feel I rarely identify with it anymore.

Side Note:
My all time favorite psychedelic rock song :
Jimi Hendrix : 1983 A Merman I Should Turn To Be/The Moon Turns the Tide Gently Gently Away

Age 16/Age 18

"Living Room" pen, marker, acrylic.

I'm going to break the chronological format for these 2 pieces I did 2 years apart.
Crazy how much difference there can be with just a couple hundred days of consistent practice and guidance.

I wanted to create a living room that seemed like it was transforming. I didn't know how to approach it with the first one, but with the 2nd attempt I tried to make it a "Self Portrait" and different emotions were the guides to the room transforming.

So the top is still very much in my Sgt.Peppers phase, finally starting to attempt some form of perspective but still having no idea how to actually do that so I relied heavily on patterns and lines. The bottom, well clearly a more successful attempt there's been a leap in understanding and technique! My teacher showed me the basics of 1 point perspective which was monumental to me.

Age 17.

"Reflections" pen, marker, color pencil (the turning point.)

This here is the milestone that changed it all.
Up until this point I had always attempted at creating something I could be somewhat satisfied with at the end. It seems obvious now but I didn't know what to study in college, I feared being a "starving artist" and never actually considered myself good enough to be one professionally.

After this drawing was finished I realized that some form of art creation had to be my life path but more importantly I had seen the infinite potential that there was to be discovered.

Terrence Mckenna once said "Stop consuming images and start producing them." Well for the first time I felt that I had produced something worth being consumed.

Age 18.

pen, marker

These are 3 pieces from a series of 12 pieces on the human experience. During this time I was mainly inspired by Eastern Mysticism and my artistic hero Alex Grey

1st to the left is the 5 senses and base of our sensory perception.
2nd in the middle is The Crown Chakra. (Hinduism)
3rd to the left is the mystical shamanic realm.

It should be noted that part of the leap in my process these years wasn't simply in the technique itself but in being able to pursue an interesting concept. What is something that interests me? What about it is appealing? How can I interpret something about it? and present it in a fun way.

Age 18.

"Self Portrait" graphite

While "realism" will never be my thing I was pushed by my teacher to attempt to make something as realistic as possible. The struggle and frustration was in the disappointment of not being able to accurately represent the mirror I stared at. When you really think of it, all drawing is merely the relationship of angles and the shapes they create.

clearly I could somewhat create a decent drawing, I'm going to show you what happens when you try to learn a new medium :

Age 19.

"Self Portrait" digital painting / Photoshop

My first digital painting EVER.

This is what happens when you jump into a new medium and have no idea what you are doing.
It literally hurts my eyes to look at this! my lips are so red...blondish hair?...the lack of blending with highly saturated digital colors makes it so unappealing.

Age 19.

"Housy" digital painting / Photoshop

So later that year with some practice I'm getting the hang of painting in Photoshop!

So sometimes I take a break from trippy looking things and like to paint cutey shit like pink houses in space with shooting stars.

Notable weirdness : the chimney is funky - the perspective is so wrong with it. Also I didn't even try to paint the windows? geez.

Age 19.

"Transcendence", digital painting / Photoshop

Finally getting somewhere with the digital painting!

Still pretty new to Photoshop at this stage but definitely put in a good amount of hours practicing by this point.
My style is finally starting coming through and I'm learning how to use the software as an extension to my painting. Whereas, during the early stages I felt limited by the program - its now starting to feel like its opening doors.

Age 20.

"Escheresque", marker, pen, spraypaint

Remember that M.C Escher inspired piece I did when I was 12?
This was a tribute to that when I finally understood 1-point perspective.

Age 20.

"Colors", oil on canvas

I wanted to step beyond the markers and the digital work and push a new medium that terrified me. Oils is tricky but its quite the sensation! The oil keeps the paint from drying so you can push the colors over days and the blending becomes almost zen-like.

Age 20.

"Night Day", oil on canvas

I remember I wanted to spend my summer doing a big canvas. I wrote down a couple objects "girl, house, shell, mushroom, skull" The aim was to arrange the objects in an interesting way and paint them in a interesting day.
I really like the outcome of this one - usually when I approach anything from a point of view of playing instead of working it just ends up better. The "Game" was simply to arrange the original objects in a cool way, no outcome was necessary the only pressure was to follow through and see the project to completion.

I ended up liking this one so much I actually did a "remix" digital re-visit of it. I'll post that one on its own and show all the photoshop layers so you guys can see the process/progress.

Age 22.

"Breath", pencil sketch / digital

Sometimes there are random creative bursts - rare moments of inspiration. I was in a Art History lecture when I saw this girl in my head, she was breathing out a smokey form and her head was expanding outwards. I lost track of the class and instead I spent my time that day quickly sketching this idea into existence. Once I had this idea solidified on paper I decided to scan it and push it with colored pixels and digital brushes in photoshop. Tinkering with it over some days eventually I hit a road block, the result is the piece above. The road block was that the patterns that make up the figure feel like smeared colors but in my original idea the patterns where more 3D as if geometry itself was creating the character. Though I failed in this aspect the result brings me satisfaction, little "failures" like this always motivate me and perhaps require a revisit in the future.

Age 23.

"Nirvana" digital painting

This piece was sincerely one of the rare times when I had completed an image and it resembled the actual idea I envisioned in the beginning. This is the moment when Siddhartha became the Buddha. When he reached enlightenment and beat the demons of wordly tempations and illusions that "Mara" was unleashing against him.

Age 24.

"Icaros"

One of the most proud moments as an artist was when I finished this painting. I struggled all the way throughout, I couldn't get the colors right, I couldn't find the composition that I had once seen in the original idea. I pushed pixels slowly over months, stopped and detached - then went back with a clear head. Eventually I somehow ended up here!

Age 25.

...To be continued...This year I've been working on a piece on and off for the whole year. No rush no pressure, just been working slowly and passively. I want this piece to be what is is when it is, too often I find myself feeling anxious to finish a piece and I decided to purely pursue art for the playful aspect of it. All of these pieces are my personal work outside of work, these are my personal explorations simply for the sake of satisfying personal art.

So here we are! The very briefly summarized recap journey of my art until this point is done.
A couple of lessons along the way :

-Due to the fractal nature of this realm, the only way to do something and be good at it is to repeat that act over and over. Endless repetition and consistency is key. I will create a more indepth post about The Fractal Nature and Accomplishing Goals.

-Inspiration is unreliable. Be relentless in your pursuit, remain focused and determined. Discipline will get you where motivation can't.

"If you can dream it you can you can do it"
- Walt Disney

##The only thing stopping you is yourself, no excuses.
We are in this experience and time is running out, we are all going to die at some point.
So do what you love and don't waste a single moment.

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever really have."
-Eckhart Tolle

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Ask me questions :
what you found interesting/boring, what would you like to know more about?
cheers!